Total Reading Time: 4 minutes

Happy Monday! Today we’ll look at something as vital to a pitcher’s game as Belief and how a balloon can make a difference. As well as looking into a terrific zoom from Christian Conrad from Arizona detailing how he preps for a conference series.

So let’s Go!

Table of Contents

• How the Belief Balloon Will Change Your Pitchers

• How to Prep for Your Conference Opponents

How the Belief Balloon Will Change Your Pitchers

So many of our pitchers are absolutely amazing - in the bullpen. But something drastic happens in that walk from the bullpen to the field, and it’s not good. They lose their location, their movement, their control, their speed - and basically they become a completely different pitcher.

Sound familiar?

I think we’ve all seen it.

So what happens? What causes this seismic shift in a matter of sometimes 10 minutes and 100 feet? In a word - Belief. If I can paraphrase, Belief has left the building.

Here’s the thing, Skill follows Belief - not the other way around. Without belief, skill doesn’t exist. And belief isn’t really BELIEF until it can stand up under pressure - I,E, the game.

Imagine belief as a Balloon - a red balloon. It sits over whatever player on the field has the strongest belief at the moment. As pitching coaches we want that to be OUR PITCHER, we want our pitcher to have the strongest Belief!

But too often the pitcher believes in the batter, in which case, the Belief Balloon drifts away from the pitching rubber and floats over the batters box.

Lots of our pitchers all too willingly give their belief balloons away like Oprah - “everybody gets a balloon”. They start dis-Believing in themselves and instead, start Believing in the batter, the umpire, the other team’s dugout, or even the fans more than they believe in their own skills.

The game is made to attack our balloon. There’s always somebody that wants it. They “want” to believe. They want to grab the balloon so they too can have their skill show up in a big moment - it’s just a matter of, well, belief. Who is going to have the most of it, the strongest of it, have it the longest or have it in the biggest moment?

So here’s some quick tips to help your pitchers when their belief balloon has started drifting away:

• Have a Reset Thought (something that your pitcher can say or think to quickly reset herself and grab back her balloon. Something like Rip This Pitch, or Breathe, or You’ve Got This, or Grab it Back-Now!).

• Recognize When Your Balloon is Drifting Away (Too often pitchers don’t notice that they haven’t had their Belief Balloon for a very long time. Work with your pitcher to have a sign that their balloon is starting to drift. Something like they’re missing high, or their changeup is bouncing, or they can get their riseball low enough)

• Hold Tight to the String (Too often our pitchers hold far too loosely to their belief which makes it easy for their Belief Balloon to float away, so hold tight to your belief and to your skill - especially in those tough moments. Remember to Believe in YOUR skill instead of thinking about the skill of your opponents!)

How to Prep for Your Conference Opponents

Technology has made scouting easier, and also overwhelming.

Data is everywhere so finding it isn’t hard. Finding the right data and then accessing it quickly during a game is a whole different beast.

Never mind all the sleepless nights watching and re-watching video only to realize your opponents in-game adjustments force you to abandon all of that.

If you’re wondering whether you’re watching the right stuff and preparing the right way - then you’ll want to check out the zoom where Christian Conrad (Arizona) shares his preparation in detail.

Christian takes you behind-the-scenes on a step-by-step tour of his game prep including all of the following:

This zoom is available to all Zoom Members (already in your locker, ready to download). Not a Zoom Member yet? That’s quick and easy to fix. Get Christian’s Zoom and a lot more terrific content - become a Zoom Member today - and get access to these amazing Zooms and Special Content:

• How I Start the Season - Lance Glasoe (Washington)

• Coaching the Pitcher’s Mental Game - Megan Rhodes-Smith (Tennessee)

• Recruiting a Pitching Staff - Nate Walker (Diamond Analytics)

• Analytics Q & A Open Forum with Nate Walker

• Pitching Bike-Cardio Workouts.pdf

• Pitching Bike-Cardio Workouts Adendum.pdf

Thanks for reading this week’s Curveball Chronicles. I hope you gained some insight, some encouragement, some knowledge or some grace.

Go make this a Great week!!

Missed some previous issues? Don’t worry, I’ve got them all on my website: https://pitchingcoachcentral.com/curveball-newsletter/