UWBadgers.com sat down with head coach Yvette Healy to discuss the first week of practice. The Badgers kicked off the season on Jan. 17 and play in their first game Feb. 17.

How did the first week of practice go?

"The first week back looked good. We spent a lot of the time making sure physically we are in great shape. Practice is a lot more creative than usual. A lot more running, jumping, diving, medi balls, jump ropes, ladders and juggling. Fun stuff like that. We are really working on some differential learning with the team, trying to get them active besides just softball skills.

Were there any surprises the first week?

"Molly Spence had been hurt and she was out last year. Even with being in some pain and being out, she hits the ball a ton. It is really fun as a staff to see her hit live and hit in scrimmages. She is a tremendous athlete and she is someone you can't help but notice when you are watching practice."

You worked on fitness the first week, what does the second week include?

"We are getting into a little more philosophy stuff. We are working a lot on our swings. I think we have a lot of potential to hit home runs and attack that record. Coach Schneider has been doing a lot of the science behind it and working with our team on torque and their bat positioning, creating velocity and increasing bat speed. (There has been) a lot of strength stuff, vision training and then just your basic, grounders, fly balls and breaking down the skill and re-teaching it. I think you spend the second week tearing apart your fundamentals, making sure you are all on the same page and re-teaching. It is a great week going into a weekend of camp to have our team reviewing all of those fundamentals."

What are your goals for the next two and a half weeks of practice?

"Every week we try to advance what we are doing and just make sure we are getting better from a pitching, fielding, defensive and hitting stand point, each aspect of the game. We are ramping it up to feel more like game situations, but we were careful not to jump right in and just go from 0 to 60 right away. Really the first weeks are about getting your fundamentals down and being in great shape and having the team work really hard and get in extra work.

"The next couple weeks will really start to feel like game mode, where every drill feels more a little more rushed, a little more sense of urgency, a little more game like.

Anna Poulter-Hendrickson chronicled all of the action between Wisconsin (5-13, 1-5) and Iowa (11-8, 3-3) on Thursday, Jan. 19 in Iowa City, Iowa. The Hawkeyes defeated the Badgers, 69-57.

In today's blog entry, head coach Yvette Healy writes about the power of words and the impact they can have on a team.

With a short week of classes, the Badger softball team is lifting and conditioning hard, before Thanksgiving break. There has been a lot of excitement in our offices today, as we celebrate our men's cross country's fifth national championship! They just won the NCAA Cross Country Championship last night. It's been fun to see the trophy and hear stories about the police escort the Badger bus received driving back through Madison last night. We have our final home football game on Saturday, as the Badgers battle for a spot in the new Big Ten Championship title game.

Our team meeting this week is focusing on the power of what we say as teammates. This is such an important message this time of year. As coaches, it's hard not to see our team every day. Our athletes are spending a lot of time studying and working with tutors as we enter the last few weeks of class.

We're giving the team a few quotes from the book, "The Four Agreements," by Don Miguel Ruiz. The book shares ideas on how to be a better person, and teammate. The first agreement is, "Be impeccable with your word". Ruiz states, "Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love."

It's amazing how powerful all of our words can be. What we say as coaches and athletes can inspire, or attack. Our words can motivate, or they can cause people to shut down. All of us have the ability to help create a positive, productive, successful environment within our program. We can create drama, or minimize it with words we choose to use.

In the "Four Agreements", Ruiz goes on to say, "You can measure the impeccability of your word by your level of self-love. How much you love yourself and how you feel about yourself are directly proportionate to the quality and integrity of your word. When you are impeccable with your word, you feel good; you feel happy and at peace."

Our goal in the Wisconsin softball family, is to create a competitive environment where the student-athletes feel challenged, supported and respected. We want our athletes to be successful students and people. Hopefully we all take a moment this holiday season to reflect on how lucky and fortunate we are. Our goal is to use our words to make this softball team, athletics department and university a better, happier, more successful and productive place.

In today's blog entry, head coach Yvette Healy writes about celebrating the fall season in Madison.

What a beautiful fall in Madison. This fall has been filled with pumpkins, football and falling leaves. The leaves are all changing colors, with red, orange and yellow trees everywhere on campus. We've had beautiful weather with a few sunny 60 and 70 degree days over the past few weeks. People are jogging along the lake and out playing with their dogs everywhere you look. Our campus looks like fall postcard right now with the sun shining on the lakes and the leaves changing colors all around us.

The softball team celebrated Halloween with a costume contest, dinner and pumpkin carving party at my house last week. My three year old daughter Grace was a fairy princess with big purple wings and a butterfly mask. Grace has prayed for the "Badger softball girls" every night since the party. Her favorite costumes were the Bee Catcher and the Nerds. Our team gatherings make me feel so fortunate as a wife, mom and coach. There are many times when the travel and rigors of the job make it tough to balance. Yet, when my husband Shawn and I have the team, coaches and staff over to our house, and we see Grace playing with the student-athletes -- looking up to them as role models -- everything seems to fit together perfectly.

We had a fun two-hand touch football game with our staff and the team at the field last week too. It was a great workout and non-stop laughs. We have some hilarious personalities on our team. I really enjoyed mixing in and playing too. Coach Schneider played football in college, so his team had a bit of an advantage, but we still finished in a tie. This is the second year that we've ended the fall with flag football and I think this tradition will stick.

Unsung heroes. Every sport has them. In the sport of soccer, it is typically the defenders that fall into that category. They play day in and day out, without the glory of the offensive positions. Rarely do they score a point, maybe an assist here and there.  And when the team records a shutout, it usually isn't defenders getting the credit. Yet without them, the game wouldn't be the same.

UW defenders Blake Succa and David Caban are two players that exemplify the role of the defender. Both have seen action in all 12 of Wisconsin's games this season, with Succa starting every contest. Both play hard every minute they are on the field and play even harder in the final minutes of the game, yet neither has been the subject of a postgame interview or earned a weekly honor.

"Defending starts the attack," Caban stated. "It is always nice when you get to blow up a challenge with an opposing midfielder as he is coming down at you, and then you win the tackle and start the attack to the next play."

"Our main job is to slow down the other team's attack so that our attackers can get back and get behind the ball," said Succa.

"If someone is under pressure I can be an outlet for them," added Caban. "If the attack can't break through, they always have options back to relieve the pressure."

The strength of UW's defense was put the to the test in Sunday's 2-1 win over Michigan. The Wolverines came out of halftime with a two-goal deficit and tested the Badgers' defense with 16 shots in the second half, including six on net. 

"We had the lead and we stayed calm," Caban said. "We knew that once they came at us we had to hold solid and make sure we preserved the lead and try to get the win. We used the motivation to stay undefeated in the Big Ten as a little extra push."

UW's defense held and the Badgers earned their first-ever win over Michigan in Ann Arbor; a fact that shouldn't go unnoted as the team travels to Ann Arbor in November for the Big Ten Tournament.