On the Base Path
with Beth Keylon-Randolph... 

Getting the Most Out of Your Pitcher

As a pitching coach it is my responsibility to see that all my students receive the highest level of training in the sport of fastpitch so that each and every one of them may be successful.  I constantly attend clinics and do research with physicians and therapists to ensure the safety of our athletes at all levels.  I have developed a very simple way to teach the art of pitching fastpitch so that students, parents, and coaches of every age will have an understanding of the mechanics of the motion as well as a good idea of how to correct common problems.  It is through years of experience that I have gained the knowledge of how to correct fundamental problems.  Only through playing actual games and working my way out of actual situations have I been able to pass along twenty years of pitching knowledge.  The situation I want to try and resolve with this article is how the summer or school ball coach can get the most out of their pitcher and give the team a better chance of success.

The most important item I must address is how coaches work their pitchers.  The game of fastpitch is 85 to 90% dependent on the pitcher, yet so many times I hear of practices that include absolutely no pitching time for the pitchers.  This is usually the result of the coach that knows nothing about pitching.  The pitchers are left to find time on their own to try and perfect the one skill that will carry their team farther than any other skill.  There are not enough hours in the day with school, homework, jobs and responsibilities to practice pitching on their own.  We have got to find the time during practice to let our pitchers throw.  We all know that if we asked our short stop to go home and take her ground balls or turning two that she would do it once maybe twice a week.  Can we really depend on that?  You know the answer.  So, let’s find time for the pitchers to throw in practice.  Set up extra practices for your pitchers and catchers.  Most of the time, they will show up.

One of my biggest pet peeves as a pitching coach is when the coach asks the pitcher to go out to the circle and “Just let up a little and throw it right down the middle of the plate so we can hit it!”  WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE WE THINKING?  I can tell you right now that NO student of mine is taught to let up and chunk it down the middle so the other team can hit it.  We spend months and years trying to perfect throwing to the corners so that we can be more successful and SAFE.  With the new technology being put into the bats our kids use, I never want my pitchers to throw it down the middle of the plate.  If you look at this, you will answer your question of “Why do we hit so well in practice and cannot touch the ball in a game?”  It’s because you are not practicing the skill of hitting off of a true pitcher if you ask your athlete to let up and throw it down the middle.  This is not helping your hitters or your pitchers.  This type of practice will provide your hitters with a false sense of success and your pitchers with numerous bad habits.  Now, if you are trying to get your hitters some BP off of a live arm, anyone can provide this and it can be thrown down the middle.  Simply set up a net about 20 to 30 feet from the hitter and toss the ball to them with a windmill motion.  You do not have to be a pitcher to do this.  You will be able to get twice as much hitting done in one practice.

One final issue that I would like to present in this article is how the coach may provide constructive criticism to the pitcher.  Most of the time during a game it is going to come down to how well your pitcher can make an adjustment to the opposing team, to the umpire, to the weather conditions, to the playing conditions, etc., etc., etc.  If you will get to know your pitcher (again, during practice), her strengths, her weaknesses, the way she wants to be talked to (is she a tough nosed kid that you can go right at with your most honest words, or do you need to be a little less intimidating) and the mechanics of HER motion, you will find that your team will be much more successful.  EACH pitcher is an individual and their motion is individual.  It is your job to know the terminology they are used to hearing about their pitching mechanics and drills they may use to correct mechanical problems they may have.  The pitchers will listen to you much more if you know what they have been taught and how they are taught to correct problems.  There are many different ways to reach a goal, but the bottom line is we must reach that goal.  If our pitchers are used to going one direction and you throw them a curve (no pun intended), they may never get to the final goal or destination, even though the outcome was to be the same.

I always welcome coaches of my pitchers to attend their training sessions so that they may learn what I teach as well as how I teach them to work on certain problems.