Are you making pitching far more complicated?

Are you making pitching far more complicated and confusing than it should be?  Yesterday I worked with a new kid, an experienced pitcher who came with a list of issues, including dragging on the side of the foot, leaning, stepping across a theoretical powerline, and a back leg that gets stuck.

I told her that not one of these is the problem.  They are symptoms. We corrected two fairly small issues and they were gone.  We never once talked about her little “problems”, but addressed the root cause.

When someone ties a stretch band to your back leg to get it to come forward, puts a rope out front to get you to jump across it, uses a tool to try to keep your foot straight so you drag on the toe, or talks about the opening or closing of the hips and shoulders, their intentions are good, but they are focused on symptoms of greater problems and will complicate things immensely for you.

Oh, my veteran pitcher at the beginning of the story?  In a little more than an hour, I got two high-5’s, twenty-five huge smiles, and one great big hug!  It does not have to be complex, does not require a bunch of tools, and doing it right should be effortless.