In teaching beginners how to fastpitch a softball it's critical to let them know that there is a difference between throwing and pitching. Throwing, involves mechanics and is the basis for learning a smooth, flowing, rhythmic, stress free, delivery. Pitching is the art of applying various ball-throwing and placement strategies in a game or competitive situations to get batters out.
For beginning pitchers, learning the throwing part can be very frustrating. It takes a lot of time to coordinate the multiple body parts involved to accomplish the skill. Getting legs, trunk, and upper body to work smoothly in a pitching-dance routine takes a lot of effort.
Two of the hardest things for many youngsters to develop is to master the full range of free body motion and the self confidence required to just throw the ball without aiming or over powering the pitch. Free joint movement is restricted by tension and a lack of confidence. It's the source of the old do you teach speed or control first question. Good coaches teach good mechanics first and let the speed and control then take care of themselves. The Ground Power coaches teach rhythm and timing first and let mechanics naturally happen.
Frustration can set in as young players are pushed to learn pitches and other pitching ball management techniques before they have mastered basic ball throwing. Athletic skills are best learned from a progressive sequence of elements from the simplest to the complex. Be honest with young pitchers and let them know what is ahead on the learning curve. Let them know that becoming proficient pitchers may take years and that they have to learn how be good throwing mechanics first so they have the tools to pitch.
Regarding pitching strategies, there are several major elements a pitcher and catcher must take into consideration every time the pitcher throws a ball. For instance, following an evaluation of the batter, taking into account such things as leg positioning in the box - up/deep etc., how and where and at what height the bat or hands are held, the foot speed of the batter, the position in the batting order, and other characteristics. The pitcher/catcher must develop their defensive "ball-throwing" strategy. In thinking through this situation they may consider the following regarding each pitch and or the sequence of pitches to be thrown. Most importantly, they must be thinking together and agree on the strategy to get the batter out.
- Ball Movement: what kind of pitch, drop rise-fastball-curve in/out, change
- Location: high, low, in, out, down the middle
- Speed: fast, slow, medium, or other
- Deception how to disguise the pitch, how to set up the strikeout pitch in a sequence of pitches, changes in speeds-location, using back to back same pitch
- Control: confidence in being able to do mechanically what you intend to do in 1-4 above
- What the umpire is calling and the strike zone of the day.
- Your own teams strengths and weaknesses
- The game situation at the time
- The other teams strengths and weaknesses
- The coaches instructions