The Softball Drill Book [Paperback]

Kirk Walker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 2007

Packed with 175 drills straight from the practice sessions of the game's most successful programs, The Softball Drill Book will add variety to your practices and precision to your game-day performances.

The comprehensive collection covers every aspect of the game. From warm-up to conditioning, throwing to hitting, bunting to base-running, you'll find drills to improve position skill and team execution - all from college coaches and programs that have won 13 NCAA Women's College World Series titles and dozens of NCAA regional tournament titles.

Contributors include:

-Louie Berndt, Florida State

-Carol Bruggeman, Louisville

-Yvette Girouard, Louisiana State

-Michelle Gromacki, Cal State Fullerton

-Deanna Gumpf, Notre Dame

-Carol Hutchins, Michigan

-Kelly Inouye-Perez, UCLA

-Jay Miller, Mississippi State

-Jennifer Ogee, Nebraska

-Kim Sowder, Long Beach State

-Heather Tarr, Washington

-Michelle Venturella, Iowa

-Kirk Walker, Oregon State

-Margie Wright, Fresno State

One look at the names above and it is clear, The Softball Drill Book is your blueprint for championship practices.

Editorial Reviews

Review

""This book's outstanding drills will take your practice sessions to the next level. I wish I'd had this resource when I started my coaching career. It has great explanations and illustrations!""
Mike Candrea
Head Softball Coach
University of Arizona
USA National Team
""A drill book like no other! This inside look at what the best college programs do every day will help any player or team improve.""
Lisa Fernandez, Pitcher, USA Softball
Gold Medalist at 1996, 2000, and 2004 Olympic Games

Review

"This book's outstanding drills will take your practice sessions to the next level. I wish I'd had this resource when I started my coaching career. It has great explanations and illustrations!"

Mike Candrea
Head Softball Coach
University of Arizona
USA National Team

"A drill book like no other! This inside look at what the best college programs do every day will help any player or team improve."

Lisa Fernandez, Pitcher, USA Softball
Gold Medalist at 1996, 2000, and 2004 Olympic Games

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Human Kinetics; 1 edition (April 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0736060707
• ISBN-13: 978-0736060707
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #147,783 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #9 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Softball

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent drills, September 2, 2007

By 

Miran Brinovec "mawerick" (Ljubljana, Slovenia, Europe) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Softball Drill Book (Paperback)

This book is a good guide for almost all drills you want to use on practice with one or more players. Recomend to all coaches at the beginning of their carrier.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive, but..., July 28, 2009

By 

Don Mckay ""BellaOnline Softbal Editor"" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Softball Drill Book (Paperback)

Kirk Walker has assembled over 175 drills organized into fourteen chapters covering training, fundamental skills, position-specific skills, and tactical drills. Each drill page states the drill's purpose, how to organize and execute it, variations of the drill, and miscellaneous coaching points. Additionally, each chapter has an introduction that provides general guidance for the topic at hand. Though there is a lot of information presented, I feel that this book does not quite live up to its promise.

One problem may be that each chapter is written by a different D1 coach, and since each D1 program has its own philosophies and points of emphasis, there seems to be a lack of continuity from chapter to chapter. Given that Kirk Walker is the Head Coach at Oregon State University, his book may have been better served focusing on Oregon State's drills, approach, values and beliefs.

Like most drill books, this one has a drill finder which tries to help the reader zero in on a drill of interest, but there is not enough granularity in the drill finder table to differentiate from one drill to the next. For example, Chapter 11, Pitching Drills, has 11 different drills yet all of them have the same exact characteristics in the drill finder matrix. As a result, the reader still has to read through each drill to determine which one best suits his/her needs. I would add an additional column in the drill finder that highlights a drill's main "Coaching Point" (as listed on each drill page).

There *are* drills that I've incorporated into my practices and there *is* plenty of good information here, but actually teasing it out and finding it can be a chore. I am glad I have this book, but it is not usually the first book to which I turn when I am stumped and need to find a solution to a practice or player problem.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good book of drills, March 26, 2010

By 

Bob Dyche "papabob99" (Seattle area) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Softball Drill Book (Paperback)

Using some of these drills for our 9 year old granddaughter's softball team, will put more in as the girls get used to the ones we're doing and they get a better feel of the game. I wished I'd had a book like this back when their aunt played at this same level.