Monthly Archives: August 2023
Throw It Like You Know It
So, you’re a fastpitch pitcher and you’ve added a new pitch to your arsenal. You’ve worked weeks, or months, to learn the nuances and perfect it to the point where you throw it pretty reliably in practice.
But then, when you go to trot it out in a game, it turns into a hot mess.
If it’s a drop ball it rolls in like you’re playing bocce ball. Changeups go sailing high and wide, riseballs go over the backstop, and curveballs end up forcing your catcher to lay out after them like a wide receiver catching a pass from the third-string quarterback.
So what happened?
There’s a pretty good chance the problem isn’t from the neck-down; it’s from the neck-up. Because instead of just relaxing and throwing the pitch you practiced, you got nervous that it wasn’t going to work and started tying yourself in knots trying to make sure it did.
How did that work out for you?
That’s why, when you go to introduce a new pitch to your gametime routine, you need to clear your mind of thoughts about it being your first time, you hope it works, it was really bad last time, etc. and just throw it like you know it.
There’s a pretty good chance if you’ve been pitching for a while you don’t think much about throwing your fastball – or whatever your base pitch is. You’ve done it thousands of times by now, and you already know you can do it.
Doesn’t mean it will be perfect every time – no one’s is, not even the high-level pitchers you admire. But you’re not worried because you know if this one doesn’t work quite right the next one will.
Well, it’s the same with a new pitch. Let’s take a changeup.
You told your coach you’ve been working on it and want to throw it this game. You’ve gotten the speed and location to be right in practice but have little to no experience with in games.
When the call comes in, however, your muscles tense, your mouth gets dry, and you start to breathe a little harder and more rapidly.
There’s really no reason for that reaction, however. First of all, hopefully your coach is smart enough to call it in a situation where the outcome doesn’t matter, such as no one on base and you’re ahead in the count 0-2 or 1-2.
At that point, what’s the worst that can happen? You throw a ball and it’s now 1-2 or 2-2. You’ve thrown balls before with the fastball, so why should this particular one be treated any differently?
Oh, but you’re worried you’re going to embarrass yourself by rolling it in or sailing it over your catcher’s head. So what’s the difference here?
The count is still 1-2 or 2-2, just as it would be if you had barely missed the strike zone. No runners advanced, no one walked, a shadow didn’t fall upon the earth, seas didn’t begin to boil, the ground didn’t rupture. no one died. It’s just a ball.
Only now you’ve thrown one in a game, you know a little more what it feels like, and you’ve just taken another step forward in your pitching career. Someday, when throwing a changeup is as natural to you as breathing, you’ll probably laugh about it.
So given all that, why worry about it at all?
The better approach is to pretend like you’ve been throwing this new pitch for years and just chuck it in there – i.e., throw it like you know it. With a more positive approach like that you’re far more likely to have success, and avoid all the negative outcomes you were worried about originally.
By the way, this concept isn’t just for pitchers. Hitters should apply their new hitting mechanics rather than relying on their old ways.
Slappers, particularly converted righties, should go after their slaps as if they’ve been doing it for years. Fielders should try that new sidearm tilted toss as though it’s been part of their routine all along. And so on.
If you take the “throw it like you know it” approach you’ll find you build your confidence quickly and your game will improve exponentially. You’ll also find you’re having a lot more fun in the process.
Champions Never Take a Day Off
At first glance, today’s headline probably sounds like BS. I’m sure there are those among you who are saying “I see lots of high level coaches and healthcare experts who talk about the importance of rest and recuperation as part of an overall training strategy,” or something to that effect.
That is very true, and I am definitely an advocate of not only building some unscheduled time into the season but also taking time off post-season to recover both physically and mentally. But that’s not what I’m talking about here.
Today’s subject is more about the approach players need to take whenever they are practicing.
We tend to think about practice time in terms of quantity. A question coaches are often asked is “How often/how long should my daughter practice?”
The implication is if you fully fill out the practice time card you will magically get better. All you need to know then is what the numbers are.
But that’s not how it works. The real question is how focused are you in the time you do practice?
Think about two players. The first one is more oriented to the time-based approach.
She goes out for a half hour every other day to practice on her own in addition to attending two or three team practices a week.
Sounds like she ought to be seeing huge gains, doesn’t it? Yet her improvement is slow, and she gets frustrated because she’s investing all this time for very little reward.
Yet the answer lies in HOW she is practicing. When she’s on her own, she basically goes through the motions, doing what she has always done.
Maybe she’s a pitcher who needs to work on her leg drive. But that takes a lot of effort and concentration, which is hard, so instead she just continues to pitch the way she’s comfortable.
Yes, she is out there putting in time. But as far as effort goes she’s pretty much taking the day off.
Then she wonders why her speed isn’t going up the way she should.
Player B, on the other hand, is driven to get better all the time. When she goes out to practice, whether it’s on her own or with her team, she is legitimately trying to improve some aspect of her game all the time.
If she’s a pitcher who needs to improve her leg drive, she’s out there doing her assigned drills and pushing her body to the max with every repetition to try to see improvement. And she doesn’t try to throw a full-distance, full-motion pitch until she feels herself generating a higher level of energy.
If she’s a hitter who has a problem with dropping her hands to swing, she takes dry swing after dry swing with her hands in the proper position before she even thinks about hitting a ball. She starts slowly so she can get it right, and gradually builds the speed up, always being careful to ensure she continues to keep her hands up.
If they start dropping, she backs off a little on the speed, recovers the proper form, then starts increasing speed again.
The same is true with her approach to fielding, throwing, running bases, and every other softball skill. She tries to make every repetition count because she knows that the more she does things correctly, with intensity and a purpose, the better she will play when it’s game time.
And the better chance she will have of becoming a champion.
The reality is we are whatever we do repeatedly. If we are sloppy and lackadaisical in our approach to practice because we don’t feel like it today or it’s just easier, that sloppiness or lack of effort will show itself on game day.
But if we are focused and have a goal in mind for every minute of practice time every day, when game time comes around performing at a high level becomes much easier.
It’s easy to say you want to be a champion, win trophies, play for a particular high-level team, etc. The question is, are you willing to pay the price to get there?
True champions don’t take days off when they are practicing – or playing. They work on their weaknesses and give their all with every repetition, even when it’s frustrating.
The next time you go out to practice, give this approach a try. Dedicate yourself to accomplishing a goal, and be single-minded in your effort to achieve it.
And if you find you can’t give your all that day just stop, because you’re probably wasting your time at best and possibly even making yourself worse. Then come back when you’re ready to go 100% on every repetition again.
I think you’re going to like the results a whole lot better.
Be Willing to Go Backward to Move Forward
It sure would be nice if getting better at fastpitch softball was a linear progression upward. You start at one point, put in some time, and your performance (measurable and intangible) just keeps on getting better.
Unfortunately it doesn’t always work that way. In fact, often times it can go the other way for a while.
This is especially true if you’re trying to make fundamental changes to your skills after doing reasonably well doing what you’ve been doing.
For those who haven’t been doing particularly well it’s not much of an issue. If you’re a hitter who has been striking out for most of your at bats, and popping up or grounding out weakly when you don’t swing and miss, you don’t have much to lose by making a change.
Worst case you don’t get any better. Anything beyond that will be an improvement.
But if you’ve been getting on base now and then there’s a little more risk involved. It’s possible you may struggle a bit more at the plate for a little while before you start seeing the work you’re putting in pay off.
In fact, your batting average, slugging percentage, etc. may go down first before it goes up.
Why is that? Simple: whatever you’ve been doing, even it isn’t great, you’re comfortable with it and can execute it without thinking about it. Those mechanics may not be great but they’re serviceable enough to let you get by.
Now you’ve decided you no longer want to get by but want to be a top hitter. So you start making changes and find yourself kind of between worlds for a little while.
You’re not comfortable with your swing, or your timing, or some other aspect and as a result you’re not able to execute it with full energy. You might even start over-thinking it and throwing yourself off completely. Next thing you know your performance begins to fall and you feel like you’re moving backward.
That’s ok. If you’re making the right changes your performance will improve as you become more comfortable in your new “skin.”
As old bad habits are replaced by new better ones you’ll discover how to get the bat to the ball more efficiently and the ball will start finding its way to (or over) the fence more often.
This process doesn’t just apply to hitters by the way. Pitchers may lose a little speed and/or accuracy as they replace old habits with new ones, such as moving from “hello elbow” to internal rotation mechanics or changing the way a particular pitch is thrown to improve the spin.
If the new techniques are being taught properly, however, any setbacks will be temporary and the gains will be well worth the pain of getting there.
The same goes for fielding or throwing or really any other fastpitch softball skill. There will probably be a period where you wonder whether you would have been better off staying with what you were doing rather than learning something new and supposedly better.
If you’re focused only on the short term it may seem like you would have been better off sticking with what you know. If you’re focused on your long-term career, though, making these changes will help keep you from bumping up against artificial ceilings so you can become the player you’re meant to be.
Of course, the caveat here is you have to be careful about the timing of these changes. With fastpitch softball now being a 12-month (or almost 12-month) sport it seems like there is always a game coming up that causes you to feel like it’s a bad time for a major change.
But there are holes in the schedule, such as the period between tryouts and fall ball, or certain points over the winter, where there is reduced risk in starting changes. And if your performance isn’t where you want it, or where you need it to be to reach your goals, then the sooner you get going the sooner you can start moving forward again.
Making big changes isn’t easy, and sometimes they can result in temporary setbacks. Don’t let that discourage you.
If you’re making those changes for the right reasons the reward will be worth the risk.
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 