To me, the intermediate stage is defined by one specific transition: moving from knowing what to do to being able to do it consistently without thinking. Beginners are learning the language of pitching. Advanced pitchers don’t have to think about that language at all anymore. Intermediate pitchers are in the middle, translating what they know into what they can repeat.

At this stage, a pitcher might know how to get into reverse posture, but she can’t do it every pitch. She might leap off the mound sometimes but still step when she’s tired, distracted, or feeling pressure. Resistance shows up on one pitch and disappears on the next. Mechanics still require conscious effort, and pitchers often mentally check in with every part of their delivery instead of letting the sequence flow naturally. The goal here isn’t perfection—it’s consistency.

I was recently listening to one of my favorite podcasts, The Tim Ferriss Show, hosted by Tim Ferriss, a business author and entrepreneur known for interviewing top-performing people across sports, business, and life. His goal is to “deconstruct world-class performers,” and his recent interview with NFL-great, Steve Young was amazing. I’m not much of a football fan, and to be honest didn’t know who Steve Young was, but I surely do now! know why he was so successful after listening to this interview. I thought so much applied to softball and pitching that I wanted to pass this along. .

He talked about how there is a difference in athleticism. The players in the NFL are the top in the world. He also talked about how the error margins were so much smaller. , in college football, receivers are often open. In the NFL, no one is open. I’ve actually heard professional golfers say the same thing, or those that didn’t make it to the tour but were close. My old golf instructor who didn’t make the tour, but his friend did said, everything was the same, but the other guy could wouldn’t miss that one last short putt, I’d miss it one more time than him. Less room for error, less margins.