Hey Pitching Coach ... "what's wrong with you?"

Expectations vs. Actual Accomplishments

You expect your Coach to teach you “greatness”, to get you to pass the eye test and to produce higher level performances than your present level demands.

Every Coach sees the potential for and talks to your future “greatness”, but there’s a huge difference between your Coach seeing and talking about your “greatness” and your actual results.

Reasons are based in fact, excuses aren’t.

There’s always a fact-based reason your results don’t match your potential.  Because untrained Coaches won’t know these reasons, these Coaches have one option… blame someone/something else for you not doing as well as expected and doom the high-level success you’ve always dreamed you’d achieve.

To experience “greatness”, work with a Coach who won’t make excuses, is knowledgeable enough to correct any unacceptable trends and hold themselves accountable for your performances.

Our Pitching Solution

We’re putting together a network of exceptional Coaches who want every Student, no matter their age or skill level, to overachieve and who, once trained, are willing to take full responsibility for their Pitcher’s lackluster results.

Should any of this describe you, get in touch with me. I’ll train you how to teach “greatness” and, in the process, to manage a successful, yet profitable, local Pro Pitching Institute Chapter.

Skip Fast,
Director – National Coaching Network

Professional Pitching Institute

Web: www.propitchinginstitute.com 
E-mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Cell or Text: 856-524-3248

Copyright © 2017, The Pro Pitching Institute.

Stabilize your Baseball Pitching Performances

The Science behind your motion:

Your Base of Support. When standing on two feet, your base of support is the area between your two feet. However, with one foot on the ground, your base of support transfers from your feet to your knees.

Your Base of Support and Gravity.

When gravity pushes down within your base of support, your position is stable. When this line of gravity falls outside your base of support, your position is unstable. 

Your inner ear.

Anytime your line of gravity falls outside your base of support, your inner ear repositions your arms until you line of gravity moves within your base of support.

Applying Science to Pitching:

Front leg lift and command.

Sustainable pitching results comes from the stable base you create at the top of your front leg lift keeping your lower body activity free to delivery every pitch into your Catcher’s target.

Recognizing instability.

You finish your front leg lift with your front knee behind your back knee and your inner ear uses your arms for balance and, instead of your lower body producing your results, you hope your eye-to-hand coordination gets the ball near your target.

The solution.

We would spend time adjusting to your current foot placements and back leg orientation to make sure you end your front leg lift in a stable position.

Skip Fast,
Director – National Coaching Network

Professional Pitching Institute

Web: www.propitchinginstitute.com 
E-mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Cell or Text: 856-524-3248

Copyright © 2017, The Pro Pitching Institute.

Forward momentum sends your pitching backwards

Science has a greater impact on your pitching than you realize.

The Science of Pitching

Your Inner Ear

Your inner ear triggers your “fight or flight” response that, the instant any movement works against the earth’s gravitational forces, gets your body back in balance.

Applying Science to Your Pitching

Driving off the rubber.

Your back-leg drive working against gravity tells your inner ear to trigger your “fight or flight” which uses your arms to get your body back in balance.  

Your stride into your foot strike.

Your “fight or flight” response continues to use your arms to balance your body.

Your foot strike.

Your “fight or flight” response uses your back leg to offset your forward momentum.

Your Throwing action and command.

The drag from your back leg on your throwing arm means you’ve lost control over your throwing arm path.

Your Pitching solution.

We teach our students how to lift their front leg and move into their foot strike without pushing against gravity.  From there, we let science force your “fight or flight” response to bring your throwing hand through very sustainable and consistently tiny release window.

Skip Fast,
Director – National Coaching Network

Professional Pitching Institute

Web: www.propitchinginstitute.com 
E-mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Cell or Text: 856-524-3248

Out-of- balance pitching balance

Science has a greater impact on your pitching than you realize.

The physical nature of “balance”.

A cylinder resting on one end is in “balance”, but push the top of the cylinder past its base and gravity tips the cylinder over.  

Gravity

Your inner ear constantly monitors your head alignment.  When your inner ear senses your head isn’t level, to get your head back to level, your inner ear instantly takes control of your arms.

How your body deals with your state of “balance” Front Knee

When your front knee comes even with or behind your bellybutton, you balance your weight over your back foot. To move toward your target, you do something to shift your upper body weight to the home plate side your back foot.

Disruptive Throwing action

Your weight shift tilts your head and forces your inner ear to use your throwing arm to get your head back to level. Only after you get your head back of level, which happens at foot strike, can you use your throwing arm to complete your delivery. Your throwing arm works by itself, expands your release window and means you to lose control of where your ball will finish.

The Solution

Use your movements into your front leg lift to keep your head level as you move toward the plate which turns your throwing action into a spontaneous response and gives you the command you need to succeed at the highest levels.

Skip Fast,
Director – National Coaching Network

Professional Pitching Institute

Web: www.propitchinginstitute.com
E-mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Cell or Text: 856-524-3248

#baseball #command #coaching #velocity #pitching #propitchinginstitute

Rotation without forward movement produces sustainability.

Rotation without forward movement produces sustainability.

You never know when you’ll begin your throwing action - At the first sign of a forward weight shift, your subconscious uses your throwing arm to counterbalance your weight shift. Until your subconscious it senses your lower body is your center of balance, you continue using your throwing arm for balance. At the point where your body is back in balance, your subconscious frees your throwing arm to complete your delivery.

We don’t know of any Coach who knows how to teach a Pitcher to move down the mound and into their foot plant at the exactly same rate all the time. Even a fraction of a second difference from one pitch to the next translates to the Pitcher missing their last pitch release point by a ½ inch and their location by 3 inches.  Missing your target by 3 inches means, at the highest levels, the Pitcher gives their Opponent an opportunity to drive the ball.

You begin your throwing action at the same time all the time - Sustainability comes from using one rotation at the same time on every pitch that’ll force your subconscious to spontaneously take your throwing hand through the same productive path.

By teaching Pitchers to end your front leg lift using your lower body for balance, the Sustainability Network allows the Pitcher to rotate their body into their foot plant at the same point all the time which, to their body back in balance, uses their subconscious to spontaneously bring their throwing hand through the same tiny release window.

Sustainability comes from using a Pitcher’s throwing arm not for offsetting a forward weight shift, but to bring their body back to balance after they rotate out of your lower body balanced front leg lift.

Skip Fast,
Professional Pitching Institute

Sustainability Network Team Leader

Web: www.propitchinginstitute.com 
E-mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Sustainability Network: propitchinginstitute.slack.com

Cell or Text: 856-524-3248

Copyright © 2017

The Pro Pitching Institute.

There is only ONE way to fix a motion.

What you see when you look at a motion are behaviors.

A “behavior” is a reaction to an action.

Your wasting your time trying to change a “behavior” by changing the “behavior”?

The Sustainability Network makes the behaviors you see more efficient, more functional and more sustainable by addressing the action causing the behavior you want to change.

In fact, when you know what to look for, the way you see your body behave tells you which actions you need to address.

Become a Sustainability Network Member today!!!

As a Network Member, you use the 5 Core Behaviors to point you to the one action that’ll improve a Pitcher’s effectiveness, execution and sustainability. 

Skip Fast,
Professional Pitching Institute

Sustainability Network Team Leader

Web: www.propitchinginstitute.com 
E-mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Sustainability Network: propitchinginstitute.slack.com

Cell or Text: 856-524-3248

Elite pitchers focus on their motion, not their results.

When a pitcher’s results are unacceptable, they adjust their motion. Their motion’s efficiency, functionality and sustainability becomes only as good as their most acceptable last pitch result.

For any pitcher to distinguish themselves, they become more efficient than other pitchers, make their movements more functional than other pitchers and show greater sustainability than other pitchers. 

Pitchers who make efficiency, functionality and sustainability their goal are offered more next-level opportunities than pitchers who live and die by their last pitch result. 

Efficient – A pitcher’s organized and systematic movements waste no energy.

- Efficient pitchers use their front leg lift to produce lower body balance and their core rotation to trick your body into producing unbelievably exceptional results.

Functional – Rather than whether a pitcher’s motion looks right, the best pitchers design their motion to effectively use their core to produce their results.

- Pitchers with a core-driven approach magically produce next-level results and, because they realize they can’t produce better results than they do through their core-driven delivery, they stop trying to make their motion look the way someone else says their motion should look. 

Sustainable – The elite pitchers know how to maintain their results from one pitch to the next and from season to season.

- These pitchers use their efficient and functional core-driven responses to simply and systematically maintain their results.

I turn inefficient, dysfunctional and unsustainable arm-driven deliveries into an efficient, functional and sustainable core-driven motions.  Contact me to show the pitchers you know what I can do for them.

Skip Fast
Independent Major League Pitching Consultant
Pro Pitching Institute
skip@propitchinginstitute.com
856-524-3248

Ever wonder what differentiates an exceptional pitcher from everyone else... well, wonder no more!

Ever wonder what differentiates an exceptional pitcher from everyone else... well, wonder no more! 

A Core-Driven Motion - The answer is quite simple. Elite #1 MLB Starters and multiple year Cy Young winners use their lower body for balance.  Their lower body balance keeps their arms uninvolved with their balance and lets them use their lower body rotation to move their throwing arm into an exceptional and easily repeated release window.

A Common Arm-Driven Motion - Some correctable movement causes a weight shift.  To offset your weight shift, you use your arms for balance. Worst yet, using your arms for balance stops any lower body rotation, delays your throwing hand into release and signals your Team that you're extremely replaceable.

Pitching is a balance sport.
A lot of balance and a little effort defines your core-driven motion and results. The balance that produces a core-driven delivery occurs at the top of your front leg lift. At the top of your front leg lift, our 5 pitching competencies put your body in a position where gravity becomes a non-factor and your lower body becomes your primary source of balance. In fact, what separates your core-driven motion from any arm-driven delivery is your lower body balance. Our 5 pitching competencies focus on and teach you how to use your legs and hips for balance.

To elevate your arm-driven motion into core-driven delivery, ask for our help.

Skip Fast
Pro Pitching Institute
Major League Pitching Consultant
skip@propitchinginstitute.com
856-524-3248

How to change your motion without changing your motion.

Your worst outcomes come from your working release point being different from your most competitive release point.

Physically, the motions where you experience a difference between these two release points means you used your throwing arm for balance.

Visually, with a disconnect between these two release point, means you see your pitch finish way away from your intended.

The way your body works, there's only one spot that causes you to use your throwing arm for balance... your initial foot placements.

By changing your foot placements, we eliminate you using your throwing arm for balance as much as you do, make your working release come through your most competitive release point more often and do all of the above without changing your motion.

By adjusting your foot placements, we make your worst pitches finish closer to your target, reduce the times your working release misses your most competitive release and do all of the above without changing the motion that got you where you are today.

When you change your initial foot placements for the better, you become competitive at the next-level right now!!!

L.A. "Skip" Fast
Independent Major League Consultant
Pro Pitching Institute
skip@propitchinginstitute.com
856-524-3248

Is your working release point the same as your most competitive release point?

Everyone has a release point where, when your hand passes through this point, you get the most competitive results.

If, on every pitch, you could get your hand to move through this space all the time, you won't need any coaching.

The fact is that no one supporting you journey to pitching greatness knows how to get your hand to consistently move through this space.

Your Coaches have tried and I don’t want you to forget what they told you, but I do want you to stop trying to do what they told you to do and let me show you how to do what they asked you.

When you work with me, I accept full full responsibility for your results. That means, when you miss your target by a lot, it’s my fault, not yours.

First, I’ll show you how to use very little effort to ­­place every pitch into your target area and then I’ll show you how to use late ball movement, a deceptive arm action and superior command to challenge every hitter to make solid contact with your pitch.

“So how about we get started?”

L.A. "Skip" Fast

Major League Pitching Consultant

Pro Pitching Institute

skip@propitchinginstitute.com

www.propitchinginstitute.com

How does your balance impact your results?

"Balance" means your shoulders and hips are directly one another and your hips are level to the ground.
- When in "balance", your upper body is free to move any way you want.
- With an "imbalance", you lose control of your movements until you get your body back into "balance". 
(Your "balance" response is called a "righting reflex".) 

You want to create ONE late "imbalance" - You generate ONE "imbalance" by coming into your front leg lift with your body in "balance" and then produce a planned "imbalance" that forces you to land your foot plant with your chest facing your target and your front hip lower than your back hip.

By doing this, you get back in "balance" by ...  

1. Your shoulders rotate to match your hips. (You engage your lower body.)

2. To satisfy your mind's urge to get your body back in "balance", without any effort you make totally spontaneous and naturally productive throwing action. 

No matter the pitch called, your consistent fastball arm speed, late ball movement and pinpoint command challenges your opponent to make solid contact with your pitch.

An early "imbalance" isn't nearly as effective - By ending your front leg lift with your hips tilted, you lose your lower body and end up throwing all upper body.

By ending your front leg lift with a hip tilt... 

1. You come out of your front leg lift with an "imbalance".  (With only one foot touching the ground, it becomes a physical impossibility to get your body back in "balance".)

2. Only after your front foot gets back on the ground and you get your hips back to level do you regain use of your upper body. 

3. In the process, your "balance" gives your body nothing to react to and you're forced to delivery each pitch with your shoulders whirling around your neck.

You never really know where your pitch is going to end up or whether your opponent picked on your throwing arm angle tipping your pitch. 

Now you know that the best way to have "balance" impact your results comes from your "balance" into the top of your front leg lift allowing you to generate ONE late "imbalance".

In fact, when you do this, you can use your results to measure your front leg lift.  (When you miss your target by an unacceptable distance, you merely revisit and refine your movements into your front leg lift.)

L.A. “Skip” Fast

Pro Pitching Institute
Independent Major League Pitching Coach

www.propitchinginstitute.com

skip@propitchinginstitute.com

“My simple, yet extremely powerful, business rule: fix it once and move on!”  

"Execute" | "Excel"  | Throwing Arm Health | Testimonials | "Prosper" | Contact

Are you an “A” or “B” rated pitcher?

The difference between an "A" and "B" rated pitcher is like day and night.

• An "A" Pitcher's foot placements keep their throwing arm uninvolved with their balance.
• A "B" Pitcher's foot placements force them to use their throwing arm for balance.  

There's no middle ground. 

Either your body uses your throwing arm for balance or not!!!

“A” Pitchers

Overview - You’re an “A” pitcher when you know the movements to make that'll deliver every pitch directly to your target with different velocities and various movements.

There's ONE way to produce “A” performances!

Your focus – You focus on your foot placements, your front leg lift and your upper body throwing trigger.

Your foot placement choice – Your foot placements keep your hips level into the top of your front leg lift.

Your upper body – Your upper body remains uninvolved with your balance and free to move any way you want.

Your throwing trigger – You land your foot plant with a hip tilt to your glove hand side by rotating your chest toward your target out of your front leg lift.

Your throwing action – Your hip tilt forces a totally spontaneous and naturally productive throwing (re)action.

“B” Pitchers

Overview - You’re a “B” pitcher when you do well against hitters with a flaw you can exploit and/or hitters who don’t recognize and fail to drive the pitches missing over the plate.

No matter what, everyone else is a “B” Pitcher!

Your focus – You’re more focused on what you see yourself do, not the actions causing you to do what you see yourself do!

Your foot placement choice – Your foot placements cause your hips to tilt into the top of your front leg lift.

Your upper body – You need your throwing arm to offset your hip tile at the top of your front leg lift.

Your throwing trigger – Before you can complete your delivery, you need to get your front foot back on the ground and get your hips back to level.

Your throwing action – Your throwing arm works independently to bring your throwing arm through your release window.

Contact us to find out how to transform your “B” foot placements into “A” performances.

L.A. “Skip” Fast

Pro Pitching Institute

www.propitchinginstitute.com

skip@propitchinginstitute.com

“My simple, yet extremely powerful, business rule: fix it once and move on!”  

Pro Pitching Institute | Throwing Arm Health | Testimonials | Available Programs | Contact

Manage your mind's “built-in response mechanism”.

Your mind's “built-in response mechanism” continually monitors your hip orientation. 

To give you a better understanding of how your mind's “built-in response mechanism” impacts your pitching, let's address your actions/reactions strictly in terms of how your body works.

In fact, the way your body reacts when you're perched atop a balance beam doesn't stop just because you're pitching!!!

How your body works on a balance beam.

1. You control the way your mind's “built-in response mechanism” reacts.
Situation- When you take a step on the balance beam, you hips have to tilt.

Your reaction - The instant your mind's “built-in response mechanism” senses your hip tilt, your mind elevates the arm opposite the lowest hip.
Controlling your mind's “built-in response mechanism” - With the proper training, you can adjust your legs to walk the beam without tilting your hips.

2. You need not lose control of your body.
Situation- When you take one foot off the beam, your mind's “built-in response mechanism” takes control of your body.
Your reaction - With only one foot on the beam, you lose your other leg's stabilizing influence on your mind's “built-in response mechanism” and, until you find a way to balance your weight over the beam, even the slightest movement changes your hip orientation. 

Controlling your mind's “built-in response mechanism” - With the proper training, there's a way to use your off leg (your front leg) to keep your hips level and stop your mind's “built-in response mechanism” from taking control of your body.

3. Making a spontaneous throwing (re)actions.
Situation - Place both feet on and perpendicular to a balance beam or line on the floor.  Once you've done this, lift one foot and then, as a separate action, take a step. 

Your reaction - As your foot lifts up and comes back on the beam (line), your mind's “built-in response mechanism” senses the subtle change to your hip elevations and demands you use your arms to get your hips back to level.  In order to complete a throwing action, you'd have to bring your back arm forward and swivel your front foot on the beam.
Using your mind's “built-in response mechanism” to make a throwing (re)action - When you lift your foot off the beam, instead of stepping forward, quickly move the same shoulder (the shoulder on the side of the front foot that's off the beam) away from the beam. 
Your mind's “built-in response mechanism”... 
1. Senses your misaligned shoulders and, to realign your hips, moves your back hip forward.  
2. As this is happening, to stop you from falling off the beam, your mind's “built-in response mechanism” places your front foot back on the beam. (It needs to be noted that your stride is a "reaction" to your front shoulder movement and not an "action".)

3. Your front foot contact with the beam instantly sends your mind's “built-in response mechanism” a signal that you landed with your front hip lower than your back.

4. To get your hips back to level, your mind's “built-in response mechanism” immediately rotates your throwing shoulder around your head and brings your throwing arm forward and across your body.  

5. Your spontaneous throwing (re)action relies upon your mind's “built-in response mechanism” predictable reaction patterns to consistently bring your throwing hand through the same tiny release window on every pitch. (Your spontaneous throwing (re)action is the source of your sustainable fastball command.)

Controlling your mind's “built-in response mechanism” - Without someone training you to finish your front leg lift with your hips level, getting mind's “built-in response mechanism” to generate a spontaneous throwing (re)action becomes a physical impossibility.

Trying to figure out how to do everything that's presented takes years or you can ask me to teach you sustainable fastball command in a matter of weeks... the choice is yours!!! 

L.A. “Skip” Fast

Pro Pitching Institute

www.propitchinginstitute.com

skip@propitchinginstitute.com

“My simple, yet extremely powerful, business rule: fix it once and move on!”  

Pro Pitching Institute | Throwing Arm Health | Testimonials | Available Programs | Contact

One position determines your success.

Throwing arm balance 

makes sustainable fastball command a physical impossibility!

Your success hinges upon the collective baseball community addressing your hip orientation at the top of your front leg lift. 

When you complete your front leg lift with your hips off your target line and/or tilted, your mind's “built-in response mechanism” uses your throwing arm for balance.

When this happens, the throwing arm path you want your throwing arm to take conflicts with the throwing arm path your mind's “built-in response mechanism” wants your arm to take.

No matter how hard you try, the common sense thought that you can control your throwing arm path can't overpower your mind's “built-in response mechanism”.

Ask me to show you how to control your throwing arm path.

L.A. "Skip" Fast
Independent Major League Pitching Coach
Pro Pitching Institute 

856-524-3248


“My simple, yet extremely powerful, business rule: fix it once and move on!”

Pro Pitching Institute | Throwing Arm Health | Testimonials | Available Programs | Contact 

Discover your only path to success!

There's a huge difference between "seeing", "thinking" and "knowing" your hips are in an optimal position.

Sustainable fastball command comes from "knowing" your hips are level at the top of your front leg lift.

Seeing - You look at your hip orientation as you complete your front leg lift and see your hips level.

• You ignore the signs, as you come out of your front leg lift, that your hips really aren't level.

Thinking - You look at your hip orientation, see your hips level and use your last pitch result as confirmation.

• When you last result isn't acceptable, you do something to try and make your hips more level on your next pitch.
• You ignore the cues your “built-in response mechanism” presents that tell you exactly how to address your movements.

Knowing - You use your predictable “built-in response mechanism” reactions to tell you that your hips are level.

• You use your predictable “built-in response mechanism” reactions to take away any excuses for your hips not being level at the top of your front leg lift.
• You use your sustainable fastball command to confirmation your hip orientations.

Ask us to help you "know" how to produce sustainable fastball command.

L.A. "Skip" Fast

Independent Major League Pitching Coach
Pro Pitching Institute 

856-524-3248   

“My simple, yet extremely powerful, business rule: fix it once and move on!”

Pro Pitching Institute | Throwing Arm Health | Testimonials | Available Programs | Contact

Treating your reactions as actions is a waste of time.

Treating your reactions as manageable actions 

makes sustainable fastball command a physical impossibility!

The collective baseball community wants you to believe you can treat your mind's “built-in response mechanism” reactions as if they were controllable actions... which they are not!!!

Believing you can control any reaction in the middle of the cascading reactions created by your mind's “built-in response mechanism” is a complete waste of your time!!! 

The way your body works... your mind's “built-in response mechanism” takes control of your body out of your starting position. 

To experience sustainable fastball command, you forget about trying to control your uncontrollable reactions and begin using your mind's “built-in response mechanism” to manage and control of your reactions. 

Ask me to manage your mind's "built-in response mechanism".

L.A. "Skip" Fast

Independent Major League Pitching Coach
Pro Pitching Institute 

856-524-3248

“My simple, yet extremely powerful, business rule: fix it once and move on!”

Pro Pitching Institute | Throwing Arm Health | Testimonials | Available Programs | Contact