One idea I really like for improving softball IQ is to have the battery to call their own pitches. This is a bit tougher than it seems, so I’ve included a few ideas on how to integrate it into your program.
Read MoreFor 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 MoreIs one of your biggest struggles getting your daughter to practice? Are you having trouble getting yourself to practice with her? Do you want to teach her to be independent and take initiative on working hard? Would it be better if she could sacrifice her current comfort for her future success?
Read MoreIdeally, you want to build up to 400-700 pitches per week without a mechanical breakdown or reduction in speed. These do NOT include warm ups that don't make it beyond the 12 o'clock position or that are not full speed.
Read MoreAt every age leading up to college softball recruiting, coaches suggest getting a realistic assessment of your skills. Everyone wants to know, do I have what it takes? Go to college games to observe the level of play. Ask instructors and coaches what you realistically need to improve on.
Read MoreThe 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 MoreTo 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 MoreYou 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.
I admit - it was a bit of an attention-grabber headline. Even so, there is truth to why I would never teach a pitcher to throw like Monica.
When you watch the Olympics, and if you paid attention in class, you’ll be able to see what the pitcher is doing well. Is she doing her 5 fundamentals ? Is she executing her take away, plug, stride, arm circle and banana? If not, how is it possible this pitcher could still get to the Olympics? Should I do it that way too?
Whether your daughters is a beginner or a college-bound pitcher, she'll benefit from learning a pre-pitch routine. I call it the think/play box concept, which I borrowed from Annika Sorenstam's (regarded as one of the best female golfers in history) sports psychologist team, Pia Nilson and Lynn Marriott. They wrote a book called Every Shot Must Have a Purpose.
Read MoreOveruse 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 MoreParents, if you’ve ever come to a big pitching clinic that we’ve put on, or been a part of pitching school, you know about all the work you have to put in to pitching. It turns out it’s not just your daughter who must put in all the effort. You have to be an athlete, too!
As an adult I find it interesting that I constantly re-learn what I am trying to teach young players. Mainly, the more we put into something, the more we get out.
Becoming a pitcher requires a strong partnership between players and their parents. This leadership position requires two hugely important commitments from you both - a physical commitment and an emotional commitment.
Do you hate to lose more than you love to win?
As we are smack dab in the middle of the NCAA collegiate season here in 2021, I’m sure many of you have had occasion to watch some of the outstanding matchups in D1 softball on ESPN or maybe even the Big 10 Network.
Preliminarily, before I dive into the main topic at hand, I want to point out the fact that there are numerous games on television multiple times a week broadcasting softball on ESPN and individual conference networks. This in and of itself is an astronomical win for our sport.
Read MoreHow 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 MoreWhen 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 MoreFor those of you who read my blog back on February 11th, this is a second installment of how to "practice better" in your pre-season pitching workouts. Before diving into the nuts and bolts of this article, I recommend reviewing that first installment of this topic, as the information below builds on the concepts presented on Feb. 11th. A basic understanding of block, varied, and random pitching workouts is helpful knowledge to assist in "curing" the Pre-season Pitching Practice Plateau. For easy reference, I have hyperlinked that first article here.
As a Quick Review:
Pre-season pitching workouts mark Phase 2 in your yearly training regime (see #3 below).
Phase 1 is the "off-season."
I've always thought the offseason was a bit of a misnomer; frequently, the most gains can be mastered in the work that is invested during this October - December training period.
Strength increases, fundamental and mechanical fixes, and "new pitch" development are the BIG THREE of Phase 1: Offseason Training.
As we approach the year-mark when the CoVid-19 pandemic blew the top off of “life as we know it,” I’ve taken some time to reflect on how this unimaginable situation has impacted our sport – and more specifically – the pitchers that I coach within this sport: you.
Remarkable events at the national and global level impact more than just the history books. They create pivotal turning points for the people who experience them at the deepest level. They create identities within the generations that endure them. Just take a look at the last 100 years: Major Wars (I, II, Cold, Korean, Vietnam), the Great Depression, the Civil Rights Movement, Iconic Leader Assassinations (MLK, Martin Luther King Jr.), Landing on the Moon, the AIDS epidemic, School Shootings (Columbine, Sandy Hook, VA Tech), 9/11, and now the global CoVid-19 pandemic.
Read MoreThe preseason is the second phase during your training year. If this seems like news to you, you might have missed the first phase: the offseason.
The offseason takes place October through December. Its’ when you add to your pitch repertoire, increase strength, and make big mechanical changes. It’s like gathering the ingredients for a cake, as Cheri Kempf says in her book, The Pitching Edge.
We are currently in the preseason session. It goes from January through March. It’s when we take all the ingredients we’ve gathered and “bake” them, forming them into something edible. A pitcher will work on endurance and accuracy, making minimal changes to her mechanics.
Read MoreMIke 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 MoreHere 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.’ ”
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