The worth of a pitching coach should not be measured by the pitching resume of the coach. It is the success of the students that matter. Moreover it is the success of students who were coached at the level that your daughter is currently at. There are some awesome coaches who can take a good 14U and help her become dominant into high school and college. But those coaches might not be (or they might be) the best at turning an 8U beginner into a dominant 14U pitcher. PitchingMagic specializes in taking beginners and laying the groundwork for future success. PitchingMagic can also help girls at any level elevate their game to the next level, then repeat that and get to an even higher level.
How to Teach Pitching When you know nothing about it
Many situations arise when a person is called on to guide pitchers when they admittedly know little about pitching technique - parents, a youth team coach, a middle school coach etc. A positive learning experience may help instill in a young girl the passion to become the varsity pitcher some day. Learning proper technique from the beginning can help a student not only pitch well now but also become a good pitcher later on. Bad habits developed early, often learned from teachers who are kind of guessing based on some tidbit picked up from the internet or elsewhere, can be very difficult to change later on.
This six part video series, each about 10 minutes, can give the teacher/coach the knowledge needed to instruct a beginning or intermediate pitcher (fastball speeds up to 54 mph) the basic technique that will be valuable for her entire pitching career, wherever that may lead. In addition to the videos there are text sections that help explain the technique and how to identify flaws. This video series was completed in 2019 and does not reflect rule changes (start back, leaping etc.) since then. Also the technique I teach is continually evolving. Still, the underlying basics of pitching haven't changed much in the past 30 years so there is a lot of good information here.
Click here to see an overview of the six video series on how to teach pitching when you know nothing about pitching technique
I have carefully studied the motions of the best pitchers in the world using slow motion video. I have had discussions with some of the leading pitching coaches in the country. One thing has become very clear and that is top level pitchers are looking for the competitive edge. If somebody jumps ahead because of some sort of change, everybody copies it and it becomes standard practice.
Not all top pitchers use the exact same technique but their motions all follow Kirk Walker's 4 key principles of pitching fastpitch. These were developed based on years of studying slow motion video of both great pitchers and those that weren't. Since the results of that research were published and with widespread use of slow motion, high definition video, average pitching speeds have increased significantly over the past 15 years.
The "key" key principle is what he calls sequencing which is basically a study of how the energy in the legs gets transferred to the arm and release. Embracing the concept of sequencing at the beginning level has allowed the students of PitchingMagic to turn in very impressive results at the high school and college level as well as having success on youth teams. Students who do not learn sequencing at an early age often find it very difficult to incorporate later. Several college coaches have told me that if they are scouting someone who pitches with a straight arm all the way around they just move on to the next pitcher.
If you know the jargon I teach internal rotation and use both the Magnus and SSW effects for movement pitches.
Since 2023 my focus has been on teaching individual lessons (sometimes double lessons for siblings) with the students being committed to regular lessons, every week or two, for the entire year. Unfortunately that means I can not accept every student who wants lessons. I do my best to offer a single lesson for anyone who is seriously interested in learning more about pitching.
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