Pitching faster - physical or mental thing

[shockcoach]

I thought this was a thread on how the mental side of pitching can increase speed. Guess that will teach me.

What are your thoughts to help this part of the game? My DD does well with the mental side while in the circle by not letting any pressure get to her, but has been a bit stagnant on the speed side of the game.

 

[T Red]

I have gotten more speed from pitchers from 8 to 21 years old and it only took a couple minutes.

DONT FORGET THE MENTAL SIDE OF PITCHING.

Since you brought it up how does one build the mental side of pitching?

 

[FrozenRope]

Funny thing is, at the stage my DD is at, she has great days, good days, and dumpster fire days. What I see is, from her great/good days, is that she knows how to pitch. She's comfortable with the mechanics. No way she has that many "accidental successes in a session". On the contrary, the bad days are exceptionally bad, consistantly bad, hence the prior mentioned terminology. I can see it in her eyes when she has one of those days. In fact, I'm tempted to end those practices as fast as they start. I keep her going however, as I'm trying to get her to work through them. I can tell it's 100% metal, with a touch of sub par level of effort thrown in.

Hal, how do you coach a kid through those days?

 

[PGSAKen]

(work side kicking in)

Lets be sure that the "off days" and "lack of effort" arent caused by any underlying medical condition guys. I have instructed many many kids through the years and I have seen many write a kid off as lazy, unfocused, or an attitude.

Reality is they had more than an issue going on outside of softball-they had a learning disorder that was untreated. It is VERY common. I have an autistic child and an ADHD child who went from very successful, to struggling, to bad attitude out of frustration, to wanting to quit, to disagnosed properly, back to very successful because they can suddenly FOCUS again.

I can say this because I grew up like this. I was in college failing when I got help. Almost too late......

 

[NVfishing]

The mental aspect of the game comes from so many different parts. I think younger girls watching successful players and teams helps them understand the game. It helps them react to situations properly if they've seen it done. Repetative coaching for game situations helps them understand and react. Sleep. I can't begin to tell you how many teams I've seen stay up to late while out of town and come out completely flat with nothing working. Emotions. I've seen girls having problems outside of softball and it carries onto the field.

 

[Coach-n-Dad]

I thought this was a thread on how the mental side of pitching can increase speed. Guess that will teach me.

Of course the mental side of pitching can increase speed. Most of the posts so far are about exactly that, just not worded that way.

Last summer my DD learned a valuable lesson about pitching speed being effected by the mental side (I'll call it confidence this time). Over the previous winter she took 3 months off of pitching AND she gained 35 lbs.. During HS season in spring she did OK but had dropped her speed by a full 5mph and didn't have NEAR as good a season as the year before. Once summer season started at 18 Gold she was getting crushed!!! At the beginning of the second tournament her HC pulled her aside and told her that he didn't care about hitting spots or getting strikes, just throw fast... Immediately her speed picked up and by the second inning you could see the confidence pouring out of her and she had the best tournament EVER! Her confidence is higher than it has ever been and her pitching speed has increased to a level that she never thought it would be at.

It turns out that she had lost confidence in herself. The coach saw what was happening and gave her the green light to throw hard, make mistakes and most importantly be strong!

 

[starsnuffer]

My DD and I are going to a workshop that Tori Nyberg is doing this weekend. The workshop is specific to mental strength training for pitchers. She runs Elevate Performance Counseling in Chicago, was the pitching coach for Nowrthwestern for 6 years and former Stanford pitcher. I'll definitely share my feedback after the weekend.

I know there are a lot of Chicago area forum members, if anyone has any experience on Performance Counseling - Elevate Performance - Chicago, please let me know.

-W

 

[Jojo]

At the young ages, of course that is true. At the older ages, if a kid can't take harsh criticism, she isn't going to play.

On advanced teams, coaches don't have time to walk on eggshells around players. The coaches tell them, bluntly, what is wrong and what is expected. If a kid can't take that kind of direct, frank criticism, then they aren't going to play.



Rubberbiscuit, it is about performing under pressure. Do you put pressure on her in practice?

I have an 18u student that was playing on a team with a coach that didn't make them own up to their mistakes. The team never played well so over the fall she found another team to play for with a coach that demands they play their best. She said, if he calls rise ball, it better be a rise ball! We had a discussion over this, allowing me to explain that this was a good thing and she really did understand, and I'm excited because I think this coach will really push her to another level of play.

 

[joemcq51]

Mental toughness and confidence are important. I am the type of Dad/Coach who always demanded more from my DD. She did not always appreciate it, but I believe she is much more confident now or mentally tough. I never allowed her to make excuses for bad games. I left that for other people to do for her. As her confidence grew, she gained consistency. I am not certain how much speed she gained because of her confidence, I just know she throws the same in practice as in games. So I agree the mental part is huge. On the flip side, a girl she pitched with at the 12u level has a slightly different story to tell. They were pretty even as far as pitching went at that age. Her father was the excuse maker. It was always the defense fault when she got knocked around. Or the coach was calling the wrong pitches. You know the type. Here we are two years later. Sadly, that girl no longer pitches and is on her third team in 2 years. I believe that her mental toughness or lack of it, is a direct reflection of her Dad's approach with her.

 

[halskinner]

OK, I guess I am going to have to add a little more here.

When I said 'Mental' in the title of this post, I was not referring to ''Mental toughness' that a ppitcher vshould have. Some good and valid points were mentioned for that part.

However I stated the reason they dont throw faster right now was because the instructor did not give them the confidence they needed to do that. On THAT point I will have to elaborate.

I had them do a simple exercis, done very slowly for about 3 minutes. Just before I handed them the weight, and immediately after they did the exercise, THAT IS WHAT GAVE THEM THE COFIDENCE TO THROW FASTER IMMEDIATELY.

That kind of confidence can ONLY come from an instructor. And not in a group or clinic setting ..