Improving Speed

As you already know, speed is a great thing to have. Whether it be as an individual or as a team, speed can be a huge asset. Speed can beat out those close plays at first. Speed can also turn a base hit into an out. Even if you're not the fastest player on the team, increasing your speed can certainly increase your softball performance.
One thing I notice many players doing though, is NOT taking advantage of their opportunities to work on speed in practice. Often times they fail to push themselves to the limit in sprint drills or baserunning drills. How can they expect to push in the game and beat out that throw at first if they never run all out in home to first drills in practice?
Simply telling players to run hard through the bag often doesn't get too much of a response. The thing that's worked best for me is breaking out the stop watch. I usually do it without telling them, then read out their time as they hit 1st base on a home to first baserunning drill. More often than not I'll hear, "I didn't know you were timing." Why should it matter? Shouldn't you be going hard in each drill? It's a friendly reminder to them that they'll only get better if they push all the time. It's also the best motivator I've found to actually get them to run their fastest in baserunning or sprint drills. Plus, instead of having players drag their butts during sprints, they actually want to go again to better their time. Relay races also work well if they're evenly matched.
Running TechniqueJust like fielding and throwing there are mechanics to running. Improving running form and technique will improve how well you run. Just like improving technique in fielding, throwing, and batting will improve how well you field, throw, and bat. Running track and learning how to run really made a huge difference for me. I had decent speed to begin with, but improving my running form allowed me to be at about 2.72-2.75 as an incoming freshman in college. So I'm big on learning how to run correctly. It took me 3 years of running track to finally get my form close to what good running form should be. This means 3 track seasons of practicing how to run 6 days a week for a few hours each day in addition to any sprint/speed work I did in softball. So if the only time you work on running is during softball practice for 15-30 per day, make the most of it! Focus on getting that technique correct and push yourself!