Emma Brice is a collegiate softball player at University of West Florida. Born and raised in Tallahassee, I had the pleasure of training her during her senior year of high school and I continue to train her during any school breaks when she’s home from college. Emma started at Momentum Fitness with another trainer and mentor of mine, Drew Whitehead, and thus had some weight lifting history and prerequisite strength.
When she onboarded with me, she had been recovering from foot surgery while simultaneously managing some back and shoulder pain from softball and poor lifting mechanics when she was younger. The largest area of focus with Emma was continuing to build strength, but placing an emphasis on improving internal stability with exercises such as split variations, single arm strength variations, core work, and hinge movements. Before her Senior year season, we began to add in some power and explosive training, but if I am being entirely honest with the audience reading, knowing what I know now about programming and phasing athletes, I think I could have done a much better job with her training blocks before and during her softball season. Emma Brice being the absolute unit she is, however, still managed to have a successful final season with a batting average of 0.458, 25 runs, 3 doubles, 2 triples, and 2 homeruns in 17 games. She did all of this playing an entirely different position (catcher) than what she is used to playing (shortstop).
In the summer leading up to her freshman year, I outlined her training with a more educated approach and really stressed improvements on internal stability and recovery. As she got closer to leaving, we began to spend more time on power production, speed, and strength in the transverse plane.
*It is important to note that this was Emma’s summer before college, so shit got a little crazy and there were definitely hindrances in performance and recoverability due to her immense dedication to having a very memorable summer.
With that being said, she still had quite the freshman season with a batting average of 0.275, 12 runs, 5 doubles, 20 RBIs, and 8 home runs. She also had a lingering dedication to having fun, and thus did not prioritize recovery protocols and proper pre/in-season training. So, fast forward to summer of 2023, and Emma is coming back to Tallahassee with a slap tear in her left shoulder and a newfound desire to take her offseason seriously. She showed up to every training session. She listened to any protocols I gave her regarding nutrition. She booked appointments with Real Recovery, the PT group I partner with, to help with her shoulder recovery. She put in extra work throwing and hitting with her dad or other coaches. I built a training program for her and she followed everything exactly as was required of her.
She went back to school as a different athlete. So far, Emma has hit 11 home runs, 7 doubles, and 25 RBIs. She was awarded the NFCA top performer honor. She’s in less pain, and I really could not be more proud of her efforts this Sophomore year. I am stoked to see what else she accomplishes this season and even more excited to have her back for a few months to prepare her for her Junior year. Emma, you are quite the inspiration. Never forget the path you are forging and those that are walking behind you as you set examples for many great softball players to come.