One of the challenges teaching pitching to younger girls is getting them the idea of moving quickly when delivering the pitch.

I recently ran into that challenge and found a new way to explain what I was looking for. I asked each pitcher if she had ever played the game of "hot potato." They all had, so I explained it this way. From the time you begin moving forward, you are playing hot potato. You need to get rid of the ball as fast as you can or else risk getting stuck and being eliminated from the game.

It seemed to work, as each of them picked up the pace after we discussed it.

(By the way, for those few who aren't familiar with the game, you have the participants sit in a circle and hand a potato to one of them. You start the music, or a timer, and the player with the potato tosses or passes it to someone else in the circle. You keep going until the music stops. The person holding the potato is then eliminated. You keep doing this until there is a winner. The game definitely encourages everyone to move quickly, and get rid of the ball as fast as you can.