There are two very powerful schools of thought for how pitchers ought to attack the strike zone to be successful.

1. Attack the strike zone directly

2. Paint corners and live in the rivers

How can both be correct when they are in direct contradiction to one another? Which option ought pitchers pay heed?

To get to the bottom of this question, since I work with all of you at lessons instead of games, I went back to all of my notes from previous pitching conventions where I was able to listen to philosophies on pitch calling from the elite coaches in our game: Lonnie Alameda (Florida State), Larissa Anderson (Missouri), Beth Torina (LSU), Missy Lombardi (Oregon), Karen Weekly (Tennessee), and Stephanie VanBracklr (Alabama) just to name a few.

For years, nothing has “wowed” the crowds quite like a fastball coming in at 70mph+. There is no doubt that a pitch thrown that hard (by the likes of Monica Abbott, Rachel Garcia, and Montana Fouts for example) will turn the heads of every Power 5 collegiate program in the nation. If you also have total control over the location of that 70 mph+ pitch, like Abbott, Garcia, and Fouts do, you have the potential to be one of the elite. But there are VERY few pitchers who will ever be able to hit 70+. So the new kid in school that is garnering all of the attention is “the movement pitcher.” And not just any movement pitcher, the one who amasses swings and misses with regularity. And creating true movement on a pitch (that will cause many hitters to swing and miss) is a skill that any pitcher can learn.

I want you to read that last sentence again: “Creating true movement on a pitch (that will cause many hitters to swing and miss) is a skill that any pitcher can learn. “

The episode was released after my last blog, so I broke it down for you below to make it easy to listen to the best parts. A lot of this will seem quite familiar to you, since I borrow most of DePauw University’s material for pitching school :) Guess where I got the idea of “The game of 5?” and “The Hit/Miss game?” Listen to find out!

If you're wondering why your pitchers keep throwing inside or why so many players are charging the mound on her, a bad arm circle is likely the culprit. 

Poor accuracy most commonly comes from an arm circle that is off-line and varies every time.  To be a consistently accurate pitcher mechanics must be exactly the same pitch after pitch.  You can accomplish this by building a simple easily-repeatable motion (come to lessons) and then try to duplicate it outside of games (practice).