Softball Pitching Tips - How to Break Through Your Speed Plateau

Getting past a 'PITCHING SPEED PLATEAU'
by Hal Skinner, Legendary Hall of Famer and National Champion

I once received a softball pitching testimonial from a softball dad that talked about the 'Pitching Speed Plateau' phenomenon.  He talked about how he sees a lot of pitchers "Top Out" at about 55mph.

That statement reminded me of an exercise I stumbled across as a young athlete.  This simple exercise, involving a weight, allowed me to throw several MPH faster immediately. I was shocked by how well it worked.

I used that simple exercise before almost every single game in my entire pitching career. I also repeated the exercise a few times during the games in the dugout which helped keep my pitching performance as strong as possible.

I never discussed it with anyone. When someone asked what I was doing I just said, "It helps me stay loose."

Unfortunately, a rollover truck wreck beat me up pretty good and pretty much ended my playing career.

Several years after the wreck, I began instructing pitchers. I remembered the exercise with the weight and bought a few for my students’ parents.

I had them do exactly what I did all those years before. It worked for them just as it had for me. I also quickly realized all those different speeds pitchers reach and seem to get ‘Stuck on’, ‘Top out at’ or however you want to describe it. They reach a ‘Pitching Speed Plateau’. I don’t understand exactly why it is, but they are always a number divisible by 5. The most common are 45, 50, 55, 60 and 65.

I can’t count how many times I have heard parents say, "She gets clocked a consistent 52, hit 54 once but 55 seems to be totally out of reach. She’s been stuck there for a year."

When I hear that, I stop the lesson. I reach into my ball bag and pull out that weight. I explain what I want the young pitcher to do and I demonstrate it for her.

Most pitchers hold the weight in their hand and look at me like I totally lost it. I have the young lady do 5 reps at an extremely slow rate of speed, exactly as I demonstrate.

Once completed I take back the weight and tell her the following, "My young pitcher friend, RIGHT NOW you can throw 5 to 10mph faster than you have EVER pitched before. I just showed you a pitching secret I learned when I was about your age."

Then, I hand her back her softball. Pitchers hold it for 3 or 4 seconds and usually say something on the lines of "OMG!"

Then I ask, "Do you think you can throw faster now?"

The reply is almost always "OOOOOHHHH YEAH."

Pitchers then step to the rubber and guess what??? They throw much faster ever before AND KNOW IT TOO! They don't even need a radar gun. They feel it and know it!

I usually congratulate them and then present the special weight to either the pitcher or their parent, depending on the pitcher’s age.

This simple, yet highly effective exercise is explained in details in a chapter of my book Sneaky Softball Pitching.

Once the pitcher has used Coach Hal’s Foundation Method, also in my book, and has those strong mechanics, that alone can increase her speed noticeably. THEN do the exercise with the weight EXACTLY as I outline it in my book and watch how much faster she throws. Watch how her confidence level goes through the roof and watch how her work ethic can also go through the roof. She will want to try out that new-found speed against some real batters just as soon as she can.

Here is the big kick finish…

THAT EXERCISE AND THAT NEW SPEED IS 99% PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ONLY 1% PHYSICAL

That exercise doesn't build the pitcher any new muscles! It doesn't change anything in their mechanics. It really doesn’t tweak anything at all.

What that exercise, combined with the Foundation Method, my statements, and my question to them did was give them confidence and let them know that they CAN throw faster. They knew they could before they did, so they DID. It’s all a matter of confidence and THAT part is all mental, all psychological.

Confidence in pitching isn’t anything, IT’S EVERYTHING!