Our Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal!
How the Sessions are Different
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!
Should you learn softball movement pitches from easiest to hardest? Most effective to least effective? Should every pitcher master a dropball before learning a riseball? Or should you start with whichever pitch comes most naturally?
At Practice Pro, we take a different approach:
We introduce all the movement pitches at the same time.
Ideally, by fifth grade, I want every Practice Pro pitcher to demonstrate the correct spin for each movement pitch from the snapping position. That's the foundation. Turning those spins into effective pitches is a much longer process.
Now, at the risk of contradicting myself, I'm going to explain which pitches I've found players typically catch on to the fastest, even though they are learning about them at the same time. Some are easier to execute than others. Every pitcher is different, of course, but after years of teaching, I've noticed that certain pitches tend to click sooner than others.
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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?