Can you shoulder better pitching results?

Your instinctively shoulder/hip alignment impulse. 

•         By body has a subconscious response to keep your shoulders over your hips.
•          Whenever your shoulder/hip alignment is off, your body’s priority becomes getting your shoulders and hips realigned.

A Dynamic Motion Taps this Impulse.

You end your front leg lift with your shoulders over your hips, and your weight centered between your knees.

•         Action: Your starting body position allows you to create a lower body rotation that brings your back hip closer to your target than your throwing side shoulder.
•          Effect: As a reaction to your movement out of your front leg lift, you’re force to instinctively bring your throwing side shoulder toward home.
•         Result: Your back-shoulder movement causes you to spontaneously whip your throwing arm into your ball release.
•      Outcome: Over time, you expect each pitch to travel directly into your Catcher’s mitt.

Because your throwing action is a reaction to the shoulder/hip alignment you intentionally create, your motion allows you to send more than 2 pitches in a row directly into your Catcher’s target.

A Stationary Motion Works Around this Impulse.

You end your front leg lift with your shoulders over your hips, and your back foot supporting your body weight.

•         Action: Unless you make some movement that’ll take you into your stride, you won’t move out of your starting position.
•         Effect: As you move down the mound and complete your stride, your shoulders remain over your hips.
•         Result: To complete your motion, your throwing arm works by itself.
•         Outcome: Because you turn your throwing action into an independent event, you never really know where each pitch will end up.

Because your throwing action has nothing to do with your shoulder/hip alignment as you end your stride, you’re always struggling to produce the results associated with a more dynamic motion.

If you want to know how simple it is to replace your stationary starting position with a more dynamic starting position, contact us.

Skip Fast

Expert Pitching Coach
Professional Pitching Institute

WWW: http://www.propitchinginstitute.com 

E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Cell or Text: 856-524-3248

Copyright © 2018

Pitching – Is your weight centered between your knees?

How does your body define balance?

Let’s say I ask you to jump on a balance beam and, as quickly as you can, touch your nose.

- At first, you can’t control your arms. - You take a couple of deep breaths to let your mind settle your body over the beam.
- Once your mind senses you no longer need your arms for balance, you touch your nose.

I know I’m not telling you anything you didn’t already realize, but, by digging into this “settling” process, you’ll walk away with a better understanding why you struggle with your command.

Your “settling” process creates a sense of “stability”.

Your “settling” process. 

·       - Without thinking about it, your mind automatically centers your weight between your knees. - At the point where your mind senses your body is in balance, your knees are going to form a “diamond-like” shape.

“Stability”

- “Stability” is seen when you center your weight between your knees (your “diamond”). - “Stability” allows you to decide how you’re going to move your body. - You feel “stable” when you no longer need your arms to keep your balance.

Let’s prepare your body for your front foot lift.

·      - In the last blog, we recommended starting your stretch with your feet one baseball width apart. - From this position, you bring your shoulders down to your heels. - When done properly and as a reaction to your shoulders coming down to your heels, you see your legs/knees form a “diamond”.

Your “diamond” puts you in  a position to complete your front leg lift with your weight centered between your knees.

- By placing your weight between your knees, you lessen the chance you’ll need your throwing arm for balance and - As a result, you increase the possibility each pitch will end up closer to your intended target.

If you want to know what’s stopping you from “balancing” and “stabilizing” your motion, contact us.

Skip Fast

Expert Pitching Coach
Professional Pitching Institute

WWW: http://www.propitchinginstitute.com 

E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Cell or Text: 856-524-3248

Copyright © 2018

Pitching – You’re one foot away from better command.

Pitching aside … How do your foot placements impact your arms?

• ·         When your feet are wider than your hips, to get any one foot off the ground, you’re forced to shift your weight over your back-foot.
• ·         With all your weight over your back foot, to move anywhere, you must take a “step”.
• ·         Your “step” shifts your weight away from your back foot and, to keep you from hurting yourself, your opposite arm spontaneously moves up and away from your body.

How does something as simple as your foot placements relate to your throwing arm?

• ·         When you begin your motion with your feet too far apart, to take your front foot off the ground, you're forced to shift your weight over your back-foot.
• ·         With your weight over your back foot, to move your body toward your target, you must “stride”.
• ·         Your “stride” shifts your weight toward your target and, as an uncontrollable reaction, your throwing arm moves away from your body.
• ·         No matter the throwing arm path you want your arm to take, your throwing arm takes on a life of its own and will position itself relative to your “stride” tempo.

How can you use your foot placements to shrink your target area?

• ·         When you begin your motion with your feet one baseball width apart, your throwing arm won’t be as involved with your balance as with a wider stance.
• ·         Without doing anything else, because your foot placements keep your throwing arm available to respond to your lower body, you’ll automatically see your worst misses finishing closer to your intended target.

If you want to continue shrinking your target area to the size of your Catcher’s mitt, contact us.

Skip Fast

Expert Pitching Coach
Professional Pitching Institute

WWW: http://www.propitchinginstitute.com 

E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Cell or Text: 856-524-3248

Copyright © 2018

Pitching - Feeling balance isn’t being in balance.

Your mind wants to keep your body in balance.

For example, anytime your mind senses you’re falling, to keep you from hurting yourself, your mind instantaneously takes control of your every movement.

Being in balance.

“Being in balance” is ending your front leg lift with your weight centered between your knees.

·         At the top of your front leg lift, you can freely move your arms and legs.

·         To move down the mound, you first movement out of your front leg lift is opening your front shoulder.

·         To keep you from falling on your nose, you have no choice but to stride.

·         Because your stride interrupts your lower body rotation, you force your mind to overreact in a very productive way.

·         When you end your stride and stop your lower body rotation, not only do you completely change your body’s dynamics, but your mind receives another alert.

·         To keep from hurting yourself and to get your body back in balance, your mind forces you to make a throwing action, and, since your throwing action is an involuntary reflex, you know your body will deliver every pitch directly into your Catcher’s target.

As a spontaneous reaction, you challenge every opponent to make solid contact with any pitch you throw.

Feeling balanced.

“Feeling balanced” is ending your front leg lift with no space between your knees. To “feel balanced”, you end your front leg lift with your weight over your back foot.

·         To move down the mound, you’re forced to tilt your body toward your target.

·         The instant your mind senses this forward tilt, your mind instinctively uses your throwing arm to slow your movement down the mound.

·         As soon as your front foot gets back on the ground and your mind senses you’re no longer in danger, you can use your throwing arm to complete your delivery.

When you let this happen…

·         Your throwing action becomes a secondary, yet somewhat restricted, action.

·         Your throwing arm path is influenced by your body position at the end of your stride.

·         The conflict between the throwing arm path you want and the throwing arm path your body needs means you can't expect your ball to always end up where you want.

As an unfortunate consequence, when you challenge your body’s natural throwing arm path, you create the small ligament tears and fraying that lead to throwing arm distress.

What’s holding back your elite command?

The only thing holding you back from elite command is knowing how to end your front leg lift with your weight centered within your knees.

Teaching you how to end your front leg lift with some distance between your knees takes less than 10 minutes. If you need help with this, please contact us.

Skip Fast

Expert Pitching Coach

Professional Pitching Institute
Cell or Text: 856-524-3248

WWW: http://www.propitchinginstitute.com 

E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com

Copyright © 2018

Turn your pitching results into a valuable reaction!

Where your command struggles come from.

Throwing with both feet on the ground discounts your command.

- When you land your foot plant and then make a throwing action, you twist your back.

> Your back’s twisting action carries down your spine and into your hips.

> At the same time your throwing arm comes into release, your body is matching your throwing arm path to your foot plant position.

> It’s these slight changes to your throwing arm path that, no matter how good your intentions, causes you to miss your target.

To improve your command, you need a reliable process that’ll produce the same foot plant position on every pitch.

Developing elite command.

You can generate much better command by clearing your front shoulder with one foot still off the ground. By clearing your front shoulder, your body lands your stride in the same position on every pitch.

+  To keep your from falling on your nose, your twisting action out of your front leg lift forces you to stride.

> Your stride creates the torque that travels up your core and out your throwing hand.

> By turning your throwing action into a reaction, you force your throwing hand to come through the same productive release window on every pitch.

This simple approach turns your throwing arm into an instrument you use to keep your Team close enough to win.

Sounds easy enough, but it’s not.

Clearing your front shoulder only works when you end your front leg lift with your weight centered between your knees. Since most Pitchers end their front leg lift with their weight over their back foot, turning your throwing arm into a productive tool isn’t as easy as it sounds.

If you don’t know the 4 simple actions that’ll end your front leg lift in a dynamically balanced position, contact us for help. You’ll be glad you did!!!

Skip Fast

Expert Pitching Coach

Professional Pitching Institute
Cell or Text: 856-524-3248

WWW: http://www.propitchinginstitute.com 

E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com

Copyright © 2018