Posts tagged with "fastball location"

“Trying” Is a Destructive Habit

 

Pro Pitching Institute

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

The instant someone points out something you need to do, and your answer is “I’m trying”, please realize “trying” has become an excuse for not “doing”.

Looking for Perfection?

You want your pitching to match your unreasonably exacting standards.

Your biggest challenge: Stop “trying” to be perfect.

Your solution: Accept missing your target, but don’t accept missing your target by an unacceptable distance on two consecutive pitches. When this happens, find out “why” , permanently eliminate the cause, and make your goal a series of back-to-back good outings. 

Accepting Limited Improvement?

No matter how hard you “try” to change your mechanics you rarely, if ever, see any significant improvement.

Your biggest challenge: Realizing and accepting that what you’re doing isn’t working.

Your solution: Instead of “trying” to change your mechanics, focus on the things that cause you to move down the mound the way you do, and measure your improvement by your ability to keep your Team close enough to win on consecutive games.  

Stop “Trying”, start “doing”!

Coach Skip is trained to understand what’s needed to get your lower body to produce the results you expect and turn you into one of best Pitchers in your area.

Want “doing” to become a habit? Contact Coach Skip.

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

Copyright © 2021, Pro Pitching Institute.

 

The Secret to Your Lower Body Engagement

 

The Secret to Your Lower Body Engagement

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

If you’re a Pitcher struggling to get your lower body to drive results, treat this reverse sequence as a checklist to discover where to place your focus.

Do you …

(Answer each question with a Y or N.)

_ End of your stride creates a separation between your hips and your shoulders.

_ To create this separation, you must begin your lower body rotation before your front foot ends your stride.

_ Your upper body activity allows your hips to rotate into your foot plant.

_ To free your shoulders to rotate, you must keep your throwing arm uninvolved with your balance.

_ To keep your throwing arm uninvolved with your balance, you end your front leg lift with your hips level to one another.

_ To end your front leg lift with your hips level before your front foot even comes off the ground, you must place your feet under your hips and, once you do lift your front leg, your front hip stays in place.

Still fighting to get your lower body involved. 

Change your mindset. Instead of thinking about your lower body engagement as something you do, begin treating your lower body activity as something that happens.

Still obsessed about getting your lower body to drive your results, then ask Coach Skip how to use your current throwing action to trigger your lower body engagement.

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


Copyright © 2021, Pro Pitching Institute.

 

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.

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.

 

Take an Advanced Look into Your 2021 Pitching Campaign

 

Pro Pitching Institute

Pro Pitching Institute is one of the top 100 baseball blogs on the Internet.Your body is built to deliver your pitches directly to your target.

How close are you to seeing this happen?

Are You Going to Naturally Miss Your Target?

To throw a ball into a target, you rock back, step forward, throw the ball, and watch what happens.

When your head moves, you risk missing your target.

Until you find a stepping rhythm that puts your throwing shoulder in the same spot on every throw, you struggle to hit your target with any regularity.

Are You Going to Locate Your Pitches?

Logically, when you place your head in the same position on every pitch, you’re much more likely to see the ball go where you want.

When you begin your motion with your back knee flexed over the little toes of your back foot, it’s extremely likely your head stays in the same spot on every pitch.

From there, as long as you open your front shoulder to your target, you increase the likelihood your pitches travel directly into your intended target.

Takeaways

To improve the ratio of your pitches traveling into your target, make your back leg flex a regular part of your set-up, then begin your throwing action by opening your front shoulder.

Struggling to do this? Set up a short phone call (or text) with 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.

If It Works Now, Will It Work Tomorrow?

 

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

If it works now, unless you do something to get even better, it might not work tomorrow?

The Hitters You Face are Getting Better.

Every Hitter is better today than they were yesterday. They’re learning their craft, getting better at recognizing when a ball is coming into their hitting zone, and making sure they drive every mistake that any Pitcher throws their way.

Combat Hitter Growth.

To combat the Hitters’ growth, you need to understand how to get your pitches to travel directly into your target with enough late-stage movement that, even when you do miss, the Hitter struggles to square up on the ball.

Limit Mistakes.

The best way for a Pitcher to make their mistakes unhittable is to let the Laws of Nature take over their results.

Consistent with Newton’s Laws, when you understand how to use angular momentum to take you out of your front leg lift and force your body to react to the end of your stride, you use the tension your hip and shoulder separation produces to send your pitches directly into your target with late-stage ball movement that makes your misses practically unhittable.

Or you can push off the rubber, rely on your stride timing to produce a competitive arm slot, then hope your ball travels into your target and your opponent doesn’t pick up on the predictable ball path your pitch takes into your receiver’s glove.

Coach Skip Prepares You for Tomorrow

To find out how to make the Laws of Nature drive your results, set up a short phone call (or text) with Coach Skip.

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.

 

Make Pitch Location Part of Your Foot Plant

 

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

When you stretch a rubber band, you create tension. Release the rubber band and it snaps back into place.

Just like the rubber band, end your stride with your hips and shoulders at opposing angles, and your body spontaneously snaps back to your normal.

Creating a Snap

Ending your stride with your hips and shoulders at opposing angles begins with ending your front leg lift with your hips level to one another.

With your hips level, when you make your normal throwing action, your body snaps back and spontaneously sends your pitches directly into your target.

No Snap Required

Ending your front leg lift with your front hip higher than your back means you eliminate any chance your shoulders will need to snap back into place.

Let this happen, and your pitch location becomes less automatic, less spontaneous, and less repeatable than it could be with a rubber band-like snap.

Coach Skip Keeps Things Simple

Instead of searching for ways to end your stride with your hips/shoulders at opposing angles, set up a short phone call (or text) with Coach Skip to find out how simple it is to give your foot plant some bite and to expect your pitches to travel directly into your target.

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.

 

“Simple” Guarantees “Exceptional”

 

Pro Pitching Institute

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

Kinematic Sequences – Your body’s balance system uses the information from your inner ear, eyes, muscles, joints, and the brain to keep you at – or bring you back to – a state of natural balance.

Where You Spend Most of Your Time and Why?

Without an understanding of how your kinematic sequence works, most people come to believe their legwork into their front leg lift is relatively inconsequential and they can overcome any deficiencies as they move down the mound.

If this describes you, you’re setting yourself up to spend many hours over many years trying to master a movement pattern that’s actually controlled by your kinematic sequence.

Let your pitching career take this route and your problem becomes your inability to regularly throw three consecutive pitches directly into your target.

When you pit your erratic pitch location against well-trained, patient Hitters, you struggle to keep your Team close enough to win the games you pitch.

Where You Want to Spend Most of Your Time and Why?

With a laser-focus on a foot placement, leg flex, and front leg path combination that eliminates any weight shifts, you finish your front leg lift with your upper body free to move the way you want.

From the top of your front leg lift, you count on your upper body to begin a full body rotation, and your kinematic sequence to automatically, spontaneously, and repeatedly send your pitches directly into your intended target.

Coach Skip Keeps Things Simple

Instead of searching for the right leg work, ask Coach Skip can teach you how to manage their hip orientation into your front leg lift.

If you need to simplify your pitching, then set up a short phone call (or text) with Coach Skip.

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.