My Other Teaching Gig...

Blog for October 16th

Outside of the teaching and curriculum writing I do, I spend a lot of time providing pitching lessons for area high school fastpitch pitchers. Basically my goal is to improve, expand, and increase their ability and knowledge of pitching. While I get to work with each pitcher about 2 hours a week, there are many more hours spent outside of this time thinking about drills, philosophy, etc., that could improve each pitcher's performance.
Both on Flickr and YouTube I found extensive resources I could use to help my pitchers improve. While I do my best to try and explain mechanics, philosophy, etc., sometimes it works better to hear the same message in a variety of different ways. Flickr had great photos of pitching styles and positions, as I displayed in my Flickr slideshow. YouTube seemed to have endless videos of pitching drills that reemphasized many of the things I am already telling my players.
The most important part of becoming a good pitcher is really UNDERSTANDING what it is you are doing. It is one thing to master the mechanics, it is a completely different thing to understand when, where, why, and how to use each pitch, how to modify the mechanics to set-up the batter, and develop the mental strength to become the best in the game. Looking at these different resources and reading in the Wysocki book really made me think of different ways I could use a pitching blog to enhance the lessons I am providing for my pitchers. One great idea I came up with after reading some of Selfe's assignments would be to post some video/pictures of pitchers who were using poor technique for different pitches. I would have my pitchers go to the blog, evaluate what they think could be better and then embark on a mission to find pictures and video that illustrate GOOD form and technique. Through this journey they would be certain to find other pitching drill videos that they could evaluate and learn from. Yeah! This seems like it could be a wonderful supplement to the help I am providing them. And I could post their workouts here as well, corresponding with the pitches and techniques we are working on that week!