The Little Engine that Could, so he did!

Most of us learn the story of The Little Engine that Could from a young age. “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.” Making his way up a steep mountain with hardly any steam left to get to the top, it took a mindset that Yoda from Star Wars teaches us: “Do or do not. There is no ‘try’.” The power of the human mind can be extraordinary. At its best, it leaves no room for failure or excuses. When the mind meets the will and becomes singular in their focus, achieving even the most unlikely of goals becomes more than just possible, but probable. Ted Lasso says, “BELIEVE,” and Yoda says, “DO.” The combination of those two entities is magical. Just ask that Little Engine who finally made it to the Top.

And for you sports fans out there, another “Little Engine” made history last night in the men’s basketball March Madness playoff games. Did you fill out a bracket? If so, it is likely that this little miracle team just unraveled some of your predictions.

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).

If you have followed some of my blog articles in the past, you may remember that my cousin Erica, Head Coach at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, is also a former high school and collegiate pitcher like myself. She and I have a lot of great conversations, especially surrounding pitching: development, fundamentals, coaching, training, recruiting. Erica was interviewed by NFCA (National Fastpitch Coaches Association) Director of Education, Joanna Lane

In the last 10 years, only one team in the DI WCWS had pitchers from Illinois on it. As far as high school competition, the IHSA used to have a state bracket in which the winner of the city tournament went directly downstate. Unfortunately, the city schools lost too many games by too much of a margin, so they began to mix the city conference with the near suburbs to make the championships more competitive. The city's conference is improving though, with Marist winning 3 state championships since 2010 and a few schools sending players to university with softball scholarships.

If I don’t get to pitch on my current team I’m probably not a good pitcher. I will quit pitching.

Coach Andrea tells a great story about not getting to pitch on her high school team. They had an outstanding pitcher who ended up getting a D1 scholarship. Consequently, Coach Andrea never got mound time on her high school team. When the yearly team awards came out, she won “best outfielder.”

Is one of your biggest struggles getting your daughter to practice? Are you having trouble getting yourself to practice with her? Do you want to teach her to be independent and take initiative on working hard? Would it be better if she could sacrifice her current comfort for her future success?

I admit - it was a bit of an attention-grabber headline. Even so, there is truth to why I would never teach a pitcher to throw like Monica.

When you watch the Olympics, and if you paid attention in class, you’ll be able to see what the pitcher is doing well. Is she doing her 5 fundamentals ? Is she executing her take away, plug, stride, arm circle and banana? If not, how is it possible this pitcher could still get to the Olympics? Should I do it that way too?