The Top 3 Reasons Why You Should be Evaluated by a Strength Training Professional

By Carly | June 25, 2012 |

The technical aspects of the skills involved in fastpitch softball have been studied and developed for a very long time. Yet with all we know now about biomechanics and the development of athletes, I still don’t think there is a great enough emphasis on strength and conditioning, more importantly the RIGHT kind of strength and conditioning, among pre-college softball players. I hear a lot of questions along the lines of, “What can my daughter do to strengthen her throwing arm?” My short answer to that is NOTHING, specifically. A lot of people fall into the trap of trying to strengthen the individual parts of their bodies that they believe are most integral to whatever they’re trying to do. Really though, whenever you focus your workouts on only one or two areas of concern, particularly when those areas may already be overdeveloped from the natural imbalances that occur from playing a sport, you’re asking for trouble. To achieve your maximum potential as a softball player or as an athlete of any sport, it is absolutely critical to strengthen your entire body, including the parts that you may think you don’t really need to use. And to train effectively, it is ESSENTIAL to be evaluated by a strength and conditioning professional.

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Why Young Softball Players Should Throw a Baseball

By Carly | May 28, 2012 |

I’ve been involved in fastpitch softball, either in a playing or coaching capacity, since I was eight years old. Thus, over the course of my life, I have seen and interacted with a pretty large number of softball players at all levels. It won’t come as any surprise when I say I’ve seen some pretty terrible throwing mechanics; you’ve probably all experienced the same thing. I have, however, noticed a curiosity: in a number of cases I’ve encountered, the most talented and athletic kid on a team has struggled more with her throwing than most of her teammates, displaying inconsistent accuracy, experiencing arm pain, or both. There are a few reasons why this might be the case. Personally, I believe coaches across softball, especially at the beginning levels, should place a much greater emphasis on teaching throwing and catching mechanics than they seem to do. Exposing very young players, even exceptionally talented ones, to competitive play without this foundation is doing a disservice to them and their futures as softball players. In addition to this, however, there is a factor that I believe comes into play in many cases. The average young girl’s hand is small, and a softball is big.

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Video: Windmill Pitch Drive-through Mechanics

By Phil | May 18, 2012

The drive-through is an extremely important component of windmill pitching mechanics. It’s one of your biggest sources of power as a pitcher, and it can also be your biggest reason for losing power if you’re not doing it optimally. Throughout our years of teaching and watching softball tournaments of all levels in person and on television, we’ve seen a lot of leg work that, well, needs work. There really is one way to optimize your drive-through and get the most out of your legs when you pitch for maximum power and injury prevention. In this video, I’ll demonstrate those mechanics.

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Awesome At-Home Softball Specific Total Body Workout

By Joe Bonyai | May 16, 2012 |

In this post, I demonstrate a two-circuit, total body workout using only Valslides, a Cook Band, and your own bodyweight. This routine can be done at home, in a hotel when traveling, or you can take theses portable pieces of equipment to your gym. Throughout the videos, I explain the softball-specific and female-specific physical benefits of each exercise.

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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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Muscles and Exercises You Can’t Pitch Without: Part 3

By Joe Bonyai | May 9, 2012 |

How exactly does a strong core allow you to track properly and throw harder? In these two videos, I continue to define how the core muscles contribute to softball pitching performance and demonstrate three exercises using the Valslide that reinforce pitching specific core control.

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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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Muscles and Exercises You Can’t Pitch Without: Part 2

By Joe Bonyai | May 2, 2012 |

In this week’s video, I explain in more detail the role of the core muscles in maintaining optimal posture throughout the windmill pitching delivery. I redefine what “the core” is and demonstrate why old fashioned exercises like sit ups and crunches are a BAD choice for softball pitchers. I also give you three pitching specific, KILLER core exercise progressions.

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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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