Tuesday, May 15, 2018

What is your undeniable pitching reality?


Professional Pitching Institute

Your Pitching Reality

Your movements down the mound are uncontrollable reactions to your hip alignment at the top of your front leg lift.

Your Pitching Command

Why can't you deliver 2 pitches in a row into your Catcher's mitt?  
- You can’t do this because you end your front leg lift with your front hip higher than your back.

Your Pitching Sustainability

Why do you work on different parts of your motion only to see whatever you accomplished disappear the next time you take the mound?  
- Your inconsistent results occur because your hip alignment determines your stride tempo, stride tempo determines your results, and, unless you begin with your hips level, you have no way to control your stride tempo.

Why can't you do everything on every pitch that your Coach wants you to do?
-  Because, instead of managing your hip alignments, every Coach throughout the course of your pitching career is trying to manage your movements down the mound.

Your Pitching Future

How do you turn all this around?
- You end your front leg lift with your hips level, you eliminate your forward weight shift and you make sure your Coach manages your results through your starting position.


Skip Fast
Pitch Location Expert
Professional Pitching Institute
E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Cell or Text: 856-524-3248

Copyright © 2018

Friday, May 4, 2018

A Hip Tilt Destroys Your Command


Pro Pitching Institute
(This blog takes your “pitching improvement” conversation from what you see to how your body interprets what you see.)

How do pitchers with a hip tilt perform at the highest levels?

Just because you see a lot of professional pitchers lift their front knee above their front hip doesn’t mean it’s something you want to do.

In fact, based upon the way your body works, it’s something that’s going to destroy your command and hold back your pitching career.


These pitchers work through their front leg lift by working out a relatively consistent stride tempo. They’re effective, but not dominant. (see You Determine Your Pitch Location for more information) 

How does your body interpret a hip tilt?

“Balance” is your body’s drive to keep your hips level. 

The instant some action creates a hip tilt, a combination of your stride and your throwing arm offsetting your front leg action brings your hips back to level. When this happens, your stride tempo determines your throwing hand position which naturally impacts your command.

Before your front foot comes off the ground, by simply using your legs to center your weight within your feet, you turn your stride from something you do into something that happens. Your stride tempo becomes a non-issue. Your throwing arm continually comes through a tiny, location-producing release window. 

We teach to the way your body works.

Because we must teach to all skills levels and ages, recommending you lift your front leg a few inches off the ground is our way to make sure your front leg lift keeps your hips level and won’t be detrimental to your command.

As long as your front leg lift keeps your hips level, feel free to to lift your front heel as high as you want.


If you have questions about your front leg lift, feel free to contact me for a free FaceTime pitching consultation.

Skip Fast
Pitch Location Expert
Professional Pitching Institute
E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Cell or Text: 856-524-3248

Copyright © 2018

Tuesday, May 1, 2018

What messages does your starting position send your body?


A 1-inch difference between release points means a 7-inch difference at the plate.

Elite Pitching Location

Consecutive pitching motions, very different stride tempos and even worst pitching results.
Elite location (nearly 65% of your pitches travel directly into your Catcher’s mitt) comes from your starting position telling your body’s invisible blueprint that, as you move down the mound, it needs to go into survival mode. 

While in survival mode, your invisible blueprint automatically and instinctively uses your stride to protect you from falling on your nose and uses your throwing (re)action to bring your weight back to center. Therefore, using your starting position to force body’s invisible blueprint to place your body in survival turns your throwing (re)action into an involuntary reflex that naturally and consistently brings your throwing hand through the tiniest of release windows.
- No matter the pitch called, when your starting position puts you in survival mode, your throwing hand comes through a fastball release window with the fastball arm speed that’s certain to keep your opponent guessing.

Unmanageable and Disappointing Pitch Location

Unmanageable and disappointing location comes from a starting position where, to move down the mound, you’re forced to stride. To survive your stride, your body’s invisible blueprint automatically and instinctively calls upon your throwing arm to slow down your movement down the mound.


Disappointing location means your starting position corrupts the way you want your invisible blueprint to interpret your movements. If you can’t resolve your starting position, contact me to for free FaceTime consultation.

Skip Fast
Pitch Location Expert
Professional Pitching Institute
E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Cell or Text: 856-524-3248

Copyright © 2018

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

What’s at the core of your location?


Pro Pitching Institute
In past blogs we’ve defined single-legged “balance” as having your weight centered within your knees which brings your core into an upright position. We promote “balance” not only to keep your glove arm free to rotate your body around your core, but to keep your core upright.

From the top of your front leg lift, you fire your glove arm toward second and, as a reaction, your back hip to come forward. Your glove arm spinning your body toward the plate causes your lower body action to instinctively pull your throwing hand through a consistently tiny release window. Your pitch execution produces the sustainable excellence allowing you to control every opponent on every pitch.

Your core tilt spells pitching problem.

When the “balance” at the top your front leg lift places your weight over your back foot, you force your body to end your front leg lift with a titled core.

Only when your front foot gets back on the ground and your mind senses your weight back to center does your core move back to vertical. Then and only then do you have a vertical core required to pivot your shoulders around your head, but, with both feet already on the ground, you physically take your lower body out of your delivery.

Instead of pitching, you end up throwing. You throw, and your independent throwing arm action means you never really know where your next pitch will end up. Instead of controlling your opponent, you produce many more hitter favorable counts than are good for your pitching career.

Core alignments are easily managed.

Therefore, sustained excellent revolves around ending your front leg lift with the “balance” associated with a vertical core. Since your body posture at the top of your front leg lift is a mere position, a vertical core position at the top of your front leg lift is very easy to manage.

Should you find you come out of your front leg lift with a core tilt, contact us to find out a couple of simple things you can do to permanently make your results sustainably excellent.

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

Copyright © 2018

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