[http://active.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/stop.jpg]With it being summer time, I've been outside quite a bit working with my athletes on various movement techniques. This has also given me the liberty to watch some local baseball games and soccer and tennis matches. Young athletes running and jumping around playing their hearts out! It's great!

But the one element that I see lacking in a major area of these athletes is: STOPPING

No, I didn't type that incorrectly. Stopping or decelerating is a primary problem with young athletes. There is so much information out there to the public on how to become faster and speedy, but very little is addressed about knowing or learning how to decelerate!

The amount of deceleration can be determined by speed of the athlete and if a change in direction is required. Proper body control and angle are of major importance when trying to slow ourselves.

The athletes need to pay attention to their chin, shoulder and hip position when slowing from a rapid movement or attempting to change directions.

So, start adding in basic deceleration drills into their training or skill work. Pay attention to their body positioning. By learning how to accept their body weight and force they will be much more efficient on the field when changing directions.

A couple of things that I always relay to my athletes:

If I was teaching you how to ski jump, I would teach you how to land first; the jumping part is easier!

I wouldn't ask you to get into a sports car and drive at 100 mph. if it didn't have brakes!

Teach them how to STOP.

Until next time, keep working hard!

-

Shawn is an independent performance coach. He was an all-conference defensive back in college and attended CFL/NFL tryouts. He maintains two top websites: www.gamespeed.biz and www.speedladderdrills.com

Active Team Sports has just launched the Little League World Series 2006 special section!

Join us on the road to Williamsport! Go beyond the scores and check out special interviews, guest blogger articles (including posts from Dugout, the LL mascot) and more! Be sure to sign up below for our e-news at the top of the section.

Check out the section at llbworldseries.active.com.

Tucson, Ariz. ��� Backed by a grand slam from Jessica Mendoza and a no-hitter by Cat Osterman, the 2006 USA Women���s Softball Team completed their four-game sweep of NPF Arizona Heat tonight in Tucson, Ariz. The team hit at a .368 clip during the series with seven players registering five or more hits.

In the second inning, one ball away from a walk, Jenny Topping (Whittier, Calif.) took a Leslie Wolfe offering and ripped it over centerfield to put Team USA on the board. Osterman (Houston, Texas) started in the circle, throwing a complete game with 12 strikeouts, no hits and one walk.

With a single, Natasha Watley (Irvine, Calif.) started a scoring drive that would end with Team USA posting five runs on the board in the fifth. Caitlin Lowe (Tustin, Calif.) followed Watley with another single, loading up the bases. On the first pitch, Mendoza (Camarillo, Calif.), took it deep over center field to clear the bases for the team���s first grand slam of the season.

Team USA again put up five runs in the sixth, off of six hits. Topping added another RBI with a single while Amanda Freed (Cypress, Calif.) put up two RBI with a single to center field.

Team USA will play in one more exhibition series on July 10 in Irvine, Calif., against the World University Games team before heading to Oklahoma City, Okla., where they will compete in the II World Cup of Softball July 13-17.

Click here for box scores on the exhibition series vs. NPF Arizona Heat www.usasoftball.com. Also check out our World Cup of Softball sp

I can write all day about just how misunderstood baseball training information is these days. However, I would make myself sick because it really upsets me to see kids getting such bad advice.

One such piece of advice is the use of machines in weight training.

Machines should never be used. I repeat, machines should never be used!

Do you have a machine guiding you on the baseball diamond? I didn't think so. So why in the world would you train with them?

Machines are not only useless, they can decrease performance and increase the risk of injury! That's right. Triple whammy right there.

On most machines you are sitting or lying down. In order to increase power, strength and speed your must perform ground-based movements. This means your feet are on the ground and you are standing up. Not sitting on some pretty chrome machine.

Machine strength has very little carryover to the baseball diamond for a number of reasons. The machines actually guide the weight for you. So the stabilizer muscles do not have to work. These may be one of the reasons for the high amount of injury our youth have been experiencing.

Please do yourself a favor and use good old fashioned barbells, dumbbells, medicine balls, bodyweight movements and kettlebells. Your body (and statistics) w

USA Softball has announced the roster for its 2006 Women's National Team.

The team will now prepare for the second annual World Cup of Softball in Oklahoma City, July 13-17 and then travel to Beijing, China for the ISF Women���s World Championships.

The roster has seventeen players and includes eleven members from the 2004 Olympic team. Be sure to check out the Active.com [World Cup of Softball special section|http://active.typepad.com/

Did you know that softball/baseball injuries are the biggest reasons for children to go the Emergency Room? Dogbitelaw.com has fascinating data showing the rate of ER incidences among children. (I wonder what happens if you play softball--an

<p* *for her National Spelling Bee win! This is the first female win since eteamz was officially launched to the public in 1999 (thought this was a more interesting way to put it).

The winning word was &quot;ursprache.&quot; Check out the definition on Google.

Should we add Spelling as a sport to eteamz?

The amazing story of Jason McElwain, an autistic high school senior who scored a miraculous 20 points in a February basketball game, came full circle today with news that Columbia Pictures has won a bidding war for the film rights to the story.

Alvin Sargent, who wrote Spider Man 2 is slated to pen the script. Most interesting is the presence of Magic Johnson--whose involvment as producer likely sealed the deal.ESPN.com has the [full story|http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=2412064&amp;campaign=rss&amp;source=E