Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Does Your Initial Back-Knee Position Impact Your Results?

Pro Pitching Institute
When do your pitching results suffer?
When you begin your delivery with your back knee to the home plate side of your back foot, as your front foot comes off the ground, you end your backward hip shift with all your weight over your back foot and your core tilted from front to back.

From the top of your front leg lift, you can’t complete your delivery without shifting your weight toward your target, landing your front foot back on the ground and waiting for your core to get back to an upright position.

By the time all this happens, you’re only option is to throw the ball toward your target, hope your pitch ends up where you want and use your last pitch result to dictate your next pitch arm slot.

When do you experience superior pitching results?

When you begin your delivery with your back knee over your back-foot’s toes, as your front foot comes off the ground, your hips remain level, your core upright and, most importantly, your arms remain free to move anyway you want.

From the top of your front leg lift, you use your glove arm to pivot your glove side back.  As a spontaneous reaction, your back hip comes forward, all your energy travels from your lower body and up your already vertical core forcing your throwing action to become a very productive, involuntary reflex.

When you use your body the way it’s meant to work, you use little physical effort to produce sustainably excellent results.

Should you agonize over regularly getting your back-knee to begin behind your back foot, contact me for a remarkably simple solution.

Skip Fast
Kinematic Wizard
Professional Pitching Institute
WWW: http://www.propitchinginstitute.com 
E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Cell or Text: 856-524-3248

Copyright © 2018

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Overlooking your foot placements spell pitching disaster.


Pro Pitching Institute

How your foot placements impact your pitching motion.

Based upon the way your body work, your foot placements determine whether you keep your glove arm free to trigger your lower body and your throwing arm available to instantaneously respond to your lower body activity. Without the right foot placements, it becomes a physical impossibility to engage your lower body while pitching.

Why you can’t ignore your foot placements?

Your foot placements the most overlooked, yet controllable position, in your pitching motion.
When, as your front foot comes off the ground, your foot placements cause your hips to tilt or rotate, you’re going to use your arms for balance. Using your arms for balance means you lose location, your ball is flat and your opponent controls you.

Lower body solutions.

During our “spot-coaching sessions”, we teach Pitchers to begin with their feet under their hips and a back-leg position known to give them a solid base of support. When we see the Pitcher takes his front foot off the ground, we know, at the top of their front leg lift, you’ll keep their hips level and their arms free to naturally encourage lower body engagement.

With lower body engagement comes sustainably excellent pitching results.

To schedule your “spot-coaching session”, contact us.

Skip Fast
Chief Learning Officer/Executive Director
Professional Pitching Institute
WWW: http://www.propitchinginstitute.com 
E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Cell or Text: 856-524-3248

Copyright © 2018

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

What Pitchers fail to consider?


By beginning his motion with his front knee behind his front hip, this Pitcher's inner ear will change his throwing arm path.

The Truth about Pitching.

What you think you see isn’t what happens.

Human nature dictates, when you see something you don't understand, you come up with a reason for what you see.  When you see a pitching motion, you find a reason for everything you see, but, most of the time, the way you think about the pitching motion assumes things that don’t happen.
All too often, the facts contradict your slant on what you see happen. When you don’t accept a fact that can be proven true, you effectively block yourself from achieving success on the mound.
Here’s the truththe messages your actions send to your inner ear determine your throwing arm path which sets the stage for where your next pitch ends up and how your pitch moves as it comes toward your opponent.

How Your Inner Ear Impacts Your Pitching Movements?

The Way Your Body Works

Your inner ear includes a sensory system that continually directs your subconscious mind how to take over and reposition your body parts to keep your body in balance.
Your inner ear makes sure you keep your hips level, your core upright and your weight centered within your “base of support”. When your inner ear senses even the slightest imbalance, your inner ear sends your subconscious a balance alert to take the required actions that’ll get your weight back to center.

Even pitching motion videos fail to tell the entire story.

Your inner ear processes information 500,000 times faster than your conscious mind. No matter how you want your body to move, when your inner ear senses an imbalance, your subconscious instantly overrides what you want to do and decides how your body will move.
Unless you know what to look for, even when you analyze a pitching motion video, you tend to perceive subconscious inner ear reactions as a controllable action.
As soon as you confuse a subconscious reaction as a controllable action, your inner ear will always change the way you want to move.

Your Inner Ear Reacts to Your Pitch's “Base of Support”

A typical “base of support”. 

With both feet on the ground, your feet are your “base of support”. Your inner ear uses your legs to center your weight within your “base of support”.

Single-leg “base of support”. 

With only have one foot on the ground, your “base of support” transfers from your feet to your knees. In this instance, to keep your weight centered within your “base of support”, your inner ear instinctively and continually directs your subconscious when and how to reposition your arms, legs and core.

Stable single-leg balance. 

As long as you maintain a distance between your knees and keep your weight centered within your “base of support”, your inner ear keeps your arms free to move any way you want.  From this balanced position, when you use an arm to twist your core, you automatically activate your inner ear to do what it must do to get your body back into alignment.
In pitching, when you end your front leg lift with your inner ear sensing single-leg balance, your glove arm remains free to twist your core which forces your inner ear to use an involuntary throwing reflex (a throwing reaction) to bring your body back to balance. The result becomes a “1-piece” reaction where your body and throwing arm work together to produce an effortless, limitless and sustainably excellent pitching experience.

Unstable single-leg balance. 

When you have only one foot on the ground and there no distance between your knees, your back foot becomes your “base of support”. With all your weight over your back foot, you won’t move toward your target unless you make some action that’ll tilt your weight to one side of your back foot. As soon as you move your weight outside your “base”, your inner ear is going to use your arms to counterbalance your weight shift.
In pitching, when, as you lift your front leg, your inner ear places all your weight over your back foot, to move toward your target, you’re forced to tilt your weight toward your target. Your tilt causes your inner ear to use your throwing arm to offset your forward weight shift. Only when your front foot gets on the ground and your inner ear senses your weight is centered between your feet does your inner ear free your throwing arm to complete your delivery. The result becomes a “2-part” delivery where, because your inner ear forces your throwing arm work independently without any meaningful contribution from your body, you go to the mound never really knowing what your next will do nor where it'll end up. 

What does a “sustainably excellent pitching motion” look like?

You end your front leg lift with your weight centered within your “base of support”. Your balanced position lets you use your free glove side arm to twist your core. Your twist begins a planned series of inner ear adjustments ending with an involuntary throwing reflex (a throwing reaction). As an inner ear prompted reflex, your throwing arm always shows your opponent a fastball arm speed, your consistently tiny release window is built to deliver every pitch directly into your target and, in the end, you challenge every opponent to solid contact with every pitch.

What does an “ordinary” pitching motion look like?

Because you end your front leg lift with your weight over your back foot, no matter how hard you want to make your throwing arm path more productive than you last, your inner ear will always disrupt the throwing arm path you want. Your inner ear involvement means you never know where your ball is going to end up and you never achieve the sustainably excellent results you know you have in you.

Either you manage your inner ear or your inner ear is going to manage you. It's your choice!

Skip Fast
Chief Learning Officer/Executive Director
Professional Pitching Institute
WWW: http://www.propitchinginstitute.com 
E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Cell or Text: 856-524-3248

Copyright © 2018

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

INVOLVE YOUR LOWER BODY ON EVERY PITCH


Pro Pitching Institute

Causes for NOT engaging your lower body.

Anytime any movement forces you to prematurely use your throwing arm for balance, you’ll use your throwing arm to offset any weight into your foot plant, lose your target area and shorten your competitive pitching career.

How does a lower body disconnect happen?

When some movement forces you to use your throwing arm for balance, you physically disconnect your lower and upper bodies.
Only after you sense your body back is back in balance do you free your throwing arm to complete your delivery. By this point, your body position dictates your arm slot which delays your throwing hand into release and, consequently, expands your release window.

How do you know you use your throwing arm for balance?

On every pitch, you have every intention to deliver every pitch directly into your Catcher’s target without his mitt moving while displaying the movement you expect.
When your pitches fail to end up where you want and/or behave the way you expect, you’re using your throwing arm for balance.

How do you get your lower body to drive your motion?

To get your lower body to drive a very consistent and totally productive, spontaneous throwing (re)action, you isolate and eliminate the movement causing you to use your throwing arm for balance.

I’m trained to isolate the movement that’s causing you to use your throwing arm for balance. Want to finally gain control of your next pitch, then contact me through the Pro Pitching Institute.

Skip Fast
Chief Learning Officer/Executive Director
Professional Pitching Institute

WWW: http://www.propitchinginstitute.com 
E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Cell or Text: 856-524-3248

Copyright © 2018

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

How your pitching chain drives your results?


Pro Pitching Institute

Do you really understand your pitching chains?

The movements you see within any Pitcher’s motion comes from the Pitcher’s instinctive drive to keep their lower body as their center of balance.
- A Pitcher with a lower body center of balance gives their body no reason to use their arms to get their center of balance back to their lower body.
- A Pitcher who moves their center of balance from their lower body causes their mind to instantaneously use their arms to bring your center of balance back to your lower body.

Every pitching chain starts somewhere.

When a Pitcher begins their motion, they do 2 things.
- They begin their motion by planting their back foot on the ground and then
- They place their front foot on the ground.
How a Pitcher performs these 2 very controllable actions tells their body which hardwired “action-reaction” roadmap their motion is going to follow.
Once a Pitcher makes a specific “action”, their hardwired “action-reaction” roadmap produces a new center of balance. Their body “reacts” to their next center of balance with another very predictable “action-reaction” roadmap response. Pitchers travel along their “action-reaction” roadmap until they get their center of balance back to their lower body.

What causes a Pitcher’s pitching chain to produce sustainable excellence?

The way a Pitcher begins their “action-reaction” roadmap dictates their center of balance as they come out of their starting position and how they come out of their starting position determines their level of success.
Productive Pitching Chains … When a Pitcher begins their motion with their lower body as their center of balance, their hardwired “action-reaction” roadmap forces them to use a glove side rotation to land their foot plant with their center of balance centered on their front hip. The Pitchers plan on their body to move their center of balance back to their lower body by making an involuntary throwing reflex. In the process, the human body’s pursuit for a lower body center of balance takes the Pitcher’s throwing hand through a totally spontaneous, very sustainable, extremely consistent release window.  

Disruptive Pitching Chains … When a Pitcher begins their motion with their center of balance away from their lower body, their hardwired “action-reaction” roadmap forces them to spontaneously use their throwing arm for balance land cause them to land their foot plant with their center of balance centered on their back hip. Unfortunately, their arm action moves their throwing arm path from what they want to a path their hardwired “action-reaction” roadmap demands their arm take.  Once their front foot gets back on the ground, their hardwired “action-reaction” roadmap moves their center of balance from their back hip to their lower body. With their lower body as their center of balance, to complete their delivery, the Pitcher must move their center of balance away from their lower body. Easily done, but due to the Pitcher having to use their throwing arm for balance earlier in their motion, the Pitcher’s throwing hand begins their throwing action from a less-than-optimal position. The result … the Pitcher’s ball doesn’t end up where they want nor behave how they want!

Any Pitcher wanting to make their pitching chain more productive, please contact me at imlookingforapitchingcoach@propitchinginstitute.com.

Skip Fast
Chief Learning Officer/Executive Director
Professional Pitching Institute
WWW: http://www.propitchinginstitute.com 
E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Cell or Text: 856-524-3248

Copyright © 2018

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Expect better pitching results!


Pro Pitching Institute

Expect better pitching results!

How often do your pitches do what you expect?

Every pitch you’ve ever thrown has an impact your next pitch result. Seeing your next pitch to travel directly into your Catcher’s mitt while displaying the movement you expect tells you your long hours of preparation were worth it.

You always execute your next pitch to the best of your ability, but you still see far too many of your pitches not end up where you want. You don’t intentionally try to miss your target, but, for some unknown reason, you continually experience these unacceptable outcomes.

Your unintentional misses indicate an issue with your preparation and, unless you make changes to the way you prepare for each pitch, hope (which isn't a recommended success strategy) becomes the foundation for your improvement plan!

Better preparation produces better pitch results.

Proper preparation automatically gets your pitches to end up where you want and behave the way you want.

Hyper productive preparation uses your body the ways it’s built to work. You use known action/reaction patterns to tell you how to permanently make your troublesome results more productive.

Ineffective preparation treats your body’s instinctive responses as if they were controllable actions. Your unplanned outcomes disappear when you consciously stop trying to change your body's involuntary reflexes.

Want to find out what better preparation looks like?
Want to discover the actions that’ll improve your results?

Skip Fast
Chief Learning Officer/Executive Director
Professional Pitching Institute
WWW: http://www.propitchinginstitute.com 
E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Cell or Text: 856-524-3248

Copyright © 2018

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

What does your pitching future look like?


Pro Pitching Institute
Without an ability to locate your pitch, your dream of becoming a Major League Pitcher fades.

Forward weight shifts.
When you begin motion with your feet wider than your hips, your motion contains a forward weight shift. Your mind senses your forward weight and forces you use your throwing arm to offset your forward weight shift. You delay your throwing hand into release, you expand your release window and you cause yourself to lose control over where your ball ends up and how your ball behaves.

Here’s the proof.
During Spring Training, you’ll see lots of Pitchers taking the mound who want to get promoted to the Majors. The biggest reason these Pitchers are still in the Minors is their inability to locate their pitches against professional hitters. When you watch a Spring Training game, you’ll notice these Pitchers all have the same footwork. Each of these Pitchers begin their motion with their feet farther apart than their hips.

Here’s more proof.
When you watch a Spring Training game, watch Spring Training game backwards.
When you see a Pitcher miss their target outside their Catcher’s body, on their next pitch, focus on their foot placements before their front foot even comes off the ground. What you’ll see is the Pitcher beginning their delivery with their feet placed wider than their hips.

Shrinking your target area is easy.
One of the many things you can do to shrink your target area to begin your motion with your feet under your hips, but, remember, many other things must happen before you’ll know how to produce sustainable location at the highest levels.

For more information about other fixes, contact me.

Skip Fast,
Pro Pitching Institute
Pitching Expert
Web: www.propitchinginstitute.com
E-mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Cell or Text: 856-524-3248