Monthly Archives: October 2025
New Speed High Posts Are About More than Just Speed
Anyone who follows Life in the Fastpitch Lane on Facebook (which I highly recommend you do) knows that I do a post on every pitching student who achieves a new personal best. They can be new students, longtime students, students who have impressive achievements, students about whom you might wonder, “Why is he bragging about that?”
Doesn’t matter, if they do it I’m sharing it. I’m proud of every single one of them because of what it means to them.
But of course there’s always someone who likes to rain on the ol’ parade, and this is no different. I recently saw a Facebook post putting down the idea of celebrating speed achievements, arguing that other factors such as spin and spot are more important, and basically saying we shouldn’t celebrate speed so much.
So I thought it might be worthwhile to address why I do these posts, the thinking behind them as well as the practical realities. There are actually a few factors. Let’s start with…
It’s measurable and empirical (mostly)
Measuring speed is relatively easy. You set up a radar, point it toward the pitcher, and have her throw. You then get a number which you can compare to the numbers that came before it.
Thanks to products such as the Pocket Radar it’s also relatively inexpensive. For example, you can pick up a Smart Coach for $399 or a Ball Coach for $299, (even less during Black Friday or another sale) which is a whole lot less costly than a Jugs or a Stalker, and it works just as well.
That means these days just about anyone can acquire a radar and start taking readings. While there are ways to game a radar to get a higher number (such as moving it toward the pitch while it’s in flight), if you just set it up so it’s stationary the numbers you get will be pretty consistent from pitch to pitch.
Until recently, to gather data for spin and spot you would need a $5,000 Rapsodo setup or a Trackman system that costs so much they don’t even list a price on their website. Not exactly in the budget of the average pitcher parent.
The new PitchLogic ball from F5 Sports is showing a lot of promise in this area, making it far more affordable for families to keep on hand and use whenever they want. But right now speed is still the easiest thing to measure.
It shows (and rewards) progress
While there are no doubt people who love the radar numbers for the bragging rights, that’s not how I see them. For me, it’s more about showing progress and rewarding the work it took to get there.
Seeing a photo posted and reading a story about them can give pitchers incentive to keep working hard and striving for more. It can help them feel good about the long, boring grind that’s involved in getting better.
Now, I will admit if they’re not showing progress it can be a little discouraging. But what’s important to remember in those cases is that it’s not linear.
A pitcher can get some gains, but then hit a plateau or even backtrack a little depending on a number of factors, such as a sudden growth spurt, their emotional state, health and nutrition and other factors. They may also have a case where they made certain mechanical improvements but then have to make others before the next personal best can be reached.
Even then, though, having a tangible data point such as a readout on a radar can help them keep working until it all comes together again. And the feedback they’re getting from the radar can be invaluable in telling them whether further adjustments are required.
It’s a controllable
While it’s true that stats such as overall strike percentage, first strike percentage, earned run average, and other pitching stats that appear in GameChanger are good indicators of effectiveness, they are not within the pitcher’s control.
An umpire with a tight strike zone (as so many seem to have these days) may be calling pitches a tracking system would classify strikes as balls. The official team scorer may mark reached on error plays as hits, tanking the pitcher’s ERA.
The ball may have done exactly what it was supposed to do when thrown and the hitter just did a good job of getting her bat on it. Doesn’t mean it was a bad pitch, but it sure looks like one in the box score.
The speed is the speed whether the pitch is hit, missed, or watched, and regardless of what the umpire thinks it is. Throwing hard is something the pitcher can control, so measuring in-game speed in particular will show if she’s giving it her all or pitching scared.
That can be invaluable feedback for future physical and mental training.
It’s easy to understand
Many of the people who read these types of posts aren’t necessarily softball people. They’re family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, and others who like to read success stories about kids.
Posting a story that pitcher A hit 25 revolutions per second or 2500 revolutions per minute on her riseball with 83% efficiency and six inches of vertical movement is probably going to be tough for the non-softball fanatic to understand.
Heck, there are a lot of coaches who don’t actually know how to read those numbers.
But saying pitcher A was throwing 52 mph and is now throwing 53 mph is something pretty much anyone can understand. Friends and family can say wow, great job and be confident that it really was something to celebrate.
That makes everyone feel good. Grandma might even bake some cookies to celebrate.
Final word
The truth is some of the most effective pitchers in terms of getting hitters out quickly weren’t the fastest pitchers in the tournament, but they had great command of their pitches.
At the same time, though, their effectiveness went up as their speed increased. Speed may not be everything, but a lack of speed isn’t anything.
It’s going to get you beat up more times than not, especially as you get older and hitters get better.
So the next time you see a post talking about a new speed high, don’t try to run it down, and don’t feel bad if your pitcher isn’t rising to the same standard yet. Everyone is on their own journey, and everyone has their own ceiling.
Instead, celebrate that a young lady has seen improvement in one aspect of her game, and trust that she’s also working on the rest. Everything else will sort itself out over time.
Beware the Slow, Hidden Erosion of Skills
Most people in the fastpitch softball world are believers that practicing is essential to building, maintaining, and improving skills. Whether you’re a pitcher, catcher, fielder, or hitter, it’s important to get those practice reps in.
What they don’t often realize, however, is how even with the best dedication to practice there is another factor that can erode those skills – a lack of gametime experience.
Let’s take pitchers for example. You can get individual instruction, do bullpens two, three, four times per week, and even do the lonely practices on your own. But if you’re not getting in-game opportunities, your ability to hit speed, spin, and spot is going to deteriorate.
It doesn’t happen quickly, as it would if you’re not practicing at all. But the fewer innings you get in the circle, the less likely you are to perform well when you do get an opportunity.
Instead of earning 7-10 Ks, throwing 1-2 Ws, and giving up a couple of hits, suddenly you’re only striking out 4, walking 4, and letting up 4 hits. As a result, teams are scoring more runs against you (earned or unearned).
At that point you coach begins to lose a little confidence in you and gives even fewer innings, maybe waiting for “safe” situations (translation: being well in front or well behind). Your skills deteriorate a little more, and the downward spiral continues.
Yet that reduction in quality probably has less to do with physical skills than it does with mental factors.
If you’re getting a decent number of innings, you’re far more likely to feel confident in what you’re doing, which means you’ll be more aggressive and more mentally positive in your approach. You’ll perform better, and look like a good choice when it’s time to make playing time decisions
If your innings are being reduced, however, you’ll probably feel more pressure to perform. You’ll become more conscious of what you’re doing, and will focus more on outcomes than on the process.
That misplaced focus will make you tighter and will likely cause you to try to force the outcomes (for example, trying to force strikes instead of letting them happen). The net result is you won’t perform as well, leading your coach to feel like using you is taking too much of a risk, which means your innings will be reduced, which means you’ll feel even more pressure to produce and probably do even worse.
It’s a vicious cycle.
The same is true for anything on the field. Hitters who are confident are far more likely to make good contact than hitters who are worried that if they don’t get a hit on the next at-bat they will be benched.
Fielders who are worried about making a throwing error are likely to tighten up their throw, ruining their mechanics and throwing the ball away anyway. Baserunners who are unsure of whether to take the extra base may stop rather than take a chance, or hesitate and then get thrown out because they made their decision too late.
So what can you do about all this? It depends on the situation.
You can start by controlling the controllables. Do as much physical and mental preparation as you can, and then make sure when you get an opportunity you keep your emotions and mental approach in check.
Confidence is king, so pump up yours any way you can before you take the field and then keep those little demons of self-doubt off your shoulder. Believe in yourself and you’re likely to relieve a lot of the internal pressure.
From there you have to evaluate your situation. If your coach is supportive of you and encouraging you even when you’re not at your best, and continues to give you opportunities even when your current performance level may not always recommend it, count yourself fortunate and give it your all.
If you feel like you’ve lost your coach and that your opportunities are continuing to shrink even when your performance is improving, it might be time to look for another situation where you can start fresh. Professional athletes do that all the time across all sports.
How many times has a bust on one team gone on to become a star (or at least a solid contributor) on another? More than you can count for sure.
It’s fairly easy to do in travel ball (in most areas anyway), and now college athletics has made it easier as well. In high school it’s tougher – you may have to move or attend a school that will be more of a financial burden – so salvaging the current situation is probably the better choice. But if it’s not salvageable, there are options as difficult or as unpleasant as they might be.
The reality is, to achieve their potential players need in-game playing time. Otherwise, their skills will erode the way the water erodes the rock until there is very little left.
If you’re in that situation, be sure you’re honest with yourself and then choose wisely. It will save you a lot of heartache in the long term.
Lead photo by Nadtochiy Photography on Pexels.com
Be Brave Enough to Try New Things…And Abandon Them
One of my favorite coaching-related sayings, which I first saw in the signature of a member of the Discuss Fastpitch Forum and which is often attributed to Henry Ford, is, “If you do what you always did, you get what you always got.” In other words, you’ll never get beyond where you are now if you’re not willing to make changes.
Really, making changes is the essence of what we do in coaching. We see something that doesn’t quite look right, or we want to help a player perform beyond the level they’re currently at (such as a pitcher gaining speed) and we have them do something different.
Some coaches, though, might be afraid to suggest those kind of changes – and some players might be afraid to try them – because they’re worried they might have a negative effect. And they’re right – they might.
Here’s the thing, though. Look at the words I just used: “suggest;” “try.”
You’re not committing to permanent changes, just doing something temporary to see what effect it has. As you would in any good science experiment.
If you’re a coach and you see an idea from a credible source and think it might help your player or student, you can make the suggestion that she tries it. Just be sure you know why you’re doing it.
There is a lot of garbage out on Instagram and other social media masquerading as good ideas. Usually it’s from people who are less coaches and more content creators.
They depend on crazy stuff that looks good in a video but doesn’t necessarily have any value in developing fastpitch softball players to help them gain more clicks and likes and shares. I get it, that’s how they make money, but the drills themselves are often just giant wastes of time that could be better-spent developing real fundamentals.
But let’s say you’ve seen or heard a new idea that makes sense to you, and you think you know who in your orbit might benefit from it. Still, you’re also afraid it might not work, or even screw them up.
Go ahead and suggest it anyway. Have your student(s) or player(s) try it and see what happens. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t.
Maybe it’s a godsend, or maybe it’s a disaster. Or maybe it’s both, depending on the student or player.
The thing is, if it helps you can keep it. If it doesn’t, it’s ok to say, “Never mind, go back to what you were doing before.”
Again, remember in this case you’re not trying to solve a known problem, such as a hitter swinging all arms. Whether she likes it or not that’s something that needs to be corrected in order to perform well.
Instead, you’re trying to help a player build on a strong foundation to enhance her level of success – such as helping a hitter who has decent fundamentals but is making weak contact hit the ball harder.
Again, like any good science experiment you want to introduce a single change and see what happens. If it works, great; if it doesn’t, you can get rid of it.
Either way, you have now learned something valuable that will help that player in the future.
I think coaches, especially newer coaches, are often afraid to admit they were wrong about something because they think it makes them look weak or stupid. Actually, the reverse is true.
The best coaches I know are constantly trying things to see if they help. They understand that what works for one person may not work for another, so they test different ideas to find which ones do work.
They’re also not afraid to change their long-held beliefs if they find an idea or a technique that works better. They know that closed minds are like closed bowels – not good for anyone.
As David Genest at Motor Preference Experts often says, there are 8 billion people in the world, which means there are 8 billion movement profiles. The key to success if figuring out which major changes or even minor tweaks fit the profile in front of you rather than a pre-conceived notion of what a pitcher or hitter or catcher or fielder should look like.
When I make a suggestion like this, I will usually say, “Let’s try this and see what happens.” After a few repetitions if performance goes up I’ll say, “Good, let’s keep working on that.”
If it goes down, I will say, “Well, that didn’t help” or words to that effect and we’ll usually go back to what we were doing before. No sense beating a dead horse.
When you’re doing these little science experiments, always be sure to include the student or player in the process. Ask her how that felt and encourage her to be honest.
You’re not looking for ego reinforcement; you’re looking for feedback to help determine if that change is worth keeping. Do keep in mind that sometimes a change will cause a performance loss just because it’s different and the student or player isn’t able to do it with full effort.
But if you’re observing carefully, you should be able to tell the difference between something that’s a little odd and something that just flat-out doesn’t work for that student or player.
Trying something new can be a little uncomfortable or even a little intimidating. As a coach you want to subscribe to the concept of “First do no harm.”
A little trial and error, however, is healthy as long as you remember you can always walk it back if the experiment shows that’s NOT the way to do it. And you’ll be that much smarter for the effort.
Before You Go Ballistic Over Errors or Other Mistakes…
When I sat down to start this week’s blog post I found myself staring at a blank screen, wondering what I should write about. Then serendipity struck in the form of my good friend Tim Boivin.
Tim just happened to send me a link to this Facebook post from United Baseball Parents of America showing Phillies teammates consoling Orion Kerkering after his misplay of a comebacker in the 11th inning put the final nail in the Phillies’ exit from Major League Baseball’s postseason. You can read more about that play here.
First of all, as I’ve said many times, one bad play or one bad call is never THE reason for a loss. If the Phillies had scored a few more runs earlier in the game, or prevented the Dodgers from scoring its only other run, that 11th inning misplay never would have happened and the Phillies would have one.
That point aside, though, making an error that ends a game can be devastating for any ballplayer in any game, but even moreso when it’s not just game-ending but season-ending. If you see any of the post-game photos or interviews the heartbreak is obvious.
Not to mention all the fan chatter that’s no doubt going to haunt him for a while – all the keyboard warriors and barstool experts who never made it past 12U rec ball who are going to talk about how “bad” he is and how he should be drawn and quartered for costing “them” the series. But at least he has the consolation of an MLB paycheck, which will help him get through it pretty handily.
Now think about that in terms of your youth, high school, or even college player. If one of the most talented athletes in the world – and if you’re playing MLB you are no matter where you fall on that scale – can have a momentary glitch in a big game, why would you think your young player would be immune from it?
And think about the fact that there was a lot more at stake for the Phillies coaches and other players than there is in your typical weekend tournament. Yet the coaches didn’t scream at Kerkering and the other players came over to console him when he was down.
That’s an object lesson we should all keep in mind. No one sets out to misplay a ground or fly ball, or give up a fat pitch down the middle, or strike out, or throw to the wrong base. That stuff just happens – unfortunately it’s part of the game.
We do have a choice, however, on how we react to it. Any player with any sense of game awareness realizes when she (or he) has made a critical, game-changing mistake and most likely feels bad about it.
Rather than going ballistic, the better reaction is help that player understand that this momentary lapse will not define him/her for life. Despite what it may feel like right now, it’s just one more bump on a road that will be filled with them.
Emotional scars can run deep, and the body keeps the score for a lot longer than most of us realize. By helping players keep these glitches in perspective you can save them a lot of heartache now and in the future – and reduce the chances of a repeat performance should those players find themselves in another high-pressure situation again.
Also remember that at the end of the day it’s just a game. No one was seriously damaged when Kerkering muffed the play, and no one will be seriously hurt when a 12 year old softball player makes a mistake either.
Keep it in perspective and the fastpitch softball experience will be a lot better for everyone.
Why It’s Important to Celebrate Progress, Not Just Achievement
Everyone loves to celebrate the big achievements in softball – winning a tournament or conference championship, tossing a no-hitter, hitting the game-winning home run, and so on. Those are definitely highlight in a player’s career and should be lauded whenever they occur.
Yet celebrations of a player’s performance don’t always have to wait for some major achievement. In fact in my experience it’s often more important to celebrate progress, even if it’s on a small scale, because those little wins now are usually what lead to those big wins down the road.
Here’s a good example. Let’s say you have a hitter who, as they say in Bull Durham, couldn’t hit water if she fell out of a boat. She’s all arms with no control over the bat, and she seems to defy the law of averages by not even making random contact through sheer luck.
Realizing it’s a problem she starts to take hitting lessons, and within a couple of lessons she hits a weak ground ball to second and pops out to first in the same game. Nothing to write home about in the big scheme of things – it’s still a couple of outs – but she at least put the bat on the ball.
That’s something to celebrate because it represents progress. Now, perhaps inspired, she keeps working at it and next game hits a hard line drive to shortstop or flies out with a direct hit to the left fielder.
Again, she is showing progress. Because you are celebrating and encouraging her she continues to work, and suddenly those hard-hit balls start finding some gaps between fielders.
It’s been little steps along the way, but they have been important steps. And maybe before you know it she’ll come to bat with the game on the line and produce one of those highlight reel moments that would have been unthinkable not too long ago.
I’ve seen it happen. If you have, tell your story down in the comments.
Or what about the pitcher who can’t seem to find the plate with both hands and a flashlight due to poor mechanics? She can force the ball over enough to keep giving her opportunities, but her walks are still out-pacing her strikeouts and soft contacts and you’re starting to reconsider your position with the playoffs coming.
She realizes it too and starts taking the need to work on her mechanics more seriously. She puts in the work and you can see her start looking more like a pitcher should look, even if the outcomes, while better, still aren’t where the team needs her to be.
The same goes for pitchers and speed. It takes some longer to figure things out than others, or for their bodies to even have the physical capacity to deliver an appropriate level of speed for her age.
But if she keeps working on the mechanics and on learning to feel what her body is doing at different points in the pitching motion, the improvement will come.
Again, by celebrating the progress you can send a message that what she’s doing is working and she should keep on doing it. That little bit of encouragement may be just what she needs to fulfill her potential and become a reliable member of your pitching rotation.
These are just two examples of what is often called the “grind.” While it would be wonderful if you could just make a tweak here or there and see it pay off instantly, that’s not how it usually works.
Progress doesn’t come in leaps and bounds for most; it’s normally a lot more incremental. But if you wait to recognize only the big achievements they may never happen because the player gets discouraged before she reaches that point.
A better approach is to look for the good, even when it’s small, and call it out to keep players going when the going gets tough.
Now, all of that assumes these players are working on making the changes that are needed in order for progress to occur. Empty praise doesn’t help; they have to be making the effort to fix whatever is preventing them from getting better or they’re just going to fall further behind.
But if they are, take the time to recognize the progress even if the big achievement doesn’t come right away. Because it will in time.
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 