Five Days of the Coolest and Most Creative

TRAINING ROOM 8 THE POSITIVE COACH
Wolverine Softball Camp:
Five Days of the Coolest and Most
Creative Drills We Could Think of
by
CLAIRE RIETMANN-GROUT
T
his summer my coaching staff and I hosted
Wolverine Softball Camp at the HarvardWestlake Middle School. We had five days
to coach a group of girls ages 8 to 13 and show
them that playing softball at Harvard-Westlake
is more than just wins and losses. Growing up,
I remember looking forward to Stanford Softball
camp all year long, so my goal was to give our
young players the best experience they have ever
had at a softball camp. My hitting coach, Melanie
Williams, is the most creative coach I know, so we
put our heads together to come up with the coolest
and most fun drills and activities on a softball field.
Hula Skirt Hitting—At the camp, we wanted to
teach the girls how important it is to use your hips
while hitting. Melanie came up with the idea that
the girls should wear a hula skirt while hitting off
the tee. If the skirt swished, they were using their
hips, and if it didn’t, it was immediate feedback
that the hitter was only using their arms. The drill
helped with body awareness and it made the
players conscious of what was happening during
their swing. Brilliant!
Petco Top Arm Bottom Arm—Have you ever
seen those tennis ball throwers from Petco for
playing fetch with a dog? Most people use them
to fling the ball overhand as far as they can, but
at summer camp, we used them as a training aid.
The Petco thrower can be used to simulate a bat
going through the strike zone and because it is
so light, you can use one hand. To do this drill the
hitter stands in her batting stance with the Petco
thrower in one hand. Leading with the handle,
the top arm moves to contact point and tries to
fling the ball straight back at the pitcher. If the ball
goes in a different direction, for example, toward
first base, it is because the hitter did not simulate
keeping her hands inside a pitch and extended her arms too early.
The same goes for the bottom arm, except the player leads with her
elbow and pulls the Petco thrower to the contact point and flings the
ball straight back to the pitcher. The Petco thrower was the most
popular drill at camp and we ended up having contests to see who
could throw the ball the farthest using their top and bottom arms.
Parachute Conditioning—At camp we wanted to teach a little bit
of running form in addition to base running. Our focus was to teach
that the first three steps are the most important for maximum speed
and reaching first base safely. To teach good stepping we hooked
up our runners to parachutes and had them practice their sprinter
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starts. If they didn’t push off hard enough the parachute
wouldn’t fill with air and they would drag it 60 feet down
the base path. The younger campers were willing to
parachute run all day because they thought it was fun,
but the older girls saw through the excitement of the
parachutes and only noticed the sprints.
Slip, Slide, and Dive—Camp was during the hottest
month in the long Los Angeles summer, so I figured it
was a good time to teach sliding and diving on a watery
slip-and-slide. We taught the girls how to figure-four
side, hook slide, and go head first into bases. The
trick to teaching sliding is to make sure the runners
throw their hands over their heads first before they hit
the ground. This way they don’t jam a wrist or break
an arm. Some of them had so much momentum they
slid right off the plastic. At the end of sliding practice,
I found some old gloves in our shed so we tossed
balls in the air for the girls to splash and catch on their
bellies. So many web gems with the help of the water!
As you can tell, we had an out of this world week of softball camp. Players
and coaches were smiling non-stop and I think we were successful at giving
the girls a week they will never forget. I am already looking forward to next year
and thinking of more unique drills to try. Hope to see you at camp!
Follow Harvard-Westlake Softball on Instagram for more drills. @
HW_Softball.
Camp Shirt Tie-Dye—At camp, I like to keep in mind
that even though they are softball players, they are
still kids who like to do crafts. Some may think I am a
crazy coach for tie-dying, but the girls love it so much,
I embrace the mess. On the last day everyone wore
their tie-dyed camp t-shirts and took them home as a
momento.
Softball Magazine
Issue 4 • 2014
Page 127