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  1. J

    Would you consider this brush resistance

    I would not, FWIW, since there is no visible contact below the elbow. But I also think the best way to tell is with your ears, not your eyes. You can hear something between a “psst” and a “thwack,” followed an instant later by the sound of the ball hitting the glove. (You don’t want too much...
  2. J

    PGF nationals

    No, but I did have a very close up view of this same pitcher win the state title the year before. She threw no hitters in both championship games, as I recall. (Maybe someone else can come on and talk about their loss this year.) Totally extraordinary. But that’s also HS softball: I am not sure...
  3. J

    How to deal with the frustration of non-linear progression?

    That visual is a really good one. Another approach I always liked was: “let’s look at a video from this date exactly one year ago.” You can’t miss the changes that occur over 12 months (usually a lot less) especially at age 12/13. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
  4. J

    The CWS shows bulletspin--rewriting the book on movement pitches

    You are right that the Rapsodo charts really do not correlate the spin rate, speed, spin efficiency, or movement in a meaningful way. What is useful (I think) is really only the absolute movement numbers. If you have someone with a rise consistently above +6 VB (or a drop that is consistently...
  5. J

    The CWS shows bulletspin--rewriting the book on movement pitches

    100% efficient just means that there is 0% gyrospin. So a ball that spins straight down, straight up, straight sideways, or anything between (11-5, 10-4, etc.) all will be 100% efficient. In other words, imagine a coordinate plane where the x-axis runs from 1st base to 3rd, the y-axis runs from...
  6. J

    The CWS shows bulletspin--rewriting the book on movement pitches

    This is the right answer (in my opinion). What we’ve seen on TV this year is what anyone with a Rapsodo has known for the last five years. Dropballs are generally effective at lower spin rates but need very true spin (spin efficiency > 95% to be really good), whereas riseballs are effective...
  7. J

    DD called off her HS coach's pitch....

    You answered your own question. You know best; the athlete doesn’t. You’re accountable; the athlete isn’t. You can predict the future (that changeup you wanted in the state title game wouldn’t have been hung and hit out or bounced, leading to a next pitch fastball that gets hit out); the athlete...
  8. J

    DD called off her HS coach's pitch....

    Agree with this. DD called all her own games for two years in HS after the coach became exasperated by her shaking off and the delay created by having to signal in a new pitch to the catcher (who did not want any part of a disagreement between coach and pitcher). Now in college, it is back to...
  9. J

    191 pitches

    That’s definitely true. But I don’t think that justifies that much work at the younger levels either, even if you are splitting those pitches up between multiple games on one day. Maybe if these are must-win games in a qualifier or at nationals, but it should be the exception, just as it should...
  10. J

    191 pitches

    Ha! They’re not all THAT different. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
  11. J

    Increased velocity with weighted ball?

    Yep. I have seen the same thing. Too heavy and the arm gets straighter down the backside. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
  12. J

    Fouts pitching out of her glove.

    Elish also made this change more than halfway through college, and I am sure there are a number of others that don’t come to mind this very moment. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
  13. J

    Pitchers and number of pitches

    Earlier in the thread I think I mentioned that one way to think about pitch counts is similar to how endurance athletes think about training volume. So like a runner determining the length of a “long run” based on overall weekly mileage (6 miles is “long” if you run 20 miles per week but very...
  14. J

    Injury Study

    I’d also be curious where and what level you coach. I’ve met a fair number of pitchers over the last decade myself and I am struggling to think of any who never had an overuse injury. Not one. Now, do they all require surgery? Of course not. But have they had to shut it down for more than two...
  15. J

    Pitch Tunneling

    I had always thought of “tunneling” as an analytical quality—something that you might work on through pitch design or pitch sequencing (with a Rapsodo scatter plot, for example)—as opposed to the act of literally trying to throw the ball down a tunnel. So improvements in tunneling would come...
  16. J

    Travel vs. School vs. Private Coaching Conflicts

    This is spot on, especially for pitchers. Everyone assumes that the perceived drop off in competition makes kids worse, and maybe there is a short adjustment period for hitters. But people overlook the alternative, which is often not enough work at all (even if you play for a spring team of...
  17. J

    Pitchers and number of pitches

    Except that you are not paying the coach, have almost no control over his or her job, and they don’t care what you think and in many instances resent the travel “mommies and daddies” who are in there business, especially if they have been coaching for more than a decade. Not all HS coaches are...
  18. J

    Pitchers and number of pitches

    The other question is whether you would have made the same decision if you could have won the conference? My guess is that would have been a tougher call both in the moment and maybe even in hindsight. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
  19. J

    Pitchers and number of pitches

    This makes a lot of sense. I’ve always thought “periodization” was highly relevant to pitchers in softball. They need to think about their seasons like a distance runner would, where training and volume is based around specific significant competition events (“big meets”). The benefit of a pre...
  20. J

    Pitchers and number of pitches

    I agree with that. More people would have to learn how to pitch, and HS in particular would not turn so much on the quality of one starting pitcher. It would be a better team game with more strategy if you had to manage a staff. And of course it would be healthier. Sent from my iPhone using...

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