JAGUAR FASTPITCH 12U

	TIPS FOR BEGINNER PITCHERS Hi!  I'm glad you've found this area of the site.  If you have, it may mean that you, or your daughter, is interested in learning the techniques necessary to become a good pitcher in fastpitch softball.  Because we have a few girls that are interested at the start of the season learning this exciting position on the field, I wanted to share a few short videos I've stumbled upon on the web to help get you get started.    These videos will help you learn the many different elements within the fastpitch "windmill" motion that, when each one is taught independently and mastered, will lead you on the way to putting it all together to the full arm circle and full motion pitch with correct fundamentals.  Each week, we will introduce a new drill to add to your pitching practices.  There are a number of good drills that can also be done in your house too that we can share with you.  Just drop us an email by going to the "Contact Us" section of the website and we'll be happy to share these drills with you.   It is important for players and parents to understand that each area of the pitch must be broken down and mastered.  It can take months alone to isolate these areas in order to build "muscle memory" for each aspect of the pitch.  The hardest part of pitching is not getting frustrated during this process.  It is essential to learning how to pitch with correct fundamentals and reducing the risk of injury.    The other important aspect of pitching is PRACTICE.  As a beginning pitcher, you must practice these drills at home, or on a field, during the week, just not on game day.  Pitching takes a lot of practice, and you must be willing to practice your pitching "homework" even when you'd rather be doing something else.  Practice and dedication to learning the correct fundamentals will lead you on your way to becoming a good fastpitch pitcher. click here to play video VIDEO - WEEK ONE - WRIST SNAPS - This drill isolates the wrist to help get maximum rotation on the ball. click here to play video VIDEO - WEEK TWO - WRIST SNAP WITH FOLLOW THROUGH Snapping and pulling at the same time all the way through the release point. click here to play video VIDEO - WEEK THREE - PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER Jennifer Hogan demonstates a drill for putting the arm circle and wrist snap together properly through the pitch.  Note that the lower body movement has not been covered yet.   click here to play video VIDEO - WEEK FOUR - PRE-MOTION - PRESENTING THE BALL Bo Reed, the Assistant Coach for Mississippi State, demonstrates presenting the ball in the first part of the pitch, covering heel/toe position and how the ball is held.

THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF ICE FOR PITCHERS

Why does ice feel so good?  When is it needed?  For a pitcher, when do they need to start using ice and where does it go?   Physiologically, cold/ice tends to cause a numbing effect to soft tissue such as muscle, ligaments and tendons.  It also tends to cause a decrease in the inflammation in the soft tissues.  After a game or after a heavy practice, ICE, not heat, should be applied.   Even with no particular injury, it's best to keep those soft tissues happy.  Once a girl is throwing really forcefully, she should need to have ice routinely.  I would suggest by the time the fast ball is thrown 40 mph, she need ice.  Shoulder sleeve cold packs are available for sale to use.   Just keep it in the freezer or cooler and put it on after the game or practice.  It covers the front of the shoulder and back over the shoulder blade, as well as down the arm to the just above the elbow.  If a specially made cold pack isn't available, a loose sack of ice can be put over the shoulder and secured with an elastic bandage or with cellophane.   The ice needs to stay on for 10-20 minutes only.  Because ice will decrease the muscle's extensibility (looseness), you shouldn't use ice in between innings or between games which are only a short time apart.  This would require a longer warm up time again for the pitcher, or she would risk injury from tissues which are not stretched out and ready to throw.   If there is discomfort present which is still there or worse by 2 days, it's time to talk to the trainer, a physical therapist, or the physician for a more thorough evaluation.   Because heat can cause an increase in the circulation initially, it is not good to use after practice.  If an injury or overuse has occurred, the heat can make it worse by causing some micro-bleeding into to area.  If there is general soreness a day or so after pitching, heat could be used, but not initially.

UNPREDICTABLE PITCHERS:  THE KEY TO SUCCESS VARYING THE TIME IN PRESENTATION If nothing ever changes in your physical motions when you pitch, you are predictable. When you are predictable the batters watch you, get your timing down in their heads and step into the box with a level of confidence that YOU let them have.  They step into the box knowing exactly when to pull the trigger and start their swing.  At every level of play, the batters rely and depend on knowing when to start their swing by timing the pitchers motions. A batter must do three things to make good contact with the ball. They must:  SEE THE BALL. They must find the ball and lock their eyes on it, draw their target and follow it through the pitch and delivery. The earliest moment in your motions they can do this, the more time it leaves for the rest of their job.  DECIDE WHEN TO BEGIN THEIR SWING. They base this decision initially on their timing of the pitcher's motions and then must make any adjustments for delivery speed.  ADJUST THEIR SWING. They then must adjust the swing for placement of the pitch and any movement of the ball. After you release the ball, it is not in your control. While you have the ball in your hand, you control everything and everyone in the game. Nothing happens, the batter doesn't swing, the runner doesn't move, until YOU decide it's time. Check the rulebook you play by, check the pitching regulations regarding THE PRESENTATION. It will say something to the effect of "You must present the ball for one second and no more than ten seconds". The exact moment you break from presentation and start your pitch is entirely up to you. You, the pitcher, are in control. How you use that control will determine your effectiveness. There has never been any play made, in any inning, in any game, in any game ever played, that didn't start with the pitcher deciding it was time to throw a pitch. Nothing happens until YOU say it's time for it to happen.  UNPREDICTABLE PITCHING -- PART TWO                                                      PITCHING + DISTRACTION = AN UNPREDICTABLE PITCHER If you vary, or stagger, the amount of time you hold the ball in presentation, the batters can't get your timing down in their heads. You become unpredictable and much harder to get a hit off of. Let's say you hold the ball in presentation for 3 seconds the first pitch and 7 seconds the next. You bat for your team and you know the thoughts that went through your head when it happened to you. That extra 4 seconds was an eternity in that box. You probably had thoughts like, "What's going on?", "What is she doing?", "Why isn't she throwing", "Should I step out and call time?", "Where's my coach?" When you vary the time in presentation, from one pitch to the next, you are exercising your control over how the batter thinks. You force them to think about something else besides what they need to concentrate on the most at that very instant. They are concentrating on wanting to see the ball and you are forcing them to think about the pitcher, instead of the ball. While they are thinking about all these other things besides the ball, you start your wind up and deliver. SURPRISE! Here is a simple pattern for younger pitchers just starting out. Hold the ball 3 seconds the first pitch, then 7, then 3, then 5, then repeat. 3-7-3-5, 3-7-3-5. Once you are used to doing that and get comfortable with it, then use your imagination, 3-7-5-2-5-1-4, or whatever. Make it a different length of time from one pitch to another. Every once in awhile throw 2 or 3 in a row the same amount of time, just to throw them off even more. The batters will usually step out of the box at around 8 or 9 seconds. They step out to see if they can have an affect on you. When they do, show no emotion at all. Do not make eye contact with the batter, stare at your catcher. This sends a definite signal to the batters that there is nothing they can do that will have even the slightest effect on what YOU are about to do to THEM.  Effective use of the presentation will make you unpredictable and helps you control everything and everyone in your half of the inning. VARY THE BALL SPEED. Now let's progress to the next step and become even more unpredictable. The next step is to vary the delivery speed from one pitch to the next. Never throw 2 pitches in a row at exactly the same speed. Always either add a little more, or take a little off every pitch, from one pitch to the next. It is a rare event when I see a pitcher throwing with any speed other than;  1. As fast, or very near, as they can possibly throw.  2. As slow as they can deliver a slow change up and still have it reach the plate. The thought of throwing a pitch with your fast ball grip, at any speed less than full speed, probably scares you a little. You have probably went your whole pitching career thinking it MUST be thrown at full speed and anything less is going to be easy to hit. That is not true. Just as varying the time you hold the ball in presentation causes the batter to delay their response and reaction time, so does varying the ball delivery speed from one pitch to the next. The batters watch you. They expect you to throw at full speed or a very slow change up. Take their confidence away from them, don't give them that edge. Don't let them be confident that you will only throw at those two speeds. Make them wait and you force them to delay their response time. You cause the batters to hesitate to determine exactly how fast the ball is moving.  Make them delay their decision, as to when to start their swing, even longer than you already do by varying the time in presentation. Make every pitch seem like an off speed pitch compared to the one you just threw them. If your fastest pitch is 65 mph and your slow change up comes in at 40mph, you have 24 options of ball speeds in between to pick from for an off speed pitch. If you throw a pitch at 65 and the next pitch at 52, the batter will probably swing too early.                    If the next pitch is at 57, having just looked at a 65 that was followed by a 52, the batter will either swing way too late or maybe even not at all because he could not decide when to start his swing in time. Once you are comfortable with varying the presentation time in your normal routine, then add this tactic to your routine and you can devastate the toughest batters in your league. Practice different speeds; don't jump right into this tactic at a tournament. It will take a little practice to achieve several different speeds when you may have used only 2 in your entire career. A good way to develop different speeds is "The wall workout", a piece of advice I posted on my site. Take note of how far the ball comes back before it hits the ground at 100% speed, then take some off, it won't come back as far. Try and reach speeds that would be 100%, 80%, 70% and 60%. Changing ball speeds, from one pitch to the next makes you even more unpredictable and harder to hit. Keep every advantage for yourself. Give the batters absolutely nothing that they can rely and depend on. DELAY THE ROTATION. Here is the next step to becoming even more unpredictable. It not only has an effect on the batters, it can draw runners off the bags too early, helps to control runners and it keeps them from challenging you as often. If you check the pitching regulations in your rule book you will find it says, in effect, the rotation of your arm must be in a forward motion and it cannot be reversed or stopped. It does not say you cannot slow down part or all of your rotation. It does not specify at what speed you must do it, only that you cannot reverse or stop it. You can use this to your advantage. As a pitcher, you are familiar with what you need to do with a slow change up. You want to make it appear that you are going to release a fast pitch except you slow the rotation down at the very end. You deliver a slow pitch trying to catch the batter off guard. This has an effect on the batter. UNPREDICTABLE PITCHING -- PART THREE                                                                    PITCHING + DISTRACTION = AN UNPREDICTABLE PITCHER. However, the amount of time difference between releasing it fast or slow is so slight, it does not allow enough time for a base runner to react badly and make a mistake. There is an offensive pitching tactic that works similarly to a slow change up, except you don't slow the rotation at the very end, you slow it down at the very beginning of the pitch. You take the call, present the ball and break from presentation quickly, as if you were going to throw a fast ball.  As you bring the ball up in front of you, slow the rotation down until you reach the point the ball is nearly over your head. Make it take between 3/4 and 1 full second longer to reach the highest point in your wind up. You then speed up your rotation and deliver a good off speed pitch at around 80% of your normal fast pitch speed. That much extra time EARLY in your wind up is enough for an eager base runner to react badly and come off the bag, before you release the ball. Early enough, hopefully, for an umpire to spot and call them out. It still has the desired effect on the batters timing of your motions but it will also control any base runner. Do this early in the game when you have a runner on. You will get a few called out early in the game. After that they will be very cautious on the bags. They will delay coming off the bags not wanting to get called out for leaving too soon. Don't use this in the game until you do have a runner on the bags. The other team will be alerted that you are a smart pitcher. You will keep them glued to the bags and decrease their lead a step or two when you do release the ball. Practice this tactic and dont forget that it is very important that you bring the ball out of the glove just as you do in a normal fast ball rotation.  This is the fourth step to becoming the most unpredictable pitcher you can be. This involves using your glove, during the presentation, to distract the batter. Again, you must make a one second presentation but you are allowed to hold the ball in presentation for up to 10 seconds. Once you have presented the ball at your waist for one second, the requirements for the presentation have been satisfied. What you do with your glove in the remaining 9 seconds is up to you. As long as you keep the glove in front of you and don't separate your hands, you can move it around any way you choose. Some tall pitchers like to present the ball, raise the glove way up over their head and then come back down to their waist before starting their wind up. Some pitchers will bring the glove way up and drop it down slowly in a jerky motion, as if coming down a ladder. They will make 4 or 5 jerks as they bring it back down and as soon as they reach their waist, they start their wind up. Some pitchers will move the glove around in circles across their stomach, as if they were rubbing their tummy, then go to the wind up at some point in that motion. Some pitchers will bring the glove way up high to the right, drop it back down way low to the left then come straight across their waist and go into their wind up.  All of these are distraction tactics utilizing the pitchers glove. What you do with your glove, while in presentation, can make you appear to be a completely different pitcher from the one that threw the last pitch. Using these descriptions, here are a few ideas to get you thinking. If you bring the glove up over your head and then back down to your waist, you don't have to wait until it comes ALL the way back down to your waist. You can remove the ball from the glove at any point and go directly into your forward wind up, as long as you bring the ball out of the glove in a sideways motion.  If you bring it way up and drop it down in steps, you can bring the ball out of the glove on the 3rd or 4th step instead of waiting till the last one at your waist. Start your wind up on the last step one pitch, and the 3rd step the second pitch,then the last, the second, etc. Bring the glove way up to the right, then way down to the left, then straight across your waist, then start your wind up and do that once or twice. Then, bring it way up to the right, start the glove going down but pull the ball out and go into your wind up while continuing the glove going way down to your left. SURPRISE! The batter will be watching your glove heading down to the left instead of the ball going into the wind up. If you make big quick circles across your stomach, you can bring the ball out on the first circle, second, third, fourth, or whenever. You can bring the ball into the wind up and continue to make another part of a circle to draw them off even more. You can make circles to the left for a few pitches and then to the right for a few. You can even make a circle to the left, two to the right, another to the left and then go into the wind up, as long as you do it all inside that 10 seconds. UTILIZING THE LEG SLAP If you slap your leg in your normal pitching motions, you need to consider this. If you do not make that particular action work to your advantage to distract the batter, it will be used against you. The batters WILL use that noise to help them get your timing down in their heads. If that slap on your leg, that very loud noise, always happens at exactly the same moment in your motions, it is a timing mark for the batters. They will know exactly when to start their swing by that loud noise, they will time it.  If you slap, you MUST vary the exact moment in your motions that you slap your leg from one pitch to the next.  Don't do it at the exact same moment in your wind up every time. They will use it and time your motions. Use it to your advantage before they use it against you.