In-Season Tips for Parents and Coaches

Hi There Friend!

Most of your pitchers are beginning to compete. This means they are transitioning from pre-season training to IN-SEASON competition mode! THIS is what they've been working so hard for ALL TRAINING SEASON!

As they make the adjustment from training to competing, here are a few things to keep in mind:

Rest (NO pitching) 2 days in every 7-day span

Rest is very important! Regardless of how strong your pitcher is, how solid her mechanics look or how hard she's worked, she should NOT be pitching every day! Her body NEEDS rest to recover and allow her to continue to perform at her BEST when her team needs her.

If she is pitching games 3 days each week, she can and should do workouts 2 days during that week, but not more than that!

In-Season Workouts should:

• Continue to include things that strengthen your pitcher's FOUNDATION
  
  • Use drills that she needs to remember the most. If she struggles with her lower body mechanics, include lower body mechanics drills as a part of her workouts!
    • HERE is a link to a handful of my favorite mechanics drills that may help you!
• Continue to include things to make her STRONGER and FASTER
  • long toss, harnesses, power circuits, count-ups, ladders as well as leg drive and arm whip drills.
    • HERE is a link to several great things to help your pitcher gain power during her season!

Focus on areas that show a need for improvement during her games:

• A couple examples may include:
  • If she didn’t throw your change-up for a strike consistently in a tournament, throw it A LOT in her workouts between that tourney and her next one!
  • If she is giving up a lot of 0-2 or 1-2 hits, work on throwing better OUT pitches (believable balls) before she plays her next game!
• Your pitcher's workouts/focus will change a little each week based on what she did during competition that week!

If you are the PARENT of a pitcher, here's a couple tips for you:

Be prepared for both highs and lows during the season!

• As general rules:
  • More than 300 pitches every weekend is too much
    • If it happens once or twice, not a big deal BUT if it's happening a lot because there isn't another pitcher on the team to help, that is not something that's safe for your daughter
  • Your daughter NEEDS rest to recover!
    • Make sure she gets 2 days off from pitching in every 7 days so that you reduce the chances of over-use injuries
  • If your daughter is struggling, GO BACK TO THE BASICS
    • Most problems with command are directly tied to things like BALANCE, POWER LINE and FINISH
    • Don't underestimate the value of taking a day to go back to working on the fundamentals
  • Your daughter will not have her "A" game every time she competes
    
    • Don't panic if she has a "bad game!" They will happen at times no matter how good she is at what she does! 
    • Remind her that a "bad game" doesn't mean she's a "bad pitcher" and that she must learn from it and then FORGET IT. Having a short memory is the key to being a consistent pitcher!
    • If she is consistently struggling with something specific, always feel free to send me a quick video and let me know what problem she is having. I will give you some feedback on what I think could help her!
    • Remind her to trust all that she's done to prepare for the season and MOST IMPORTANTLY, tell her to HAVE FUN competing with her teammates!

Your daughter has likely been working very hard for this moment, the chance to lead her team in the circle in games. I hope you can enjoy watching her do what she loves this season! ; )

All My Best,

Myndie