Our Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal!
How the Sessions are Different
So what should we do when a pitcher struggles mentally or physically? Maybe she mentally gives up, or negative thoughts prevent her from performing to her potential. Maybe she simply doesn't perform as well as she's capable of, or perhaps she hasn't put in the practice and is now facing the disappointing reality that she wasn't prepared. Whatever the reason, how do we help her learn from the experience and come back stronger?
As soon as a player is able to throw with a good arm circle, has decent posture, and throws at her fullest effort she's ready to learn the change up and movement pitches.
Even 10 year-olds can learn movement pitches. If I were to wait until a pitcher perfected her fastball to teach her a curveball, we might be waiting until she is a high school or even college!
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Not every mistake is a mental mistake! Coaches and parents sometimes confuse poor physical performance with a lack of mental toughness. And there's a pretty big difference! If we don’t diagnose the problem correctly, we can’t change it!
Physical mistakes are things like walking a batter, missing your spot, or overthrowing a throw to first (It happens to the best of us!).
Mental mistakes are things like not committing to a pitch, intentionally throwing slower because you're frustrated, not knowing how many outs there are, or letting your bad attitude take over.