Welcome to Curveball Chronicles

If you're a pitching coach, or just a curious learner then you've come to the right place! I love Learning, Sharing and Helping, and through my new Curveball Chronicles I'll share all the coolest stuff I've learned lately because I want to help make pitching better, at all levels!

Each week I'll post an issue packed with discoveries that will only take 5 minutes to read - tops, and will help you be a better coach!

My target will be Pitching Coaches - specifically college pitching coaches. So let's get started...

How “Naturals” Improve Their Skill

When I say Naturals, I mean those people, in any field, who just seem good at things - really good - effortlessly, mind-blowingly good. We see them everywhere, from the music field, to sports, to politics, to teaching. "Naturals" are everywhere.

But what if you could figure out what makes them so good, and then apply that to your players, or even yourself...

That's exactly what Laido Dittmar, in his book The Art of Practice has already done for you. This is an INCREDIBLE book that has blown my mind! In fact, I devoured the book and am now taking his eCourse. Short version, Laido is notably the world's best juggler. He spent over 10 years in Cirque du Soleil.

But he wasn't always that good. In fact, he kinda sucked. He practiced just as long and just as hard as the people who seemed like "naturals", but he wasn't getting any better. That's when he became obsessed with studying what these "naturals" do better than the rest of us.

So, nutshell version. Naturals improve their skills by:

• They do the newer harder skills at the beginning of practice, when they're energized & focused.

• They start with the 1% of the skill they haven't mastered - the thing that overcomes their skill level and challenges all their skill.

• Their warmups are amazingly short.

• And, they never wait until the low-value energy part of practice to work on those harder things.

Think about that list compared to how we typically practice and you'll stat to see some mind-blowing ways to get better, faster.

I'll keep dripping in things I've learned from this book in future issues of Curveball Chronicles. Stay tuned...

How vs Why

As the new college season starts you'll be working with new pitchers, or pitchers that are new to you. Either way, pushback is likely as your info will be different for them and nobody likes change.

Help your players (and even yourself) reframe the dreaded "doom loop" which takes you down a negative rabbit hole. One that you don't really want a resolution to, you just want to bitch about it.

These negative, complaining rants usually start with the word "why". As in "why is she like that?", or "why can't we do that?", or "why, why why"...

Next time you hear that, try this. Ask your player/s to say "HOW" instead of "why". As in "How" can you find a way to connect with her? Or "how" could you help make that work?".

Unless you're investigating a problem where the "why" really connects to the ultimate solution, the word is a huge trap. Instead, get your players, and yourself, back on track and focused on an action they can take by simply using the word "How" - as in "how" can we get Cindy to stop typing since she promised this was a 5 minute read (ha).

Jen Rocha's Keys to the Offspeed

At our recent Pitching Summit SoftballSummits - Oklahoma pitching coach Jen Rocha gave some cool tips for creating an "offspeed" - that pitch that lives between your faster stuff and your changeup.

Jen suggested taking your pitcher's best pitch, and tinkering with the grip to create an offspeed version. Her reasoning was:

• It's your pitcher's most confident pitch

• She enters this new pitch feeling like it's possible

• It will tunnel with the fast version of this pitch to create havoc with the hitters.

With fall here, have your pitchers try this out. And if you want to hear Jen Rocha talk about this concept, plus everything she talked about at our recent Pitching Summit 2024, then check out the recordings Pitching Summit 2024 Recordings

Hope you enjoyed this Issue - See ya next week!