Plyometrics Exercises For Indoor Softball | Kbands Lateral Knee Drive
Softball girls need to be well rounded to have great success. A player who succeeds at hitting the softball but struggles on the defensive side can use resisted plyometrics exercises to improve on certain softball skills crucial for success when fielding the ball. Ladder exercises will help softball girls improve on foot speed, coordination, rotational power, and balance.
While ladder exercises offer softball girls all of the benefits listed, adding additional resistance will make for a more challenging and effective Speed and Agility Ladder workout. Adding Kbands Leg Resistance Bands to any Speed and Agility Ladder workout will help softball girls build additional strength in their hip flexors, glutes, and thighs and will continue to help softball girls improve on softball skills like rotational power, leg drive, and balance.
Speed And Agility Ladder Drills Make Great Indoor Softball Drills
For softball girls to maximize their athletic skills they need to perform softball training sessions as often as possible. These sessions should include plyometrics exercises, strength training, flexibility and mobility work, speed and agility training, as well as softball specific drills. In order for athletes to continue this softball training during the off season they need to find indoor softball drills which can be performed in an indoor training setting.
Space and time can often become issues when performing indoor softball training drills. Plyometrics exercises performed on the Speed and Agility Ladder Workout found in the 1-2-3 Reaction Pro is a great workout routine to periodically perform with other indoor softball drills. Plyometrics exercises and Speed and Agility Ladder training are optimal as an indoor softball drills due to the small amount of space needed, quick and effective repetitions, and coaches can continuously cycle a large amount of softball girls through the Speed and Agility Ladders to optimize training time. Limited space and training during the offseason also create the ideal situation to work more on athletic skills like foot speed, explosive power, balance, and agility as limited space can make it difficult to perform softball hitting and fielding drills.
Get Softball Girls Moving With Indoor Softball Drills
To perform and execute the Kbands Lateral Knee Drive softball girls will need a set of Kbands Leg Resistance Bands and a Speed and Agility Ladder to perform the Kbands Lateral Knee Drive. Softball girls will securely attach the Kbands Leg Resistance Bands just above their knees and lay the Speed and Agility Ladder so it is fully extended and flat on the ground.
Softball girls will begin the plyometrics exercises by standing in front of one end of the Speed and Agility Ladder so the flow of the Speed and Agility Ladder is going laterally away from the athlete. Softball girls will begin the plyometrics exercises by driving their knees up and alternate placing both feet in each square as they laterally move down the Speed and Agility Ladder. Softball girls will move down the Speed and Agility Ladder and back for one repetition. Softball girls will perform 6-8 resisted repetitions of the plyometrics exercises before removing the Kbands Leg Resistance Bands and performing 2-3 unresisted sets of the Kbands Lateral Knee Drive. As softball girls move down and back on the Speed and Agility Ladder they need to stay facing the same direction for the entire repetition. This will allow both sides of the body to be evenly worked and developed.
For the Kbands Lateral Knee Drive to be effective softball girls need to practice good body positioning and movements. From the beginning of each repetition softball girls need to focus on being powerful with their extremities. Although the arms are not directly generating any power, the inertia they create presses the feet and legs into the ground. By pressing the feet into the ground harder more muscle fibers must be recruited to counteract the inertia created by the pumping of the arms. More active muscle fibers means greater force and speed can be generated when moving the leg up and down. The Kbands Leg Resistance Bands provide the same muscle activating tension the arms help to generate in the legs. By applying greater tension just above the knees softball girls are able to activate and train a larger portion of muscle fibers in their thighs and hip flexors. A high knee drive on every step will also help softball girls to work and train a larger portion of the muscles being worked. This allows for greater strength throughout a larger portion of the thighs and hip flexors. This increased strength will translate into greater stride length, increased vertical jump, and more powerful rotational movements.
When performing unresisted sets of the Kbands Lateral Knee Drive, or any plyometrics exercises, softball girls need to focus on the speed which they are moving their legs. Increased muscle activation means more muscle fibers are available to move the leg. Actively performing unresisted sets of indoor softball drills at a high level of intensity will help increase the speed at which the increased amount of muscle fibers can fire. Creating not only stronger movements but faster ones as well.
Plyometrics Exercises Make Great Indoor Softball Drills
The Kbands Lateral Knee Drive is a great indoor softball drill. However, to continually challenge athletes it is important training sessions are composed of additional plyometrics exercises, as well as strength training, flexibility training, and softball skills training.
Different plyometrics exercises can be found in the Sports Training Section and should include Softball Ladder Drills, the 1-2-3 Reaction Pro, and plyometrics exercises that require explosive movements like jumping or bounding.
The KB PowerBands Shoulder Progression, along with core strengthening exercises, will help to strengthen the body and prevent injuries. The Rejuvenating Stretching Sequence uses the Recovery Foam Roller to relieve tender and sore muscles and joints before and after a softball training session.