"Are you gonna do this thing, or what?" - my Uncle John 

Abby Hanrahan, Owner

In October 2016 Abby created the Practice Pro Pitching School with Sarah Dec as her assistant coach. Since the first session, starting with 50 students from 10 different house and travel programs, the program has grown to 100+ students in 3 locations.  Each year Abby & her staff instruct over 1000 pitchers in all of their pitching school and clinics.

Abby Hanrahan won a NCAA DIII National Champion in 2002 with Ithaca College. She has over 10 years of teaching experience and 15 years of playing experience, becoming a full-time professional instructor in early 2015.  At Ithaca College her team appeared all four years in the NCAA Championships, was the 2002 NCAA Championship Tournament MVP, set the school record for strikeouts at 576 which still stands today, and was a two-year first team all conference and all region player.  She was inducted into the Ithaca College Hall of Fame in 2019. In 2020 she was honored with the Trinity High School Distinguished Alumnae Award.

Expect Abby to pitch with you during lessons and hold you accountable for your goals. She’s also a passionate goal-setter herself, having a running goal of breaking 20 minutes for a 5K (process still going, ahem very slowly), and a golfer who was once two strokes away from breaking 80. She has since settled for trying to beat her brother just one more time. Abby is a student of the mental game and teaches her students to be aggressive, disciplined, and to not take themselves too seriously.

THE PITCHING SCHOOL STORY

Abby grew up in gigantic softball family from Forest Park and Oak Park, IL.  She had a dad and two uncles who coached, plus a sister and seven cousins who played. One is currently a head coach at a university, and another is a pitching coach as well!

After pitching for Ithaca College, appearing in three NCAA DIII women's college world series', and winning a DIII National Championship in 2002, Abby began her professional career in television, then went on to work in many different industries; however, she never felt like she was on the right path. In 2012, after parents kept asking her to coach their kids she finally conceded and started ramping up her teaching lessons on a more regular basis. This time, with a little more teaching experience under her belt it seemed a lot more fun to show young players how to improve.

In early 2013-2015 Abby helped to initiate and develop the softball program at Chicagoland Baseball Academy which has trained over 60 young players. She also tried her hand at pitching clinics, running her own elite-level winter 10-week pitching clinic, catching clinic, and youth clinic with Laura Eichenold.

Abby recognized a huge demand for pitching instruction in not only the Oak Park area but also where she currently lives, on the north side of Chicago. In just the past five years many north side parks added little league softball for the girls who had previously been only offered baseball.

In April 2015 Abby quit her day job as an office manager and started giving pitching lessons full time. She kept studying the best ways to teach girls how to pitch, learning from pitching greats such as Denise Davis of Planet Fastpitch, Myndie Berka of Breakthrew Fastptich, Cheri Kempf of ClubK/NPF, Doug Finch (Jennie Finch’s dad), Dr. Cheryl Warren, and her college coaches Deb Pallozzi and Robin Bimson. She learned the most from her uncle, John Hanrahan, who for the past 30 years ahs taught her and hundreds of other players in the Chicagoland how to pitch.  In fact, almost all of the Practice Pro adult coaches were trained as teenagers by John as well.

From that experience, the Practice Pro School was born. Abby realized pitchers learn best in small groups because it allows for both support and competition. When players with similar skill levels are in the same classes everyone moves forward together, constantly referencing mechanics and building new skills upon previous lessons. Plus, as we all know, It's more fun to play with your friends!