Total Reading Time: 5 minutes

Happy Monday. It’s been three weekends so let’s look at some ways to handle the various issues you’re seeing within your staff. And a lesson about confidence courtesy of your phone and powercord.

So let’s Go!

Table of Contents

• What Phones and Powercords Can Tell Us About Belie …

• After Three Weekends, Now What?

What Phones and Powercords Can Tell Us About Belief

There are 2 extremely vital elements of being a successful pitcher:

• SKILL

• BELIEF

We focus too much about the former and too little about the latter. Maybe that’s because it’s easier for us as coaches to actually train skill.

Skill is a tangible thing. You can see it, measure it, train it and observe it in the wild.

Belief on the other hand can seem like one of those dark arts. It’s not tangible, how in the world do you measure it, let alone train it? And observing it in the wild is something interesting isn’t it, because you know it when you see it. And you also know when belief is lacking, or you don’t see it at all.

Of the two - I’ll take BELIEF every day over SKILL. I know, I’m going to get crushed for that comment, but think about it for a second. You know what they call skill without belief - potential. Meaning, you haven’t done it yet.

Belief on the other hand is an army that almost can’t be beat. Belief can convince what shred of Skill you do have to show up and show out! It’s the stories we hear about every year during the WCWS, MLB and the Olympic Games - it’s that propels less talented athletes to stardom.

Still not convinced? Think about these two elements this way:

SKILL - is your Phone Battery BELIEF - is your Phone Cord

Skill is great, but without the power of Belief, Skill eventually runs out. It doesn’t show up in the big moments, or it starts great but craps out at the end. Just like your phone battery when you can’t find the cord.

It’s common for us as coaches to spend most of our time improving our pitcher’s skills, but remember the role belief plays we need to devote a lot more time to the phone cord part of the picture.

Here’re a couple tips on how to do that once you’ve explained the batter & phone cord analogy:

• Think of every Intentional Rep as an extra HALF a LINE in your Skill Battery that leads your pitchers to a little more belief in that Skill when that skill is under pressure.

• Put that Skill under pressure in the bullpen and your pitchers gain an extra HALF a LINE of Skill Belief. (See my article on Knock Out Challenges in the Bullpen)

After Three Weekends, Now What?

After three weekends into the season our pitching staffs are starting to show themselves. No matter how your staff has performed so far there are definitely things you’re seeing that will really need your attention before you hit conference play.

While right now it might not seem like it, but you’ve still got plenty of time to identify any issues, put a plan together and make some impactful progress. Each of your pitchers will no doubt have different issues, but those issues usually fall into four different categories:

Things that :

• Needs Strengthening

• Needs Adjusting

• Needs Repairing

• Needs Fixing

So, let’s take them one-at-a time:

Needs Strengthening - look closer for things someone is currently doing well but could do a little better. Or maybe do a little longer. Making something stronger might imply length of time in a game, ticking up velo by 1-2 mph’s, or making what someone does well happen more often. Identify those things and get a specific plan together to strengthen them.

Needs Adjusting - some of your pitchers might just need something tweaked. It might be a pitch, or a pitch’s location, or the order you call pitches, or how you use your pitchers, or the role you’re using them in. Adjustments are little things that can have big impacts.

Needs Repairing - this can be anything from a physical injury that is still on a rehab schedule, to a confidence issue that needs to be repaired. Keep in mind that time can fix a lot of things. Exhaustion happens physically and mentally, so keep your eyes peeled and dole “time” it out as needed so your pitchers can can enter conference as healthy and revitalized as possible.

Needs Fixing - I’ve put this last because actually fixing something takes time, and time might not be something you have. Before you dive into actually trying to fix something, see if it can be strengthened, or adjusted or repaired before you tackle fixing it. Once you’ve narrowed down that “something” that actually needs fixing, take time to get a very clear plan for the solution, then present it simply and confidently to your pitcher. Your plan and confidence will play a big role in your pitcher committing to the solution.

NOTE: Drip in your coaching daily with each of your pitchers instead of going crazy with a couple drills for a few days and then forgetting about them. All of our pitchers should be improving under our coaching - some much easier than others. But keep in mind, if you have a pitcher on your staff, no matter how little she’s contributing right now, at some point you thought she’d help you or you wouldn’t have recruited her. So work your butt off to help each one of them!

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/