Jessica Bracamonte Softball 4-Pack

with Jessica Bracamonte,
Duke University Assistant Coach;
2021 ACC Tournament Champions;
former Central Michigan University Assistant Coach;
helped lead CMU to the 2017 MAC regular season title;
former Golden West College Assistant Coach;
played professionally with the Chicago Bandits (National Pro Fastpitch);
at Michigan State University, led the Big Ten in triples (4) as a senior

Instructing players to approach the plate with mental confidence is one of the most challenging skills a coach can face. In this video, Jessica Bracamonte backs up her teachings with tools that can easily be added to your daily practice sessions to help your players master the mental side of hitting.

Questions to Consider

Coach Bracamonte challenges coaches to think about the following questions that pertain to mental approach:

• How many of your hitters have thought about `warming up your eyes' before hitting?
• What do you do when your hitters face a rise ball pitcher and are losing the battle?
• Do your players know how to reset their mind following a strikeout?
• Do your practices include mental practice at the plate?

For athletes, having the confidence to step out of the batter's box to reset their mind is a challenging step to take when all eyes are on them. Coach Bracamonte will help you teach your players to take a few seconds between pitches to reset their time in the batter's box. Once you do this, watch as their confidence grows along with their performance at the plate!

Hitting Drills

The video includes eight hitting drills that are easily incorporated into practices. Every drill includes quality explanations and demonstrations. Your hitters will improve the eye-to-mind-to-swing connection of hitting, their ability to recognize and verbalize strikes, as well as how to hunt for certain pitches when facing a specific pitching opponent.

Coach Bracamonte shares her knowledge with an at-ease style. Her recommended techniques are demonstrated and explained thoroughly. With these techniques and practices incorporated into your program, be ready to accept the compliments from others as your players greatly advance their skills at the plate.

51 minutes. 2021.

with Jessica Bracamonte,
Duke University Assistant Coach;
2021 ACC Tournament Champions;
former Central Michigan University Assistant Coach;
helped lead CMU to the 2017 MAC regular season title;
former Golden West College Assistant Coach;
played professionally with the Chicago Bandits (National Pro Fastpitch);
at Michigan State University, led the Big Ten in triples (4) as a senior

Are you and your slappers seeking more accuracy and success at the plate? If so, then this video will cover all the fundamentals you need to turn your slappers into chaos-creating machines!

Coach Jessica Bracamonte presents more than 20 fundamental slapping drills that can be used at any age to drill your players' footwork, hips and shoulders while slapping. The key to a slapper's success is the ability to put the ball in play and make the defense rush. The drills in this video will teach your players to do just that!

Slapping-Specific Warm-Ups

Coach Bracamonte starts with a handful of drills that can be used with your slappers to warm them up properly and get their bodies used to the motion and movement they will need to slap properly. It's a two fold warm-up progression:

• 1. The dynamic warm-up helps prevent injury
• 2. The warm-up create muscle memory, making the process of slapping easier for the athlete

Drills to Refine Technique

As Bracamonte progresses through the video, she introduces a handful of drills that can be used both off the tee or from soft toss to reinforce proper slapping techniques. You'll see footwork drills to get your players through the box quicker and more accurately, hand drills to teach your players how to strike the ball for a desired effect, and location drills to explode out of the box to get down the line quicker.

Coach Bracamonte focuses on teaching players how to "hold the line" and keep their slap approach straight and consistent, which is an important technique to be able to reach the outside corner of the plate where most pitchers throw to slappers. A slapper's ability to soft slap or hard slap when the situation calls for it is what makes a dangerous slapper, and Bracamonte's fungo drill helps slappers create that ability.

If you are looking for a video that teaches your slappers how to be fundamentally sound from the ground up with their feet, hips, shoulders and hands, then look no further! Coach Bracamonte presents a variety of drills that range from warm-up form to exploding out of the box and are great for any level of slapper.

55 minutes. 2021.

with Jessica Bracamonte,
Duke University Assistant Coach;
2021 ACC Tournament Champions;
former Central Michigan University Assistant Coach;
helped lead CMU to the 2017 MAC regular season title;
former Golden West College Assistant Coach;
played professionally with the Chicago Bandits (National Pro Fastpitch);
at Michigan State University, led the Big Ten in triples (4) as a senior

Duke's Jessica Bracamonte showcases a slapping progression that works her slappers through walk-throughs to game situations using innovative methods. You'll learn to develop sound strategies that attack the defense and target each of your slappers' strengths at the plate.

Triple Threat Components

Coach Bracamonte uses a chalkboard session to identify what tools create a triple threat slapper. You will see how to teach players to read the defense, as well as what to do based on that initial read. All of Bracamonte's strategies are aimed at making sure the defense stays on edge and never knows what's coming from the slapper at the plate.

Drills

Next, Coach Bracamonte heads to the field to show a natural progression of drills aimed at producing elite slappers. She displays a variety of techniques and exercises, including:

• Dry runs
• Bunts
• Soft slaps
• Chop
• Hard Slaps
• Pitch recognition
• Tool selection
• and more!

Rise above other slappers by attacking the defense! Coach Bracamonte shows you how to identify the defense and become a dynamic player that is able to use different tools to find slapping success. This is an excellent video for the coach or athlete who is looking to take their slapping skills to the next level.

50 minutes. 2021.

with Jessica Bracamonte,
Duke University Assistant Coach;
2021 ACC Tournament Champions;
former Central Michigan University Assistant Coach;
helped lead CMU to the 2017 MAC regular season title;
former Golden West College Assistant Coach;
played professionally with the Chicago Bandits (National Pro Fastpitch);
at Michigan State University, led the Big Ten in triples (4) as a senior

When the infield has a ball shoot through, the outfield is left to pick up the miss. However, when the outfield misses the ball, opposing base runners keep on running. That is why it's so important to have a great defensive outfield - because it can play a huge hand in preventing extra base hits and thus giving up fewer runs!

Duke's Jessica Bracamonte creates fully developed outfielders with the use of 11 drills with variations to enhance their speed, momentum, and knowledge of the game. In this video, she showcases those drills and gives you plenty of coaching tips to use when running them with your own team.

Drills to Build Great Outfielders

Coach Bracamonte breaks down the play of the outfield into three categories with daily drills to help players build speed awareness, angles, and confidence to make the catch. Bracamonte provides pointers and tips during each drill that will help players and coaches alike.

You will learn to create sprint awareness with drills like "Green, Yellow, and Red", Cone Drills, and "Line to Line" to allow players to feel the change in speed needed to make plays in the outfield. Coach Bracamonte uses cones to help her players understand the angles needed to be in proper position to field and throw. She also uses tennis balls to improve catching and ground ball work to help her athletes develop better concentration.

Making Elite Plays

One skill that sets apart elite outfielders from good outfielders is the ability to dive and slide to catch balls. Coach Bracamonte shares diving and sliding drills that will help your players learn to attack the ball with confidence. This includes hard-hit balls that most players would miss or never attempt to field aggressively. As a bonus, these drills have a secondary aim to help your athletes develop better communication skills.

Coach Bracamonte knows how to develop great outfielders and shares many of the drills she uses to accomplish this inside this video. She describes the importance of her drills and how to do each one properly so you can adopt them and craft your own defensive stars in the outfield!

48 minutes. 2021.