The Importance of a Good Practice-Rest Balance
You all probably know that adequate rest is important for preventing injury. Believe it or not, it’s also essential for developing solid mechanics early in a pitcher’s development.
Read MoreAdvice and Strategy
What is “Overthrowing?”
How many of you pitchers have been told you’re overthrowing, or trying too hard? And how many of you are not entirely sure what that means, or don’t know how it feels to fix it? You’re not alone.
Read MoreHow Strong Do Girls Need to Be?
As an athlete, it’s hard to grade your effort in the gym. How strong is strong enough? You can train hard, but are you making real progress? Are you getting stronger in the areas that will transfer to performance on the field? There are some universal benchmarks that strength coaches should be progressing you toward. In this presentation, I show you an ideal model of how a high school athlete should improve from year to year.
Read MoreWhy Do Some Pitchers Pitch with Mechanical Flaws in Games but not Practice?
A recent reader question reminded me to address this topic, which affects so many pitchers. In a past article, I discussed some tips for overcoming game-time nerves to help you pitch as well in games as in practice, However, many pitchers who DO NOT get nervous during games still struggle to match up their practice and game-time pitching mechanics. But why?
Read MoreWhen Should You Start Doing Power Drills?
In today’s video, I explain why it’s never too early to start focusing on power.
Read MoreAdvice from a National Champion
This summer I have an NCAA Softball National Champion assisting me at my gym. I couldn’t be more excited for my athletes, as she has already established herself as a role model off the diamond as well. On her first day, I think I had more questions for her than she did for me. Listen to what she had to say about her team’s off-season workouts.
Read MoreGetting Started With Fastpitch Power’s Pitching Style: A Guide
I got an email last week from a reader asking if our pitching articles followed a particular progression. I thought it would be very useful to compile some of our pitching articles and videos into a guide that could be used either by a complete beginner or by a pitcher who is transitioning from a different style to the one we teach. Reader, if you’re seeing this, thanks for the suggestion! Your email kept bouncing back so I’m sorry I was only able to reply this way. But now, everyone can benefit!
Read MoreCatchers Think, Pitchers Execute
Today’s video discusses the pitcher-catcher relationship, and how important it is for catchers to be able to control some or all of the thought process of getting batters out so that the pitchers can focus only on executing pitches.
Read MoreLearning to Whip your Arm When it Doesn’t Come Naturally
Loose arm whip is absolutely critical to pitching fast. It’s not a stylistic choice; every single elite pitcher whips her arm, regardless of how she was taught to follow through after the arm whip takes place. Some lucky windmill pitchers begin whipping their arms within the first few days of learning; it just comes naturally to them. To many, however, it does not come naturally, and in those cases I believe teaching the arm to whip is the hardest thing for a young pitcher to do. BUT, it’s not impossible. It’s a long and arduous process that requires a lot of dedication and patience, but it’s not impossible. For those who are trying to learn arm whip and aren’t quite getting it, or for those who have learned a different way to pitch and are now trying to switch to the arm whip, I will compile some resources that you can use to help get the job done.
Read MoreHow to Deal with Closed-Minded or Contradictory High School Coaches
I’ve had a number of parents come to me in the past month or so with the following conundrum: their daughter has worked extremely hard with a private coach to get her pitching or hitting mechanics to a particular place. Then when her high school season starts, the coach tries to change her mechanics to something completely different. This is an extremely difficult and delicate situation that must be handled with care—no matter how much frustration it may cause you. Not every instance of this problem will be identical, and there’s no way to pin down a solution that will work every time. The following advice, however, may help you get through it as smoothly as possible.
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