Fastpitch Softball Tips – Building Your Endurance

When you think about sports and endurance, the sports that will come to mind might include marathon and triathlon. But somehow, you never ever associate softball with sports that require players to have a good amount of endurance.

That’s perfectly understandable because when you look at it, it seems that the only job of players are to stand up, run occasionally, and throw or hit the ball.

But endurance also plays an important role on softball. That’s especially the case if we’re talking about long stretches of games or games under the heat of the sun.

If you’re a softball player wanting to increase your endurance on the field, here are some tips I have for you:

1. Condition your body. Building up your endurance takes time. If you don’t live an active lifestyle, it may take several weeks of intense training before you can build up your endurance. Jogging, interval training and other cardio exercises will help you do that.

This part of your training could be boring if you do it alone. So try working out with your team or with a partner.

1. Keep your body well-hydrated. Dehydration and heat are the enemies of any type of athlete. When it’s hot, your body tends to sweat more to keep your body cool. While it’s good, it’s downside is that you lose important fluids in your body in the process.

And don’t just rely on thirst to tell you already need to drink fluids. Once you feel thirsty, it’s already a signal from your body that its supply of fluids is already severely depleted. So don’t wait until you get thirsty. Take sips of water or sports before and during the game to keep your fluid levels normal.

1. Get enough rest. It’s easy to succumb to all-night partying when you’re young because you feel that you never seem to run out of energy. But the lack of rest can lead to a deterioration in your performance. When you lack sleep, you deprive your body of the time to recover from the day’s work and to repair or replace any damaged cells in your body. So keep your partying to a minimum, or avoid it altogether if you can do that.

1. Eat healthy. You might not like eating healthy, but it sure can do wonders to your body and your endurance. That’s because eating healthy means you get enough supply of the necessary nutrients that your body needs to function well. And when you’re healthy, you’ll be able to stay longer in the game even if it stretches to several innings or you’re playing under the heat of the sun.

So if you want to last longer than your teammates and the competition during long or exceptionally hot games, you must work on building your endurance.

Again, here’s how you do it: condition your body, keep your body well-hydrated, get enough rest and eat healthy. Try them out today and see how they positively affect your game.