What The Best Teams Do: Everyone Has A Purpose

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What The Best Teams Do: Everyone Has A Purpose

In college you'll rarely see a player sitting on the bench doing nothing during a game. When I played at Ithaca College, every player on the team was always cheering, clapping, or doing something in a supportive role when on the bench. Your positive attitude can anchor the “spirit of sport” in your team.

Last week our mental game lesson was about Charlie Morton, a 37-year old pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays who started the last game of the 2019 World Series. At the time his ERA is .57 and only made his first all-star game two years before that. If Morton would have won that night, he would have tied a record by posting eight consecutive winning postseason starts.

When asked about this wonderful run, he said,

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When You Lose Confidence In A Game

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When You Lose Confidence In A Game

Most players have started their season already. Games will be testing your and your team’s abilities. They are an accumulation of all the work you’ve put in all winter. While the offseason was a time when you’ve learned new things, like improving your pitch repertoire or making big changes to your fundamentals, the in-season is all about performance.

Even though you’ll be learning a lot during the season, if you want to play and if you want to win, you’ll have to give the coach a reason to let you pitch. Giving chances in order to let the pitcher learn or see if she can handle pressure might be few and far between.

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16 Things You Should Know About High School Softball

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16 Things You Should Know About High School Softball

This week we were able to do something we’ve never done before - start a speaker panel series! The stay-at-home order has surprisingly benefited our pitching school in many ways, including making it easy to host events and bring in speakers. When travel times are minimal, schedules are clear, and facility spaces are free we become ultra-flexible! We will continue to host these learning experiences for our pitching school so take advantage of this unique time.

What do they wish they would have known? What made them great pitchers? What were failures that they overcame? I took the top 20 lessons learned from these great athletes and made it easy for you to digest here.

You’ll hear from Julia Youman ‘20 OPRF and IHSA State Champion, Mackenzie Janes ‘20 Jones Prep and 4-year Varsity Letter winner, and Molly Murray ‘19 Lane Tech Conference CHamp and Sectional Runner-up.

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A Point-by-Point Guide to High School: From the Coaches

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A Point-by-Point Guide to High School: From the Coaches

When I tried out for my high school softball team I simply showed up on the prescribed date and time. I carried my spikes and glove in my hand. I did what I was told. I observed the skills of the other girls and measured myself against them. What chance do I have? How hard are the coaches making me work? Do I like this? Are the girls nice?

Never once did I think bigger than that. I didn’t think about winning a championship. I didn’t ponder what made a good team, or what I could do to be a good leader. In hindsight I wish I would have. To those of you who are reading this, I’d suggest thinking of these things. Whether you are in 5th grade, going to college next year, or in high school, the following will be valuable.

We had the opportunity to interview the Whitney Young Coach, Mike Hinrichs and the Ridgewood Coach, Ken Juarasz about how they’ve built their program, what they expect of players, and how to buy in.

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What's Holding Back Your Movement Pitches?

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What's Holding Back Your Movement Pitches?

Making the ball move is one thing, but making it move with late break is a whole separate animal. “Late break” means that your pitch travels straight and then changes direction very close to the hitter. About ten feet is about the standard for excellence.

You need to be able to know the truth. Was that lake break? Or was it gradually moving to one side? You don’t want to wait to find out in a game. If you haven’t seen too many pitches that actually break before, you might be judging incorrectly. You need feedback.

If your breaking balls gradually move from one side to the other, rather than late break, it is because one of the following problems:

1. Not enough rotation on your ball
2. Incorrect axis - the ball is not rotating on the correct plane
3. Incorrect body position/release point - your arm trajectory is going the opposite way of the intended ball movement.

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Learn Movement Pitches Before You are 12 Years Old

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Learn Movement Pitches Before You are 12 Years Old

As the season is underway pitchers everywhere stand on the mound hoping to throw a strike. There is a special group of pitchers that aren’t just hoping to throw strikes. Those are the ones you’ll be watching on TV. Right now top teams are battling for the NCAA World Series title. Those pitchers aren’t just hoping to throw strikes with a really quick fastball. They are fooling the batter by moving the ball almost every pitch.

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How To Be Obsessed With Your Little League

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How To Be Obsessed With Your Little League

No one on her team could throw a strike so the games were very long and uneventful. A number of parents started asking me to instruct but I saw myself as an executive in the corporate world. Now, as a small business owner running a pitching school with over 160 students, I’m often to help little leagues find a way to make the quality of pitching better. If girls can pitch strikes, then the batters can hit, and the fielders can field.

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Lessons from College Coaches

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Lessons from College Coaches

Overuse injuries make up 50% of all injuries in middle and high school. Three-sport athletes suffer less injuries than one-sport athletes. Plus, Dr. Middleton answered the common question, “Is the underhand pitching motion more natural that overhand, and as a result do less injuries occur?”

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How To Make Practice into a Daily Routine

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How To Make Practice into a Daily Routine

How many goals have you made in which you didn't take action on? How many of those goals without action have you accomplished? None, obviously!  Jim Rohn, legendary author and motivational speaker said "Goals without action are nothing." You need to form habits to help you take action.

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How to Communicate More Clearly With Your Daughter

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How to Communicate More Clearly With Your Daughter

When it comes to coaching your daughter on pitching mechanics, I highly recommend it. Sometimes. As an observer of the parent-daughter relationships for a number of years, I’ve been trying to develop my philosophy on this, then somehow communicate it with a tactful touch. While debate rages about over-bearing parents or how much is too much, I still find pitching kind of an anomaly. Pitchers need their mom’s and dad’s more than every other position. Quite possibly, every other position in most sports. Is this just culture or is it absolutely necessary? I’ll leave that for another blog.

But for now, here are some helpful tips to support your daughter's success while making developing as a pitcher a great experience for you both:

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High School Tryouts: What Coaches Want

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High School Tryouts: What Coaches Want

I know I’ve sent a similar blog about high school tryouts a couple of times, but I’ve revised it based on interviews I’ve recently done with coaches in Chicago and the suburbs. Tryouts are this week so I wanted to make sure to pass along to you what I’ve learned so far. Coaches had common themes with what they were looking for in you.

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