Become a Movement Pitch Expert by Doing This

/
Become a Movement Pitch Expert by Doing This

For example, when throwing a rise ball, a pitcher must deliver the ball on the “upswing” of her arm circle, meaning a little bit later. To make it easier to get her palm underneath the ball and facing the sky, she must lean her body back towards second base at delivery. The reverse is true for a drop ball. She must lean forward to get her hand on top of the ball, palm facing downwards.

Once her body position and ball trajectory is correct, the Magnus Effect becomes relevant.

Read More

This Thing Can Ruin Your Pitch

/
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.

Read More

What's the Best Follow-Through?

/
What's the Best Follow-Through?

To moms and dads who obsess over YouTube pitching videos: I’ve been there to. You love the “forearm fire,” Bill Hillhouse, and Amanda Scarborough’s Power Drive.

Bill Hillhouse promotes a cross-bodied follow through to the opposite-side shoulder. Below I will clarify what he means when he talks about this and why I teach something else. The follow through others teach is a straight-arm one with the hand pointing to the target at the end. I call this the “hand-shake” follow-through. I teach most players to point their elbows, not hands, to the target, referred to as “hello elbow.” I’ll discuss each follow throughs and what they mean to your pitcher.

Read More

What if I Don't Get to Play?

/
What if I Don't Get to Play?

You put in so much effort to be a pitcher. Going to lessons, practicing, and always being sore are tough things to commit to if you don’t get to play. If this hasn’t happened to you, consider yourself a very lucky pitcher. How, then, do you deal with this situation to your benefit?
1. Use it as motivation to better.

Read More

Lessons from College Coaches

/
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?”

Read More

How To Make Practice into a Daily Routine

/
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.

Read More

How to Communicate More Clearly With Your Daughter

/
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:

Read More

Part 2: This Week's Top Lessons About Pitching

/
Part 2: This Week's Top Lessons About Pitching

MIke Candrea, University of Arizona Head Coach

I certainly share this sentiment from coach Candrea. He said,“The word ‘coach’ is a very powerful word and I don’t take it lightly. I’m honored and blessed when a young person calls me ‘coach’.” He also said that he speaks to a lot of high school coaches who, in conversation, point out that they are “just” high school coaches or “just” travel ball coaches. “No!” he says. We are all equally valuable in what we provide young athletes.

Read More

This Week's Top Lessons About Pitching

/
This Week's Top Lessons About Pitching

Here are the top 8 lessons we’ve found the most helpful so far. We think they will help you, too!

Coach Carol Hutchins, Michigan Head Coach
She spoke about her conversation with another top-level NCAA coach. She said (and this is before she ever one her National Championship), “ ‘So you mean to tell me if you never win the National Championship you will never feel successful?’ He said firmly, ‘No, absolutely not.’ ‘And I thought, wow, I hope my success isn’t based on that or that would be awful. It’s about the relationships we have.’ ”

Read More

Her Worst Nightmare About Softball Come to Life

/
Her Worst Nightmare About Softball Come to Life

Here is a short story that I'm sure you can relate to, especially if it's after the end of your first season as a softball parent/coach. If you read through to the end of this story you will find out how to avoid some big mistakes in the future.

It's your daughters first kid-pitch game. She's seen her friends pitch a few times and has maybe tried it with you in the backyard once. Today is a big game with the rival team: Reliable Auto vs. Rose Salon. The inning starts and she nervously creeps out of the dugout and dawdles up to the mound. All eyes are on her as she feels small out there on the big field. She throws her first pitch - a grounder.

Read More

Will Virtual Lessons Ever Rule the World?

/
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?”

Read More

Why Inspiration Matters

/
Why Inspiration Matters

In the softball world, obsession about finding the “edge” over the competition or trying to find the “motivation” to get out and practice, causes us to overlook the important role of inspiration.

How are motivation and inspiration different? I think inspiration has to do with feelings, excitement, and creativity. It has to do with a person allowing an outside force to act within him or herself.

Motivation, on the other hand, is about will. It’s about habits and is self-imposed through some sort of discipline.

I was inspired to play as a young girl by my uncle, who’s passion and joy around the sport became contagious. His daughter, my cousin, had the same drive . All the games I had to watch inspired me with her competitiveness. It seems cool to care.

Read More

5 Go-To Resources About Mechanics [Video]

/
5 Go-To Resources About Mechanics [Video]

Here is a cheat sheet with videos for the pitching basics. There are five basic pitching fundamentals, A take away, or pre-motion, sets you up for the rest of your pitch. Both hands need to propel forward to the target. The arm circle is fast and loose, your back leg drives towards the target.

Read More

A Real-Life Lesson About Training: My Story

/
A Real-Life Lesson About Training: My Story

As a young athlete, I had an average work ethic. I went along with what my coaches said to do.  Although my parents took me to lessons with my uncle who was a pitching coach once per week, I only practiced maybe once per week, if at all, in an unfocused and purposeless way.  I felt bad for my catcher. Wasn’t I “putting her out” by asking her to catch for me?  Sometimes I felt sorry for myself because I had to throw to a wall and bend down to field it.  My dad was supportive but not pushy.  If I asked him to catch me, I’m sure he would have; but I never felt like practicing so I didn’t ask. Mom and Dad came to my games and were proud of my “efforts,” like most other parents.

Read More

Ithaca College Hall of Fame

/
Ithaca College Hall of Fame

In October, Kevin Connors, ESPN sportscaster and Ithaca College graduate, interviewed me and 7 other inductees into the 50th class of the college’s Athletic Hall of Fame. It was a very fun (and nerve-racking) experience, but I wanted to share what I talked about. The reason I’m sharing this is because I think it’s important for young athletes to see what’s possible in the sport of softball. After all, many 8-12 year olds don’t know there is a professional softball league, that college softball is televised, or that they might have enough talent to play beyond high school. I’ve also added the introduction video they showed the audience before my interview to give some background on what we had to do to achieve at a high level.

Read More

What Yoga Can Teach Us about Pitching

/
What Yoga Can Teach Us about Pitching

This summer we held class at a beautiful personal training and yoga studio called “Practice Chicago” in Lincoln Park. What a fitting name, right?! As you know, I love when pitchers practice, but I never looked at practice the way described in @practicechicago’s recent Instagram post:

“When an activity becomes a practice it shifts from something you are doing at a point in time to an ongoing process of becoming. The former lends itself to “good” or “bad” judgments, forgetfulness, and discontinuity. The latter lends itself to integration, continuous learning, and wholeness.”

Read More

High School Tryouts: What Coaches Want

/
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.

Read More

New Take-aways from College Coaches at the NFCA Convention

/
New Take-aways from College Coaches at the NFCA Convention

One take-away I got from her presentation explained the importance of the grip. Did you ever notice that when you throw a curve ball it slides out of your hand and goes straight? I know, it happens all the time!  You need to slide your thumb up on the ball and put extra pressure on your fingertips and thumb equally. Voila!

Read More