Rick Pauly courses

[anaaraujoz]

Hey, y'all! I'm a beginner pitcher and i'm looking to buy some courses from Pauly Girl Fastpitch. I've been hanging around on this forum for a while and i feel i have a good grasp of the basic mechanics (at least the theory part, lol). My plan is to start in the intermediate courses, but i'm not sure which one. For the people who have completed it, is it a must to follow the sequence?
I'm going to have to buy only one every month. I was thinking about first getting the intermediate 12 - training drills or the 5 - mechanical assessment, mostly for the practical implementation. Should i not? Any other recommendations?

 

[Ken Krause]

Good for you and congratulations on wanting to go about pitching the right way.

I'm an Elite Level certified coach so I've done all the courses. I would recommend you start with Course 1 and work your way through rather than jumping ahead or going out of order. The entire program is designed to take you through the process step-by-step so you understand what you're trying to do and how it should look/feel.

If you jump ahead to the drills course you may learn some drills but perhaps not the additional information required to get the best value out of them. You'll understand more of the "why" behind the drills and what to expect if you take the other lessons first.

Think of it like buying an expensive bat without learning what a good swing should feel like. It might help a little, but if you learn how to apply the bat first you'll get a lot more out of it when you get into a game.

 

[Jeffrey]

Good for you and congratulations on wanting to go about pitching the right way.

I'm an Elite Level certified coach so I've done all the courses. I would recommend you start with Course 1 and work your way through rather than jumping ahead or going out of order. The entire program is designed to take you through the process step-by-step so you understand what you're trying to do and how it should look/feel.

If you jump ahead to the drills course you may learn some drills but perhaps not the additional information required to get the best value out of them. You'll understand more of the "why" behind the drills and what to expect if you take the other lessons first.

Think of it like buying an expensive bat without learning what a good swing should feel like. It might help a little, but if you learn how to apply the bat first you'll get a lot more out of it when you get into a game.

I agree. Start at the beginning.

 

[softballphreak]

What do the courses cost? Are they online? Download? Appropriate for beginner pitching coaches?

 

[Dabears17]

Pauly Girl Fastpitch – High Performance Pitching

I’ve only done a couple of his newer videos because I’m not working with pitchers currently, but well worth getting into. Seeing Rick’s older material several years ago is what made things click for me on how to work with my DD on pitching.

 

[anaaraujoz]

What do the courses cost? Are they online? Download? Appropriate for beginner pitching coaches?

It’s online video lessons, each course is 30 dollars. The intermediate level has 13 courses on different topics. It starts with like 5 courses on each stage of the pitch, and there’s a couple focused on coaching, other on drills.

 

[anaaraujoz]

Pauly Girl Fastpitch – High Performance Pitching

I’ve only done a couple of his newer videos because I’m not working with pitchers currently, but well worth getting into. Seeing Rick’s older material several years ago is what made things click for me on how to work with my DD on pitching.

Yeah, even the free material avaliable already has some great information. I wish i could get them all and binge them on the weekends, haha.

 

[PJR202]

What do the courses cost? Are they online? Download? Appropriate for beginner pitching coaches?

Dabears link will get you there (if you haven't already). They're more than appropriate for a beginner--they're perfect. Rick is easy to understand and methodical in his instruction. He'll take you through the steps. It took me a couple courses to start to follow his flow correctly, though.

To some (such as myself) it may seem at first like learning drive isn't as important as the arm circle, etc, but once you understand it more thoroughly you can go to facebook pitching advice groups and see that a good, consistent pitch lives or dies by the quality of drive. Most of the flaws you'll see started with a flawed component in the drive mechanics. Going to advice groups on facebook has been a really big help for me. You get lots of examples of flawed mechanics and the opportunity to learn to spot the problems. There is also a fair amount of incorrect (and sometimes just silly) advice being offered. Most mean well, but all they know how to do is spot a flaw and point it out as if it's something the pitcher can just correct with a cue, as opposed to putting their eyes in reverse and see what happened BEFORE the flaw they spotted.

The courses are like $30 each. If you pay $200 up front, the courses are $20 each. If you plan to get certified, the $200 is mandatory at some point anyway. I looked at it as just the cost of two months of my daughter's lessons that we dropped.

Rick gives you a call on Zoom after you finish up, to discuss the courses, talk about your plans, and answer questions. I had no idea where to start as an actual instructor. I had about 80 hours observing my daughter's lessons (not a pauly coach) but her instructor wasn't really very structured so I never really picked up on the sequence of things or why exactly some drills were used vs others.

You'll also get membership to a private facebook group of Pauly certified instructors, and a few well-known instructors who DO respond to questions there.

Overally I've found it to be a bargain for the knowledge I picked up. I've got team kids throwing strikes more consistently and am working on revamping my daughter's mechanics. It took some time to develop my own way of doing thing or organizing my thoughts in a way that I could apply them, but it's definitely happening now and improving all the time.

 

[cvsoftball]

Rick's courses are excellent. And they're not just for the pitcher but also for her coach.

 

[Hillhouse]

Rick's courses are excellent. And they're not just for the pitcher but also for her coach.

To be fair and honest, I have not seen any of Rick's courses. So I cannot speak to them, one way or another.

But this comment I quoted above caught my eye. I don't think the regulars who read this board often realize how different they are from the masses. While I do not agree with a lot of what I read on here, there one thing I respect is how many pitching coaches here share their info and are always looking to improve their own coaching. Those 2 things are pretty rare. But the overwhelming majority of pitching coaches out there, both the locals and the Nationally known coaches, do not continue their quest for pitching knowledge and training techniques. Most of those coaches will discourage their students from going to camps, clinics and hearing other pitching coaches speak. In my experience (and I've been doing this for about 23 years) the majority of coaches are so protective and territorial, with the majority out there still being H/E style coaches, my guess is 99% will balk at watching something new, especially when it refutes what they teach.

Thats what makes the majority on this forum unique, and should be applauded. I don't know how many coaches here were initially H/E coaches that have transitioned but you are in the minority. The overwhelming majority of pitching coaches in the USA still teach H/E, and they believe those who aren't teaching that are clearly in the wrong. They'll say softball pitching has been around for 100 years and this "new age" style of pitching can't be right, since they've been coaching their own way for 40 years.

I really wish more coaches would be like the majority on here, sharing and learning. And 10 points to anyone who can get an "established" H/E coach to take Rick's course or even join this site!!! And like most things in life, it's usually the ones who need it the most who are the least likely to actually do it.

I really respect you guys on here for doing your due diligence on pitching. I sincerely mean that.