Product Review: pitchLogic Softball
For those who have been hiding under a softball-shaped rock over the last few years, data has become an increasingly important part of our sport. Whether it’s statistics about on-base percentages, whiff percentages by pitch location, how much external rotation is being achieved, or other detailed metrics, coaches at all levels are looking to quantify what their athletes are doing to help improve performance.
This obsession also applies to what happens when a pitcher throws a specific type of pitch. Speed is obviously one important metric that has been easily measurable for a number of years, whether it was with a Stalker or Jugs radar gun or more recently with the advent of the PocketRadar.
The other two parameters that are normally listed along with speed are spin and spot, i.e., how the ball is spinning and whether it goes to the location it was supposed to. Spot is fairly easy to determine with your eyes alone; if you know where the ball was supposed to go you should be able to see whether it went there.
That leaves spin. One simple way to determine whether a ball had the correct spin is to mark a stripe or color the seams to make it easier to see the spin direction, then compare that to what is expected for that pitch.
For example, if you’re throwing a curve ball was the spin direction going around the ball at the “equator” (middle of the ball), going from pole to pole (top to bottom or bottom to top), or some variation in between? You also want to see where the spin axis (the point the ball spins around) was, because an improperly oriented spin axis will generally have a negative effect on the quality of the movement.
You can see all of that with your eyes, but it’s still difficult to quantify. And you totally miss another important factor in ball movement: how fast the ball was spinning. You can see if it’s fast or slow, but not HOW fast or HOW slow, which also affects how sharply the ball will break, thus making it harder to hit.
A Rapodo system will give you those types of answers, but those cost thousands of dollars which puts them out of the reach of most individual coaches and bucket parents. You pretty much have to go to a camp, clinic, or measurement event to capture that data, and even then it’s only a single snapshot in time.
In the past, you had the RevFire ball or the Diamond Kinetics ball, which were far more affordable to the average user. But both of those have been long been relegated to the ash heap of history; you can probably still find one on eBay somewhere but all technology has a “best by” date and both of those are long past it.
Fortunately, a new entry into this category was introduced in 2025: the pitchLogic softball. F5 Sports, the manufacturer of pitchLogic balls, has had a baseball version for several years that has become quite popular.
They have now taken that same technology and applied it to fastpitch softball. But is it worth the investment, i.e., does it do the job? The short answer is yes.
If you’re serious about measuring spin direction, spin rate, spin efficiency, and a whole bunch of other parameters and don’t want to break the bank (or your marriage) to do it, you’re going to want to look into this innovative product. Let’s break it down in more detail.
What’s In the Box
This part is pretty simple. It comes with one pitchLogic softball, a Qi-type platform charger, and a short USB A to USB micro cable to connect the charger to a power source. The charger has a small indent in it to keep the ball in place while charging – no O ring necessary (DK ball users know what I’m talking about).
How It Works: The Basics
The pitchLogic softball system consists of two components: a ball with a microchip or some other technological magic inside of it and a free companion app, which you can download from the Apple App Store or Google Play once the ball arrives. The two are connected via Bluetooth, which means you don’t have to have a WiFi signal available to use it.
There are two versions to the app: a player version and a coach version. If you’re a bucket parent who wants to measure your own daughter’s performance and progress, the player version will do you just fine.
It will capture the data from each throw and store it in the cloud for you so you can review it later or even share it with college (or other) coaches. Since you’re only using it with one pitcher it’s really all you need.
The coach version allows you to create a roster so you can track the performance of multiple players, separating them into individual sessions so you can access them as-needed. You just have to remember to select the correct player before you start the session – nota difficult skill but one I’ve already failed on once.
Setting up a player on a roster is easy to do, too. You click on the roster button at the top of the app, click Manage, then click on the plus sign (+) and fill in the requested data. If you want to remove someone from the roster later you click on the minus (-) sign and they are deleted.
The player management section also gives you the ability to share all the data with the pitcher automatically by inputting her (or her parent’s) email address. They will then receive a link that enables them to check it all out themselves whenever they want.
When I purchased the ball it came with five roster spots. If you’re a team coach that’s probably plenty; if you’re an instructor like me it’s not nearly enough, but fortunately you can purchase additional roster spots for an added cost.
Capturing Pitches
Whichever version you have, once the proper player is selected and the ball has been paired to your device, you click on the start session button and then select which type of pitch the pitcher is throwing so it can be tagged in the records. You don’t have to tag the pitches, but it’s definitely helpful, especially when you go back a few days later to review the data or if you want to send it to someone else. Helps to know what type of pitch was being thrown.
The pitcher then throws the pitch and the data immediately shows up on your device’s screen. I generally just use my iPhone because it’s handy, and the key information is pretty readable even to my old eyes.
Hopefully in the future they will add the ability to zoom in by pinching the screen, which would make it even easier while helping the pitcher focus on the right information.
The only caution is that the pitcher has to keep the ball still before she throws the pitch or the app won’t read it. If you have someone who likes to twizzle the ball or spin it in her glove before she throws she’s going to have to remember not to do that for the duration of the session.
So far, I have found that the pitchLogic softball records most, but not all, of the pitches thrown. I’d say it’s around 95% success. Every now and then it will miss one, but it usually captures the next one.
If you have a few missed pitches in a row, stopping the session and then restarting it usually solves the problem. Worst case you can close the app and restart it to reset everything. So far I have not had it totally shut down.
The Data
Ok, here’s where it gets fun. It starts with the clock face, which appears on the top or top left depending on whether you orient your device in portrait or landscape mode. For simplicity I am going to refer to everything’s position in landscape mode.
The clock face gives you three important pieces of data at a glance: the spin direction in blue (including the orientation of the ball), the arm slot in oranage (where the arm was at release), and the last touch on the bal in a darker orange or rust colorl. If your pitcher is having trouble with her spin orientation, that last touch info can be helpful in diagnosing it.
The blue arrow shows the direction in which the ball was spinning. For example, a “perfect” riseball will point to 12:00, a “perfect” drop ball will point to 6:00, and so on. The blue ring shows the orientation of the ball as it is spinning.
So let’s say a right-hander throws a curveball and the arrow points to 9:00, which is the perfect spin for left-to-right. But instead of the ring part being pretty much flat it is a near-perfect circle. That tells you that even though the spin direction was good, the spin axis is tipped either too far forward (most likely) or backward toward the pitcher (unlikely but you never know).
You now know that even though the spin direction was good, you still need to make adjustments to get better, tighter break on the ball. This relationship is also shown under “spin efficiency” at the bottom.
The closer the arrow and ring are being aligned, the higher the efficiency and again the better the pitch will break. Honestly, even though I’d heard that explanation it took me a little time to truly understand. Good news is once you get it it’s pretty easy to understand from then on.
Other metrics that appear along the bottom include pitch speed, total spin or spin rate in revolutions per minute, vertical movement, horizontal movement, spin efficiency (see above), and spin/velocity ratio. Here’s a quick explanation/evaluation of those metrics:
- Speed – How fast the ball is moving. Most people I know who use the pitchLogic softball tend to disregard this reading as it can vary from what a dedicated radar will read. The explanation I’ve heard is that it measures the speed immediately out of the hand whereas a radar gun takes multiple measurements along the ball’s flight path and averages them. The speed readings are sometimes fun to look at but I wouldn’t personally use those as the official measurement because it’s not repeatable when a radar gun is being used.
- Total spin – Super important reading. The faster the ball is spinning the better the pitch will perform, providing it’s thrown well to begin with. You want to push those spin speeds up high, so definitely want to pay attention here. For those who still think in terms of RevFire’s revolutions per second, you can use a little math to draw up a correlation chart.
- Vertical movement – A prediction of how far up or down the ball will deviate from a straight line out if thrown on a straight line out. Upward movement is shown as a positive number, downward as a negative number. Be aware, though, that it doesn’t record the actual movement, just the expectation. I’ve seen riseballs that went straight down with great spin get shown to have pretty significant upward movement so use with caution.
- Horizontal movement – Same as vertical movement, but left to right, with left movement shown as a negative umber right movement as a positive number.
- Spin efficiency – As noted above, this is how much the spin direction and orientation of the ball align with each other. For a curveball, a 9:00 reading with a flat ring would be 100%. You want to shoot for 90% and above. Realistically, you may be surprised how low the efficiency is in the beginning, even on pitches that appear to move well.
- Spin/velo ratio – I haven’t used this one much. I think you have to establish a baseline of speed with a fastball first. Then you’ll see with this reading how close other pitches are to the fastball’s maximum velocity. If that’s not correct hopefully someone will clarify but at this point that’s my understanding.
Those are the home screen parameters. But as they say on the TV commercials, wait! There’s more!
Tucked behind the home screen tabs are additional tabs. For example, in addition to the clock reading you can also see a scatter chart of all pitches for that session (based on the predictions, not actual performance), video if you shot some video (more on that later), and a 3D representation of actual ball trajectory that you can view from different angles by dragging the picture with your finger.
The section on the right, besides showing the basic input screen, also has tabs that let you review specific sessions for that pitcher, each pitch that was recorded, and a more detailed metrics page that shows more in-depth data than the home screen. In portrait view, the “All Metrics” tab appears next to the focus metrics listed in the bullets above.
Reporting
As cool as the in-app data is, the pitchLogic softball can also generate a web-based report that shows you graphs and scatter charts for the entire session that make it easy to see how well the pitcher performed that day. You can also share this information with the pitcher, her parents, or other coaches by copying and pasting the web link into a standard email, text, or other type of message.
Video capabilities included
Another nice feature is the ability to shoot video of the pitch and have it embedded with the rest of the information. I find this very helpful for when a pitcher is struggling to get the correct spin.
For example, one girl was getting good apparent movement on her curve but the metrics said she had more of a dropball release. After shooting video we saw that her wrist was extended back instead of flexed upward going into release.
That visual helped her correct the issue and improve her metrics almost instantly. Seeing, in this case, was definitely believing.
Durability
We all know a tool like this can take a beating, especially if you use it a lot. So far, mine has held up well despite hitting concrete floors barely covered by turf, catcher’s equipment, metal backstops, and whatever else is around for an errant ball to hit.
A nice additional perk is that the manufacturer offers you the option of replacing the cover of the ball every six months on-demand and at no charge. No need to worry if it gets nicked, or if the cover starts to show wear or get slick. They literally have you covered.
Customer Service
This is another area where the pitchLogic softball manufacturer F5 Sports excels. I bought one of the “first run” balls, which had some issues. When I contacted them the people at F5 immediately acknowledged they were having some issues and said they would replace the ball as soon as they had worked out the kinks.
They were as good as their word. The new ball has sat in the trunk of my car through blistering heat and below-freezing temperatures and continues to work great.
That said, their website could use some improvement. For example, there is no place to purchase extra player accounts on the website – you have to contact them to do it. Being able to place an order like that online, with no human interaction, would be much more efficient.
Cost
By now you’re probably wondering what does all this wonderfulness cost? It’s not cheap, but i’s not crazy either.
An individual one-year membership, which includes the ball, the app, and the re-covering option, costs $300. You can save a little money with the two-year membership, which costs $495. Both options require you to pay the full amount up-front.
The website doesn’t list a price for the Coach option that allows for multiple players (and coaches), but I believe the annual subscription is $500. At least that’s what I recall them saying, although the final price depends on how many roster spots you need to include.
Again, not cheap, but when compared to the other options for capturing this type of information it’s a bargain. Especially when you realize it’s much simpler to operate and not fussy at all about how you set it up.
Recommended
The bottom line is that the pitchLogic softball is a tremendous tool for training pitchers to learn how to spin the ball properly in order to maximize their effectiveness in this important parameter.
Whether you want to help just your own daughters/players or you’re helping multiple students, the pitchLogic softball is a smart, high-value investment. If you have the means, I highly recommend purchasing one sooner rather than later. You’ll be glad you did.
Person First. Student Second. Player Third.
Today’s post was actually written by my partner in podcasting Coach Jay Bolden of Be Bold Fastpitch LLC. As many of you know Jay and i do the From the Coach’s Mouth podcast, where we interview coaches and talk amongst ourselves about all sorts of fastpitch softball and general coaching topics.
You can find it on all your favorite podcast platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Ok, commercial over.
A couple of days ago, though, I saw Jay put up a great post on his Be Bold Fastpitch LLC Facebook page, talking about how he approaches working with his students. It was very heartfelt and great advice for all of us to remember so I asked him if I could reprint it here. He, of course, is a great guy so he said yes.
So here’s what he had to say on the topic. He has a lot of great content like this so I highly recommend that if you are on Facebook you give him a follow. And if you’re not, get on Facebook and then follow him. It will be well worth it.
Without further ado, here’s the post:
Let me say this loud and clear…
Person first. Student second. Player third.
Somewhere along the way, youth sports flipped that order — and we’re seeing the damage every single day. Kids tied up in performance anxiety. Kids terrified to make a mistake. Kids who think their value comes from stat sheets, exit velos, strike percentages, and trophy photos.
That’s on us as adults.
If a kid thinks her worth depends on how she plays on Saturday, then we failed long before the first pitch.
Because softball is a chapter in her life — not her entire identity.
Before I care about her curveball, her batting average, or where she hits in the lineup… I care about what kind of person she’s becoming.
Is she kind? Coachable? Honest? Does she show up for others?
That matters more than any tournament ring.
Then comes the student.
Grades, habits, responsibility, learning how to manage real life — those are the things that carry her long after her last at-bat.
Player is last on purpose.
Not because the game doesn’t matter — it does.
But because the game is the platform, not the identity.
We’re not just coaching softball.
We’re developing strong, confident young women who can handle life.
Person first.
Student second.
Player third.
And when we get that right?
The softball takes care of itself.
Train Hard. Play Bold. Chase Greatness.
Changing Bodies: a Big X Factor to Performance
I have written many times about how as much as we would like it to be, performance improvement does not always follow the neat, linear “hockey stick” pattern. In fact, it is often messy, filled with gains and losses, ups and downs, little wins and little defeats.
Or as Dire Straits so wisely put it, sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug.
There can be a lot of reasons for this phenomenon. A player may be physically tired from a lack of sleep or a poor diet, may have a nagging injury you don’t know about, may be under mental stress that isn’t being shared, may feel overwhelmed by the moment, may be trying too hard to compete and tying herself up in knots, may feel un- or under-appreciated, may just be having an overall bad day, etc.
One I think a lot of people fail to take into account, however, is something that youth athletes and even young adults into their early 20s all are facing: their bodies are changing. Sometimes in obvious ways, sometimes subtly.
And every time their bodies change in some way they have to re-learn how to move them in a way that is conducive to good performance.
Think about the last time you were surprised when you saw that a young person who had been a cute little butterball a couple of months ago has suddenly sprouted up to become lanky and lean. Or how the scrawny little kid you remember has filled out and now looks like she could kick your butt in a wrestling match.
The passage of time, even as little as a month, allows you to see these differences because you remember who they were and now see who they are. You are far less likely to notice these same types of changes in someone you see every day because your frame of reference for the differences is hours instead of weeks or months. But they’re still there.
When those types of major body changes occur, they can throw off the entire the movement mechanism. Especially if the entire body hasn’t grown at the same rate.
Picture a young lady whose arms and legs have grown at a faster rate than her torso. Eventually her torso will catch up, but right now there’s an imbalance she isn’t used to.
Her body is still trying to move relative to her old proportions but that method doesn’t work anymore. Longer levers they’re not used to may make it more difficult to throw or pitch a ball or swing a bat because the way they used to feel those movements is not the way they feel it NOW.
We’ve all heard the expression “growing pains.” For those who experience a rapid, sudden growth spurt, those pains are very real.
Osgood-Schlatter disease is a great example. Rapid growth of the bones, muscles, tendons, and ligaments around the knee can create tremendous stress, causing anywhere from some to extensive knee pain, especially during athletic movements. It is difficult for young athletes to deal with it, and the old adage of “Rub a little dirt on it” doesn’t help much when your body is in revolt.
Changing bodies can also affect athletes’ balance and coordination. Their center of gravity can change, or the way they perceive their bodies in space can change, affecting athletic performance until they internalize those changes.
And this doesn’t happen just once. It can happen over and over until they make it out of that phase of their lives.
That means there will be a lot of ups and downs in performance and progress until they reach the point of who they’re meant to be.
So when you’re wondering why your favorite player is putting in the work and paying attention to the details but not seeing the results she desires, keep the X factor of body changes in mind. It might help you weather the ups and downs more easily.
Main photo by Willians_photography on Pexels.com
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.
Buying Tools v Learning to Use Them
Like many guys, at one time in my life I thought woodworking would be a great, fun hobby to learn. Clearly that was before my kids started playing sports.
So I started becoming a regular at Sears, Ace Hardware, Home Depot, Menards, Lowes, and other stores that sold woodworking tools. YouTube wasn’t a thing back then (yes, I am THAT old), so I also bought books and magazines that explained how to do various projects.
Here’s the thing, though. I might skim through the books or an article in a magazine to give me just enough knowledge of which end of the tool to hold, then I’d jump right in and start doing the project.
Needless to say, the projects I did never quite came out the way the ones in the pictures did. I also didn’t progress much beyond simple decorative shelves and things like that – although the ones I did make held up for a long time.
The thing I discovered was that buying new tools was a lot easier, and a lot more fun, than learning how to use them. Buying tools is essentially “retail therapy” for people who aren’t into clothes or shoes. And you always think if you just had this tool, or this router bit, or this fancy electronic level, everything will come out better.
Nope. Because no matter how good the tool or accessory is, it still requires some level of skill to use it.
Fastpitch softball parents and players often suffer from the same affliction. They believe that if they get the latest version of expensive bat they will hit better.
They believe if they purchase this gadget they saw promoted on social media it will automatically cure their poor throwing mechanics. They believe if they purchase this heavily advertised pair of cleats they will automatically run faster and cut sharper.
Again, nope. New softball tools like bats and balls with parachutes attached and arm restricting devices and high-end cleats are certainly fun to buy, and there’s nothing like the anticipation and thrill of seeing that Amazon or FedEx or UPS truck coming down the street to make you want to burst into song.
But they’re just tools. In order to get the benefits of those tools you have to learn how to use them correctly then work with them day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.
And as we all know, that part isn’t as much fun. There’s a reason it’s called the grind.
Take that bright, shiny $500 bat. If you’re still using a $5 swing, or you’re too timid to even take it off your shoulder, it’s not going to do you much good. It may look pretty but you could be using a $50 bat to the same effect.
You have to get out and practice with it. Not just during practice but even when no one is around. The more you do it the better you’ll get at learning how to use it – just like I discovered with my fancy jigsaw.
Pitching, fielding, throwing, baserunning, it’s all the same. No fancy glove or high tech gadget is going to help you get better no matter how much it costs. You have to learn how to use it, which means getting off your butt (or off your screen) and using it.
If you don’t know how to use it, seek out somebody who does and have them help you. It’s a pretty good way to shortcut the learning process, and often a better way to invest your time and money.
Yup, sure, new tools and toys are a lot of fun to wish for and shop for and buy. But even the best ones can quickly become shelfware if you’re expecting them to do all the work for you.
Get the tools that will help you get the job done, but always remember you have to learn how to use them to reap the full rewards. Otherwise you’re just throwing away money.
Help for Pitchers Who Are Banging Their Elbows Into Their Hips
It’s more common than you might think: pitchers, especially those who are trying to keep their pitching arms in close to their bodies (as they should) suddenly start feeling slight to intense pain as they go into release. Once it catches their attention, they realize their elbows are hitting their hips. HARD.
Well-meaning coaches, other pitcher parents, and even some random people will tell them to solve the issue they should clear their hip out of the way or bend out more so their arm totally misses their body as they go into release. While yes, that will solve the immediate issue, it will also create less-than-ideal mechanics that will ultimately limit most pitchers’ ability to compete at a high level.
That’s because compression of the upper arm against the ribcage and light brush contact of the forearm are both essential to stabilizing the shoulder complex to prevent a more serious injury, transfer more energy into the ball to improve speed, and sure consistency of release to improve pitch accuracy/command.
By now you may be asking if that’s the case, why is my pitcher/daughter getting giant bruises on her elbow area and/or hip area while other pitchers are not? The simple answer is because those who are not raising those ugly bruises are making contact differently than those who are.
The bruises are coming from the position the arm and hip are in going into release.
When the bruises are happening, the elbow are is making direct contact with the pelvis (hip bone), crashing into it in a bone-on-bone manner. When they’re not happening, the pitcher is making contact with with the soft tissue (muscle) on the forearm just below the elbow into the muscle (soft tissue) on the side of the hip, interrupting the acceleration of the arm enough to transfer the energy without stopping it completely.
So what causes the elbow to slam into the hip instead of passing by it? I find that typically there are two causes, which can happen either independently or in the worst cases at the same time. Correct those and the problem usually goes away,
Cause #1: Staying Too Open
Every pitcher needs to open her shoulders and hips (externally rotate) to some extent to create an aligned, powerful arm circle. The shoulder in particular is important because when you are facing straight ahead, the arm can only come back so far before it has to deviate off-line.
This deviation stresses the shoulder, leading to injury, and takes the arm out of its ideal movement around the shoulder, affecting both speed and accuracy. Opening the shoulders makes in possible for the arm to move around at incredible speed while using the shoulder the way it’s designed to be used.
The problem occurs when the hips and shoulders don’t come back forward to an area around 35-50 degrees going into delivery. The body then starts blocking the arm, and the pitcher either has to then go around it or slam her elbow into her hip.
Think about where your elbow is when you are just standing normally. It sits squarely on your hips. If it does that while you’re standing still, what makes you think it won’t do that when you’re aggressively trying to throw a pitch.
The cure for this is to move into that 35-50 degree angled range we mentioned earlier. When you are in this position, even standing, your elbow is clear of your hip while allowing your forearm to still make light brush contact with the side of your hip as it passes the hip.
To learn that, have the pitcher do a ton of easy walk-ins, where she starts out facing the plate, then takes an easy step with her throwing-side foot before going into the pitching motion. She should do this slowly, with no leg drive at all, and focus on moving her body open with good external rotation of the shoulders and then back into a roughly 45 degree position.
On the field you can throw a regular ball from a short distance. But at home, have her look into a mirror as she does the movements without a ball, paying attention to how her body is moving and coming back to the finish position.
Ideally, her hips will move a little ahead of her shoulders as she comes down the back side. Once she can do it without a ball, have her throw a rolled up pair of socks or a lightweight foam ball into the mirror, again paying attention to how her body is moving.
You get all the benefits of brush contact while maintaining solid posture (no contorting to move the hips out of the way or throw the shoulders too far off) so the pitcher can pitch pain-free.
Cause #2: Keeping an Arch in Your Back
The second major cause of banging the elbow into the hip in a way that causes injury is having your back arched backwards going into release. This can happen even if you are getting to the 35-50 degree position we talked about above.
At the top of the circle, it is desirable for a pitcher to have her back arched back at least 15 degrees toward first if the pitcher is right-handed or toward third if the pitcher is left-handed. It’s a movement that helps load the muscles in the back so they can help accelerate the arm on the way down. It also helps getting proper external rotation and keeping the arm on-path.
After the peak of the circle, however, the arch should come out and the pitcher should be in some level of flexion by the time she is going into release. In other words, she will be slightly bent toward third if right-handed or toward first if left-handed.
If the arch doesn’t come out, however, it pulls the pitching elbow backwards instead of letting it flow freely through its natural path. When that occurs the pitcher will either bang her elbow into the side or even back of her hip.
She may also try to compensate for this bad position by trying to move her elbow away from that area, causing her to throw low and very inside, which will make pitching even more difficult than it already is.
To solve this issue, the pitcher needs to learn how to come out of the arch as her arm comes down the circle. One way to do that is to have her practice throwing a pair of rolled up socks into a mirror, watching herself to see what position her body is in when overhead and then when releasing the socks.
She should see herself arching at the top then flexing in at the bottom. You can even put a piece of tape on the mirror to help her see it. Have her start slowly, then build her speed until she can execute it without thinking.
Another way to address this issue is a drill I got from Rick Pauly of PaulyGirl Fastpitch called the Bow-Flex-Bow. For this one you will need a piece of Theraband that is at least as long as the pitcher’s arm.
Have her grab both ends of the Theraband and stand at a 45 degree angle, as if getting ready to do a pitching drill. She then takes the Therabad up and into a pitching motion, with both hands moving forward toward the “plate” before starting to separate overhead.
When she is at the top of the circle her back will need to arch to get the Theraband behind her head. As she comes down, make sure she bows back in to come to the finish so instead of arching/flexing back she is now flexing forward.
Baby and Bathwater
No question that banging your elbow into your hip is not only unpleasant but counter-productive for achieving both speed and accuracy. But totally avoiding any contact between the body and the arm isn’t the way to go either.
The issues listed here aren’t the only reason it can happen but they are the two most common. By making the corrections to achieve proper upper arm compression and light brush contact you can stop the pain while improving performance.
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 