Be Self Aware

As pitching coaches, you might think our only job is to teach you proper mechanics and then send you on your way. This is not true. In fact I don’t think it’s even our primary job. Our most important job in fact, is to make you your own best teacher.

What does that mean? It means that we want to make you truly understand the mechanics and why the pitch does what it does. We want to make you understand body positions and every movement so that when you are in game situations and we are not there to tell you what’s going on, you can self-diagnose any problems. For example, if you throw an inside pitch that veers too far inside, you will be able to figure out why that happened and fix it. This is called being self-aware, and it is a very important ability for any pitcher to have in her arsenal.

During lessons we spend a lot of time on various drills. New, beginner students may not even get to full pitching motion from the rubber during the first few lessons. All of our drills have a purpose. The forearm fire drills allow you to isolate the arm movement and focus on being smooth and relaxed. The end game drills focus on correct arm path and body position. The reach, track, fire drill breaks down each stage of the pitch so you can focus on what your body is supposed to feel and look like in each position.

Once students get to full pitching motion from the rubber, we might add power drills that focus on being explosive with your legs. When we work on movement pitches we might have you do up-close spins to isolate the wrist and finger movements. We have students do these drills repeatedly so the correct mechanics get built into muscle memory. There is something that every pitcher needs to understand: everything happens for a reason. If your pitch doesn’t go where you want it to go, it happened for a reason. If your pitch DOES go where you want it to go, it happened for a reason! Missed pitches happen because of mechanical breakdowns. Successful pitches happen because the mechanics were solid. It is so important for pitchers to understand why a pitch does what it does. Once that happens, they have become self-aware.

So how do we become self-aware? How do we really understand why the pitch does what it does? Well, it has to do with how badly you want to become a successful pitcher and how much effort and attention you give to drills and practices. That doesn’t mean only during lessons. It means when you’re practicing on your own as well. If you go out to practice and really spend time on the drills, and you really pay attention to how your body feels and what your body is doing, you will become self-aware. If you go out and you rush through the drills because you just want to get them over with, you could be performing the movements incorrectly and will engrave poor mechanics into your muscle memory. If you’re not paying attention to how your body feels, or what your body looks like when you miss a pitch, you will never understand why a pitch does what it does. This can be very detrimental to game performances.

For example, if you’re having a lesson with us and you are continually seeing your pitches go high and outside, we might tell you that your hips and shoulders are rotating, causing your arm to follow your shoulders across your body, giving you that high and outside spot. If you listen to that, and pay attention to what it feels like when that happens, you will eventually be able to feel the difference between rotation and staying tracked. Then, when you are in a game, if you hit that high and outside spot, you will be able to tell yourself, “Hey, I must have rotated, let me stay tracked” and fix the problem.

Your pitching coaches can’t follow you around to every single game and tell you what’s happening. Pitchers must to learn how to correct themselves when a pitch goes wrong. Only then will you be able to become the best pitcher you can be. One of the first things I say to my students is, “My job is to make you your own best teacher.” Go out, pay attention to your drills, learn from your mistakes, understand why the pitch does what it does and you can become a truly great pitcher!