Friday, September 25, 2020

Stop “Feeling” for Your Target

 

Pro Pitching Institute

Fact: Your throwing action is a result of your body self-correcting your weight transfers.

Most Pitchers search for a “feel”

A Pitcher’s “feel” is the sensation they experience between their weight transfer out of their front leg lift and their throwing action.

If you’re like most Pitchers, when you experience the result you want, you associate your result with a “feel”.

Find the right “feel” and your throwing arm sends your pitches directly into your intended target. Struggle to find the “feel” you want, and your throwing arm takes on a life of its own.

Elite Pitchers Don’t “Feel”, They Know.

Elite Pitchers come into their stride without having to shift their weight.

Instead, they generate a rotational force where they make their body end their stride with a glove side weight shift.

Elite Pitchers rely on their natural instincts to self-correct their glove side weight shift and automatically send their pitches directly into their target.

Their physical movement patterns remove the need to “feel” a productive arm slot and, as such, they can expect their pitches to go where they want and behave the way they expect.

Stop Searching and Start Doing

Lost as to where your journey to producing elite results begins? Visit the Pro Pitching Institute.

Skip Fast
Pro Pitching Institute
“Winning Pitch Location Strategies©” Author/Coach
Cell or Text: 856-524-3248
#ElitebyChoice


Copyright © 2020, Pro Pitching Institute.


Friday, September 18, 2020

Are You a Behavior or Results Driven Pitcher?

 

Pro Pitching Institute

“Behavior Driven Pitchers” Excel

“Behavior Driven Pitchers’” hand separations initiate their stride, their stride prompts their throwing action and their throwing action gets each pitch to travel directly into their intended target.

“Behavior Driven Pitchers” trust their body to help them succeed in a sport build around failure.

So much so that when a “Behavior Driven Pitcher” misses their target over the plate, they know their body puts so much late stage ball movement on the pitch that even professional Hitters will struggle to drive the ball.

“Results Driven Pitchers” Hope to Excel

As “Results Driven Pitchers” move down the mound, they use their throwing arm to keep their body in balance.

 “Results Driven Pitchers” fail to realize or don’t want to accept the fact that once they begin to move down the mound, they’ve lost control of their throwing arm path.

Consequently, “Results Driven Pitchers” waste their valuable time trying to find a throwing arm path (they can’t control) to produce the results they want.

Much like a dog chasing his tail, if you're a “Results Driven Pitcher”, until you change your focus from your results to your behaviors, your pitching career goes in circles.

Get Your Behaviors to Produce Your Results

Our programs produce “Behavior Driven Pitchers”. Want to join this elite group, but don’t know how? 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.


Friday, September 4, 2020

Add To Your Pitching Knowledge

 

Pro Pitching Institute

Balance

It’s a known fact that your body is either in balance or moving to get itself back in balance.

When you push off the rubber, you drive down the mound, use your throwing arm for balance, and lose control of your throwing arm into your release.

There’s another, more effective, pitching model.

The Best Pitchers Rotate Down the Mound and Use their Throwing Action to Get Back in Balance 

Rotating down the mound occurs as a result of you letting “your lower body” drive your motion.

  • An Alternate Storyline - Place a light weight on the end of a string, and slowly twirl the weight around your hand. Every time the weight completes a circle, the weight comes through the same spot and, even with a minimal hand action, produces so much energy that you’d think twice about putting your hand in the weight’s path.

  • The Pitching Elements within This Storyline - The string represents your throwing arm.
    - Your forearm and hand relate to your core. - The weight coming through the same spot all the time symbolizes your release window. - The energy the weight generates relates to your throwing arm whip
  • Rotating Down the Motion - When you end your front leg lift with an upright core, you can open your front shoulder to begin your rotation down the mound.

  • Your front shoulder spin whips your throwing hand through the same spot on every pitch. Duplicate your front leg lift from one pitch to the next and you can expect your throwing arm to whip your pitches into your intended target.

  • Where can you see this? - Watch how frequently a Big-League Pitcher at the top of the Team’s depth chart delivers their pitches into their intended target.

If you move down the mound, can’t know where any one pitch will end, then 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.


Saturday, August 29, 2020

Is your Coach holding you back?

 

Pro Pitching Institute

A Pitcher quickly finds out when he asks his Coach this question ... “What can I do to get my lower body more involved in my motion?”


1. “I’M NOT SURE, BUT . . . “
For starters, it’s okay not to be sure how to teach lower body engagement. But saying “I’m not sure” undercuts a Coach’s credibility and isn’t something a Pitcher wants to hear.


2. “SORT OF” OR “KIND OF”
When a Coach says, “I sort of think” or “I kind of suspect,” it’s clear they don’t really know how to teach lower body engagement and, as a result, is holding back your development.


3. “MAYBE,” “POSSIBLY,” AND “POTENTIALLY”
“Maybe,” “possibly,” “probably,” “basically,” “largely,” and “hopefully” are all phrases that smack of doubt. When you hear these phrases, the Coach flat out doesn’t know how to get your lower body more involved. 


4. USING THE PAST TENSE WHEN YOU MEAN THE PRESENT
“I thought I should mention that . . . ” or, “I was thinking we should . . . “? are ways to present concepts without knowing the answer. Compare these past tense phrases to these clear messages “I want to mention . . .” and “I think we should . . .”. When your Coach answers your questions in the past tense, your pitching career might not go in the direction you want.


5. TELLS YOU HOW TO ENGAGE YOUR LOWER BODY.
Once you make the adjustments your Coach recommends and throw your first pitch, the fact you use less effort to deliver your pitch into your target tells you that you want to keep this Coach on your side.


If the 5th option sounds good to you, 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.


Friday, August 21, 2020

Your Future is Written in How You Think About Your Lower Body

 

Pro Pitching Institute

You have two choices …

1.    Treat your lower body as a separate action or

By treating your lower body engagement as a separate action, you tend to rely on your stride tempo to send your pitches into the strike zone. When your stride tempo drives your command, your stride tempo becomes something that can’t be guaranteed from one outing to the next.

2.    You treat your lower body as a reaction .

By making subtle adjustments to your front leg lift position, without thinking about it, you  add your lower body to your current motion. By doing so, your throwing action becomes a physical reaction to your lower body activity, and, as a physical reaction, you can  expect your pitches to travel directly into your Catcher’s mitt. Better yet, you turn into the dominant Pitcher everyone wants on their Team.

If you want to turn your lower body engagement from something you do into something that happens, contact me.

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.


Friday, August 14, 2020

The Survey Says … Pitch Command

Pro Pitching Institute

A survey of 120+ College Coaches and some Travel Ball, High School and Private Pitching Instructors asked participants to rate the most important pitching-related factors.

When asked to rank these factors in the order of importance, this is their response.

Command - 81%
Movement - 18%
velocity - 1%

This survey contradicts the myth that velocity is what Coaches want to see. Coaches are looking for Pitchers who can locate their pitches within the strike zone over Pitchers with lights-out velocity.


Lower Body Engagement Drives Command.

Getting a Pitcher’s lower body to drive his results isn’t a conscious action. Lower body engagement is something a Pitching Coach adds to a Pitcher’s current stockpile of skills.

Once added, a Pitcher produces the command that’ll tease influential baseball people to sit up and take notice.

Experience Fastball Command Today

By adding a Pitcher’s lower body to their current delivery, the Pitcher’s body flows into release, a Pitcher’s command becomes much more sustainable and the Pitcher attracts next level attention.

Need better command? Need better lower body involvement? Want to attract next level Coaches? Let’s talk.

Skip Fast
Pro Pitching Institute
Instant Fastball Command Author/Coach
E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Cell or Text: 856-524-3248
#ElitebyChoice


Copyright © 2020, Pro Pitching Institute.

Friday, August 7, 2020

The Orchid Hypothesis

We believe, for the health and welfare of Pitchers everywhere, it’s time for Coaches to take the science behind pitch location more seriously.

Even with flaws, any individual’s pitching is as hardy as a dandelion; able to take root just about anywhere and, when ignored, come back year after year.

Anyone can grow a dandelion, but only a Pitching Coach who nurtures their dandelion with neurological, physiological, and psychological science can build the delicate, mysterious orchid called predictable fastball command. 

Coaching Today

The notion a Coach can grow an orchid contradicts how most Coaches teach pitching today.

 Most Coaches, even Professional Coaches, haven’t taken, don’t take, the time to discover the science behind pitch location. If they did so, the orchid would take over the dandelion as the standard for fastball command.

The Next Generation of Coaches

That’s why Pitchers we work with get so excited and are so appreciative when we show them how easy it is to expect each pitch to travel into their target.

We believe, for the health and welfare of Pitchers everywhere, it’s time for Coaches to take the science behind pitch location more seriously.

By doing so, more Coaches will turn dandelions into the orchids you see at the top of every Big-League depth chart.

Experience Fastball Command Today

We use 5 easily executed, simply presented skills to guarantee fastball command.

Not satisfied with your pitch location. Let’s talk.

Skip Fast
Instant Fastball Command Author/Coach
Cell or Text: 856-524-3248
#ElitebyChoice