DO YOUR FOOT PLACEMENTS PROMOTE COMMAND?

How do you begin your motion?

Before your front foot comes off the ground, you make conscious decisions where you’re going to place your feet.

Your foot placements tell gravity to end your starting position with …

• Your weight centered over your back foot or
• Your weight centered between your knees.

Beginning with your weight over your back-foot compromises your command.

Your foot placements mean gravity ends your front leg lift with your weight over your back foot.

From this position, gravity forces you to stride down the mound.

As an instinctual reaction, gravity uses your throwing arm to balance your stride and, once gravity completes your foot plant, to rebalance your weight between your feet.

By ending your foot plant in a balanced position, delivering any pitch into your target becomes a separate battle.

When you end your front leg lift with your weight over your back foot, your success is determined by how well you overcome your failures.

As you’re about to realize, you become more successful by ending your front leg lift with your weight centered between your knees.

Beginning with your weight centered between your knees promotes success.

Your foot placements mean gravity ends your starting position with your weight centered between your knees.

This puts you in a position to rotate down the mound around an axis that gravity created as your front foot came off the ground.

By rotating down the mound, you keep your throwing arm uninvolved with your balance.

As an instinctual reaction, to get your body back in balance, gravity completes your foot plant and uses your throwing action to get you back in balance.

With gravity turning your throwing action into a natural reaction, your ball travels into your target more often than when your foot placements were more arbitrary.

Here’s the good news.

By following the back foot orientations, foot placements and front leg lifts outlined at the Pro Pitching Institute, your location will challenge every hitter on every pitch. 

Tell a friend! Have a friend struggling with their pitch command? Make sure to tell them about the Pro Pitching Institute.

Skip Fast
Freelance Pitching Coach
E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Cell or Text: 856-281-2596

#ElitebyChoice

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USE GRAVITY TO MAXIMIZE OF VELOCITY AND COMMAND

You don’t want your motion to be like a see-saw.

Just like see-saws teeter from one side of a bar to the other, when gravity forces you to end your front leg lift with your weight over your back foot, gravity uses your throwing arm to balance your stride. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to complete your throwing action until gravity stops needing your throwing arm for balance.

When your motion is like a see-saw, your velocity is only as good as the arm speed you generate as you rotate your shoulders around your head, but, because your throwing arm is working alone, you never really know where any one pitch will end up.

You want your motion to be like a merry-go-round.

With the right foot placements and front leg lift, gravity ends your front leg lift with your weight vertically  balanced between your knees  and horizontally balanced along a line running from your head to your bellybutton. Your weight distribution allows you to come out of your front leg lift with a hip rotation. Just like you won’t move as quickly when you stand near the center of a merry-go-round that you do when you stand near the outer edge, you allow your slow-moving hips to whip your throwing arm into release.

When your motion mirrors a merry-go-round, your hip rotation maximizes your throwing arm speed and, at the same time, your hip activity forces a situation where, to get back in balance, gravity takes your throwing arm through the same path on every pitch. Consequently, you maximize your velocity while you see your ball traveling into your target more often than not!

Here’s the good news.

By following the process outlined at the Pro Pitching Institute, you’ll make your motion more like a merry-go-round and, in the process, challenge every hitter on every pitch. 

Tell a friend! Have a friend struggling with their pitch command? Make sure to tell them about the Pro Pitching Institute.

Skip Fast
Freelance Pitching Coach
E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Cell or Text: 856-281-2596

#ElitebyChoice

Copyright © 2019

TURN GRAVITY INTO YOUR COMPETITIVE EDGE

Every time you get ready to throw a pitch, you expect it to travel directly into your Catcher’s target.

The reason you miss your target more often than you want boils down to one thing … gravity!

Even though you’ve lived with gravity since birth, even though gravity controls every movement you’ve ever made, you don’t realize what a huge influence gravity has on every pitch you throw.

When properly managed, gravity can turn your delivery into a well-timed, well-choreographed and very sustainable pitching machine.

However, when you ignore or dismiss gravity, your throwing arm path offsets your stride and, as a result, turns your ball release into a separate, unsupported and uncontrollable event. When you let this happen, you never know where any pitch will end up or, worse yet, when your pitch will drift over the plate.

When you properly manage gravity, gravity becomes the tool that’ll allow you to challenge every hitter on every pitch

Here’s the good news.

By following the process outlined at the Pro Pitching Institute, you’ll discover how to change gravity from a disruptive force into a competitive advantage. 

Tell a friend! Have a friend struggling with their pitch command? Make sure to tell them about the Pro Pitching Institute.

Skip Fast
Freelance Pitching Coach
E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Cell or Text: 856-281-2596

#ElitebyChoice

Copyright © 2019

THE ONLY WAY TO MANAGE YOUR PITCHING MOTION.

You’ve dealt with this your entire life, yet it’s still stopping you from achieving your pitching dreams.

That force is gravity and it’s truly the missing link that’ll help you achieve your pitching dreams.

Since birth, gravity has governed every movement you’ve taken. No matter how you move, your brain takes your body through this 3-step, neurological cycle.

Balance

First, there’s balance.

Your brain makes sure to keep your weight centered between your feet or, when perched on one foot, between your knees.

When your weight is in balance, your body’s gravitational force is the same on all sides of your body!

Action 

Next, you make an action.

Some arm or leg action shifts your weight from center.

Recovery Mode

While in “recovery mode” …

• Your nervous system signals your brain to immediately override your current actions and, to get your weight back to center as quickly as possible, takes complete control of your movements.
• While your brain is busy getting your weight back to center, you feel like your actions have a life of their own.
• You regain control of your movements and begin this process all over again only after your nervous system sends your brain an “all clear” signal.

Once recovered, you begin this process all over again.

Expect Every Pitch to Travel into Your Target

When you know how to manage gravity, your productive “recovery mode” forces your brain to bring your throwing hand through the very repeatable and extremely dominant release window other pitchers spend lifetimes “trying” to find.

Here’s the good news.

By following the process outlined at the Pro Pitching Institute, you’ll force your “recovery mode” to end in a spontaneous throwing response. Once mastered, instead of using strikes or stats to measure your results, you use your ability to deliver every fastball directly into your Catcher’s target to measure your front leg lift.

Tell a friend! Have a friend struggling with their fastball command? Make sure to tell them about the Pro Pitching Institute.

Skip Fast
Freelance Pitching Coach
E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Cell or Text: 856-281-2596

#ElitebyChoice

Copyright © 2019

An Athletic Stance Guarantees Sustainable Command

Whether you’re a Little League Pitcher, already pitching professionally or any level in-between, ending your front leg lift in an athletic position is one of the undeniable differences between sustainable fastball command and not knowing where your pitch is going to end up.

Every athletic event starts from an athletic position.

No matter the sport, except for pitching – we'll get into this in a second – you, like every athlete on the face of the earth, begin each play from an athletic position.

Your foot placements give you a stable foundation. When you bend your knees, you automatically center your weight between your feet. These 2 actions put you in a position to instantly do whatever you need to successfully complete the play and keep your Team close enough to win.

Poor athletic positions mean poor results.

You never end your athletic position with one foot in front of the other. Should you choose to do this, you know …

• You wouldn’t be stable.
• You’d use your arms to maintain your balance.
• You couldn’t react as quickly as you need to.

An athletic position where you place your feet in front of one another means, when you make a play, the chances you’re off-balance are huge and the chances the play ends poorly is just as great.

Pitching Ready Athletic Positions.

In pitching, when perched on one foot, your knees become your foundation. Therefore, by ending your front leg lift with your knees shoulder width apart, the chances each pitch travels directly into your Catcher’s target become a given.

When, however, you end your front leg lift with your front knee even with or behind your back knee…

• You’re unstable.
• You use your arms to stabilize your body and
• As a result, you never know where any one pitch is going to end up.

Here’s your bottom-line … unless you end your front leg lift with your knees shoulder width apart, you’ll always be searching for fastball command.

Here’s the good news.

By following the process outlined at the Pro Pitching Institute, you’ll end your front leg lift with your knees shoulder width apart. Once mastered, instead of using strikes or stats to measure your results, you use your ability to deliver every fastball directly into your Catcher’s target to measure your front leg lift.

Tell a friend! Have a friend struggling with their fastball command? Make sure to tell them about the Pro Pitching Institute.

Skip Fast
Freelance Pitching Coach
E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Cell or Text: 856-281-2596

#ElitebyChoice

Copyright © 2019

Throwing reflexes create superior command.

How your body works.

Once you tilt your core, your body uses your arms to bring your core back to vertical.

Two ways to move down the mound.

There are 2 ways to move down the mound…

With a tilted core.

When you move down the mound with a tilted core, you use your arms to get your core back to vertical. Once your front foot gets back on the ground, you use your arms to complete this task. Only when your core returns to an upright position can you complete your delivery. However, when you complete throwing action your throwing arm ends up working by itself. With your throwing arm working by itself, you never really know where any one pitch is going to end up.

With an upright core.

When you move down the mound with an upright core, you lose your core at foot plant. The instant your core moves from vertical a throwing action, or should we say a throwing reflex, gets your core back to upright.

Your throwing reflexes call upon your body’s self-correcting tendencies to bring your throwing hand through a very sustainable and extremely productive release window.

Here’s your bottom-line … when your movements keep your core vertical into your foot plant, you can always expect your ball to travel directly into your target. 

Here’s the good news.

The Pro Pitching Institute prioritizes the movements you need to keep your core vertical into your foot plant.  In the end, by following the process outlined at the Pro Pitching Institute, you motion ends with a sustainable throwing reflex. Once mastered, instead of using strikes or stats to measure your results, you use your ability to deliver every fastball directly into your Catcher’s target to measure your core alignment.

Tell a friend! Have a friend struggling with their fastball command? Make sure to tell them about the Pro Pitching Institute.

Skip Fast
Freelance Pitching Coach
E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Cell or Text: 856-281-2596

#ElitebyChoice

Copyright © 2019

A simple solution to better fastball command.

Whether you’re a Little League Pitcher, a Professional Pitcher or any level in-between, between this blog and the movements presented on the Pro Pitching Institute web site, you’ll be a step closer to knowing how to use your fastball arm speed to deliver more pitches directly into your target.

If you’re new to this blog, you owe it to yourself to subscribe today. 

Improve your performance.

You take the ball, get your sign, expect your pitch to go where you want, but, more often than not, you miss your location and, to properly catch each pitch, you force your Catcher to move his glove?

Then, every once in a while, when you see your Catcher's mitt drift over the plate, you quietly pray the hitter doesn't do too much damage?

Stick around and you’re going to discover the 2 reasons this happens and the one solution that’ll give you complete control over where your ball ends up.

How do you use your throwing arm?

Here’s your bottom-line … the longer you use your throwing arm for balance, the less likely you are to see your ball end up where you want.

You can tell when you're going to use your throwing arm for balance and can't predict with any certainty where your next pitch will end up when, before your front foot even comes off the ground, 

#1 … you begin with your back knee over your back foot

or

#2 … you begin with your back knee ahead of your back foot.

It's that simple and, even better news, the solution is just as simple.

Use your lower body to throw.

You keep your throwing arm free to respond to your lower body and will see a large ratio of pitches end up where you want when you begin with your back knee in front of and to the second base side of your back foot.

This blog and the Pro Pitching Institute web site combine to tell you how to permanently begin each motion with your back knee to the second base side of your back foot.

More importantly, by fixing your initial back-knee position, you’ll experience the dominant fastball command needed to attract next-level attention. 

Here’s the good news about improving your fastball command.

The Pro Pitching Institute prioritizes the important aspects of your motion while ignoring the less relevant things.  In the end, by following the process outlined at the Pro Pitching Institute, you motion looks like the one you originally visualized, but, instead of using strikes or stats to measure your results, you use your ability to deliver every fastball directly into your Catcher’s target.

Tell a friend! Have a friend struggling with their fastball command? Make sure to tell them about the Pro Pitching Institute.

Skip Fast
Freelance Pitching Coach
E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Cell or Text: 856-281-2596

#ElitebyChoice

Copyright © 2019