This week at pitching school we taught a mental game that just clicked.

It was built around an analogy. This week, every player drew four large bricks on a piece of paper. Inside each brick they wrote down a pitching mistake they had made. Some wrote “walked a batter.” Others wrote “hit a girl.” Some wrote “threw to the wrong base.” Once the bricks were filled in, we went around the room and asked a simple question: what did you learn from that mistake?

The lesson was this: mistakes are like bricks. If you carry them around, they are heavy. They weigh you down. They are useless. But if you learn from them, you can use them to build something great— a foundation, a wall, even a house. The same brick that drags you down can also build you up.

There are two very powerful schools of thought for how pitchers ought to attack the strike zone to be successful.

1. Attack the strike zone directly

2. Paint corners and live in the rivers

How can both be correct when they are in direct contradiction to one another? Which option ought pitchers pay heed?

To get to the bottom of this question, since I work with all of you at lessons instead of games, I went back to all of my notes from previous pitching conventions where I was able to listen to philosophies on pitch calling from the elite coaches in our game: Lonnie Alameda (Florida State), Larissa Anderson (Missouri), Beth Torina (LSU), Missy Lombardi (Oregon), Karen Weekly (Tennessee), and Stephanie VanBracklr (Alabama) just to name a few.