Pitching Clinics Pitching clinics are a great way to expose a lot of players to pitching, a chance to try it to see if they like it. Clinics are also great for enhancing skills and learning new ones that are appropriate to the age and performance of the students.

I have been leading pitching clinics since 1998 and have done so in a wide variety of formats. One day clinics work well for locations that are a long drive from Chisago City. Pitchers at those clinics can always come to the Pitching Place for follow up work or take advantage of remote lessons. A series of one day clinics, like once a month, is an option and work best if the students spend lots of time doing the drills correctly between the sessions. Typically winter weekly clinics in gyms run from 4 to 16 sessions. Summer clinics on the fields can run for the entire summer.

Clinic sessions are very focused on providing instruction, teaching the same technique that the students with private lessons get. One thing that my experience has taught me is that the girls learn much faster when they are focused on the process as opposed to the result. So all of my clinics begin with the students working without a ball. Depending on the skill of the group and how many sessions there are the work without a ball may be only 30 minutes or it may be five hours.

A typical clinic session starts with a warm up period which is actually a sequence of drills designed not only to get the muscles ready but to also work on proper technique. Once the preliminary work is complete, usually about 15 minutes, the students can expect to spend about 75% of the time doing drills and the rest throwing pitches. That breakdown can vary based on the skill of the group and how close the season is. During the drill work all the students will usually be doing the same drills as each other though the choice of which drills to do deends on the progress of the group. If there are multiple sessions students will be placed by ability, not age. I will direct students to the proper sessions if necessary.

I do require that associations set the per clinic fee for participants at $10 or less per session as my services are not intended as a fund raiser. I also require that the clinics be open to all (limited by size) so that pitchers may be working along side of their conference or community rivals. The ideal number of students per session is 6 - 10 though I have successfully handled groups of over 20. Most of my sessions are done with me as the only clinician, but I may be joined by advanced students of mine, people in training to be clinicians or coaches and guest coaches.