Do I Need A Recruiting Video?

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Do I Need A Recruiting Video?

If you are in 8th or 9th grade and participated in a travel tournament where you supplied your email address, you might have gotten a call from a college reciting company. The NCSA, or Next College Student Athlete, is one the many companies that can help you get “seen” by a college coach. They are armed with an excellent sales force full of ex-successful college athletes, some of which you might have even been coached by or got lessons from (not me, I’m just sayin).

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So You've Bought Weighted Balls....Now What?

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So You've Bought Weighted Balls....Now What?

You want more ways to get faster and you have the time. It’s the offseason so you have 7 months before your first spring game. While lifting is the best way to get stronger there’s another excellent way.

One of my favorite methods to increase speed is following a weighted ball workout. A weighted ball workout isn’t just throwing overweigthed balls. You need to pitch underweigthed balls as well.

Overweighted balls increase strength and help pitchers understand what full effort feels like. Unlike the heavy balls, underweighted balls train your arm to move fast. Notice when you are fake-pitching you are able to fly at warp-speed. Your fast-twitch muscles are being trained to twitch even faster. Light balls increase quickness and help pitcher feel how fast their arm has the potential to move.

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Her Worst Nightmare About Softball Come to Life

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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.

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Do You Need A Backup Sport?

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Do You Need A Backup Sport?

Let’s say your daughter decides she wants to be a pitcher. She’s really going to put the work in this time. Unfortunately, she’s pursuing this position later than all of her teammates. In fact, everyone else has been working hard at pitching for 2 or 3 years. She’s quite far behind in all aspects including accuracy and speed. She doesn’t know any movement pitches.

However, your daughter ends up growing to like it more than you thought she would. She’s doing all the practices, going to every pitching school class, and even getting some innings in her house league.

In fact, she’s so into this softball thing that she’s going to try out for her high school team. She wants to go all-in on softball and quit her other sport. She’s so excited that by the time she gets to high school her “like” for pitching turns into love.

You know something she doesn’t, though.

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How to Do Lessons

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How to Do Lessons

*As Published in Fastpitch Magazine

The stronger your reason for doing something the more likely you are to do it, especially for pitchers. Often students come to pitching lessons with vague goals. Young players might come because their parents want them to learn how to throw it over the plate so the games go faster. Experienced players come because they want to simply "get better."

I'd like to offer you a little help on figuring out your "why" for taking pitching lessons. That is, for going week after week, year after year, throwing game after a game, before practice, after practice, or even when you have a ton of school work. What are you doing here anyway?

Your pitching coach's job is to help you develop a repeatable motion as soon as possible.

I'd like to offer you a little help on figuring out your "why" for taking pitching lessons. That is, for going week after week, year after year, throwing game after a game, before practice, after practice, or even when you have a ton of school work. What are you doing here anyway?

Your pitching coach's job is to help you develop a repeatable motion as soon as possible.

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Pitching Guide for the Wary Player

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Pitching Guide for the Wary Player

Let's face it; there are no shortcuts to pitching perfection.  It's like diet and exercise. You can't be Arnold Schwarzenegger by pumping iron once a week for two years. You can't lose those 10 pounds by reading a couple of health articles and including celery into one meal a day.  You're not going to be the first 8 year old in the history of all post coach-pitch leagues to throw the ball anywhere near the plate by pitching once a week in games.  Don't fret though!

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What's Your "Wow" Factor?

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What's Your "Wow" Factor?

Tonight at 7 p.m. we’ll be releasing an interview I did with Wright State Head Coach Laura Matthews and DePauw University Head Coach, Erica Hanrahan (yes, we’re related) in a live Zoom meeting. How good does a player need to be if she wants to play in college? How fast? How accurate?

Maybe there’s even a bigger question - why would i want to play softball in college, anyway?

Both stressed the importance of having at least one thing you are exceptionally good at. Coach Erica calls it your “Wow!” factor. Coach Matthews said at the very least, have enough command to work both the inside and outside of the plate. You can’t get stuck on one side.

What’s your WOW factor? When you go to a camp or play in an exposure tournament, what will make you stand out from the crowd? Is it….

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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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Why Inspiration Matters

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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.

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Pitching: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

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Pitching: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

*As published in Fastpitch Magazine

I stood on the mound my sophomore year in college as the opposing team cheered in the dugout.  The hitter looked confident strutting up to the batter's box. She took extra time to knock the dirt off of her cleats before she put the bat up to her shoulder. Then she settled in and stared me in the eye. I stood up taller, followed my pre-pitch routine, and delivered my blazing fast curve ball right towards the - “BALL ONE!” Okay, no problem.  I beared down, focused on my catcher’s mitt and fired again.  “BALL TWO!” Although two balls in a row were not ideal, it is nothing that any good pitcher can not handle.  When the next two pitches buzzed in as “BALL THREE!” and “BALL FOUR!” the cheers from the opposing dugout resounded even louder. As the good Brian Cain says, “So what, next pitch,” that saying formulated then in my brain.

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5 Go-To Resources About Mechanics [Video]

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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.

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A Real-Life Lesson About Training: My Story

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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.

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Ithaca College Hall of Fame

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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.

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How to Get More Results Out of Your Practice

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How to Get More Results Out of Your Practice

Although your daughter might feel the urge to use her practice to turbo-pitch balls to your shins pitch after pitch at lightning speed without thinking much about it, players should pitch with focus and intent. There are no other ways to build muscle memory and consistency.

Remember from the last two blogs that during practices and lessons we are trying to accomplish two things. 1) Improve by forming muscle memory (building neural pathways in the brain). Once they are built, games become a competition instead of constant mechanical corrections, which leads us to number two. 2) Mentally prepare for games by pretending practices are like games.

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What Yoga Can Teach Us about Pitching

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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.”

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Why We Love Accountability Partners (And You Should, Too)!

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Why We Love Accountability Partners (And You Should, Too)!

Everyone needs consistent human support when attempting difficult physical activity. Before I got a personal trainer and started attending scheduled classes at the gym in 2014 I just wandered over to Lakeview YMCA 2 or 3 times a week and completed my old college lifting workout. That's right, I did my old college workout for ELEVEN years because I didn't know what I didn't know. Seemed like a totally awesome workout because it was totally awesome in college.
 

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