Past Second Opinion Tuesday Responses

These are all the “Second Opinion Tuesday” questions and responses.

4/28 - What part of your motion has the greatest impact on your results?

Your initial footwork has the greatest impact on your results. 

Your legwork before your front foot comes off the ground determines your body position at the top of your front leg lift. From the top of your front leg lift, your body either uses your throwing arm to get your body back in balance or uses your throwing action to keep your body in balance.

When you use your throwing arm to get you back in balance, you let your drive for balance take over your throwing arm path and you’re never know for sure where any one pitch ends up. When your throwing action keeps you in balance, you can expect a large percent of your pitches to travel directly into your intended target.

Unsure how to change your initial footwork? We’re here to help.

4/21 – Without throwing, how can you measure your pitch location?

When you make a super-slow-motion pitching delivery, do you stride out of your front leg lift?

If this is the case, your hands separating after you begin your stride means your biological need for balance is using your throwing arm path to balance your stride. Let this happen and you can’t know with any certainty where any one pitch ends up.

If you’re like the most elite Pitchers, your upper body rotation spins your body into your stride and your biological need for balance uses your throwing action to send your pitches into your intended target with the ball movement you expect.

Can’t spin down the mound from your current front leg lift? Contact me for some virtual instruction.

4/14 - Is there such a thing as an “ideal stride length”?

If you’re a Pitcher who struggles with location, the right stride length supplies the tempo you need to better location your pitches.

Our “Winning Pitch Location Strategies^©” produces a natural stride length proven to eliminate tempo from your motion while you still deliver your pitches directly into your target.

4/7 - How can you expect a consistently productive arm slot?

You use your biological need for balance to get you into the same leg lift position on every motion which leads to the same movements as you move toward your target which forces your body to move your throwing arm through the same arm slot on every pitch.

3/31 – How do I improve my pitch location without seeing where my ball ends up?

One of the “Winning Pitch Location Strategies^©” is practicing your delivery in slow motion. When you make your slow motion delivery and you can’t help but end your stride with a throwing action, you can be certain, if you were the same motion at game speed, your ball is more than likely to finish very close to your intended target.

3/24 - How do you use video to get better?

This is a trick question.There’s a real problem with trying to reproduce what you see in 2-dimensions in a 3-dimensional world.

For example, when you see an individual stride in 2 dimensions, without knowing how to read his physical reactions, you have no idea whether the person strides straight, to the right or to the left.

With this in mind, without studying how what you see in 2-dimensions relates to the 3-dimensional world, using a video to improve your pitching can cause more issues than you realize.

Videos not working? Let our “Winning Pitch Location Strategies^©” help you turn your motion into the motion you want to copy.

3/17 – How does balance play into my pitch location?

Picture walking a balance beam or teetering over the support beam on a seesaw. You make any movement and, without you thinking about it, your body automatically reacts to the opposite side.

In pitching, when you end your stride with your weight shifted to your glove hand side, the only way for your body to get back in balance is to make a throwing action. Combine this with a laser focus on your target and your body spontaneously delivers every pitch directly into your target.

3/10 – Relative to your back-foot, where do you want your back knee before you begin your front leg lift?

The more your back knee is over your back foot, the greater the probability your pitch ends up where you plan, but, to maximize their location, we teach our Pitchers how to end their front leg lift with your back-knee to the second base side of their back foot.

3/3- What free tool drives every pitch result?

Gravity is a free tool for all to use.  We teach you how to use gravity to your advantage. Without knowing how to manage gravity or by merely ignoring its existence, you’re letting gravity destroy your pitching career.

2/25 - What is the single and most important physical choice you have to make during your pitching motion?

Your foot placements.

Your initial foot placements drive your body position at the top of your front leg lift and your body position at the top of your front leg lift determines your next pitch location.

2/18 - What's the one thing you don't do, but should be doing, that'll guarantee pitch location?

Have your hand separation out of your front leg lift begin your movement toward your target.

When you make your first movement out of your front leg lift your stride, you're going to use your throwing arm for balance and, consequently, won't know with any certainty where any one pitch will end.

2/11 - What ONE thing can you do to immediately tighten your target area?

Unless you eliminate gravity from impacting your front leg lift, your pitch location is doomed before your front foot comes off the ground.

2/4 - Why is it that, even though you have a laser focus on your location, you still have trouble with your location?

Your mind's supercomputer is programmed to keep your body in balance. When a single movement creates an imbalance, your mind uses your throwing arm for balance and, consequently, you never know where any one pitch will end up. Resolve the movement creating your imbalance and you immediately tighten your target area. Don't know which movement is causing your imbalance.

Have your own question/comment leave it in the comment section and, when I choose your question, I’ll post which one of the "Winning Pitch Location Strategies^©" I'd use to tighten your target area.

Don't have a question this week? Think of questions you'd like to ask and post them anytime!

Skip Fast

“Winning Pitch Location Strategies©” Author/Coach

skip@propitchinginstitute.com

http://www.propitchinginstitute.com

+1-856-524-3248

#ElitebyChoice

© 2020, Pro Pitching Institute

In pitching, less is more.

If you use your time wisely, once your Team is cleared to go back to the diamond, you can have better pitch location than when you left.

Your motion’s physical reality

Physically, your body works like the chain reaction you see when dominos fall. One domino causes the next to fall which spurs the next one to fall. This pattern continues until there are no more dominos.

Unlike the physical universe, anytime your body senses you’re about to fall over, your subconscious mind is going to use your throwing arm to keep you upright.

However, just like the dominos, when, at any one point, your body changes its position, you completely change and totally lose control of your throwing arm path.

Remove any imbalance and you rely on a spontaneous throwing action to deliver your pitches directly into your target.

How do you turn your throwing action into a natural reaction?

You start by realizing gravity impacts your pitching chain at your front leg lift, hand separation and into your throwing action.

This is your recipe for expecting your pitches to end up where you want.

You start by making a slow-motion delivery.

Should your motion stop, and this is the hardest part, you need to forget everything everyone says you need to do and start listening to what your body tells you to do.

Your mission becomes eliminating any movement you think creates even the slightest imbalance.

You continue doing this until you find the right combination of footwork, front leg lift and hand separation that, without stopping, forces every slow-motion delivery to end with a throwing action.

Accomplish this and, after your forced hiatus, you’ll come back to the mound with better pitch location than ever!

The choice you make today determines your pitching future.

After 25+ years of teaching Pitchers how to end their slow-motion delivery with a throwing action, we know how to read what your body is saying.

We can use what your body says to teach you the footwork, front leg lift and separation that’ll produce the spontaneous pitch location you’ve been searching for all along.

Want to end your hiatus with better pitch location? Let’s talk!

Skip Fast

Pro Pitching Institute
“Winning Pitch Location Strategies^©” Author/Coach
E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.comCell or Text: 856-524-3248

#ElitebyChoice

Copyright © 2020, Pro Pitching Institute.

Use the pandemic’s baseball stoppage to improve your pitch location

Fill your down time with dynamic balance.

Spontaneous pitch location relies on dynamic balance to deliver your pitches into your target.

Walking on a balance beam, riding a bike and, when properly managed, pitch location are all examples of dynamic balance.

Dynamic balance means your body is in a balanced position where, when you make a subtle arm or a leg movement, you force your body to move into an entirely different balanced position.

During your hiatus, make it a point to discover the right sequence of arm and leg movements that’ll make your throwing action part of your body’s dynamic balancing routine and produce the spontaneous pitch location required to succeed at the highest levels.

 

Don’t waste your forced isolation.

After 25+ years of studying how dynamic balance generates spontaneous pitch location, we realize one super-slow-mo pitching action accurately predicts your pitching results.

When you make a super-slo-mo pitching motion and your motion stops as your front foot hits the ground, your movements disconnect your throwing arm from your body and you can’t know where any one pitch ends up.

During your hiatus, you can work toward your super-slo-mo pitching motion ending with a throwing action and here’s a clue ...

Spontaneous pitch location is merely rearranging your movement sequence so, when you complete your delivery, your throwing arm automatically delivers your pitches into your target.

Accomplish this and, when you get back to the mound, your spontaneous pitch location is sure  to keep your Team close enough to win every time you pitch.

You have a choice.

You can go back to the mound still hoping your ball ends up where you want or you can use your baseball hiatus to have us over prepare you to produce the spontaneous pitch location you’ve been searching for all along.

Want spontaneous pitch location? Let’s talk!

Skip Fast

Pro Pitching Institute
“Winning Pitch Location Strategies^©” Author/Coach
E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Cell or Text: 856-524-3248

#ElitebyChoice

Copyright © 2020, Pro Pitching Institute.

10 Pitching Time-wasters

Your pitching career is remarkably short. Therefore, how you use every second counts. To help you better manage your time, what follows is a random list of top 8 things we think aren’t worth your time.

1. Watching pitching videos. You see what the Pitcher does, but without knowing how the Pitcher does what you see him do, there’s no way to duplicate his motion.

2. Imagining a bright future. Having a vision is important, but a vision without a plan won’t help you achieve your dreams.

3. Just throwing. Instead of “just throwing”, always follow your pitching motion’s movement sequence and, by doing so, you reinforce the physical progression you use when pitching.

4. Focus on stats. You’ll spend your time and energy chasing a number. Instead, chase a movement sequence that, without thinking about it, maximizes your numbers.

5. Celebrity Coaches. Coaches who have pitched professionally and now teach others how to pitch know what they did, but, sadly, few know how to teach what they did.

6. Debate the value of One School of Thought over Another. Your body only works one way. Instead of wasting your time debating one school of thought versus another, focus on the way your body. Do this and you’ll challenge every Hitter on every pitch. 

7. Video Analysis. You know what you see, but do you understand why you see what you see and how to change it? Instead of changing what you see by trying to change what you see, study and apply the way the human body is known to work to your videos.

8. Constant Change. Instead of constantly making changes to your motion, develop a step-by-step movement sequence, stick to it and, when a disturbing trend appears, refine your movement pattern from the bottom up.
 
 

Stop wasting your time

Our “Winning Pitch Location Strategies^©” gives you a pitching plan that, instead of wasting your time, keeps your pitching career moving forward.

Want to know more? Visit The Pro Pitching Institute!

Skip Fast

Pro Pitching Institute
“Winning Pitch Location Strategies^©” Author/Coach
E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Cell or Text: 856-524-3248

#ElitebyChoice

Copyright © 2020, Pro Pitching Institute.

How to Develop Bulletproof Muscle Memory

What do you do during your bullpen sessions?

The more your movements seamlessly connect your body parts, the more pitches you see travel into your target.

When you get to this point, you spend your bullpen sessions reinforcing the movement pattern you know works for you.

Any disconnect between any one of your body parts and, instead of using your bullpen to reinforce, your bullpen sessions turn into a location-producing work-around.

Three approaches to muscle memory.

Good – This might seem repetitive, but one bullpen approach is hoping to improve your location by improving your location.
Once you find a “feel” for your pitches, your pitches travel into your target. With this approach, when you take the mound, you’re forced to find a different “feel” for every outing. At the higher levels, while you try to find your “feel for that day, your Opponents patiently wait for you to make mistakes they can drive.

Better - You make arbitrary changes to your motion, but the issue becomes knowing whether the change improves your results?

You hold onto any change that produces the results you want to see, but without a large sample of pitches, you never know until it’s too late whether the change is right for you.

Best - You study your motion, make improvements based upon your research and, after making the adjustment, expect to see more pitches travel into your target.
With this option, there’s no guessing, hoping or trying. You simply use your bullpen session to reinforce the repeatable movement patterns that turn your results into an expectation.

Productive bullpen sessions.

The “Best” option is your goal. Discover an efficient movement pattern and you stop worrying about your results. You miss your target by an unacceptable distance and, because you have a productive movement sequence,  you can expect and see your next pitch travel into your target.

Our “Winning Pitch Location Strategies^©” teaches you the movement patterns where the expectation is for every pitch to travel directly into your target.

Want to stop trying and start succeeding? Let’s talk!

Skip Fast

Pro Pitching Institute
“Winning Pitch Location Strategies^©” Author/Coach
E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Cell or Text: 856-524-3248

#ElitebyChoice

Copyright © 2020, Pro Pitching Institute.

Why you can’t locate your pitches?

Pitch location is built around dynamic balance, nature’s physical forces and the way your body works.

- Dynamic balance is balance while moving.
- Your most influential physical force is gravity.
- Your mind is built to keep your body in balance.

How these factors interact with one another

Let’s use riding a bike to demonstrate how these 3 factors tie together.

Riding a bike is a dynamically balanced action.

- Unless the ground is banked, anytime you take a turn, you can’t help but lean in the opposite direction.
- Should your front wheel run over a stone, you can’t stop from using your front wheel to keep you from falling over.

Therefore, the way you react to your environment keeps you safe, but, in the process, you lose control of how your body moves.

Why you  can’t control your throwing arm path?

In each of these easily corrected instances, the environment your movements create cause you to lose control of your throwing arm path.

- From the stretch, you begin with your feet wider than your hips, you stagger your feet or you begin your motion with your glove hand to the second base side of center.
- From the wind-up, you begin with both heels parallel to the rubber or your rocker step takes your front foot behind your back foot.

In each instance, your mind demands you end your front leg lift with your weight over your back foot.

With your weight over your back foot, to move into your delivery, you must shift your weight toward your target. In the process, gravity alerts your mind about your weight shift, uses your throwing arm for balance and makes it impossible to know with any certainty where any one pitch ends up????

Fixes are simple

The good news is that positions are easily corrected and, by doing so, your ball will travel directly into your intended target much more often.

Wondering how to use your movements to produce a more sustainable throwing arm path? Let’s talk.

Skip Fast
Pro Pitching Institute
“Winning Pitch Location Strategies^©” Author/Coach
E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Cell or Text: 856-524-3248

#ElitebyChoice

Copyright © 2020, Pro Pitching Institute.

“Slide Steps” Don’t Work!

The way your body works

When you move down the mound, you’re going to use your throwing arm to offset any forward weight shift.

When your body uses your throwing arm for balance, you can’t complete your delivery until your front foot comes back to earth and you center your weight between your feet.

All this takes time and during this time and, at normal speed, you give runners every chance to steal on you.

“Slide steps” solve the stealing issue, but create a location issue

To speed your journey into release and stop runners from stealing on you, you increase the distance between your feet, lift your front foot and slide down the mound. 

With a slide step, you force your throwing arm to move a lot quicker than normal speed.

Consequently, by pushing your throwing path to its limits, your slide step solves the issue of holding the runner but makes it nearly impossible to know where any one pitch will end up.

Why would you want to “slide step”?

When you slide step, you end up holding the runner, but risk missing your target over the plate and having your opponent drive your miss.

Your job is to keep your Team close enough to win. When you slide step, you risk not doing your job and putting your Team in hole they can’t climb out of.

Stop having to “slide step”

My “Winning Pitch Location Strategies^©” teach you how to not use your throwing arm for balance. Instead, how to use your throwing action for balance.

By seamlessly eliminating the need to use your throwing arm for balance, your time to the plate matches any “slide step” without compromising your pitch location. 

Have an issue with your pitch location when you “slide step”? Let’s talk!

Skip Fast
Pro Pitching Institute
“Winning Pitch Location Strategies^©” Author/Coach
E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Cell or Text: 856-524-3248

#ElitebyChoice

Copyright © 2020, Pro Pitching Institute.