Blocked or Random Practice - Which Is Best For Your Pitchers?

Author

Cindy Bristow
December 30, 2024

Table of Contents

Total Reading Time: 5 minutes

Welcome to another holiday issue. Find out how to sign up for our very first-ever Newsletter-Only Pitching Zoom, a lesson of self-control from Roger Federer and the reasons for using Blocked and Random Practice

I started this newsletter to share things I’ve learned through my curiosity and love of learning. I want to share these things with other curious pitching coaches like you.

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Blocked or Random Practice - Which Is Best For Your Pitchers?

Below is my own depiction of what Blocked vs Random Practice mean. Pretty much like their name implies, Blocked Practice is when you do the same thing over and over for a certain amount of reps. Like 5 pink squares followed by 5 green circles followed by 5 blue triangles.

While Random Practice is just that, random. There might be a total of 10 pink squares, and 10 green circles and 10 blue triangles, but their order is all mixed up - they’re random.

Why is this important, and how does it apply to pitching practice? Great question. Basically most of us spend our lives using Blocked practice - 10 Riseballs, then 10 Drops, then 10 Changeups (or whatever big quantity you want to put here).

While the game is all Random. In a game we’ll throw 1 Rise then 1 Changeup then maybe 2 Drops, on and on. The point is, the order of things in a game is Random and yet we prepare for this by practicing in Blocks. This might explain why so many of our pitchers do great in bullpens but not-so-great in games.

I’m not saying that Blocked Practice has no place in pitching - it absolutely does, but we need to understand it’s strength and use it accordingly.

If you’re wondering what impact Fall and Spring seasons have on Blocked and Random practices, here’s a guide to give you some ideas.

Next Week - I’ll share some workouts I’ve done for both Blocked and Random practices.

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How Roger Federer Tamed His Temper

I recently read a story about Roger Federer, an 8-time Wimbledon winner and one of the greatest tennis players of all time, and how he learned to control his temper.

If you’ve ever seen Roger play then talking about his temper seems crazy. He’s one of the coolest customers on the planet and rarely showed any emotion at all when he played.

But that wasn’t always the case.

Roger told a story about how all competitors are a mix of FIRE and ICE and that we need both. Both Fire and Ice have important rolls to play but it’s when we get them reversed that we’re in trouble. When we use them each in the right way, then our performance takes off.

When Roger was a junior player he blew up all the time. He’d throw his racquet and lose his mind every time he made a mistake or lost. And not surprisingly, he struggled.

It was only after he heard the story about FIRE and ICE that things changed for him. Roger started using his FIRE in his workouts, in his strokes, in his approach to his opponent - and he started using his ICE toward his mistakes, his losses and his setbacks.

Our pitchers can learn a lot from this story, to use their FIRE in their bullpens, their release, their attacking the hitter - and use their ICE toward their miss-pitches, their losses and their setbacks.

Both FIRE and ICE are important, but they need to be used at the right time.

Hope you enjoyed this Issue. If there’s something specific you want to read about send that to me at [email protected], or text me at (813) 368-2048

See You Next Week!