Is Your Pre-motion Hurting Your Pitch? The Finale!

By Carly | May 14, 2012 |

Today I’m bringing you the fourth and final part of my windmill pitching pre-motion series. So far in parts 1-3, we’ve talked about improper loading, load foot rotation, and detrimental backswings. Now your load is terrific, your load foot is solid, and your backswing is under control or nonexistent. Is there anything else you can do in your pre-motion that may be detrimental to your pitch? Unfortunately, yes. The Fastpitch Power instructors advocate generally minimalistic pre-motions, and we believe that a lot of excess “noise” in your pre-motion can hurt you immediately and in the long run. Read on to find out why.


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Is Your Pre-motion Hurting Your Pitch? Part 3

By Carly | May 7, 2012 |

We’re continuing our series on the pre-motion portion of the windmill pitch and the most common pre-motion issues that end up affecting the pitch negatively. Today’s topic might be a bit controversial: it’s the backswing. I’ll be honest; if it were up to us, we’d eliminate windmill pitchers’ backswings altogether. We believe they do more harm than good, and we’ll explain why in this post. That said, if you must have a backswing to pitch comfortably, you should definitely be aware of the problems that certain backswings can cause and how to keep them under control.

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Is Your Pre-motion Hurting Your Pitch? Part 2

By Carly | April 30, 2012 |

Welcome back to my series on the pre-motion part of the windmill pitch! I’m explaining the most common problematic pre-motion issues I’ve seen among windmill pitchers, and how those issues can set the stage for a sub-optimal pitch before the bulk of the pitching motion has even begun. In my last post, I discussed the load and the problems that can arise if you’re doing a reverse load. In this post, we’ll be talking in depth about a tiny little 3-6 inch movement in your load foot that has the power to destroy one of the most important aspects of the pitch: the drive through. Unfortunately, this is an extremely common problem. Does it affect you?

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Is your Pre-Motion Hurting your Pitch? Part 1

By Carly | April 23, 2012 |

The very first thing you do when you set out to throw a windmill pitch is the pre-motion. Some of you may call it the wind-up, but they’re the same thing. Your pre-motion has a simple and very specific job to do: it must get you relaxed, get you loaded, and get you ready to throw the next pitch as effectively as possible. There are a number of ways in which a poor pre-motion can really diminish the effectiveness of your pitches, and in this series of posts I’m going to show you the most common ones. Unlike some other mechanical issues a windmill pitcher might have, the pre-motion is relatively easy to change with a little concentration, so I really recommend that you follow along and try to adopt these suggestions. We’re going to start with the most important aspect of the pre-motion: the load. I bet you all think you’re loading, but I guarantee some of you are not.

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Beware of Bad Pitching Mechanics in Prominent Places!

By Carly | April 16, 2012 |

This post is somewhat in keeping with my post from last week, which explained how to be smarter about what you take from watching NCAA softball games on TV. The example I’m about to give, however, is much more specific. Actually, it’s been a pet peeve of mine for quite some time, and I’ve been looking forward to writing about it for months. There is an iconic image of a pitcher that many of you may have seen. Many of you may even see it regularly. And frankly… well, it’s awful.

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Think Before You Mimic: What You See on TV Might Not Be So Great

By Carly | April 9, 2012 |

I’m a big baseball fan, and I’m always excited when the beginning of the baseball season comes after a long winter. What REALLY makes it feel like spring to me, however, is the start of the softball season! I love seeing NCAA softball games on ESPN, and a few have started popping up this past week. While the games are fun to watch, and you can certainly learn a lot from studying great college softball players, I’m going to issue a warning for you today: be careful what you mimic.

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Everything in your body really is connected

By Carly | March 29, 2012 |

This post came to me yesterday while I was meditating.

Seriously.

Ok, I don’t really meditate hoping for divine inspiration for blog posts. In between my normal workouts, I do yoga, and sometimes there is a 20-minute group meditation before my yoga class. Yesterday I was sitting in the usual cross-legged position on the floor with the best posture I could muster, and, as usual, I was having trouble focusing. Why? Because no matter how hard I tried to clear my mind, all I could think about was how much my back hurt.

You might be thinking, “Well, what did you do to your back?” The thing is, I didn’t do anything to it.

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Introduction to Pitching Terms

By Carly | March 8, 2012 |

We’re thrilled that you’ve decided to learn windmill pitching or improve your pitching skills with us. Before you can fully take advantage of all the information Fastpitch Power has to offer, you need to understand what we’re talking about. In this introductory post, I will explain our most often used pitching terms, with a few pictures for reference. Let’s get started!

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