3 Must-Haves to Make It at the Highest Level

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3 Must-Haves to Make It at the Highest Level

After running our first successful college evaluation event with Coach Erica Hanrahan, I wanted to share with you some thoughts I had on playing at a high level before you get to college. 80% of current Practice Pro pitchers are eight grade an under. I believe there are three attributes an athlete must posses to reach A or B level travel play, or regional-level high school play.

I would never discourage anyone from learning to pitch because they probably weren’t going to pitch in the Olympics, but I do believe there are certain attributes and life circumstances a player must posses to play in college.

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Don't Make These 5 Common Pitching Mistakes

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Don't Make These 5 Common Pitching Mistakes

Let’s face it, pitching strikes isn’t easy. It often takes five to ten years for a player to develop the skills and strength needed to throw a ball over 60 mph with precision and movement. By avoiding the following mistakes, a pitcher can fast-track her journey to mastery.

DON’T...

Slow down your arm to pitch strikes.

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What Should I Do During Practice, Exactly?

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What Should I Do During Practice, Exactly?

Depending upon the season, the percentage break-down of maintenance, game prep and future practice differs. The closer a pitcher is  to the season, the more game prep and the less future learning she should do. The offseason is great for learning new things.

When you ask, “How much time do I spend teaching my daughter all of these new movement pitches when she can’t even throw a strike?” look to the chart below for the answer. Apply this formula to a day or week of practice, depending on how you like to schedule it out. 

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Switch from Baseball to Softball?

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Switch from Baseball to Softball?

While teaching pitching in both the city of Chicago and the suburbs, I’ve been able to come to understand the culture of each. Because most of the parks on the north side of Chicago began their softball programs less than eight years ago, many girls still play baseball. Parents struggle with the decision of switching their daughters from baseball to softball. If she does switch, when is the best time?

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College Coaches Recruit from Camps

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College Coaches Recruit from Camps

Here are some interesting things I learned that will help you:
1. Many college coaches are recruiting most of their players from camps, not tournaments.
2. A lot of college coaches recruit families, not players.  They need cooperative parents and are attracted to players who come from well developed travel programs because they, and their parents, have been groomed on how to conduct themselves.
3. The biggest problem college coaches see with pitchers, and other players for that matter, is that they have no idea how to deal with failure and are not tough....

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The High-Level Pitching Formula: Accuracy PLUS Movement, Velocity, Change of Speed

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The High-Level Pitching Formula: Accuracy PLUS Movement, Velocity, Change of Speed

When it comes to building a top-tier college pitching staff, the four wow factors of pitching—Accuracy, Movement, Velocity, and Change of Speed—are essential. Among these, Accuracy stands as the ACE, the cornerstone of effective pitching. I will never forget Lisa Fernandez, legendary Olympic pitcher and long-time assistant coach at UCLA, who once emphasized that a mere six-inch difference could turn a ground ball to second base into a home run over the right field fence.

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Help for Brave Parents Who Catch

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Help for Brave Parents Who Catch

In lessons, I'll sometimes ask a parent who's catching for her daughter if she can see the spin on the ball. I'll ask if she saw a fundamental that could have been executed better. Most of the time, I get these answers to the question:

"It's hard to see if my daughter's follow-through is correct when the ball is flying at me at 50 miles an hour."

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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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15 Savvy Ways to Watch the NCAA Playoffs

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15 Savvy Ways to Watch the NCAA Playoffs

The road to the Women’s College World Series is one of the most exciting events to watch on TV. Regionals start today, May 17th, showcasing the best athletes in the country as they execute incredible plays and engage in jaw-dropping, extra-inning games. This year, don't just sit passively. Actively analyze the games and apply what you observe to your own development. Visual learning can improve your skills simply by observing. It's an excellent way to relax while getting better at the same time. Girls with older sisters who pitch often have an advantage from watching their siblings play.

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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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Why Doesn’t My Daughter Throw Strikes?

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Why Doesn’t My Daughter Throw Strikes?

One way I like to explain it is through Martin M. Broadwell’s work. He was a management trainer in the 60’s. He wrote a famous article called Teaching for Learning in which he described the four stages of competence. I thought it would be fun to apply this not only to a pitcher’s experience, but also to a parent’s experience of getting his or her kid involved in pitching.

We want to reach “unconscious competence” in pitching and parenting. It’s when a skill can be performed easily without thinking about it. Here are the four phases, the first three leading up to our goal of “unconscious competence.”

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3 Ways to Know if You "Have" a Pitch

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3 Ways to Know if You "Have" a Pitch

As soon as a player is able to throw with a good arm circle, has decent posture, and throws at her fullest effort she's ready to learn the change up and movement pitches.

Even 10 year-olds can learn movement pitches. If I were to wait until a pitcher perfected her fastball to teach her a curveball, we might be waiting until she is a high school or even college!

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How To Get Your Daughter To Practice

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How To Get Your Daughter To Practice

You are always trying to "get" your daughter to practice. After all, she said she wanted to be a pitcher, you are spending tons of money on lessons, she is super athletic and is going to be great!! Yet...she won't practice!  You even set up the basement to look like an exact replica of the Rosemont Dome! You nag her, you try to reason with her by explaining all of the benefits of practicing. You feel you have given her all the tools humanly possible, but alas, there she remains comfy on the couch, TV remote in one hand, cell phone in the other.

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Will Illinois Ever Rule the Softball World? Master Indoor Practice First

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You know what they say about Chicago, “If you don’t like the weather, wait fifteen minutes.” Illinois is not known for it’s stellar summer sports, and we love to blame the weather. But sports are about overcoming obstacles, not using them as excuses. Our Big, Hairy, Audacious goal at Practice Pro is to make Illinois the powerhouse of pitching - with our pitchers competing on every team in the WCWS by 2035!

One way to do this is to make our obstacles our assets. Our cold weather could be one of our greatest assets as a Midwesterner. We do a lot of pitching into close nets in our basements. Pitching without a forty foot target or even “fake pitching” allows pitchers to throw with great fundamentals. You might have noticed that a pitcher can execute a fake pitch with perfect mechanics, but as soon as she gets the ball and tries to actually throw to a target - rotten they go. She reverts back to what is comfortable. She does what her neural pathways have been built for - incorrect mechanics.

If I could train a pitcher for a whole year into a close net without a target, I would. But 9-year-olds get fed up with that in about 10 minutes, unfortunately. So, if it’s freezing outside, and it’s very beneficial to not pitch a full distance, what are our options? If it’s snowy and fields are unusable, if indoor facilities are booked, if it costs $60 per hour to rent a cage, if parents don’t have time to organize and rent school gyms, what can we do?

Create your own practice facility at home! Check out what some creative folks have done to their basements below.

Ryadi Basement.jpg
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If possible, set up a 7 foot net in your basement and pitch real balls into it. Add pieces of tape as targets onto different sections. Even if it’s not full distance, looking at different location varies your release point, improving “feel.” Some players have hung blankets from the ceiling to throw into. When ceilings are too short, they pitch from their knee to practice their arm circles. One pitcher rolled out a pitching matt in her dining room and just did fake pitches. I’ve seen a person attach a ball on a stick to the wall at different angles to practice movement pitch spins.

The second best ball-choice are compression balls, the third are any other type of ball. Lighter balls improve arm speed, heavier balls increase body awareness. Don’t throw full speed with a full pitch using balls over 9 oz. Some studies show the increased weight is not worth the (arm health) risk compared to the benefit. If you want to get stronger, lift weights, don’t throw heavier balls. If you want to get faster, get more of reps in.

Pitching into a net can get boring if you don’t challenge yourself and get creative. Based on what we learned during Covid, long winters, and feedback about practice struggles, we created and online practice club. We give you daily pitch-by-pitch practices that are fun and varied so pitchers will never get bored. If you forgot how to do a drill we’ve added short videos so pitchers of any age and experience level can follow along. We have practice groups for beginners all the way up to college-bound athletes. The best part is the motivation! We give out Practice Pro merch for those who complete their weekly practice.

If Illinois is going to be the pitching powerhouse of the country, we’ll have to overcome weather and space obstacles. We’ll have to show our toughness in a time when other parts of the country have sun, warmth, and space. We’ll have to be relentless in our pursuit of advancing our game!

Golden Rules of Goal Setting

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Golden Rules of Goal Setting

I've grappled with the concept of S.M.A.R.T. goals, despite being a frequent teacher of it, as it often felt inadequate. The idea of a goal being both "reaching" and "attainable" seemed paradoxical. However, a few years ago, I stumbled upon a transformative solution. I began by crafting a S.M.A.R.T. goal—specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Then I added a second, much bigger, long-term goal.

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5 Things You Should Correct: In Order of Importance

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5 Things You Should Correct: In Order of Importance

Do you ever think when looking at your player, “That looks funny, but I’m not sure how to correct it?” Or your watching your daughter pitch and you know about three mechanics pitchers are supposed to perform. You try to correct all three simultaneously and wonder why she can’t do it? How long will it take for her to change?

I’m writing this for beginner parents, mostly because parents of experienced pitchers have been attending lessons. They know exactly what their daughter needs practice, even if they don’t quite understand exactly why. I’d say the latter is a good-enough start.

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Where Will Your Game Be One Year From Now?

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Where Will Your Game Be One Year From Now?

If you are thinking about taking on the position of pitcher with your daughter this note is for you!

Notice I use the phrase “taking on the position with” because learning to pitch is nothing less than a partnership between the two of you.

Becoming a pitcher is a special journey that takes a high level of commitment time-wise, financially, and emotionally. It can also be one of the most rewarding positions in all of sport! After reading this you will understand what to expect, have a road map for success, and motivation to help you persevere along the way.

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What Are the Youth Challenges and Why Do They Matter?

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What Are the Youth Challenges and Why Do They Matter?

As a young pitcher you are faced with many logistical roadblocks that college pitchers don't face. You must find someone to drive you to practice or save up enough money for a new glove. You have the challenge of forming habits when many factors are out of your control, for example, not having enough time to warm up for a game because high school schedules are tight.

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7 Terms Your Instructor Wishes You Knew About Pitching

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7 Terms Your Instructor Wishes You Knew About Pitching

If you haven’t already, you’ll come across these terms in your pitching journey. These terms explain 90% of the main mechanics you and your daughter will learn throughout the upcoming years. If you can accomplish these positions you will have become an advanced pitcher prepared to perform at the highest level. In Practice Pro terms, you’d be a Level 4 pitcher. You’d put yourself in a position to throw hard and execute all movement pitches, and deliver the ball in a consistent manner. Study up!

Stacked

  • At the point of release, if mechanics are performed to maximum efficiency and power, a pitcher's hand, ball, drag knee, and shoulder will line up. Here I am next to a beginner. This is what 90% of beginners look like, including players who never had formal instruction (Caitlyn’s much better now, I swear, I just couldn’t find her new video).

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3 Fun Stats About Pitching

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3 Fun Stats About Pitching

Missy Lombardi was trying to figure out what made Michigan so dominant in 2015. As the head coach of Oaklahoma she was battling the WCWS eventual runner-up. She came up with these three factors. Then, with the help of her sports psychologist, invented a way to chart the points. Lombardi found that three things determine the dominance of a pitcher:

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