Sometimes, You’re a Loser by Amanda Scarborough

[Doug Romrell]

Rocketech, Didn't you say you had a bridge to sell me?

 

[Rocketech1]

Hello!

Please fill me in on what "hello elbow" mechanics are - I don't believe I myself have ever used that terms and I'm wondering what it is, so I can comment to it. Thanks about the compliment of mechanics.

Wisdom from college pitching experience at A&M? -- The ability to mix pitches up. You're facing lineups that make adjustments quickly, and as pitcher you've got to be able to make adjustments quickly back to them. Set them up in different ways the second and third times through the lineup. You can't stick to the same side of the plate or the same pitch IF You want to be able to pitch a complete 7 inning game. In college, I really learned what it meant to pitch and not just throw, where I am thinking about hitting precise spots and giving hitters a different look as the game continues. This was something that may have happened in travel ball without me knowing it before I got to college. But I truly feel like I LEARNED and applied it when I got to college. ALSO --- the ability to throw a good drop ball is huge in college because it keeps the ball down and in the park. Hitters hit mistakes hit and hitters even hit good pitcher's pitches out of the park. SO, mentally you have to learn what was a good pitch that they just hit and what was a bad pitch that they took advantage of. In college - there are going to be both, and the ability to learn from your mistakes and recover quickly from them is so important.

Thanks Amanda. We get lots of trolls on these boards so forgive me if I was skeptical.

Re: "Hello Elbow", some instructors teach pitchers to push the ball down the circle the last part of the arm circle before release and want the hand to finish with the back of the hand and elbow pointed to the catcher. No elite pitchers (or even very good pitchers) do this move but many think this is how they pitch (e.g. Jennie Finch). You clearly do not pitch this way but your Utube videos teach otherwise. Just curious if you have analyzed your powerdrive slo-mo mechanics to what you teach.

If you only do one thing on this site, I highly recommend you read the "Internal Rotation" thread (a sticky at the top of the Pitching thread) originally posted by Sarah Pauley's dad Rick and Boardmember's excellent analysis of what really creates arm whip.

 

[wichita]

If he's had a positive impact on you and his teams, then I won't question that he's a good coach, but here are two pet peeves of mine - (1) Using running as punishment, and the use of punishment as a major part of coaching in general, and (2) considering it a punishable offense to strike out looking. How does a kid learn the strike zone and to make those hard but critical pitch-selection decisions if she's simply taught ''swing at anything close''? An advanced hitter learns to take balls that just miss the strike zone w/ 2 strikes. It's a valuable but hard skill to learn, and it's only made harder if the hitter is taught that you cannot risk a third strike under the threat of punishment.

Let me clarify ....theses girls would strike out looking 75 percent of the time and shake their head no like the umpire didn't know what he was doing so this was his remedy to the problem which worked if you got called out on strikes every once in a while he didn't say a word. As far as your pet peeves go I can't speak for the rest of the country but almost every coach here make the girls run for punishment. Just curious how do you punish your kids without making them run?

 

[wichita]

Maybe they are teaching the kid she has to stick to it and get the job done and be there for the team. That she isnt going to get the easy way out and be lifted when things are tough and have another player pick you up when you make an error. That you have to pull crap together and get your head straight and bounce back and make the plays because down the road, you are going to be depended on. How can you learn that if every time you screw up, you get taken out and get to relax the rest of the game.

Well I'm not sure it the easy way out but in my experience with getting kids to play their best playing time will do it every time.

The Corona Angels 18 gold head coach Marty Tyson has one of the top ill just say 10 teams in the country I was at his tryouts this fall ..... he was yelling at catchers that were taking a step over the plate to make a throw down to second base and he was yelling at these kids why you would take a step when the ball will get there faster if you don't take that extra step....almost every catcher did this... now mind you this is a TRYOUT not his team or his kids ....just kids that want to play for him......one kid in particular he was really riding hard but at the and of the day he cut half a second off her pop time.....sometimes it takes a little fire to light it under a kid to make them excel.

 

[CoreSoftball20]

Well I'm not sure it the easy way out but in my experience with getting kids to play their best playing time will do it every time.

The Corona Angels 18 gold head coach Marty Tyson has one of the top ill just say 10 teams in the country I was at his tryouts this fall ..... he was yelling at catchers that were taking a step over the plate to make a throw down to second base and he was yelling at these kids why you would take a step when the ball will get there faster if you don't take that extra step....almost every catcher did this... now mind you this is a TRYOUT not his team or his kids ....just kids that want to play for him......one kid in particular he was really riding hard but at the and of the day he cut half a second off her pop time.....sometimes it takes a little fire to light it under a kid to make them excel.

and how old is this?

And how old were you talking about?

 

[CoogansBluff]

Just curious how do you punish your kids without making them run?

I don't punish them. Let natural consequences take their course. The better they do, the more playing time they get, the more likely they are to bat higher and play a position that you like. If they mess up, they need coaching, not punishment, IMO.

 

[MTR]

Poorly worded title. "Sometimes, you lose" might be a bit more of an intelligent, not to mention correct.

 

[amandascarborough]

Thanks Amanda. We get lots of trolls on these boards so forgive me if I was skeptical.

Re: "Hello Elbow", some instructors teach pitchers to push the ball down the circle the last part of the arm circle before release and want the hand to finish with the back of the hand and elbow pointed to the catcher. No elite pitchers (or even very good pitchers) do this move but many think this is how they pitch (e.g. Jennie Finch). You clearly do not pitch this way but your Utube videos teach otherwise. Just curious if you have analyzed your powerdrive slo-mo mechanics to what you teach.

If you only do one thing on this site, I highly recommend you read the "Internal Rotation" thread (a sticky at the top of the Pitching thread) originally posted by Sarah Pauley's dad Rick and Boardmember's excellent analysis of what really creates arm whip.

No problem!!

Just to keep it simple how I was taught ------ fingers finish inside wrist, wrist finishes inside elbow, elbow finishes inside shoulder. This specifically was what my pitching instructor looked for growing up. Other than that, no one FORCED me to finish anywhere, it should be a more natural movement.

I ventured onto the pitching forum oh boy! Lots going on there.

When it comes to those original youtube videos, when I go back and watch them, I can tell that I forced the end of my pitch after my release as if there is a spot that you HAVE to finish. There's not. It's wherever it's natural. To be honest, it's just from being young and thinking you have to slightly exaggerate things when you're coaching AND from a player's perspective, sometimes you don't know that you are doing things At the time of that video I was just 23-24, just becoming a coach, as I had never coached a day in my life until after college. You get older, you learn, you understand what REALLY takes place during a pitch, and not an EXAGGERATED version of what you think is supposed to happen.

Little did I know that this would become such a big discussion!! Whew!

I do agree with the IR! That's how I teach and I could write a full blog on why I like it with the pros and cons (as there are pros and cons to every method) One of my biggest pros is that I think that your body has to be in a much better position throughout your pitch to achieve IR. In my opinion, you can get away with not as sharp of mechanics with you are not trying to achieve IR. (not sure what everyone else calls the other method, but I guess I need to go to the pitching forum and read up and learn about the verbiage used here!)

 

[fastpitchdad8]

HI there! I am the writer of the article I most certainly had no intent of making any kind of political statement. I don't like to write about politics, I like to write about softball.

Surprisingly, the response from this article has not seemed like it is trite, as the tens of thousands of people who have viewed it and close to 10,000 people who have shared it on Facebook, have given me a great response acting as if they have never heard this before and they are in full support. You, personally, may not be scared to tell a kid that they lost, but there are many parents & coaches across the country who absolutely feel like they have to protect their children from feeling any kind of hurt or angst, thus not wanting someone to lose (at anything in life) because of the pain it makes us feel.

As far as the first paragraph of the article, I remember learning in elementary school and in speech class that the first thing you have to do when you are writing to telling a speech is catch people's attention! And it sounded like from the response from you, I did just that. Honestly, I did that without even meaning to, but just stating my own opinion (even though it may have been a little bit exaggerated). I hear you on that.

Totally love hearing your opinion by the way, and I thank you! I do not expect "EVERYONE" to think like me or enjoy the articles I write, but I know that I touch some people out there who really connect with my writing and like what I have to say. I write for those people, not to get into any fights or arguments with anybody about ANYTHING that I write on my site. (If you know me at all, you know that I do not like to argue and I love to listen to different people's opinions, and love to learn different points of views). The reason why I started a blog was because I really like writing and I absolutely love softball. I've had experience at all different levels, and I feel like I have some information to offer. Being around the softball world at the 18U, 16U and collegiate levels, I have noticed certain trends in being around the softball world. The number one complaint that I hear from college coaches is that players are getting to the collegiate level and they don't know how to COMPETE. They know how hit, pitch, throw and play defense extremely well and with a lot of talent, but many of them get to college and do not know how to step out onto a field and flat out compete. I like to try to find out why that is?

Thanks so much for your comment. I am just 27 and I see that you are close to 70 years old. You have FAR more experiences than I do in life. I will continue to learn about softball, life and writing as I get older and become a better person for it. - AS

Welcome! Thanks for the article..I enjoyed it

 

[Greenmonsters]

Well I'm not sure it the easy way out but in my experience with getting kids to play their best playing time will do it every time.

The Corona Angels 18 gold head coach Marty Tyson has one of the top ill just say 10 teams in the country I was at his tryouts this fall ..... he was yelling at catchers that were taking a step over the plate to make a throw down to second base and he was yelling at these kids why you would take a step when the ball will get there faster if you don't take that extra step....almost every catcher did this... now mind you this is a TRYOUT not his team or his kids ....just kids that want to play for him......one kid in particular he was really riding hard but at the and of the day he cut half a second off her pop time.....sometimes it takes a little fire to light it under a kid to make them excel.

Agreed that playing time needs to be the motivator.

Also, I would suggest that the kid improved their pop time because of the quality advice that was provided. To suggest that the volume had anything to do with it is silly. There are other ways to light the fire - a yelling coach is better suited to football than softball or baseball. What is really sad about this is that there are coaches of top level ballplayers (assuming that they wouldn't be trying out for that team if they weren't) out there who don't know how to properly teach their catchers. NECC needs to thank those coaches.