Pitching

Here is a quick and interesting video where Cat Osterman provide a few softball pitching tips and discusses finger placement on the ball.

I read a lot of stuff to stay up to date with current trends and latest research findings in softball, strength and conditioning, sports psychology, nutrition, sports injuries and so on.

In one of its latest publication, the NSCA (National Strength and Conditioning Association) has a great article on the importance of core training for softball pitchers.

In a nutshell, the authors are explaining that:

1) Instability occurs in the softball pitching motion due to the re-distribution of weight and this can create mechanical problems for pitchers.

At the beginning of the pitch all the weight is on the back leg. Once the lead foot hits the ground the weight shifts and most of it is distributed to the front leg. A weak core will not be able to withstand the pressure and that leads to bad mechanics.

The job of the core muscles is to be strong enough to support the pressure and keep the body stable during the pitching motion and counteract the instability produced by the weight re-distribution producing an efficient and fluid motion.

2) The core is responsible for creating rotational power. A well-trained core allows to put force and power behind each pitch.

For years, we've heard that the windmill pitching motion is natural and safe for the body unlike the overhead throwing motion that baseball players use.

The common belief is that overhead throwing motion puts a lot more stress on the shoulder and the muscles, tendons, and ligaments surrounding it and that leads to way more injuries than underhand pitching.

As evidence, were are given the example that baseball pitchers are required to take a break of a couple of between starts where softball pitchers often pitch 2 games the same day and several in a weekend.

While we can't dispute the fact that softball pitchers throw a more than baseball pitchers, the belief that softball pitchers are less subject to injuries than is  a total myth.

More and more research studies are showing that the incidence of pitching injuries in softball is pretty much the same as in baseball.

While the windmill pitching motion might be a "little  easier" on the shoulder and arm, it doesn't make it "easy" on these structures!

In fact, the studies are showing that the windmill pitching motion is very tough on the body.

There are certain types of softball hitting drills that I love.  I love softball hitting drills that are simple to execute, don't require complicated equipment, can be turned into a competition between athletes, will reinforce and reward use of proper mechanics, and will give  the athletes instant feedback as to whether they are doing it right or not allowing me to step away and knowing they can ''self-correct" themselves.

The softball hitting drill in this video is one of those drills.  That's why it is one of my favorites!

*Note: Since I created this video, there is now an even better, just as fun and just as effective way to practice drill!

Thanks to ProGlider, you no longer need as big a space. You no longer need to find something to act as a "bat" to throw. It's safer. It's easier to set up and practice and it's still super fun. => => => => => => => =>

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The practice of icing - or using ice to help recover faster after an extensive use of a body part - is a widespread practice among elite softball or baseball players.

That's even more true for pitchers; you often see them put ice on their shoulders, arms, and elbows right after they are done pitching.

The practice of icing raises many questions:

Why do people ice?

Does it really work?

Should I do it? Would it be good for me?

I will let Paul Reddick, baseball training specialist, answer these questions. Even though it was meant for baseball players, the information provided in this video is totally applicable to softball players as well.

Most people think of a dominant pitcher as someone who throws hard. It's much more than that.

To be dominant, a pitcher must have a winning mindset, speed, control, and deception. If one of these elements is missing, a pitcher isn't dominant.

However, speed does helps quite a bit  to be dominant. At the younger levels, a great fastball will help you get a lot of strikeouts.  At the older levels, it helps your breaking pitches move even more.

Here is one of my favorite drill to help a pitcher use her whole body to generate more speed.

This video provides you with some quick softball training tips on being more consistent.

You see, when it comes to softball training whether you are refining  your skills (hitting, pitching, fielding, etc.) or you're working out to get faster, stronger, and more powerful - consistency matters and it matters a lot.

Listen to Marc as he explains why being consistent is important , how he sets up his team's training schedule to be consistent and gives you a few softball training tips.

This blog post on softball pitching and how to increase pitching speed  was inspired from reading the post on the same topic from my friend and colleague Ken Krause on his blog:

There's Strong, Then There's…

You see, it's a natural reaction for an athlete who want to generate more force or power to "flex" their muscles in hope of generating more speed or power.

While that makes sense to think that contracting more muscles will equate to more force or speed, it is actually the wrong approach.

You have to understand that a tensed muscle is actually a slow muscle.  In other words, a muscle under tension is slower, not faster. It's just a physiological principle.

I blogged about this principle a while back when I was talking about how staying loose is important to increase hitting power.

The same concept applies to pitching. For the best examples of that, you just have to observe some of the best pitchers in the world - a lot of them are doing some kind of pre-pitch routine or movement to help them stay loose. Lisa Fernandez was famous for her hoping on the mound a little with the goal of staying loose and tension-free.

I just got my hands on a very interesting article  that deals with overuse injures of softball pitchers. It was published in Training and Conditioning Magazine a few weeks ago. This is the official professional magazines of athletic trainers. These are the people that works with sports teams and take care of injured athletes.

Colleagues of mine who works with the Montreal Canadiens NHL Ice Hockey Club gave me a copy of the article.

The information presented is very important so I thought I would share with you the key messages contained in the article.

Here are the key messages:

- We assume that softball pitchers didn't have to worry about overuse injuries. That's not true.

- Recent studies have shown that the forces produces by the windmill pitching motion is similar to the baseball pitching motion and does take a toll on a softball pitcher's arm.

- Many studies conducted in the last few years have revealed that softball pitchers are subject to a high incidence of overuse injuries.

As you know, I was in Portland, Oregon this past weekend learning from great instructors about hitting and pitching.

There are many theories out there as to what are the best hitting and pitching techniques.

A lot of what was taught this weekend were more principles  and concepts rather than specific "techniques".

Also, a lot of what was presented came from answering a  simple question:

"What do the best hitters and pitchers have in common that  makes them  so good and dominant?"

The concepts and principles that were  presented came from answering that simple question.

Observing and studying carefully how the best hitters hit and how the best pitchers pitch is how you come up with a set of concepts and principles that are shared by the best in the wold.

I know it's a very simple - yet we tend to forget about that sometimes and make up our own theory.

If you want to be like the best - you have to learn from them and emulate what they do.

Start observing what the best athletes do and start emulating them - chances are you will be going in the right direction.

I've coached at pretty much all levels of the game going from rec 8U to college and international softball in the ast 20 years.

I've coached and watched a lot of softball games in my life.

A couple of years ago, I even spent an entire summer  scouting (charting pitches, identifying pitching patterns,  measuring speed, etc.) and filming the best pitchers in the world (Finch, Roche, Ueno, Fernandez, etc.) for the Canadian Women's National Team.

One thing that seems to be consistent accross all levels is the difficulty that the majority of batters have hitting  the low inside and outside pitches.

At the younger levels (not talking about 18U Gold or college ball), I strongly believe that if a pitcher keeps the ball  low most of the time and throws strikes on the low corners  (even only using a fastball), she can get easily 80% of  the batters out.

Do you know many teams that carry a lot of of hitters able to consistently hit rockets out of low inside or outside pitches?

I don't.

Most teams may have one or two such hitters - maybe three if they are lucky.

It's the off-season.

It's time to:

1) Rest and recover from last season.

2) Heal injuries.

3) Do conditioning to get faster, stronger, more powerful, and
prevent injuries.

4) Work on fundamentals.

In other words, it's time to get better for next season!

Often, people wonder - what should I do more of?

In an ideal world - everything!

In reality, there is just not enough time.

Fundamentals is the most important as softball is a highly technical sport that requires you to master a variety of complex skills.

Within fundamentals, should you more defense (throwing, fielding) or offense(hitting, bunting, etc.)?

My answer is: offense.

Especially if you are in an indoor environment for part of the year because of the winter.

Why?

Because hitting is like golf, it takes A LOT of time to learn, refine, and master. It's even harder than golf because you're hitting a moving object.

Because it's like pitching - you need to work on it for hours to improve a little at a time. To get your mechanics and your timing right.

Yesterday, i was doing a hitting session with my team.

I was teaching the "inside-out" concept. It's a bit technical without being that complicated.

After the "theory" and "dry swing" part of practice, we  got into a circuit with stations.

One of the stations was a tee station.

And as I do usually, I walk around and help players who struggle with certain stations or need more individual attention.

One of my athletes was practicing at that tee station and was obviously not getting it.

The problem was that she was swinging at full speed trying to get it right.

That can't work!

when you are trying to learn something new or change your mechanics - you've got to slow down to get it right!

The body CAN'T learn something new at full speed. It needs time to learn the new movement and figure out how to do it.

If you are old enough to drive, think about the first time you learn how to drive a car. Did you go at 80 mph right away?

Obviously not. You were going very slowly to get the hang of it.

There is a disease that often goes undiagnosed.

Pitching (and other skills too) is very technical.

It takes a lot of hours to learn, master, and refine the various technical elements of pitching if you include all of the pitches.

It's very easy to confuse pitchers.

All you have to do is to give them too much info.

And you know what, coaches, parents, and instructors do it all the time.

However, well-intentioned dad do it much more often.

In their desire to help learn faster, they provide feedback to their daughter on each and every pitch during pitching practice!

What a mistake. For three reasons.

1) The kid becomes dependant on that feedback. They aren't learning to think on their own and analyze themselves what happens. They aren't learning to be their own coach. They  rely on their dad (or pitching coach) to do it fothem.

Bad! Bad! Bad!

2) You see, the brain can process only so much info at the same time. Too much of it and they are confused.

Overloading the brain with info is the same thing has rush hours on busy highways.

In this podcast, Marc Dagenais discusses the various performance factors in three major categories (technical training, physical training, and head training) that you should be working on during the off-season. He explains why it's important not to underestimate some key performance factors in the physical and head training categories while also discussing what to emphasize more in the technical training categorie.

 

 Podcast #13 - The Key Performance Factors to Train [22:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Note: This article is a follow-up to my previous post on Who Should Be Calling Pitches was published in the NFCA Fastpitch Delivery a few years ago by By Rod Runyan - Former  Assistant Coach - University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

There is also another interesting about article on the same topic on my site - Calling the Game: Whose Responsability?  Click on the link to read it.

Perhaps one of the most interesting, and hotly debated topics of the recent past has been that of catchers calling pitches in games. It is a topic that pops up in internet chat rooms often, is discussed at summer tournaments, and is written about in softball newspapers. In Fastpitch Delivery, we have heard from many knowledgeable coaches regarding this subject. My recollection is of recent articles in Fastpitch Delivery arguing for the catcher to call the game (cf, McNutt, Phalen). In her May article, Coach Phalen said, “….I also see a lot of coaches calling the game and doing the catching from the bench. I believe that coaches take the game out of the players hands when they do that.” This seems to be the consensus of those against coaches calling pitches.

Note: This is an article published a few years ago into the NFCA Fastpitch Delivery sent to me by good friend Doug Parry and written by Jeff Aumend - Former Head Coach at Montana State University.

There is also another interesting about article on the same topic on my site - Calling the Game: Whose Responsability? Click on the link to read it.

The age-old question of whether the coach or player should call the pitches in a game is not an easy one to answer. We all hope that the coach, catcher and pitcher can be on the same page, and that page is different than the one the opposing hitter is on. Both methods work: I, personally prefer to call most pitches. However, I know coaches who are successful allowing the players to make those decisions. Let’s examine both sides.

The argument for the players calling pitches begins with the fact that they are “in the action.” They see actual break on each ball pitched and actual location. The pitcher knows her own confidence level in locating a pitch. A catcher, for example, knows her confidence level and work within it. While this may provide players with optimum performance of their existing ability, sometimes performance within a framework of comfort impedes progress.

Speed is the most talked about in the  pitching circles. But we need not to  forget that you need to throw strikes (or something that looks like a strike to fool the batter) to get outs and  be successful.

Do you or your pitcher sometimes struggle to put the ball where you want it?

If so, I got two great accuracy drills for you.
 
Hit the Box. This drill is a great way to improve accuracy and ball control for pitchers. Throw uphill or a slight incline, this forces players to keep the ball down. Use a computer paper box that holds 8.5 X 11 in paper (although, any small box will work as a target). Place it on a small stool or short chair about 12 to 14 inches off the ground. Have the pitcher at the regulation distance or just slightly more and throw the ball and try to hit the box consistently. The box provides a visual "strike zone" to aim at and since this box is both narrower and smaller than the normal players’ strike zone. In addition the player can move to the right or the left a step and simulate pitching from the sides of the rubber. Have the player see if she can "strike out the batter" by hitting the box 3 out of 6 times (a full count and a 3rd strike). Any contact with the box is a strike.

This weekend, I was sitting in the bleachers watching a softball game during a tournament and a man came over and introduced himself.

He recognized the logo of my website on my jacket because he`s an avid reader of this newsletter.

He told me all about his daughter - 5'6, 15 years old, lefty,  throws 54-56 mph, has a decent change, trying to master the  drop and the rise, practices 3 times per week for about an  hour - and he said that he didn't think she had progressed over  the last couple months.

I suggested to him that they should go to a pitching coach.  He said that they can`t really afford it since the season cost  so much so he is sorta becoming a pitching instructor for his daughter reading books and watching tapes on pitching.

After talking to him for a while and questioning him on what he was doing with his daughter, it became clear that he wasn't  doing enough spin work.

I told him that I was pretty sure that's the reason he wasn't seeing much progresses lately.

You MUST practice spinning the ball.

I came accross an interesting post on the average softball pitching speed. I thought I would share with you.

The author mentions that obviously there are exceptions with some pitchers but she thinks that this reflects the reality.

What do you think? Do you agree?