Nail Those Drills

Most pitchers aren’t crazy about drills. They often have a right to feel that way. Most of the time they are not told the objective of drills so how can they realize the benefit? Many drills were simply copied from someone else because they looked interesting. Therefore, how can the pitcher extract a benefit from the exercise when nobody knows the why she is doing it?
We will not introduce a drill to a pitcher unless we can state five specific and measureable skills we want that drill to enhance in her motion. That policy will cause you to abandon some widely accepted drills, because if you do the research you will learn that some of them actually take girls in a biomechanical direction that is in conflict with the way their bodies are constructed. We will talk about that in a future article.
I ask new students to memorize a few rules.
  • For every minute I spend pitching from the mound, I will spend 1 minute on drills (New students to our company are asked to make it 1-to-2 until they overcome any form issues)
  • The only reason I pitch from the mound is to see what drill I need to do next.
  • Once I complete the drills, I will go back to the mound to see how well they worked and to get feedback on what else needs work.
  • The main reason for playing games is to see how well I have prepared and what needs more focus.
Everything points back to the drills. Granted, your focus will change as you become more adept at a certain pitch. In that case, you can throw that pitch more, and spend more drill time on another pitch that is more difficult for you to master. But, even if you feel great about a pitch, what drills could help you make it even better…tighten the spin more…help add more “pop” to the pitch…or help you locate it with more precision?
Good drills are easy to understand, comfortable to your body, encourage looseness in your motion, orient everything toward the legs, allow you to measure progress, and can be adapted to your new maturity as a pitcher so you can continue to grow. If you find drills boring, it can indicate a couple of things:
1- Perhaps you need to examine your own self-discipline and goals.
2- Someone needs to put more thought into your drills. Don’t be afraid to experiment and create your own ways to enhance a certain action you want.
And, finally, if the drills you currently perform are not helping you get better, you are either doing the wrong drills or doing the drills wrong. Change something, change now. Either case means you are creating negative “muscle memory” that you will spend years overcoming if you continue on that course.