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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How to Explain Internal Rotation to Your Daughter

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How to Explain Internal Rotation to Your Daughter

The main indicator or arm speed is hand speed. Obviously, it's the only part of a pitcher's body that touches the ball and it has to be equally as fast as the speed she wishes to deliver it. If you follow even one pitching coach on social media besides me you’ll see the main topic discussed is something called “internal rotation.”

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Are You Getting the Most Out of Your Motion?

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Are You Getting the Most Out of Your Motion?

She unwittingly adds complexity to her motion, misdiagnosing the cause of poor accuracy, thus contributing more to superstitions than to good fundamentals. If you know anything about softball and baseball, you know that once a pitcher thinks luck is on her side, she’ll do anything to keep it.

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9 Signs You Need Help With Mechanics

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9 Signs You Need Help With Mechanics

Think back to your last golf round. What type of player are you? Are you praying that you'll hit your next shot in the air, or are you calculating the difference between the 5 and 6 iron? Are you just trying keep up with the rest of your group, or are you visualizing the angle of your draw?

These questions show a clear difference in competency level. One person is competing while the other is focused on skill development, without knowing what skill needs to be developed. She just knows she has to get the ball over there, with no idea how.

Without mechanical competence, your daughter's only thoughts will be, “Please throw a strike and don’t embarrass myself!” as opposed to, “I’m going to strike this girl out with a low fastball then and outside change.” Unfortunately, pitchers will go through this thought process their whole career unless they learn and practice. As a young player, I received instruction on how to pitch, but did not practice. So my “worried” thinking went all the way through the end of high school. Not until college did I put the work into grooving my mechanics.

So, in an effort to help girls of all levels learn to actually “play” softball, here is a list of 9 circumstances when you know your daughter needs mechanical help.

  1. You think your daughter can pitch without learning how to do it.

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5 Ways To Harness Your Power

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5 Ways To Harness Your Power

Do you ever notice when a pitcher sometimes falls over forward after she pitches? She looks like she’s off balance. You’ll hear a coach yell out after every few balls, “Stand tall!”

This has to do with her stride and how she is failing to harness all of the power she created through her drive off of the mound. Harnessing your power with your stride is equally as important as gaining momentum. Strides are for resistance, balance, and accuracy. If, you want to gain velocity, you must practice a great stride.

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This Thing Can Ruin Your Pitch

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This Thing Can Ruin Your Pitch

The best pre-motions, or "take-aways" as I call them, are simple ones. Pitchers prepare themselves for success by performing a take-away that doesn't result in mistakes later in the delivery. When making up for a mechanical mistake during the motion, such as a crooked arm circle, the price she pays is a loss of speed.

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Will Virtual Lessons Ever Rule the World?

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Will Virtual Lessons Ever Rule the World?

For parents and players trying to learn more about pitching, gathering all information from online sources can be overwhelming. As a result, it gets demotivating. Every coach says something different. The key is to ask, “What are my goals and what are my daughter’s goals?”, and “What methods of learning would fit our lifestyle best?”

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