So in my last email about learning by “copying” the pros, I left some things unsaid…
Over the weekend I had a chance to catch up with a fellow baseball coach. He’d spent some time in the minors, AA and AAA (even played with my brother for a bit).
Anyway, here’s the point. His kids are getting to little league age, and he had some concerns about the way his boys were learning to pitch.
“Things are a lot different from when you and I learned how to play…”
I knew what he meant… See, like me, he learned how to play as a kid (largely) by watching big leaguers and trying to mirror them… Borrow a little of this, a little of that. Make it your own.
We didn’t spend countless hours practicing positions or repeating drills that made little or no sense.
It’s funny, I stumbled upon a scene from The Bad News Bears not long ago (classic from the 70’s for any of you poor souls who came along too late to appreciate it)… and the pitchers I saw looked a lot different from what I often see nowadays.
They were fluid, smooth, natural… not stiff, slow, mechanical the way so many kids are these days. Hmm… before the rise of the “pitching mechanics by positions” craze… Interesting.
Anyway, a key point going back to how we used to learn pitching… Sure there was some instruction, some addressing the fundamentals…
But when it comes to developing good athletic movements, one of the best ways to learn is simply watching the way world class performers do it.
And if you have a coach who REALLY understands it and can show you the key things to look for… well, that’s how you can accelerate the learning process big time.
Now as much as I may long for those simpler times (man, am I getting old), there are some definite advantages today’s young pitchers have…
Things I would have given my left [arm] for growing up.
One of them is easy access to video. If I were growing up today I would have sat on MLB.com and YouTube for hours on end watching clips of big league pitchers…
Trying to DECODE their secrets…
(I’ve done this since… doesn’t do me much good now – but good for my pitchers)
And another big advantage is how easy it is to TAKE your own video. Practically everyone nowadays is walking around with their own personal camcorder right in their pocket (thank you, Mr. Jobs).
Personally, I don’t think I ever saw myself pitch on video until I was a senior in high school (maybe a junior)…
GOOD in that I avoided some of the big motion analysis traps… BAD in that I missed out on recognizing some fundamental bad habits that ultimately led me down a very tough road…
And that leads me back to why pitchers DON’T make progress…
It goes back to how they learned to pitch… There is something seriously wrong with the way many young pitchers are learning “good pitching mechanics.”
See, you can’t build on a flawed system… Sometimes you’ve got to rip out the operating system, give it an upgrade… and get to the root of the problem.
Now I’m not suggesting everything you see big league pitchers do is worth copying (that Joba Chamberlin madman beard, for example).
But when you really know what to look for, good things happen…
- Hours of frustration saved…
- Personal empowerment boosted…
- Progress accelerated
I’m going to be sharing more on this in the days and weeks ahead. In fact, I’m going to open up early access to a new program I’ve got in the works.
It’s still in development (and it won’t be cheap when it comes out)…
Go here to get on the waiting list: http://motionmappingmethod.com
Okay, that’s all for now.
Until next time…
Committed to Your Pitching Success,
Phil
PS – For now, the Ballistic Pitching Blueprint still comes with a free motion analysis