Pitching … How to engage your lower body?

The best and easiest way to challenge every hitter on every pitch comes from turning your throwing action into a lower body reaction.

These are the choices you have to engage your lower body.

Your front leg lift.

By ending your front leg lift with your weight centered just in front of your back foot, your core is upright, and your arms are free to move anyway you want.

But not … By ending your front leg lift with your weight over your back foot, you tilt your core. You can move your arms anyway you want, but, unlike when you end your front leg lift with your weight centered in front of your back foot, your arm movements are separate from the rest of your body.

You move down the mound.

You open your glove side shoulder to create a lower body rotation. It’s your lower body rotation that forces you to move down the mound.

But not … To move down the mound, you’re force to shift your weight toward your target.

You complete your stride.

With your lower body rotation putting you in a position to literally fall on your face, you instinctively place your front foot on the ground.

But not … Your front foot hits the ground when the weight on your front side overpowers your throwing arm frantically trying to counterbalance your body mass on your back side.

You complete your throwing action.

Your natural foot plant stops your lower body rotation. The energy you generate by stopping your lower body rotation moves up your core and out your throwing hand.

But not … Landing your foot plant and getting your core back to vertical clears your body to make a secondary throwing action.

What lower body engagement does for you?

Your glove side shoulder opens to cause a chain reaction where your lower body rotation whips your throwing arm into release.

Because your throwing arm reacts to lower body activity, you spontaneously bring your throwing hand through a very productive and extremely consistent release window, you delivery every pitch into your Catcher’s mitt and, even on your off-speed pitches, show your opponent a fastball arm speed and exceptionally late ball movement.

But not … By using an upper body rotation to pull your throwing arm into release, you can’t deliver more than 2 pitches into your Catcher’s target, your ball takes a predictable path into your target and, based upon the pitch you throw, you change your arm slot and arm speed.

If you don’t know how to complete your front leg lift with your weight centered in front of your back foot, contact us for help.

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

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

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 

Are you addicted to mis-informaton?

Unless you have the stomach to embrace facts that directly contradict what you hear, think and believe, you're wasting your time reading any further.

Check this out!!!

Drew Westen, an Emory University psychologist, and his colleagues proved that when you reject facts contrary to your beliefs, your brain lights up like an addict when they get a fix.

Therefore ...

-  Regardless of the facts, you're programmed to believe what you believe.
-  The positive physical response you receive when you reject contradictory facts builds upon your drive to reject any conflicting data???

You're hardwired to discard information that contradicts your beliefs.

To improve, you need to overcome the urge to reject facts contrary to your beliefs and begin focusing on how your body actually works.

When you make a throwing action without aiming at a target, your energy naturally flows from your lower body, up your core and into/out of your throwing hand.

As soon as someone places a target a few feet away, everything changes.

When you miss your target by an unacceptable distance, common sense has you thinking you can simply change your next outcome by changing your arm slot... but you CAN'T really control your throwing arm path?

How do you control your throwing arm path?

As soon as you realize you must abandon your “common sense approach” and begin managing the messages your mind’s “built-in response mechanism” sends to your brain will you gain complete control over...

1. Your throwing arm path,
2. Your next pitch release window and
3. Your ability to challenge every opponent to drive your next pitch.

Until you embrace the fact that your your “common sense approach” doesn't work, you'll continue to struggle with your command and, at the same time, you make yourself a Tommy John risk.

To make yourself next level ready and injury resistant, contact me.

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

Command comes from the top of your front leg lift.

Throwing arm balance 

makes sustainable fastball command a physical impossibility!

What the collective baseball community wants you to believe!

It really isn't “what the collective baseball community wants you to believe”, it's more about the collective baseball community not 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.

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”. 


Contact me to discover the simple adjustments that’ll free your throwing arm to produce sustainable fastball command.

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

Are you pitching in the "present" or the "future"?

A focus on your foot placements keeps you in the present.

Before we explore your "footwork", let's talk about pitching in the "past" and "future".

Pitching in the Past 

Being in the "past" – You're pitching in the past when you say to yourself “I need to adjust my arm slot.”  Observation and Interpretation - You missed your last pitch high and left.  You need to do something to get your next pitch back to my target. You're pitching in the past, not in the present.
You have as much control over your next pitch as you did your last.  What are you going to do to get your next pitch back to your target?  Are you going to use your last pitch to guide what you’re going to try to do with your next pitch?
You're pitching in the past, not in the present.
The Solution – To pitch in the present, you condition your “subconscious” to generate the consistent movements that make a naturally productive result more likely than not.

Pitching in the Future 

A “future” example – When you say to yourself “This hitter is really good.”, you're pitching in the future.
Observation and interpretation – When you think about adjustments you have to make on your next pitch, you're pitching in the future.
You have no control over your results.  What kind of plan to you have to make a quality next pitch?  What are you going to do get your next pitch to break extremely close to the plate?  No matter your grip or release, how are you going to show the hitter a fastball arm speed? Having no control over you results forces to you pitch in the future.
The Solution - To pitch in the present, you condition your “subconscious” to generate the consistent movements that make a naturally productive result more likely than not.

Lesson learned – Pitching in the “past” or “future” forces you to not only compete with yourself, but compete with your opponent as well? 

Heck, competing against the opposition is hard enough.  Why compound the issue by competing against yourself?

A focus on your foot placement before your lift your front foot off the ground is simple.  Not only does your foot placements keep you in the present, but your foot placements automatically produce Tommy John-resistant, dominant fastball command.

Ask me to help you with your footwork.

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

Is your current motion a Tommy John risk?

Your current pitching motion makes you a Tommy John risk, but comes with an upside.

What makes me feel you're at risk for a Tommy John procedure?
Your current delivery produces many acceptable results, but even occasionally seeing any one of these 3 warning signs not only make you a Tommy John risk, but point to solutions that'll make you competitive advantage at the highest levels.

1. You “rush” your deliver.- “Rushing” is your body's unhealthy adjustment to your throwing arm not being available to instantly respond to your “stride”.
2. You change your arm slot. - Changing your arm slot is the unhealthy conflict between your mind demanding to have your throwing hand move through a healthy arm slot and your drive to make your arm slot produce more acceptable results.
3. You miss your target outside your catcher's body much too often. – You’re missing your target outside your catcher’s body comes from the unhealthy conflict between your naturally healthy and naturally unhealthy arm slots.

What causes throwing arm injuries?
Throwing arm injuries come from the repetitive actions that cause small throwing arm ligament tears and fraying.

What does a healthy throwing arm action look like?
Every time you make a throwing action without consciously aiming at a target, your energy naturally flows from your lower body, up your core and into/out of your throwing hand.

How does something so simple have such grave consequences?
Simply put, you become a Tommy John risk when your naturally healthy release window fails to consistently find your target.

What do you do to make your command more acceptable?
You simply keep your current pitching motion intact and then change your outcomes by changing your arm slot.

Is changing your arm slot to change your pitching outcomes healthy?
Absolutely not! 
When you begin your motion in the same way, to make sure you stay healthy and without concern for your results, your body wants to channel your energy from your lower body, up your core and out your throwing hand.
But wait, when you change your arm slot to improve your results, you redirect your natural energy flow away from your throwing hand. When you simply change your arm slot, your energy stops in your throwing elbow and creates the small ligament tears and fraying that typically make you a Tommy John risk.

What's the solution?

Your solution is a win-win proposition

...

your solution is the dominant fastball command that give

s you absolutely no reason to

change your naturally healthy, total spontaneous and extrem

ely effective energy flow.

Your solution is a win-win proposition

...

your solution is the dominant fastball command that give

s you absolutely no reason to

change your naturally healthy, total spontaneous and extrem

ely effective energy flow.

Your solution is a win-win proposition … your solution is the sustainable fastball command that gives you absolutely no reason to change your naturally healthy, total spontaneous and extremely efficient energy flow.

How do you do this?
Without having to change your current throwing action, we spend a few minutes together to address and resolve the disruptive actions creating your naturally unhealthy energy flow.

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