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Why Fastpitch Softball Pitching Is So Danged Difficult
You hear it all the time from coaches, parents, and others sitting safely on the sidelines at fastpitch softball games: Just throw strikes! As if that idea hadn’t occurred to the poor pitcher while she’s sweating out a delightful inning of walks and hit by pitches.
Ah, if only it were that easy. I mean, it doesn’t look that difficult from the outside.
You step or jump or ninja leap your way forward, swing your arm over your head, bring it down, and let go of the ball. What could be more basic than that?
Plenty, to be honest. Because pitching in fastpitch is like a fine Swiss watch.
On the surface, you see the hands going around a disk. But underneath, there’s a complex set of gears creating individual movements that all have to be perfectly in synch to keep the correct time.
Let one little piece of a gear wear down, or get knocked askew, or take on a spec of dirt that slows it down by a microsecond, and suddenly the whole operation is no longer functioning properly.
Think I’m exaggerating? Take a good look at any video or sensor-based analysis of the pitching motion.
You have to be concerned about how the legs work in relation to the arms at launch. You have to look at where the body goes when it drives out – is it relatively straight or going off line?
When the arms go back on a backswing or forward on the first phase of the pitch are they working together and moving toward the plate in an efficient manner or are the wandering all over the place, creating timing and balance issues?
What’s happening with the muscles underneath? Are they loose and flexible the way they need to be in order to move quickly, or are they stiff and locked out?
What’s happening in the shoulder as the arm goes over the top? How is the upper arm positioned relative to the shoulder and the lower arm?
Where is the upper arm positioned when the front foot lands? What is the hand doing at this point?
As the pitcher goes into delivery are her shoulders stable and locked into position or are they swinging around like one of those carnival rides? Does she have good, upright posture, or is she collapsing like a cheap folding chair?
There’s more to consider but you get the idea. Lots of moving parts that all have to work properly, and in synch, in order to “just throw strikes.”
Now add in the idea that this sport is called FASTpitch. So it’s not enough to get the movements correct.
You have to do it while putting every ounce of energy you have into every pitch. All in the space of a couple of seconds start to finish, with a lot of the critical movements occurring in a matter of milliseconds before the pitcher has to move on to the next one.
Anything in that process gets slightly off and suddenly the ball is heading into the dirt, or into the backstop, or into the side of the hitter. And when that happens, the pitcher has to know how to make a micro-adjustment here or there to get everything back on track in an effort to make sure it doesn’t happen again on the next pitch.
What usually happens, especially with younger or beginning pitchers, is that they over-correct instead of understanding they should just relax, trust their training, and allow the gears to get back in line. That’s why one pitch goes into the dirt and the next one hits the field number sign at the top of the backstop.
When you see that issue occurring, the worst thing you can yell is “just throw strikes.” That’s what she’s trying to do.
But a gear has slipped and she’s probably not sure which one or how to fix it. Telling her to “just throw strikes” will only encourage her to try to force the ball over the plate, abandoning all mechanics.
That would be like trying to fix your watch by hitting it with a hammer. You might get lucky, and get it running again, but the odds are you’re just going to ruin the watch.
A better approach is to call time if you can and go out and talk to her. Remind her to trust the work she’s put in and let her body do what it does best, focusing on the process instead of the outcome.
In other words, let her get all her gears back in order. And if that still doesn’t work, tell her it’s just not her day and you’re going to give someone else a try now, and you’ll come back to her another game.
If you’re a non-coaching parent and can’t go out for that circle visit, just be encouraging and supportive. I know it’s difficult to watch your daughter struggle – I’ve been there – but she’ll be able to handle the adversity a lot better if she knows you’ve got her back instead of thinking you are judging or criticizing her in the moment.
If she’s not able to correct things on her own, the time for those corrections is in her next practice session, not under pressure in the middle of a game. Trying to do it in-game will likely only make it worse.
Yes, pitchers like Tegan Kavan, Nijaree Canady, Sam Landry, Emma Lemley, and so many others you see on TV or at live games often make fastpitch pitching look easy.. But it’s anything but – even for them.
Understanding just how complex the individual movements are, and how intricate the timing of each movement is in relationship to all the others, should help you cut your pitcher(s) a little slack when things aren’t going quite the way you or she wants. It ain’t easy.
But like that fine Swiss watch, it’s a thing of beauty when you get it all working the way it should.
6 Suggestions for Your Softball New Year’s Resolutions
Yes, it’s a little cliche; ok a lot cliche. But still, the end of one year and the beginning of the next is a good time to re-think your behaviors and resolve to become a better version of you over the next 12 months.
Or at least the next 12 days, which is the length of time most New Year’s resolutions last.
Now, I’m not here to preach to you about your personal habits. If you want to do horribly unhealthy things that will make you feel bad physically and psychologically and potentially reduce the already short amount of time you spend on this planet instead of making a few simple changes that will benefit you short- and long-term, that’s your business.
But I do have a few softball-related suggestions that will make things better for everyone. So without further preamble, here are my top suggestions for softball New Year’s resolutions.
I resolve…
…to stop telling pitchers to “just throw strikes.” Yeah, we know it’s frustrating when pitchers keep walking hitters. You know it, I know it, and even they know it.
But here’s the thing: they’re not TRYING to walk those hitters. They would love to strike them all out.
But fastpitch pitching is much harder than it looks from your camp seat with the umbrella and fold-out leg rests – or even from the dugout. Saying “just throw strikes” doesn’t really help. It’s just a waste of breath.
Pretty much anything else you might say is more helpful and useful than this particular phrase, including, “Bears ownership should sell the team.”
So quit telling pitchers to just throw strikes and just encourage them to do their best and have fun while they’re playing. Then remind them they might want to practice more during the week.
…to quit giving hitters batting instruction in the middle of an at-bat. Sure, everything you’re telling your hitter(s) is probably true. But the middle of an at-bat is not the time to focus on specific mechanics.
All you’re going to do is make your hitter(s) uptight and cause them to focus on a whole lot of things that aren’t going to help right now, in this moment, instead of the one thing they should be focused on: the freaking ball!
If you must yell something, try “See it big and hit it hard” or “See ball, hit ball” or “Relax and have fun.”
The time for instruction is during practice, not during the game. Offering mechanics tips in the middle of an at-bat will likely only make things worse.
…to not pull a fielder in the middle of an inning because she made one error. Yes I know, errors are killers. But telling (or showing) your players you will immediately remove them from a game if they make an error isn’t the way to improve their play.
In fact, if can have quite the opposite effect. Players who are worried about being embarrassed by being taken off the field for committing an error probably won’t play better.
They will play worse, because they’ll be all fearful, and that fear will lead to more errors than would be committed by a confident, relaxed player.
Sure, sometimes a fielder is having a bad day and needs to come out before they hurt themselves or someone else. But not after a single error.
Give that player a chance for redemption, and show her you’re confident in her, and she just may surprise you in the long term.
…to quit making yelling at and belittling players my default mode of coaching. This isn’t just for youth coaches, either. It also applies to high-level travel, high school, and college coaches as well.
It may feel good to you in the moment but I guarantee it isn’t helping you achieve your overall goals. People like to say “kids today are different” or “kids today are soft/snowflakes/whatever disparaging word you want to use.” But that’s not true.
Kids today are way tougher than they used to be because they have to be with all the pressures of social media and being filmed and critiqued all the freaking time and everything else that’s going on in their worlds. As a result, they aren’t as willing to put up with all the yelling and screaming kids of past generations were.
Some will speak up about it, but others will just internalize it until it negatively affects their performance, stuffing it into the same box as all the other ignorant crap they have to put up with on a daily basis.
No one wants to do poorly. Instead of yelling and screaming, learn to control your emotions and speak to them in a way that will help. Sometimes that may mean having a stern or difficult conversation with them.
But you can do that quietly, in a spirit of mutual respect, and actually produce better results than yet another session of public humiliation.
…to stop trying to set a record for the most games played in the fewest number of days. It feels like there is some sort of contest going on to see which team can play the most games in the shortest amount of time.
Unfortunately, the prize for winning this competition is often players with over-use injuries, player burn-out, and ultimately players quitting the team or the sport because it’s just too much for them or their families. Not to mention a deterioration of skills because they have no time available to practice.
There is no real benefit to playing 100+ games in an eight-week span other than, I suppose, bragging rights for the coach/team/organization. Especially at the younger ages.
But your players will be much better-served if you build in not only practice time but also rest and recovery time between games or tournaments. Doing so gives players time to stretch their abilities without the constant pressure to perform, and to keep both their bodies and brains in better working order.
,,,to learn something new. There are way too many coaches out there who seem to think they learned everything they need to know about the sport and how to coach it during their playing days.
That’s not just old coaches either. Plenty of just-out-of-school coaches apparently feel the same way.
Nothing could be further from the truth. If you look at the most successful coaches, the Patty Gassos and Mike Candreas and Pat Murphys, they’re always looking for and incorporating new information into their technical coaching as well as coaching styles.
Take an in-person or online class. Read a book, Watch a YouTube video. Talk to other coaches. There are lots of sources of great information that will help you become better at what you’re doing, whether it’s coaching your daughter’s rec league team or vying for a conference or national championship. Or even coaching a certain professional football team that can’t seem to figure out a way to score more than 3 points in 4 quarters.
Just be careful. Because once you start down this path you’ll find that the more bites you take out of the information apple, the bigger the apple will get.
You’ll never know it all. But you’ll know a lot more than you used to, and you’ll be better at what you do.
Final thought: Remember that softball is a game, and games are supposed to be fun. Take that approach and you’re likely to have a better and more successful experience in the coming year.
Good luck to all, and have a safe and prosperous new year!
Fireworks photo by Rakicevic Nenad on Pexels.com
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 