Hitting camp and lessons

This past weekend Alicia attended a hitting clinic at the UNC Chapel Hill campus. This is her in the picture with one of the players and the head coach.

Alicia was very disappointed that her team has taken the month of November and December off from training. She feels it is very important to continue to practice. Alicia's love is softball and though others choose to play other sports she continues to work on her game. Her pitching coach, Vanessa, always stresses muscle memory and when you play other sports you will be using different muscles in different ways. If she continues to work on her softball game her muscle memory with be increased.

Alicia has recently started working with Gwen Johnson, a part time coach at UNCG, to improve her hitting. Gwen was one of UNCG's toughest hitters. She is not only teaching Alicia the skills of hitting but also the mental attitude.

Alicia Stealing bases

This weekend Alicia played in the IFA Winter World Series at Proliefic Park in Greensboro. This first picture is her lead off on first base.

The next picture if you look real close you can see the ball has not reached the batter yet and Alicia is off and running.






When Alicia was on third base there was a passed ball by the catcher of the Triad Power and Alicia came in to score. Alicia was very aggressive on the bases this weekend and loves to steal ( bases that is). :)

Photos from this past weekend

This is a photo of Alicia sliding into home plate to make the game winning run. You can see how far away the ball was. One minute she was on first base and the next she was sliding into home.














The next photo is the Xtreme Rampage 14U team with their third place trophies.

The last photo is of Jamie Gammon, the coach of the Xtreme Rampage giving Alicia her trophy.

Guest Play for Xtreme Rampage 14U

Alicia had a great weekend guest playing for the Xtreme Rampage 14U team. Most of the girls on the Xtreme Rampage will be playing 16U in the spring.
The coach of the Xtreme Rampage, Jamie Gammons and her own coach, Jimmy Edwards of the Carolina Ice, were happy with her performance this weekend.

She helped the team win an important game against the Lady Hornets. Alicia battled on her last at bat and was walked. The next player got a hit and Alicia, with her speed ran from first base to home to score the winning run. The score was only 2-1.

Alicia does not enjoy bunting but she is very good at it. Since she is so fast she can lay down a bunt and in most cases make it to first base.

She contributed three sacrifice bunts this weekend and had a 1000 batting average for the weekend.

Alicia is easy to get along with and had a great time meeting the players of the Xtreme Rampage. She hopes to see them again or even play with them again. After this experience, Alicia feels confident that she can play good ball with the older girls.

They came home with third place in the silver division and were only 5 minutes away from playing in the championship game.

New Tool

Alicia's father recently purchased the RevFire. She had practice last night at the "Chicken House", an indoor facility, and they used the RevFire. Alicia's fast ball was 50mph and her screw ball was between 38 and 39mph. The RevFire also shows the spin rate of the ball. Alicia's spin rate was 16RPS.

A good breaking ball (curveball, riseball, dropball, or screwball) requires at least 19 RPS. Some pitchers
achieve more than 22 RPS consistently with their breaking balls. A few are known to throw riseballs
consistently at 30 RPS. In high school the best breaking balls pitchers typically throw around 23 RPS. There
is more variability in the spin rate on fastballs, depending on the type of fastball thrown and whether the
pitcher is trying to put movement on the pitch. Although the spin rates for fastpitch softball are slower than for
baseball, the effect of spin is more pronounced than with baseballs because of the larger surface area and
higher seams of a softball.


*High School data from National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) recruiting camps.

GENERAL GUIDELINE FOR JUNIOR & SENIOR YEAR HIGH SCHOOL PITCHERS*:
SPIN RATE (RPS)
17.0 – 18.9 Average
19.0 - 21.9 Good
22.0 and more Excellent

*This guideline is for high school pitchers without RevFire based training.


BREAKING BALL SPIN RATE GUIDELINE FOR DIVISION I COLLEGE FASTPITCH SOFTBALL:
SPIN RATE (RPS)
20.0 - 21.9 Average
22.0 - 24.9 Good
25.0 and up Excellent

Video of pitching in August

The video is not the best but it will give you an idea of her pitching. This takes place at UNCG with her pitching coach Vanessa Oakes Williams.

Update

Alicia will be playing with her travel team the Carolina Ice in the One Day IFA Fall Festival in Archdale on October 17th. Then her next tournament will be the IFA Winter World Series in Greensboro the weekend of November 6-8th.

I am including her times from the IFA combines this spring. Her pitching speed has increased since spring to the high 40s to low 50s.

A. Daly 34- pitching speed on 5/2/09
Alicia Daly 3.53 running to first base 4/18/09
A. Daly 3.59 running to first base 05/02/09

Alicia will be attending the November 15th fall clinic at the University of NC at Chapel Hill. And also plans to attend their January 17th "Get Ready for your Season" player clinic.

Alicia is available to play as a guest player.