Great Softball Cheers

From LoveToKnow Cheerleading

When trying to come up with great softball cheers, don't forget to gather ideas from your team or squad. With a little effort, you can come up with new softball cheers of your very own.

Play to Your Strengths

One of the interesting things about softball cheers and chants is that they not only have both positive and negative connotations (the "Yay, US! Boo, YOU!" mentality), they have them for both sides of the game. There's an egalitarian nature to the kinds of cheers that come out of the dugout that is almost unique to the sport. Even if it's as simple as:

Two and two is four, four and four is eight,

Now we're gonna let you know we appreciate..

(OTHER TEAM'S NAME)

It is an acknowledgement that one team is glad the other team is there.

That's not to say that all cheers are soft and glowy, though. There's a lot of great softball cheers that are amazingly clever and biting as they try to unnerve the other team.

The Wit and Bite of Great Softball Cheers

The reason coming up with your own cheers for softball is so easy is because there are so many things to cheer about – your batter, their batter, your pitcher, their pitcher, that great catch, that pop fly, that foul, that walk – the list is endless. Here are some examples and suggestions of how to come up with your own cheers.

Razzing the Batter and the Pitcher

The two highest-pressure positions on the field are the batter and the pitcher, locked in a duel that lasts a split second before everyone else comes into play. Softball cheers are often used to try and unnerve the players as they face each other down. Sarcasm often is used along with the relatively strange softball custom of comparing the pitcher's throwing arm to a washing machine:

Ooh, that pitcher, looks so mean!

But she's got an arm like a washing machine,

Watch it spin, watch it shake,

Barely gets the ball goin' over the plate!

That kind of cheer is good for before a pitch if you're trying to make the pitcher get too nervous and rattled to throw accurately. Whether the throw goes over the plate or not, right after a pitch is a good time to tease the pitcher:

What was that? Feel a breeze?

Look at that poor pitcher freeze!

Shake and tremble, show no fear,

We're gonna slam it OUTTA here!

It's fairly easy to turn this cheer around to encourage your own pitcher. This can be just as simple as a long, drawn out hiss as she winds up and changing into a "STRIKE 'EM OUT, HEATHER!" (or whatever the name of the pitcher is) if the batter misses, or just letting the hiss fade if the ball gets hit.

Batters are almost easier to unnerve since they don't know what kind of pitch is coming, and unless they have perfect focus it's pretty easy to shake them up.

Poor little batter, gonna make you cry,

Gonna pitch so fast you shouldn't even try,

Gonna swing, gonna miss, gonna make you pout,'

One - two – three gonna strike you OUT!

Even if the batter gets a hit, often fouls and tips and pop flies give you a chance to razz the entire team. Use popular songs to celebrate the things that happen– like the classic "Doo wah diddy" song when a batter is walked, or "Movin' Out!" when the third out moves the opposing team out of the dugout and back on the field allowing your team get the chance to score.