The Ultimate Checklist for Pitching Skills

When I was a pitcher in college I ran up to my dorm room after games to check my stats on the computer. Only two of my friends had cell phones at the time and they weren't the ones that could check stats.

I had a goal of one strikeout per inning and an ERA of less than one. Looking at my results really motivatived me. It helped me stay focused during my games. If I got behind one inning I knew I couldn't slack off mentally for during the next inning. For me, "slacking off mentally" meant thinking of anything else besides the task at hand. I allowed myself no thoughts about the snacks after the game, my anger at the first baseman for missing the catch, or doubts about my rise ball. Nothing! When I was successful at controlling my thoughts, I was successful in the inning.

Our Practice Pro students do a version of the same thing. They stare at the age-speed records on our score board as intently as they watch a Taylor Swift concert.

Is that how fast I'm supposed to pitch?

Will I be able to get that fast?

Am I the slowest pitcher in this class?

What's my number?

Athletes want to know where they stand. Sport is probably one of the fairest things we participate in as humans. After all, if if it wasn't fair, we wouldn't play! The score don't lie - we wanted to use this concept in pitching school to motivate our athletes.

For seven years we had our star scoreboard which tracked team sprit, speed, accuracy and practice. Each coach fumbled around the giant cardboard masterpiece out of her car into each facility. These were mostly process goals and were based on personal improvement. At the end of the session, some pitchers were rewarded for improving the most.

However, as players got more skilled, we found our system didn't take into account outside competition enough. Girls wanted to know how to beat the other high school teams or get into college.

For example, college coaches at most levels will only consider you if you pitch over 55 mph. If you want to win an Illinois state championship, you'll have to have a changeup and two movement pitches that hit the spot 70% of the time.

As most of you know, we created a new level system last year to motivate players and give them a better idea of where they stand against the competition. We made 5 levels, each split based on our opinion of what's needed to succeed. Players start at level one and work their way up to level five over the years. Each level has 10-20 goals to try to attain. For example, hit 20% of your spots with your changeup, or do 20 perfect pushups. While the higher levels can get tough, our new recruits are asked to say what they've learned in their first session, things such as naming the 5 fundamentals.

Because many young pitchers get discouraged when they don't pitch 100% strikes, not realizing that the excellent players at their age only pitch 40% strikes, we made our guesses on appropriate goals. They will be able to set reasonable goals and methodically tackle one at a time.

Pitchers can move quickly through the levels or slowly, or not at all. It's theirs to do what they want with it.

Our current level criteria are on our website. Each class we work towards learning these skills and take a little time to take "tests" in class (it's only going to be this name until I figure out a better less intimidating sounding name - I'm taking suggestions in the comments!). Players can also submit them through our Coachnow app simply videoing themselves pitching their changeup 10 times, for example.

Once a pitcher passes an entire level, you get a decal.

Starting as soon as possible, we hope to invite Level 3 or 4 players, depending on how many are able to pass, to a special program in which we will focus on honing their specific skills, individual instruction, online training, and more tailored small groups. We want everyone to be able to reach any goal they have at Practice Pro, and our job is to give you the tools, your job is to use them!

Once again, add a comment or reply to this email with ideas and suggestions!