strikeouts or putting the ball in play--the mental appraoch

[Mark H]

Mark, I have never been HBP as much as I have been in the last 2 months. I started showing up with steel toe tennis shoes and shin pads - in the last 5 weeks I have had 2 toes severely broken, and I took one in the mouth last night. Bobby 'ordered' me to buy a mask at the last practice and I have - its supposed to be here Monday (next) - a friend who helped me last night, lent me one until then. He told me about Gary having a near miss afterwhich he used a mask.

I'm glad I'm not the age I am now with the eyes I have now catching a pitcher north of 60 with movement. I take my hat off to guys like you and Gary catching as long as you did with no gear. I can think of one more piece of equipment you might want to invest in.

Whenever I caught a rise ball from a men's pitcher or even a good female rise ball pitcher, I caught it slightly off to the side of my head. I'd heard stories and I figured with no mask and no runner to worry about, why not.

 

[Hillhouse]

Mark

All I'm doing is telling you what I saw and heard her say in an interview. I know Bobby Smith, I don't know Timmons at all. I have no idea if he was a pitcher in his day or at what level. But, learning pitching from the older generation of pitchers (cork balls, wood bats, etc.) is a different era. They almost all did the "step style" of pitching because there isn't the knowledge of today in many respects regarding our bodies and how they function at their peak. Same as hitting. Even as much as 20 years ago, "squish the bug" was taught by all the "best coaches". Now we more people teaching differently. But anyway... going back to the step thing... there were a lot of great pitchers who were step style. Ty Stofflet, perhaps the greatest ever, was a step style. CoachFP in his most competitive pitching days was a step pitcher. But that was truly the best way to maximize our bodies, then people would still be doing it. The leaping, jumping and crowhopping is illegal because it gives an advantage. Moreover, it's how the pitchers have begun to adapt to the equipment being used today. I've said it 100 times and I'm still baffled by the lack of people who agree, why do we have 1950's pitching rules when hitters are allowed to use 2010 equipment?

I'm coming back to Dallas next month for both pitching lessons and to throw live batting to some kids. I know that's a ways from you but, I'd surely let you buy me dinner if you made your way over.

Bill

 

[Mark H]

I don't disagree with any of that and if I'm near Dallas I'd enjoy visiting. Interesting about the old men's pitchers pitching that way. My knowledge of the men's game is pretty much second hand. Timmons was not a high level pitcher and he's clear about that. He just is not blessed with the physical size and musclature to do it. He is very gifted in terms of coordination. Can show you impressive bb overhand pitches as well as play great basketball and golf. All limited by not being a very big or muscularly gifted man. He showed up in Texas with a talent for promotion and a teaching protocol that worked well in a group setting at the right time years ago and dominated the market. He has taught many thousands to pitch and believes absolutely in the rightness of his method. Lots of girls like my DD and Cat move to leap and drag in their teens after starting with him and some just move to some sort of hybrid like Christa Williams who started with him. At least there are plenty of pitchers around here.

 

[halskinner]

Leg slapping is being kicked around in another thread. Should that be included as part of the mental game, since it CAN be used to disrupt the hitter's timing?

 

[jofus13]

A couple questions, from browsing these 164 posts...

One, if you're supposed to strike out every batter you face, why did Bonds get so many intentional walks in his career?

Two, why do most MLB teams have a "ground-ball" pitcher in the bullpen that they bring in with bases loaded and one out in the later innings?

Three, here is A Tincher's stat line for a pretty good game she pitched against a pretty good team, which she had very frustrated, and not because every batter was striking out...wanna guess which game it was?

Virginia Tech IP H R ER BB SO AB BF
Angela Tincher...... 7.0 0 0 0 1 10 21 22

My DD has played travel for a few years (she's 14...15 in a couple weeks <<nearly faints>> ), but she also played Rec (little league) just for something to do with her friends, and in games she pitched, it was not uncommon for her to account for over 90% of the outs, through strikeouts, and weakly hit grounders/fly balls back to her, but there was no way I was calling pitches the same way in her travel games that I called in the LL games.

I guess I'm saying that (IMHO) trying to say you go right after every batter the same way is silly. I know that probably isn't exactly what anyone is trying to say, but some posts kinda gave that impression, IMHO. Would you rather have 18 K's, 3 fly-outs, but give up a few big doubles and a homer or 2, or 9 K's, 12 ground-outs, maybe a double play ball or 2, and a few ground balls through the holes?

 

[StacieM]

Hmmm very interesting discussion. Hal is of the opinion that your mindset should be for the best result when approaching each hitter. I think it's interesting that others disagree so strongly. Does this mean you don't think it's a good idea to approach a season with the intention and mindset of winning the championship?

I recently heard Heather Tarr speak and one of the things that struck me was the idea of actually thinking all the way through the WHOLE season...even down to that last championship game. Actually think about that and approach it mentally with the intention of being there vs simply having as a goal and hoping you'll be there.

She said that in previous years, they had wanted to be there, they had hoped to be there, they had it as a goal to be there in that last game, in that championship game, but had never really thought it all the way through that game and saw it and visualized it and saw themselves there doing their thing.

To me, that means that you picture your ultimate goal and see yourself there, see what you want to do, and PLAN for it, not just hope for it. I think Hal's approach is similar on a smaller scale (one batter at a time), he thinks about, approaches, sees, and plans for the ultimate goal of striking out that batter, not just getting them to hit poorly or getting them out or pitching well enough to have the "chance" to strike them out.

Just an observation.

 

[Jojo]

I have coached/watched countless games at every level.
I have seen many many strike outs. I have seen good pitchers striking out good hitters, good pitchers striking out poor hitters, poor pitchers striking out good hitters and poor pitchers striking out poor hitters.

I called pitches on most of my DD travel teams, I called to all the pitchers, my mentality when calling pitches was never, "I'm going to have her strike this batter out" -- it was always how to get a strike here, how to change her timing here, etc, keep her guessing, keep her off balance. Early on in the count, I was pleased with a weak hit, if the count got to 2 strikes, yes, work for the K.

I think that is a good mentality to have, you can choose to believe that is "possible" to strike out every batter, pitch strong, stay ahead and if the opportunity arises, go for the K.

If a pitcher goes out and retires the side on 3 pitches, she feels just as successful if not more than a pitcher that goes out and retires the side on 3 K's with 15 +pitches.

 

[halskinner]

I have coached/watched countless games at every level.
I have seen many many strike outs. I have seen good pitchers striking out good hitters, good pitchers striking out poor hitters, poor pitchers striking out good hitters and poor pitchers striking out poor hitters.

I called pitches on most of my DD travel teams, I called to all the pitchers, my mentality when calling pitches was never, "I'm going to have her strike this batter out" -- it was always how to get a strike here, how to change her timing here, etc, keep her guessing, keep her off balance. Early on in the count, I was pleased with a weak hit, if the count got to 2 strikes, yes, work for the K.

I think that is a good mentality to have, you can choose to believe that is "possible" to strike out every batter, pitch strong, stay ahead and if the opportunity arises, go for the K.

If a pitcher goes out and retires the side on 3 pitches, she feels just as successful if not more than a pitcher that goes out and retires the side on 3 K's with 15 +pitches.

"if the count got to 2 strikes, yes, work for the K. "

This is the difference in philosophies you have read on this thread. I would never say it like that. Maybe it's the confidence level totally but I would have said "When the count gets to two strikes", not if, when.