Pitching can often be nothing short of a mystery science, and yet it impacts all of us every time our teams play a game. I'm not here to discuss or debate the mechanics of pitching I would like to share with you 5 keys I've found that will help make your pitchers more effective.

I spend a great deal of time working with pitchers of all ages and skill levels and while each has their own particular issue or challenge, these 5 keys are constantly coming up and continually helping to either increase or decrease the amount of break, movement, command the pitchers have on their pitches, and their confidence level in all of them.

So here's a list of 5 Keys I've found for making your pitchers more effective:

1. Explode on the Back Side of the Snap
• Too many pitchers focus on the pitch up to the release point, or snap, and then as soon as the ball leaves their hand their pitch ends almost immediately. Of course they'll follow through but as far as their wrist explosion goes it ends almost as soon as it begins.
• To help improve the amount of movement on each pitch and to increase the amount of break on each pitch the pitcher should focus on exploding the back side of the snap. Think of it as the snap having two separate parts; the first part is where the hand enters the release point and the second part is where it completes the release point.
• Most pitchers do a good job of exploding into the release point, or into the first half, but very few complete their snap and continue exploding on the back half of the snap.
• Get your pitchers to start focusing on the back half of their snaps and you're going start to seeing much greater movement and break and their pitches.
2. You Threw It, You Fix It
• While that sounds harsh, it's not meant to be. It's meant to be a statement about pitchers needing to take personal responsibility for themselves and the pitches they throw.
• It doesn't help pitchers to feel like they're nothing more than a bunch of separate Lego parts put together in the shape of a pitcher. Ever since a pitcher is old enough to throw a ball underhand she's been told everything to do and every body part to move as if she were simply mechanical and unable to know her own motion, how her body works and what things she needs to do to get better.
• If you're never treated as if you have a brain while pitching it doesn't give you any reason to use it. Pitching is nothing more than executing a pretty simple skill, over and over in pressurized situations while making constant adjustments.
• It's these adjustments that outstanding pitchers make and that pitching robots cannot make.  Adjustments require a pitcher's brain to be engaged so they can repeat anything about the last pitch that was good, and then fix anything about it they didn't like. There's not time in game for a coach to make these adjustments for the pitcher as they happen on every single pitch, and yet when we practice with our pitchers most of us are in the habit of telling our pitchers everything they are dong or need to do, and not engaging the pitcher at all in their own skill.
• Creating independent and quick-thinking pitchers will create game-ready pitchers capable of making great adjustments on every single pitch.
• "You threw it, you fix it" is all my sister used to tell me when she was catching me when I'd ask her what she thought I needed to change. While it was pretty cut-and-dry (just like my sister SueB) it was pretty good advice!
3. Start with the Good
• Because pitchers spend their softball lives under a microscope they get scrutinized more than all the other players on your team combined. Most people don't really know what to tell their pitchers to help fix them so they end up telling their pitchers everything they're doing wrong - and I mean everything!
• Since pitchers grow up in this environment filled with negative feedback and comments about everything they're doing wrong, they start talking to themselves the same way.
• Pitchers need to retrain how they talk to themselves after every pitch by starting with the things they did Good!  Maybe it was their explosion off the mound, or the complete snap on their curve, or their focus on the pitch…even if they just chunked it over the backstop they had to have had good hand speed - so there's usually something good they did on every pitch. Whatever it is the pitcher has to start her mental corrections by stating to herself the things they did Good.
• When things aren't going right for a pitcher everyone around them will not only see it but will start trying to help the pitcher by stating the obvious...things like just relax, get it down, you're ok, just calm down, and every pitcher's favorite … just throw strikes!  While all of this is well intended, it's useless information to a pitcher.  A pitcher needs to know that they're over-gripping the drop, or they're starting to throw with their shoulders, or that they're pushing their screwball. This is helpful information that isn't emotional, isn't negative and immediately gives the pitcher information she can use.
4. Eliminate the Emotion
• Along the lines of Starting with the Good in regards to how pitchers talk to themselves is the concept of eliminate the emotion. Pitcher's whose first reaction is an emotional one are not only wasting valuable time in between pitches, but are also taking them farther away from a good performance.
• Pitchers need to stay emotionally in the now and keep their mind focused on making the next pitch better, instead of reacting emotionally to the last pitch.
• Getting a pitchers self-talk away from the emotional and toward the smaller and more specific pitch-oriented thoughts are crucial to getting that pitcher on the road to game success.
5. Let it Go Just a Little Later
• The final point to help your pitchers get more movement is to release the ball just a little bit later. I know this sounds crazy, and maybe even a little scary, but bare with me.
• A majority of the pitchers I see release their movement pitches too early which prevents them from getting maximum movement because they aren't able to explode on the back side of the snap. If a pitcher let's go of a pitch too early, and I'm talking only 1-2 inches, then they can only get half way through their snap before the ball leaves their hand. The same is true if they release too late.
• But, by releasing pitches closer to the front side of their hip instead of closer to the back side, a pitcher's hand will be in a much stronger position to complete the entire snap and as a result, get a ton more movement and break.