Logging on to receive my punishment this morning

[bigchad64]

So last night DD and I were going through her normal pitching practice at the house. She does 2-3 nights of practice at home per week on weeks that she has a tournament, plus pitching coach 1 night a week. Due to an uneven yard, I had been setting up a plate on the driveway and she was pitching from the asphalt street.

I noticed last night that she wasn't dragging her toe into completion and I corrected her. I hadn't really noticed it before. She said, "well I'm pitching on asphalt, my to gets stuck when I drag it." I'm such an idiot, I had never noticed before due to her working around dragging her toe. In the past she had been picking her toe up off the ground in order to follow through. As we had increased her practice time at home the past couple of months, her accuracy and speed had been diminishing. Not saying that I can pinpoint that the toe drag issue was causing her problems, but she hadn't been practicing with very good technique.

So the question is, if I were to put out a pitching mat on top of the asphalt for her in-season practicing (have to pitch indoors in the winter here in Missouri), would that provide a good enough situation for her to get her weekly reps in? Have I caused more harm than good in the work she's been doing in the driveway with a lack of toe drag?

I'm here to take my punishment, let me have it.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

I've used a pitching mat when in the situation you described.

 

[Dave619]

A pitching mat is much better than asphalt, but it still will not give as much as the dirt. If you have enough room you can replicate more a more natural environment by building a box big enough with dirt and a mound.

Be careful if you have cats, they will mistake it for a litter box! So yes, a mat is much better and will work. Make sure to get one long enough so she doesn't land off of the end. If you don't want to spend a lot of money you can actually make your own fairly cheap.

 

[BStine]

We live in a fairly urban suburb of Chicago. We use a mat when we can't make it to a park and need to pitch out front on the sidewalk. It works for her, but I mainly bought the mat because she was destroying her sneakers dragging her toe on the sidewalk.

 

[JAD]

Pitching mats are great, but do not overuse them as a "gym step" can become a hard habit to break. Get onto some dirt or grass whenever possible, and I highly recommend a pair of Ringor turf shoes with a pitching toe regardless of the surface you practice on.

 

[GoCaboNow]

Pitching mats are great, but do not overuse them as a "gym step" can become a hard habit to break. Get onto some dirt or grass whenever possible, and I highly recommend a pair of Ringor turf shoes with a pitching toe regardless of the surface you practice on.

DD just started pitching last winter. We practiced a lot on concrete and lo and behold she worked into the "gym step" skippy. I was lucky enough to find a pitching matt on craigslist and she was new enough that she got rid of the skip in a few weeks. Matt works great compared to concrete, and no skippies.

The only downside to the matt is it's too nice. DD got used to the perfect flat surface for her nice toe drag so was a little getting used to the crappy dirt here in March.