Posts made in April 2021

What Makes Lower Body Engagement So Difficult?

 

Pro Pitching Institute

Pro Pitching Institute is one of the top 100 baseball blogs on the Internet.

Rotation/Forward Momentum Don’t Mix

Rotation is straight-line momentum that moves around a vertical axis.

The issue … You can’t have straight-line momentum and rotation at the same time.

2 Conditions for Lower Body Engagement

First, you must use your foot placements to present your body with a vertical axis.

To create lower body rotation, your footwork into your front leg lift must give your lower body a vertical axis to rotate around.

When your footwork causes an upper-body tilt, you lose your lower body.

Second, lower body engagement requires two conditions.

  1. An initial rotation … an upper-body action uses your vertical front leg lift axis to rotate your body down the mound.
  2. Tension … Your foot plant stops your rotation, creates tension between your hip and shoulder positions, and naturally whips your throwing arm into release.

Here’s the issue … Because most Pitchers fail to end their front leg lift with a vertical axis, they can’t rotate down the mound, their foot plant malfunctions, and there’s no tension for their lower body to react to.

As a defense mechanism, without ever realizing it’s a natural reaction, Pitchers waste their pitching career “working on” their lower body as if it were an action.

5 Simple Fixes for Lower Body Involvement

A string of precise foot placements, knee positioning, and front leg lift actions will engage your lower body every time all the time.

Struggling to engage your lower body, spend a few minutes with Coach Skip over the phone, tell him how you begin your motion, and he’ll give you three things you can do right now that’ll instantly improve your lower body activity.

Coach Skip Fast
Pro Pitching Institute
“The Secret to Fastball Location©” Author/Coach
+1-856-524-3248
skip@propitchinginstitute.com
#ElitebyChoice

Copyright © 2021, Pro Pitching Institute.

 

“Do This” Coaching is the “Silent” Killer.

 

Pro Pitching Institute

Pro Pitching Institute is one of the top 100 baseball blogs on the Internet.

The “Do This” Pitching Coach

The “Do This” Pitching Coach knows what he wants to see but doesn’t know how to teach you to “do” what he wants.

Therefore, his teaching style turns into him saying, “do this”. “get (this body part) in this position” or “change this”.

This approach baits you into taking responsibility for your own results.

Last I checked, your Pitching Coach should know more about how your body works than you.

Therefore, when your Pitching Coach holds you accountable to “do” what he asks, what purpose does your Pitching Coach serve?

The “Silent” Coach

A well-trained “Silent” Pitching Coach understands how your body works.

Why “silent?

Without saying you need to “do (anything)”, he silently watches your motion, sees your roadblocks, makes immediately effective adjustments, and, once he does, he always gets you to use less physical effort to produce better results.

What’s a Pitcher to do?

When you work with a “Do This” Pitching Coach, you may be putting your pitching career in jeopardy?

Once you find a Pitching Coach who silently goes about his job, makes simple adjustments that continually improve your results, and, when asked, talks in terms of cause and effect, you’ve found a keeper.

Don’t know where to find a “silent” Coach? Ask Coach Skip about his programs.

Coach Skip Fast
Pro Pitching Institute
E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Call or Text: 856-524-3248

#ElitebyChoice

Copyright © 2021, Pro Pitching Institute.

 

Symptoms Can Bury Your Pitching Career!

 

Pro Pitching Institute

Pro Pitching Institute is one of the top 100 baseball blogs on the Internet.

Though extreme, this scenario shows how too many Pitchers have their careers ruined by well-meaning Coaches who, instead of fixing the cause, treat symptoms.

Your Car Problems Parallel Symptom Based Instruction

Let’s say you’re driving a car and it stalls every time you’re not moving. You bring the car to a mechanic who simply increases the idle speed.

Now, the car no longer stalls, but at a red light, and with the idle increased, to keep the car from moving forward, you’re constantly hitting the brakes.

You bring the car back to the same mechanic. He partially applies your parking brakes, and off you go.

You take the car back to the same guy and tell him, not only is your car overheating but it won’t accelerate. Now, he recommends installing a cooling system???

Treating the cause … Any mechanic who had done a diagnostic evaluation would have simply replaced your spark plugs, fixed your original stalling problem, and none of this would have happened!

What’s a Pitcher to do?

When you can’t find the sustainable results you’re looking for, the cause always boils down to a side-to-side core tilt. Once you ignore the symptoms and fix your core tilt, your pitching career will soar!

Don’t know how to address your core tilts? Ask Coach Skip for help.

Coach Skip Fast
Pro Pitching Institute
E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Call or Text: 856-524-3248

#ElitebyChoice

Copyright © 2021, Pro Pitching Institute.

Trust Your Self-Corrections

 

Pro Pitching Institute

Pro Pitching Institute is one of the top 100 baseball blogs on the Internet.

To protect yourself from injury, your body is in a constant state of self-correction.

Once you understand how to manage your body’s self-corrections, you become the elite Pitcher you always dreamed you’d be.

Level Hips Manage Your Self-Corrections

When your footwork ends your front leg lift with your hips level to one another, you spin down the mound, end your stride with your hips/shoulders at opposing angles, and see your pitches repeatedly travel into your target with uncanny regularity.

Your body’s self-corrections optimize your mechanics and your results.

Tilted Hips Create Chaos

When your footwork ends your front leg lift with a hip tilt, your self-correction mode causes you to lose control of your throwing arm path, and you can’t know with any certainty where any one pitch will end up.

To improve, you make arbitrary mechanical changes, put your self-correction mode into a state of chaos, and never know where any one pitch will end up.

Manage Your Self-Corrections

There’s a surprisingly straightforward way to trick your body to end your front leg lift with your hips level to one another and to challenge the best hitters to make solid contact with your pitches.

Struggling to end your front leg lift with your hips level? Ask Coach Skip for help.

Coach Skip Fast
Pro Pitching Institute
“The Secrets to Fastball Location©” Author/Coach
E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Call or Text: 856-524-3248

#ElitebyChoice

Copyright © 2021, Pro Pitching Institute.

Pitchers: Control What You Can Control

 

Pro Pitching Institute

Pro Pitching Institute is one of the top 100 baseball blogs on the Internet.

All You Need to Know About Balance

When your hips are level and your shoulders are positioned directly over your hips, your body is in balance.

Anytime you do anything from a balanced position, you completely control your movements, and with an understanding of your body’s programming, can also control the way your body is going to react.

Balance within a Pitching Motion

Therefore, when your front leg lift is in balance and you properly choreograph how you come out of your front leg lift, your body can turn your hip/shoulder separation, delayed shoulder release, and pitch location into a well-managed reaction.

However, when you end your front leg lift with your weight centered over your back foot, you may feel balanced, but you’re not “in balance”.  You make it impossible to properly choreograph your movements down the mound, and everything you see is your body’s uncontrollable reaction to your weight shift.

Control Your Front Leg Lift

A laser focus on your very controllable foot placements, leg positioning, and front knee path into your front leg lift promotes a balanced starting position, and, with the right trigger, clears a path to your pitching dreams.

Struggling with your front leg lift? Ask Coach Skip for help.

Coach Skip Fast
Pro Pitching Institute
“The Secrets to Fastball Location©” Author/Coach
E-Mail: skip@propitchinginstitute.com
Call or Text: 856-524-3248
#ElitebyChoice

Copyright © 2021, Pro Pitching Institute.