My story starts at just eleven years old. At this point, I had been pitching for a year or two.

By no means was I the best in my rec ball program but I was not the worst at this point either. My team and I were playing in a playoff game. I came in to relieve our ace pitcher. As I threw my first few pitches I heard the other team’s coach tell his team, “Wait on it! She is as slow as tee ball.” Thinking back on that now, that comment does not even make sense. Surely my ball was moving a little faster than one just sitting still on a tee, but at that point, it was the end of the world to my young mind. I finished out the inning but afterward, I was devastated.

I told my parents and my private coach about what I had heard with tears streaming down my face. From that point on I was more motivated than ever to prove that coach wrong. That one comment, some random coach made, to motivate his team drove me to work harder than ever and to truly want to prove him and anyone else who doubted me wrong.

When you feel like you throw accurately in practices, but then in games it’s wild, it might be less about a feeling or nerves and more about your stats. Tracking your numbers in games and practices gives you a clear picture of reality. It can help you form your practice plan. Without this knowledge, you’ll be a servant to your emotions and whims.

Below is a chart we use in pitching school. All ages can use this, but adjustments for skill-level are included in the video. Make observations about your improvement over short and long periods of time. If you have a bad day compared to yesterday, shake it off and move on. If you are not getting more accurate over a three to six-month span, re-evaluate your practice plan or mechanics.

Your team coach and pitching coaches always come prepared with a plan to your practices and lessons. So, why not do the same for yourself? As we learned last week in pitching school, the equation for luck is:

Luck = Preparation + Opportunity.

Without proper preparation, you won't be able to capitalize on the opportunities that come your way during games.

By pre-planning your solo pitching practices, you can turn them into a more engaging experience. You'll be more likely to follow through, feel a sense of accomplishment upon completion, improve your time-management skills, and most importantly, expedite your progress. The more organized you are, the fewer wasted pitches there will be, the less time wasted on distractions, and the less monotonous your practices will become.

“More is better” - When it comes to training in any sport, more is often thought to be best practice. Don’t get me wrong, without a consistent work ethic at any skill, especially pitching, there will be a limit to improvement. However, most players and parents think about going out to practice pitching between lessons or games as a chore. And the reason for that is because we have been trained to believe more is better in most everything. So when we go out to practice, we spend at least an hour, sometimes more, between driving to and from a location to train, warming up our bodies, warming up our mechanics of each pitch, and then actually throwing each pitch.

There are three main types of pre-motions: dropping one hand back, dropping both hands back, and rolling the hands. There has also been a recent trend of pitchers eliminating the pre-motion altogether. Let's take a look at examples of pitchers from the current world series employing each of these take-aways:

At Practice Pro we put a huge emphasis on awareness of improvement. Every lesson we use an app called CoachNow which allows players to record notes, game results, and game accomplishments. We analyze their motion over time and track their skill level.  We offer charts to help record game performance and mental toughness. Parents need these tools to help point to real evidence of their daughter’s accomplishments.

If your daughter dreams up big goals for the season, why can’t you make some too? After all, you do almost as much work as she does! You drive her to practice, coach, help at lessons, raise money, offer emotional support, give her pep talks, and teach her life skills. How about creating some parent-softball goals? Softball not only teaches your daughter physical and life skills, but it teaches you those things too.

In tandem with these mental toughness skills, she can track the basic stats like strike percentage, walks and hits. Your pitcher will probably start to see a gradual correlations between good mental performances and good statistical performances. I’ve attached the forms we give players for free below. I developed these through learning what coaches do at annual NFCA (National Fastpitch Coaches Association) conferences I attend yearly, so I won’t take credit. I would have your daughter fill these out before and after every game as part of her routine. There’s nothing more fun than seeing your pitcher grow and recognizing her improvements.

I’ve been talking about the mental state of players the last month with many parents. I like to check in and see what everyone is thinking, and how we can keep incorporating pitching and motivation into family’s lives.

You know I say it constantly. Pitching is a skill that needs to be developed year-round. If you fail to recognize this, you’ll be very sorely disappointed at the result, and the money, time, energy you invested in 1 month to 5 years of lessons.

The last thing we want is those Wisconsinites and Hoosiers to kick our butts in tournaments since they’ve been able to socialize more than us!! Don’t let this happen Illinois!!

How is your daughter supposed to know how to talk about her performance? What should she say? What does “good” even mean? Surely there’s a thoughtful way to converse about her game so she can grow. After all, sports are the perfect setting to learn how to deal with adversity, unfairness, and physical discomfort. They can inspire her, show her what she's made of, and help her do things she never thought she could do. To sort out these lessons, have these questions ready for your “car talk” after a game or practice.

Paige believes that there needs to be a training environment set every day with a priority in brain stimulation. That means that your practices should include external motivation, competitive challenges, and high standards of expectation to perform or complete a “reach-task.” These are all of  the reasons that I have developed pitching school instead of giving individual lessons.