Today was the first actual day of preseason softball. As I have never played softball outside of PE before, it was a very different experience from what I am used to with sports. As I usually partake in single person sports, cross country and gymming, for example, it was very different playing a sport in which working as a team is a necessity. In addition, the move to starting sports very early in the morning (630 start) is a big change for me as I usually run or gym very late at night. This change provided a large challenge for me as I am not a morning person, the very act of waking up at 5:00 am terrifies me and I never expected to be doing it willingly. This activity will provide me with a chance to develop my teamworking skills as well as develop my devotion to a sport. I have a bit of a track record of starting something and just throwing it aside when I get bored by it. I believe this presents LO5.
In the session, I received a fair amount of praise for my batting and innate ability to smack the ball quite a distance. However, with this, I also received some guidance on my pitching and fielding, which is something that I have had issues with since I was young. Being able to judge the distance of something and be able to predict where it will land.
As mentioned previously, I have never played softball before so, in terms of experience at least, I was quite far behind a few of the people present. This is what will drive me to improve, to become the best I can in the preseason and hopefully make the A team when the actual season comes around.
Some of the guidance I was given to improve my batting and hitting distance was to ensure that my arms extend fully and I end with the bat over my shoulder. The above images were screenshots from my practice sessions with a friend. As we are both prominent batters we took turns feeding the ball to each other and recording the swings. The above images are the extracts that show the perfect swing, at least for my body type as my arms are outstretched upon contact with the ball and I end the swing with the proper follow-through of the bat behind my shoulder.