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HIGH PERFORMANCE

HITTING PROGRAM

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2023-24 HIGH PERFORMANCE HITTING

The Catalyst Softball High Performance (HP) Hitting Program is an 18-week program for athletes committed to improve their craft.  The HP Hitting Program is a comprehensive program utilizing today's cutting-edge technology, individual skill development, and personal development.

 

This program will utilize technologies such as the Rapsodo, Blast Motion, 4D Motion, Video Breakdown, and High Speed Video Analysis to provide athletes with quantifiable feedback to help better individualize each hitters focus on a session by session basis.  We will work with players to help them understand their body movements and ways to better control them while being an athlete. Although data is great, the sustainability comes from teaching each player to find the right position to put themselves in to allow their bio-metric sequencing to be completed at the highest level of efficiency.  Ages: 14 - 18.

 

Our HP Youth Hitting Program runs similarly for the 8U - 12U ages and is a 10-week program.

 

The HP Hitting Program will run through five different phases:​

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  1. Introductory Phase: Begin learning process of development with a biomechanics understanding of the softball swing and the subsequent data that will be tracked throughout the duration of the program. 

  2. Circuit Phase: Increase physicality and proprioceptive capabilities through highly stimulating circuit training incorporating variable bats/PVC pipes and plyo balls.

  3. Internal Phase: Assess information learned from the circuit phase and advance the learning process through swing pattern development and data reassessment.

  4. External Phase: Switch focus from internal thought processing to external execution through variability training and competition in preparation for live game performance, in addition to implementing bat speed training to aid in swing development during the transition process. 

  5. Live Phase: Prepare for the season with a full commitment to external training through live at bats and/or machine training. 

Before we begin, we will be meeting with you in order to best understand your offseason goals and for this offseason program.  If you are coming in without solidified goals in mind, no worries!  Our main focus will be to build on the athlete’s current base as a hitter.  We want each athlete to continue to build on their rotational power as well as emphasize the importance of swing movement patterns.  Although data is great, we believe sustainability comes from teaching each player to find the right position to put themselves in to allow their bio-metric sequencing to be completed at the highest level of efficiency.  Here is a brief description of how our program will work:

 

  • Testing: First and foremost, we will begin our program with individual assessments and baseline training. We will be capping our sessions for this program and want to make sure we have the right fit in each of our sessions. Each session will have a maximum of a 4:1, player to coach ratio. We will continuously train, assess, and reassess our athletes in order to set goals, make adjustments, etc.

  • Education: As mentioned above, data is always great and an incredibly vital part of teaching. We find it very important to make sure our athletes know what we are measuring and why. Big words can be thrown around by anyone, we make sure we explain, educate, and teach our players the meaning of what we are assessing in the simplest of terms in order to best create an understanding of adjustments that need to be made. Some of you may already know these metrics and things we will be touching on, that is great! We do not expect to be blindly followed by our athletes and will be open and honest if there is something that we do not know. Hitting is complex, difficult, frustrating, and ever-evolving. Our trainers are informed by research and commit to backing our programs through data. Our trainers will embrace the unknown factors and constant growth of the sport alongside our athletes. 

  • Data Collection: We will be collecting the following data metrics throughout our HP Hitting Program:

    • Ball Flight Data - We will be using HitTrax and Rapsodo in order to understand the output of your swing. Metrics that will be assessed from our ball flight technology will be exit velocity (mph) and distance (ft). We will additionally be creating a batted ball profile to see what zones, quadrants, and locations a batter excels in and what zones they need to improve on.

    • Swing/Connection Data - We will be using BlastMotion in order to understand your rotational efficiency, power output, and how these metrics affected the outcome of the batted ball. The metrics that will be assessed from our swing metric data will be rotational acceleration (G), hand speed (mph), bat speed (mph), and power (kW).

    • Strength/Speed/Agility Data - We will be additionally collecting data in the weight room. See below more information on our S&D programming.

  • Approach: Our hitting philosophy is to be on time, swing at strikes, and swing as hard as you can. We will have training days that are centered around our approach as a hitter and controlling the controllables in our at bat. We will use our data from our batted ball profiles in order to better understand what we should be looking for in specific counts as a hitter.

  • Athlete Autonomy: We believe a big part of our program, and any type of program for athletes, is incorporating athlete autonomy.  Throughout our programming, we will have occasional days where the athlete will be making choices between options of what type of training they would like to have for that specific date. 

  • Strength & Development: We know the importance of strength and performance training to your offseason programming. We have partnered with Strength & Development trainers that will be working closely with you to ensure you are doing what is necessary to improve, gain power, and continue to be explosive. Our HP Strength & Development focuses on the specific strength qualities displayed on the field of play and in training such as sprinting, jumping, or change of direction. By observing these movements, we can isolate those specific strength qualities that will elevate your game.

 

The Strength Qualities we analyze are:

  • Rate of Force Development (RFD) - How fast and with how much force can your muscles create movement without a stretch reflex

  • Eccentric Ability - How well does your body work like a rubber band

  • Yielding Strength - Stability strength, your ability to resist/absorb force

  • Reactive Strength - A muscle’s ability to go from a stretching action to a shortening action (absorb and transfer force)

All softball training will be taking place in hour time slots. Strength + Development training taking place with solidified time slots Monday - Saturday on the hour and is separate from HP Pricing / not required to purchase.

PLEASE CONTACT INFO@CATALYSTSOFTBALL.COM TO RESERVE YOUR SPOT IN HIGH PERFORMANCE HITTING.

OUR HP HITTING PROGRAM HAS SOLD OUT EVERY YEAR SINCE WE BEGAN IN 2019.

Pre-Registration opens to the public on 9/14/2023. Please email us with your player's name, birthday, current team (HS, club, association, etc.), and programs you would like to join. Spots are limited.

PROGRAM INCLUSIONS:

  • 2X or 1X per week hitting sessions

  • Rapsodo Hitting Technology

  • 4D Motion (MN)

  • HitTrax (SD)

  • Blast Motion

  • Weighted Driveline Softball Bats

  • HackAttack Softball Pitching Machine

  • Plyocare Balls (Weighted Hitting Balls)

  • Strength & Development Training Room Access

  • 4:1 Player to Coach Ratio

  • Access to Data Assessments & Reassessments

REGISTER HERE:

MINNESOTA

SOUTH DAKOTA

LEAD INSTRUCTORS

Minnesota​

  • Erika Smyth

  • Tyler Peterson

  • Hannah Schmoll

South Dakota

  • Tim Hoover

LOCATION

MN: CATALYST SPORTS LAB​

12500 ZINRAN AVE

Savage, MN 55378

SD: CATALYST SPORTS LAB​

484 SHADOW CREEK DR.

Harrisburg, SD 57032

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