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Sheilah Gulas Finds Nemo

at the National Softball Coaches Convention!!!

Sheilah Gulas is a 1983 graduate of Clarion University. Her resume states that she earned a degree in elementary education. What she’s accomplished leads one to believe her degree is in architecture.

At every stop in a 16-year coaching career, Gulas has proved to be a builder of programs. If you want a blueprint of how to run a college softball program, the first call should go to Gulas. Those blueprints work in turning teams into bluebloods – teams that are annually included among the best in the country. That’s what she’s done at Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio.

Four times in the last six years, Gulas has led the Eagles to the NCAA Division II playoffs. Under Gulas, AU has won 30 or more games four times and 40 or more games twice. She has guided the Eagles to three Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament championships and four GLIAC regular season crowns.

Hitting has always been an important part of Coach Gulas’s program and practice routine. “It is very important to practice the swing each day and to make the hitting practices a chance to develop and fine tune the swing. We were looking for a way to increase bat speed and to help players make better adjustments to their swing during games. By using the Nemo program, we have found that bat speeds have increased for each of our athletes.” This is important not only for power, but bat speed helps the athlete time their swing better during each at bat. If a pitcher has a great change up, the hitter can wait on it and then explode through the ball. The longer the hitter can wait on the ball before swinging, the more adjustments they will be able to make during their at bat. These adjustments need to be natural and automatic and it is something that the batter needs to react to without thinking. That is why quality repetitions are important not only in the mechanics of the swing but also in the confidence of the batter.

Many of the Nemo drills are also conducive to helping the hitter make adjustments. When working on hitting the inside and or outside pitch, the batter can’t get in a routine where each swing is exactly the same. Many of the drills in Coach Nemo’s Instructional videos, Increase Your Bat Speed and Speed Circuit Training, help the batter work on hitting any ball up the middle. This can be done no matter how the speed or location of the pitch is thrown.

The Ashland University softball team has been using the Nemo Speed bat this fall and has already seen improvements in each athlete. “Not only is the bat speed of each athlete improving but, the players are much more confident in attacking the ball. It is possible to get more quality swings in each practice setting. “The nice thing about the Nemo bat is that you can hit many different types of balls and therefore work on a small bat, small ball concept. This helps the batter work on tracking the ball, which will help with their vision training. After each swing, the batter gets reinforcement depending on how the ball leaves the bat. If contact is made on the sweet spot of the bat, the contact is very explosive. If the ball is not hit on the sweet spot, the athlete can make an adjustment on the next swing. This helps the athlete remain focused during her practice swings.

Ashland University also hosts many camps and clinics and the Nemo bat will be used with softball players of all ages. The younger players will get great benefit by starting with the speed bat at an early age. This way they will be able to increase their bat speed and get many quality repetitions to start putting the swing into muscle memory. Many times the younger players are swinging bats that are too heavy to start with and the Nemo bat will help the younger athlete learn and practice the correct swing. The Nemo bat can be used with any age group or experience level.

“I am looking very forward to the start of our season to see the difference that the Nemo Bat training program has given our student athletes. Nemo bats will be part of our training program each and every day between now and the quest for another Conference Championship.”

Coach Nemo’s Speed Bat Training Program is quickly becoming a nationally accepted training tool. It is growing in popularity with proven, positive results from team and individual usage at all age levels.