A Beginner's Guide to Seasonality
/Has your daughter ever been afraid to change something in her motion because it will spoil her accuracy? She should be concerned, depending upon the time of year. During the off-season, when there either aren’t any games, or developmental fall ball is happening, major mechanical improvements need to happen. Then ideally, as she inches closer to her season, those new breakthroughs will have been solidified (build into her neural pathways) and her motion, accuracy, and movement pitches can then be fine-tuned.
Last week we talked about getting the most out of lessons. You learned what to take away from your coaches so you can add it into your practice plan. This week I’ll give you a few more examples of what types of drills you can add, based on the time of year.
This blog applies to pitchers who have a very firm grasp on the fundamentals. These are athletes who’ve had about three years of formal training and consistent practice. Those who are not proficient yet would follow a progressive program, regardless of the season. A progressive program means she learns one skill at a time, building on last week’s lesson. If the later is you, check out our New Recruits and Junior Varsity practice plans on our current students page instead of this one.
Seasonal training is comprised of three sections. Behold my beautiful pie charts.
Below is the description of the three different types of practice.
Maintenance - The nuts and bolts, or fundamentals.. Here, a pitcher is building really slick neural pathways.
Go through each of your five fundamentals and perform them correctly. Throw 10 pitches for each fundamental.
Do arm circle breakdowns, pitching the ball from each “clock” position on the circle. Make sure the line on the ball spins the intended direction 5 times each.
Perform the three main lower body drills we teach: Snow-pump drill, Roeser Drill, and the Erica Drill 10 times each.
Game Prep - Mental preparation like scrimmaging and games - simulation.
Play the game of five with spots. Begin with 5 points. If you hit the spot, you subtract a number. If you miss the spot, you add one. If you get to 0, you win. If you get to 10, you lose.
Add physical consequences or something uncomfortable when you don’t accomplish an outcome. This puts pressure on you, similar to games. Note that a physical consequence exists to put mental pressure on you, not to punish you for being a bad player.
Pitch a random workout to a catcher and a batter. The batter should work on pitch selection but not swing, she is just a visual to put you mentally in a game. A random workout is one in which no two adjacent pitchers are the same.
Future - Learn new things, make big changes, get to the next level with fundamentals or the mental game.
Learn movement pitches with progressions. For example, to improve your screwball, start from 5 feet from the catcher on your knee and rotate between three different pitching tools trying to get the correct spin 10 times in a row from 9 o’clock. Move back and complete again from 6 o’clock. Then pitch from the mound, full screw balls alternating with fastballs. Varied & random practicing builds neural pathways the quickest!
Improve or change your fundamentals by pitching into a close net. This way, you don’t have to think about where the ball is going, only what your body is doing.
Begin a weighted ball program with both heavy and light balls. These help you to get stronger and quicker, respectively.
If you want to know what pitches and locations to throw to, exactly, during each of these phases, check out my blog on block, varied and random practice. For now, use these as a guide and plan it out before you play!
