Why Young Softball Players Should Throw a Baseball

By Carly | May 28, 2012 |

I’ve been involved in fastpitch softball, either in a playing or coaching capacity, since I was eight years old. Thus, over the course of my life, I have seen and interacted with a pretty large number of softball players at all levels. It won’t come as any surprise when I say I’ve seen some pretty terrible throwing mechanics; you’ve probably all experienced the same thing. I have, however, noticed a curiosity: in a number of cases I’ve encountered, the most talented and athletic kid on a team has struggled more with her throwing than most of her teammates, displaying inconsistent accuracy, experiencing arm pain, or both. There are a few reasons why this might be the case. Personally, I believe coaches across softball, especially at the beginning levels, should place a much greater emphasis on teaching throwing and catching mechanics than they seem to do. Exposing very young players, even exceptionally talented ones, to competitive play without this foundation is doing a disservice to them and their futures as softball players. In addition to this, however, there is a factor that I believe comes into play in many cases. The average young girl’s hand is small, and a softball is big.

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Overcoming psychological barriers: tips for pitching as well in games as in lessons

By Carly | May 21, 2012

Over the past few weeks I’ve begun participating in discussions on the message board DiscussFastpitch.com, which is a general gathering place for players, parents, coaches, and enthusiasts of fastpitch softball. One of the topics that came up recently was the difference in a specific young pitcher’s performance in games and team practices versus lessons with her pitching coach. In the latter, she had been quite good, while in the former situations she had been struggling, with a noticeable change in her mechanics. This is something that affects a huge number of pitchers, so I thought it was important to write about it. Nerves can certainly affect a pitcher’s performance, and different people have nervous reactions to a wide variety of different stimuli. But sometimes a pitcher might not even feel any anxiety or sense of pressure whatsoever, and yet she still sees changes in her performance when a batter steps into the box. Today I’d like to share some suggestions for how to deal with this situation.

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Is Your Pre-motion Hurting Your Pitch? The Finale!

By Carly | May 14, 2012 |

Today I’m bringing you the fourth and final part of my windmill pitching pre-motion series. So far in parts 1-3, we’ve talked about improper loading, load foot rotation, and detrimental backswings. Now your load is terrific, your load foot is solid, and your backswing is under control or nonexistent. Is there anything else you can do in your pre-motion that may be detrimental to your pitch? Unfortunately, yes. The Fastpitch Power instructors advocate generally minimalistic pre-motions, and we believe that a lot of excess “noise” in your pre-motion can hurt you immediately and in the long run. Read on to find out why.


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Is Your Pre-motion Hurting Your Pitch? Part 3

By Carly | May 7, 2012 |

We’re continuing our series on the pre-motion portion of the windmill pitch and the most common pre-motion issues that end up affecting the pitch negatively. Today’s topic might be a bit controversial: it’s the backswing. I’ll be honest; if it were up to us, we’d eliminate windmill pitchers’ backswings altogether. We believe they do more harm than good, and we’ll explain why in this post. That said, if you must have a backswing to pitch comfortably, you should definitely be aware of the problems that certain backswings can cause and how to keep them under control.

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Muscles and Exercises You Can’t Pitch Without: Part 2

By Joe Bonyai | May 2, 2012 |

In this week’s video, I explain in more detail the role of the core muscles in maintaining optimal posture throughout the windmill pitching delivery. I redefine what “the core” is and demonstrate why old fashioned exercises like sit ups and crunches are a BAD choice for softball pitchers. I also give you three pitching specific, KILLER core exercise progressions.

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Beware of Bad Pitching Mechanics in Prominent Places!

By Carly | April 16, 2012 |

This post is somewhat in keeping with my post from last week, which explained how to be smarter about what you take from watching NCAA softball games on TV. The example I’m about to give, however, is much more specific. Actually, it’s been a pet peeve of mine for quite some time, and I’ve been looking forward to writing about it for months. There is an iconic image of a pitcher that many of you may have seen. Many of you may even see it regularly. And frankly… well, it’s awful.

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Strong Words From Bonyai #1

By Joe Bonyai | April 11, 2012

If you don’t want to lift weights, don’t play sports.
Lifting means doing squats, deadlifts, lunges, step ups, push ups, and pull ups.
If you can do more than 10 reps of an exercise you’re not lifting, you’re counting. Add weight. If you can do more than 10 pull ups, I want to see.

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Think Before You Mimic: What You See on TV Might Not Be So Great

By Carly | April 9, 2012 |

I’m a big baseball fan, and I’m always excited when the beginning of the baseball season comes after a long winter. What REALLY makes it feel like spring to me, however, is the start of the softball season! I love seeing NCAA softball games on ESPN, and a few have started popping up this past week. While the games are fun to watch, and you can certainly learn a lot from studying great college softball players, I’m going to issue a warning for you today: be careful what you mimic.

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