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.

Read More

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?

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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!

Read More