Closed Minds Never Recognize Open Doors

A few years ago I was working with a college freshman for the first time. Great kid, but she had no real moving pitches. Her screwball was flat but an idea occurred to me. We experimented with something new and the pitch began jumping across the zone so explosively that even the catcher had trouble handling it. 

The next few months she moved into the starting lineup and that pitch became so strong that she led her team deep into the College Softball World Series.
Today I teach that screwball a lot, even though it goes against conventional thinking. Our pitchers love it, catchers have trouble handling it, and batters stand mystified when a pitcher masters it. The only people who don’t like it are those who don’t understand it. They have already determined all of the rules. One great American innovator said that most people think, “If it ain’t happened to me it ain’t right.”
People often ask which changeup I teach. Well, we like to see which comes most naturally to the pitcher. We have 6 different changeups. Each has its advantages for certain kids. Why force her into a mold due to my preconceived notions?
There are three ways we have discovered to throw fantastic curves, so far. Which is best? Whichever comes most easily and has the best movement for a kid. If we were stuck on one curve, a lot of kids would never discover the one that works best for them. We simply match the kid with the curve that goes most comfortably with her natural movement patterns. First, we decide if she should throw a curve at all? Again, you want to look at her natural tendencies to see if it will be easy for her to learn, and then we determine if this would be a great compliment to the pitches she already throws? If the curve passes those tests, let’s give it a try.
Teaching certain pitches, in a certain way, and in a certain order, is a strong indicator of a closed mind. I don’t want my kid to look like every other kid. If you operate in that way only the biggest and strongest kids will win, and even those will never reach their maximum individual potential. I want to celebrate and enhance the things that make every kid unique.
Why do we teach as many as 6 different changeups? A couple of years ago I saw something in a college regional game I had never seen before. Nobody could explain how it was thrown. The pitcher had tried to learn a specific way of throwing the changeup, but this variation accidentally occurred so she embraced it. We were determined to learn this pitch and spent a lot of time looking at her video. As we experimented with various techniques we discovered two new changeups to add to the list. Then one day we discovered the secret to the changeup that started the search. If we had stayed with conventional thinking, we would still be doing the same things everyone has always done.
Sports training has changed radically in the past 25 years. We know so much more about natural movement patterns, strength training, enhancing flexibility, biomechanics, and speed. It has changed the way we train quarterbacks, sprinters, hitters, kickers, golfers, running backs, skaters and gymnasts. With all of this advanced knowledge why are we stuck on the same old approaches and drills that have prevailed for the past 25 years in softball pitching? In some cases, those in charge of training came from a bygone era. This is the way they have always done it. If that thinking had prevailed in hitting we would still be swinging wooden bats.
In every aspect of the game, celebrate the uniqueness of your daughter and help her discover advantages inherent to her that most coaches don’t understand. Allow her to enhance and exploit those. Blaze a new trail. We encourage our students to break the mold and try new things every day. From those experiments we learn things that most people would never try.
Take chances. Challenge everything. And, always look for unique ways to allow your daughter to succeed regardless of what the experts tell you.