10 Quick Tips About Mechanics
/If you’ve gone through one of our programs at Practice Pro, you know there is a lot to remember. I’ve broken down 10 of the most helpful tips to remember from your pitching lessons.
The arm circle is the most important fundamental: If your arm circle “goes behind your back,” you will either throw it inside, struggle with consistency (as the squiggly and indirect arm path will never be the same twice), or slow you down, since the fastest way from one point to another is in a straight line.
Timing: What is timing and how do I get it? Timing is the connection between your legs and arms. For optimal power, your toe should touch the ground when your arm is somewhere between 12 o'clock and 9 o'clock. If it’s any later, you aren’t getting much resistance. The culprit is usually your take-away (pre-motion) or a lack of body awareness. To improve timing, we remove the take-away or do the “Erica” drill to feel the stride toe and arm working together.
You are “all arm.” Did you know pitch speed comes mostly from arm speed, not your legs? Rita Gilman, a very successful pitching instructor, told us at a softball conference something very interesting. Her players who pitched 60-70mph would do what Practice Pro calls “6 o'clocks” as a drill. They don’t move their legs but just pitch with a full circle. It turns out the top pitchers maxed out with their 6 o'clocks at 10 mph slower than their full-pitch speed. That means that a girl who pitches 60 mph maxed out at 50mph with just her arm. Pitchers could add only 10 mph when using their legs to push off in a full pitch! What does this mean for you? If you are maxed out at a 10 mph difference (about 15%) with the above drill, how do you get faster? You work on speeding up your arm! If you are NOT maxed out with a 10mph difference between the two drills, what does that mean? It means you are not using your legs to the best of your ability!
Learn first, then do “fixing” later: Many coaches won’t do a video analysis on a pitcher in her first year or two of learning. While we look at video, we don’t try to “fix” a young player's problems when she doesn’t know the principles in the first place. If you start “fixing” too soon, players get discouraged, especially with detailed video analysis. Those tend to point out only problems.
FOCUS to build neural pathways: Pay attention to your intention when pitching. In order to build the neural pathways “muscle memory” to perform the same movement repeatedly, you must focus and think hard about doing that movement correctly. Throwing 40 pitches in 5 minutes hardly allows for focused practice. It will not build muscle memory. Sharing a mound with someone and switching off pitches allows you to take a couple of seconds to reflect on the last pitch and plan the next one.
How do you know if something is too much? Too bent, too straight, too forward, too slow. This is where development will speed up fast with a professional coach. One of the mistakes parents and brand new instructors make (I know because I did) was that they don’t know what’s most important to work on and what can be left alone for the time being. The more experienced the instructor, the faster they will be able to identify priorities which leads to faster improvement.
Plateau: If you’ve plateaued, it means you have to try something different. Has your instructor been trying to get you to firm up your front leg for 2 years and you still haven’t really worked on it? Sometimes pitchers get complacent with the same old routine they like and don’t really try to mentally break out of it. They’ve conceded to “this is just how I am” and are unable to improve. Players who move beyond the plateau consistently try to master new and harder skills.
Improve Speed: The things that increase speed (in order of importance) are 1. pitch count (pitch a lot), 2. good mechanics, 3. overall strength. That means if you pitch enough reps but are still slower than others your age, you need to work on your mechanics. But if mechanics are good, and you are still slow, you need to start doing strength and conditioning training.
Takeaway: Experienced players usually aren't getting enough out of their pre-motion. They don't shift their weight back enough and don't use it to get momentum. On the other hand, beginner players struggle with a bad take-away being the cause of mechanical problems. Here's a Rule of thumb: players in their first 1-3 years need less of a takeaway, experienced players need way more of one.
Know what to practice: After a lesson, how do you know what to work on? The best way is to write down all the drills you did in your lesson, how to do them, and all the verbal cures you can remember the instructor said during practice. Then repeat those that week in your practice. You need to write them down immediately, or it’s too easy to forget. This is a great way to take responsibility for your personal improvement.
