5 Softball Stretches To Do Before Every Game

If your team is like most you probably have a warmup and stretching routine. But what stretches are you doing and why? How does that help you win?

Stretching the right muscles the right way can actually be the difference between a great game for you and having to sit out injured. You think it can’t happen to you, but think about aches and soreness that you already have— those are signals from your body that something isn’t moving right.

And even if you don’t have pain right now, softball is a rotational power sport. Things happen fast. Faster than your brain can react to prevent an injury if you start to sense something doesn’t feel right.

Like the saying goes: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure. Doing the right stretching for softball not only hardens you against injury but improves your mechanics for pitching, catching, throwing, hitting, and running.

Bonus tip: doing softball specific stretches is good, doing YOU specific stretches is better. Learn which stretches you should be doing by using our Softball Movement Screen.

In this guide, we break down each stretch, explain why it’s important, and show you the correct way to perform it, paving the way for peak performance on the field.

1. Deep squat with a hamstring stretch
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The glutes play a crucial role in the power of your swing and throw, and running. This stretch targets the hips, promoting a full range of motion.

2. Single-leg RDL
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Often performed as a dynamic stretch, the SL RDL focuses on hamstring mobility, trunk control, and single-leg stability.

3. Lunge and rotate
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Rotation is key in softball, and this exercise improves hip and t-spine mobility. Many players lack the necessary rotation for optimal swing and throw mechanics. Work through this range of motion to tell your brain where you end motion is– you’ll be surprised how much this increases your power. Following this exercise with a skip for height can further enhance generating power from your backside.

4. Belly lift
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This one seems weird, but it engages the abdominal core, stabilizes the trunk, and activates the serratus muscle. This muscle is essential for the upward rotation of the scapula and optimal throwing mechanics. If your serratus is weak, you’ll overuse your traps and have all kinds of neck stiffness and pain (if you know you know). Strengthening the serratus muscle helps prevent overuse of the upper trap.

5. Lat stretch
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The lat stretch is an excellent exercise for opening up the chest and stretching the lats. It also improves t-spine mobility, which is essential for fluid mechanics.

Additional Warm-up Activities

While these five stretches are great for training your movement before a game, they should not be considered a complete warm-up. Remember to integrate other aspects of warming up to optimize your performance. Here are some additional warm-up activities to integrate:

1. Elevated heart rate
Raising your heart rate is crucial for warming up your tissues and making your entire warm-up more effective.

2. Soft tissue
Working on the soft tissues of your body is essential for reducing aches and improving overall mobility. Try foam rolling, or percussive therapy (Like Theraguns) to target areas of discomfort and increase tissue flexibility.

3. Reaching component
Include exercises that involve reaching, which helps your brain understand your body’s range of motion.

4. Central nervous system activation
Prepare your central nervous system for peak performance by incorporating marching, skipping, bounding, or other dynamic movements into your warm-up routine. This helps activate the fast-twitch muscles crucial for explosive actions on the field.

5. Sprint variations
Incorporate sprint variations into your warm-up, such as base running drills. Focus on improving your lead-off, timing off the base, changing directions, accelerating, and reaching your top speed.

Whether your focus is on pitching, catching, or just general softball mechanics, by including these additional warm-up activities you can maximize your effectiveness and set yourself up for success on the field. Prioritize your warm-up to prevent injuries and enhance your overall performance. Play hard, enjoy the game, and keep improving your skills!

Advanced Softball Stretching And Warm-Ups

Doing softball-specific stretching and warm-ups as we outline above is going to put you and your team a leg above the team that is out there just doing mindless arm swinging and toe-reaches. But if you follow us you know we always say individualization beats generalization when it comes to movement. If you know your own movement limitations and have the right stretching and warm-up plan, you’re going to see a huge difference in your performance.

The first step in getting specific is finding your movement limitations. Our Softball Movement Screen walks you through the 5 movements that are critical for softball. If you can do all of them perfectly (challenge accepted?) then you can be confident your movement is primed for every critical moment on the softball field.

Try Our Free Softball Movement Screen

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If there’s movements that you find challenging, the screen shows you how to fix it- so you can start to build your own stretching and warmups to maximize your gameday performance.