Recently one of the country’s top high school pitchers came to see if we could help her with her moving pitches. After watching a few reps, I asked why she didn’t want more speed. She hesitated for several seconds and asked, “Is that possible?”
Recently we had a few people ask how to deal with pitching in cold places. Many communities do not have indoor batting cages. This is one of those tough questions. Having raised two daughters who were serious about their pitching, we had to be creative at times due to the climate in the mountains of …
Suddenly the playoff game was over and a little girl who had worked so hard saw her season abruptly come to an end. She couldn’t hide the tears streaming down her face, embarrassed that other members of her team were trying to console her.
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 …
There are always two sides to the argument of whether a coach or the catcher should call the pitches. The coach has more experience but the catcher has a better view. For years I primarily called the pitches because every pitcher on our team was one of my students.
One of the issues we most commonly address is pitching speed. Speed is important. It forces hitters to rush their decisions and their movements. That increases their chances of making a mistake. Add dramatic movement to that mix, you are onto something.
Most of us learned pretty quickly that coaching girls is far different from coaching boys.
Are there times when we keep a student from taking it to the max? Actually, yes. That may surprise you, but there is a good reason.
When it comes to hitting, good instructors make sure their students know exactly how they should feel during the swing. Yet, in pitching, we find that few pitchers have that awareness. It is hard to build a solid foundation if you don’t have the building blocks.
Parents and coaches are always mystified as to why some players do not perform at full potential in games. Our Instructors receive questions about that all of the time. It happens with pitchers, yes, but also with other players. There are several major factors that affect both.
“I went to a college camp last week but they didn’t seem to notice me.” This is not an unusual statement. We used to hear it a lot. Fortunately, we are hearing it much less often from our students because we have tried to change their expectations somewhat.
A college coach watched one of my students pitch to one batter and immediately said, “I like her and want to see more of her.” Was it her speed, moving pitches, or her size? None of the above.
Parents frequently bring me a new student and tell stories of how she used to strike out everyone. Now, she seems to have lost it. Admittedly, sometimes they lose their effectiveness, but most of the time it is because everyone else simply caught up with her.
Over the years a lot of you have asked how to deal with poor umpires. In my coaching career, I tried all angles and still found myself watching a few games from the parking lot. Finally, after sitting far from the field while my team finished a game without me, it became clear.
This is one of those questions we often hear. First, if anyone gives you certain rule for ideal distance, it should make you feel uncomfortable. If someone wants to shorten your stride length for some arbitrary reason, people who have quick answers to questions that have many variables make me nervous.
