Why Our Progress Slows Down

Total Reading Time: 3 minutes

This week we’re looking at why progress slows down and what actually leads to progress. Plus the role that difficulty plays and how to jumpstart your pitching…My passion is helping people and I hope this newsletter helps you!

Today's Topics:

• Why Our Pitching Progress Slows Down

• Let’s Clarify “Hustle”

Why Our Pitching Progress Slows Down

Let’s go back to my very first issue of Curveball Chronicles, when I talked about an incredible book I’ve been reading and an eCourse I’ve been taking: The Art of Practice by Laido Dittmar.

This book is jammed with incredible nuggets about how to accelerate improvement - something that’s vital to all of us as pitching coaches.

So let’s look at what causes PROGRESS:

• Progress happens when you go BEYOND your current limits.

• Progress is a process of adaptation

Now our all-time favorite go-to, Repetition, is a part of progress, it plays a role. But it’s value depends on the challenge it presents. Remember, PROGRESS only happens when we go beyond our current limits.

THIS IS IMPORTANT: If the Repetition doesn’t send a strong enough stress signal to our body and internal system, then change will not happen! (Think about your “everdays” and shudder…

So, that’s what creates Progress - now ask yourself, “what slows it down?”. Our Progress slows down and we get “stuck” when:

1. Routines start

2. Routines become priority

3. We no longer push our skills to their maximum level

Research shows that you cannot get better on auto pilot. If you can “drift-off” while doing a skill then it’s time to practice something harder.

There was a study done on figure skaters - the very best in the world and some “good” ones. All they looked at were the type of jumps each group did and put them into 2 categories: (1) can’t land them (2) easy to land them

This study revealed that the world’s best skaters spent more time practicing jumps they couldn’t land, while the good group practiced the jumps they could already do successfully.

Experts practice the Hard Parts - the parts they haven’t mastered yet. If you want your pitchers to get better then have them continue practicing their harder skills.

Remember - the more automatic it is, the less your body needs to adapt, and Progress is a process of adaptation.

Let’s Clarify “Hustle”

I’m in the bullpen one day watching our pitchers and catchers come out and I get all wound up because I don’t think they’re hustling. Sound familiar?

But before I unload on them, I ask them sit down and I tell them that while I didn’t think they were hustling I realize we probably define “hustling” differently.

So, I came up with the 3 different types of “hustle”, and how each kind is appropriate in certain situations and not appropriate in others. Let’s look:

This number system was SUPER helpful to our Ps and Cs because it gave us all specific clarity on what type of hustle was expected, and when.

Each number - or hustle type - has a specific place where it’s ok and appropriate, and specific places where it isn’t. But instead of you telling your players when each type is and isn’t appropriate, actually ask your players.

For instance:

• Walking…NOT appropriate when you’re being chased, or when you’re running the bases, or when you hit a homerun, or when you’re late to class or when you’re backing up.

• Running…NOT appropriate when you’re in class, when you’re in the dugout, when you’re in the mall.

• Jogging…(This is the Hard one!). NOT appropriate when you’re running bases, or when you’re going after a ball in the gap, or when you’re being chased.

Each hustle type has a time and a place when they’re needed. So going back to when I was standing in the bullpen thinking my pitchers and catchers weren’t hustling…they were moving at a 1 and I thought they should all be at a 2.

Boom! Clarity.

This system allowed me to tell our P’s and C’s that I expected them to always be moving on the field at a minimum of a 2. No confusion, just clarity.

Could your pitching stand to:

• Improve Your Bullpen Workouts

• Increase Your Pitcher’s Mental Strength

• Create Detailed Development Plans for Each Pitcher

• Improve Your Pitch Design

• Call Better Games

If you answered yes to any of these I can help. Let me jumpstart your pitching coach on a weekly basis. Call me while spots remain! 813-368-2048

SAVE NOW!! Save $150 on the Pitching Summit Video Recordings!!!!

Watch Kirk Walker talk Picking Pitches, along with inside secrets from Jen Rocha, Trisha Ford and Nate Walker in our 2024 Pitching Summit presentations.

Hope you enjoyed this Issue. If there’s something specific you want to read about send that to me at [email protected]

See You Next Week!