5 Clichés About Training You Should Avoid

“More is better”

When it comes to training in any sport, more is often thought to be best practice. Don’t get me wrong, without a consistent work ethic at any skill, especially pitching, there will be a limit to improvement. However, most players and parents think about going out to practice pitching between lessons or games as a chore. And the reason for that is because we have been trained to believe more is better in most everything. So when we go out to practice, we spend at least an hour, sometimes more, between driving to and from a location to train, warming up our bodies, warming up our mechanics of each pitch, and then actually throwing each pitch. Therefore, thinking about going through this entire process again can seem daunting. We ask ourselves: Do I have another 60-90 minutes to devote to doing this again sometime this week? So most pitchers and their parent bucket-mates practice 1-2 times a week. They are doing “a lot, a little” instead of “a little a lot.” What if you did LESS, more often? Let’s say you went 5 days a week to train in a focused effort that took 20-30 minutes? One day you can work fundamentals of pitching by looking into a full length mirror, breaking down the stages of the motion, feeling your body while seeing it in the mirror with slow-motion pitching, and then putting it together and watching your motion full speed. You don’t even need a catcher for that and it might take 20 minutes! Another day you could simply work accuracy of your fastball so you can find a rhythm with a repeatable motion. Another day you can just work your curve ball and rise ball by using a spinner or double ball or half ball or football and making sure you’re getting true spin with these items in each direction. One day can be drop ball day where you use ropes or buckets as visual markers 15 feet in front of the plate. One day you can work your changeup, alternating a fastball every third pitch. If you focused on just one thing each day and spent 20-30 minutes, you would become a much better pitcher than going out 1-2 days a week just to throw everything. The mind and body naturally loses focus and steam. In a game, pitchers throw 12-15 pitches an inning and then get a break while the team hits! Try doing a little a lot and see if you don’t see quick and immediate improvements AND look forward to practicing, because it’s short and quick and focused! Do LESS more often and watch your game improve by dividends!

“Practice makes perfect”

How many times have we heard this preached at us by coaches, parents, teachers, and really - any adult trying to get the most out of us? However, does practice really make perfect? The truth is, practice makes permanent. The question is - are we making the right thing permanent? One of the best pitchers and pitching coaches that Illinois has ever seen is a man by the name of Denny Throneburg. And he always used to say that Practice doesn’t make perfect; Perfect practice makes perfect. And that is why understanding a mechanic, a spin, a concept in pitching is critical. Working on perfecting a mechanic or a spin or a pitch creates neural pathways in our brain, creating what we call muscle memory. So practicing these parts of the motion correctly is very important. If we are practicing it wrong, we emphasize a poor mechanic that becomes permanent and it then becomes very difficult to undo.

“Speed is king” (or in our case, Queen)

There is no doubt that a fast pitcher turns heads. Whether it is baseball or softball, velocity is flashy for certain! And less reaction time against a flame thrower like Monica Abbott and Rachel Garcia who consistently hit 70mph+ is obviously more difficult to adjust to than a straight fastball at 60mph. But in today’s softball world of pitching machines that top 70 mph and expert hitting training being the norm, velocity is not going to win championships without one or two of the more important three “queens” of pitching: great movement, a change of speed, and pin-point accuracy. We know that speed may catch the eye and present the crowd with a wow factor, but without accuracy, movement, or change of speed, velocity alone WILL NOT win at the higher levels. Three of the greatest examples include Lacy Waldrop who threw in the high 50’s and low 60’s with 3 changes of speed per pitch (she was a former Florida State All-American and 2014 National Player of the Year); Cat Osterman (two-time silver medalist with Team USA) who throws her movement pitches the best in the low 60’s; and G. (Giselle) Juarez (who just won the D1 National Championship with Oklahoma). Almost all of Juarez’s pitches span between 58-62 mph and was quoted on Twitter saying: “While I agree velocity has its benefits, it has its downfalls if you don’t have movement pitches and good locations, and most importantly a CHANGE OF SPEED. Velocity does not = championship caliber pitchers.

“Just throw strikes.”

If you’ve ever been to a 10U softball game, you’ve undoubtedly heard these words above, “Just throw strikes” yelled from parents in the bleachers and coaches on the sidelines. Why? Because without strikes, no one does anything but walk around the bases, and that’s no fun at any level, let alone little kids who are deciding whether they like softball at all. However, once you get to the point that you can throw strikes at will, if your best skill is pin-point accuracy, it is great pitch variation strategy to throw “balls” to a hitter’s preferred zone while throwing “strikes” to the batter’s weak zones. Why should a pitcher hurl balls to a hitter’s strength? Because when a pitch is thrown near a batter’s favorite place to hit, she almost always swings at it, even if it is a ball! It’s one of the most effective ways to get a good hitter out. So once you have command of your fastball, don’t just throw strikes!

“Just have fun.”

Now this one is tricky for competitors. Of course a game should be fun. But “just” having fun is not “sport.” Athletic endeavors require discipline, not just motivation. You’re going to wake up some mornings and not feel motivated, but if you maintain discipline, you’ll do the work to get better at your craft regardless of the way you feel. And in turn, when game-time comes, you’ll perform better than you would have without that practice that you wanted to skip. And that positive performance will allow you to have more pride, satisfaction, and fun. Alternately, if you just want to have fun all the time, sport is probably not for you. Even if you skipped all the practicing and just played in games, fun would elude you because your performance would have more ebbs and flows than your teammates or opponents who put in the time to get better between competitions. Therefore, have fun! Just know that it’s ok to NOT have fun “some” days in order to have more fun overall.