10,000 Hours to Mastering Your Game

If you’ve been following my blog as of late, you know that I attended the 2022 NFCA convention in San Antonio, Texas this past December.  There, I had the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest pitching minds in the game from all over the country.  Today, I am highlighting the third great pitching coach who presented, Paige Cassady, of Texas Tech University (who previously worked at Liberty University, where they won 5 conference titles).   And though Paige is a collegiate pitching instructor and the first two coaches I wrote about were primarily youth focused pitching instructors like myself, I think Coach Cassady is one of the most passionate and interesting people I’ve had the good fortune to hear speak. I found much of her content to be relatable and able to be assimilated to any level. In fact, she had so much good stuff that I will need to break up her “golden nuggets” into two blog entries! 

For starters, one of the concepts she discussed is at the crux of who I am and what I believe about becoming elite.  In fact, the name of our pitching school, Practice Pro, was derived because of my steep belief in this tenet that she discussed: dedicating ample time to independent practice to build and reinforce a skill.  This concept was popularized in a book called Outliers which states that “it takes 10,000 hours to master a single skill.” Coach Cassady broke down to us how that applies to your development as a pitcher: nearly 80% of your 10,000 hours will be pitches thrown in independence - working and growing without being in the presence of a professional coach like me or a college coach like her.  The breakdown is as follows: Coaches in college get a grand total of 1200 hours to teach over the course of 4 years -and even if you are with me for several years at pitching school, we might not get a total of 1000 hours together over time.  Therefore, it is the time that YOU invest outside of lessons in your personal practices by yourself -or to a catcher or a parent- that will make up 80% of your pitching “hours.” Thus, your ability to spin, spot, and create speed (and deception), is mostly a reflection of your focus and drive to be great.  It is all about quality practice hours that will contribute most significantly to your success.

Okay, okay.  About now, I know you’re saying, “We get it, Coach Abby. Practice more.  We hear you.  What else does this coach have for us?” 

I’m glad you asked.  

So Coach Cassady believes that pitching needs to be taught in a layered approach: Physical, Mental, and the Infrastructure (of how you climb your pitching-training mountain: it matters).

I loved hearing this because I believe that too; it was one of the reasons I started a school for pitching instead of an academy where I gave private lessons.  Our infrastructure relies on a multifaceted approach to pitching in a community-based environment that is highly stimulating, more competitive, and hopefully fun to grow alongside of like-minded friends in pursuit of similar goals.  Our infrastructure at pitching school also emphasizes the physical mechanics and fundamentals of the motion.  Additionally, we take pride in the mental aspect of the game as well, spending ample time to grow in reflection and build confidence, resilience, and success.

So let’s tackle her theories on the physical game this week and explore the pieces of the mental game in next week’s blog.  

In terms of the physical mechanics, Coach Cassidy wants the motion to be a constant: correct, repeatable fundamentals that are always within each pitcher’s control, regardless of how her day outside of softball is going (from school work to stress to outside obligations, etc.).  Nothing mental or emotional should impact the fundamentals of a sound motion.  A sound motion can be repeated every time we throw in a lesson, a practice, or a game.  This is such an integral piece to her pitching philosophy because she calls pitches in a game, and without a repeatable motion that is unshaken by other variables, there isn’t a pitching strategy to build that can be relied upon from one competition to the next.  Winning championships relies on that consistency. She can not do her job effectively if the pitcher can't throw strikes where they are called, with 75% accuracy, every time she steps on the mound. 

She believes physically, we need to close the margin for error within the motion by maximizing what we do well and neutralizing our weaknesses. If we do that, it allows us to achieve that 75% accuracy.  This matters so much because setting up batters from a tunneling and effective velocity standpoint (I will write a blog on this soon) is a chess game that every college pitching coach must play well if they are to be successful..  Pitch #1 sets up the batter for strike #3 later in the at-bat if they’re thrown in the right sequence.  But if the pitch goes to a different spot than planned, the chess game must be altered too.  

Additionally, Coach Cassady states that whether you are in 8U, 16U, or playing college ball, she believes we get faster and create more endurance with good, efficient mechanics.  Good mechanics create better velocity. Increased velocity, regardless of level, gives you an edge.  It helps you win. So one day a week, Coach Cassady works on ONLY fastball fundamentals (even in college).  She said this provides “a checkup” on the fundamentals, and subsequently helps all the other pitches to work better.  This helps her pitchers to get to the high accuracy rate that is needed as a norm, not an exception.  

Can you be building that constant, repeatable motion right now? Absolutely you can!  Take what you are learning in pitching school and spend the time outside of school practicing! Remember - it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become a master of any skill - including pitching. How many hours do you think you’ve logged so far? 

For those of you aspiring to be collegiate players one day, she also gave us a look into her recruiting philosophy.  She stated that she doesn’t want to spend time “fixing” mechanics, and it’s not because she doesn’t believe that mechanics are most important.  It is because there is a finite quantity of time allotted to training, and that allotment isn’t large enough to work on mastery of accuracy, understanding and executing strategy, and fundamental mechanics work.  By college - she says that there shouldn’t be much to “fix.”  But one non-negotiable, even more important than a few mechanical flaws that need an adjustment, is the ability to throw pitches that break.  She repeatedly discussed “time” as the most precious commodity - and the development of highly effective movement pitches must happen pre-college for her to recruit you to her team.   There are not enough hours to develop pitches more thoroughly to make them break AND attack everything else in a college bullpen session to prepare for championship play.  So the message is - figure out two movement pitches that induce frequent swings & misses, and be sure to possess an effective change up.  If you have a smooth motion, two breaking pitches that hitters struggle to make good connection with, and a deceptive change-up, you have a chance to be recruited to Coach Cassady’s collegiate team.  

I hope I whet your palate to learn more about Coach Cassady next week, when I focus on the many facets of the mental game that she explores.  I think it will blow your mind! I know it blew mine.  

Have a great weekend!