It’s that time of year again – college programs are starting to plan and advertise their fall clinics! You can expect to receive even more invites (to in person, and now virtual clinics too!) this year than usual due to COVID-19 budget cuts – almost every program across the country uses camps and clinics as fundraisers in a regular year and even more so now. Unfortunately, many programs see this as a “necessary evil” to supplement their budgets and will send email invites that families can see as recruiting interest.
 
Just because you receive an email invite to a clinic DOES NOT mean you are being recruited by that school. Look over these three somewhat similar clinic invite emails to see the varying level of interest from “College Coach XYZ” who is sending them.  Even though they are all “inviting you to attend their clinic” you can easily tell who they are really recruiting. Are they inviting you to the clinic to boost their fundraising money, to evaluate you and see if they should up their interest in you (this really does happen, especially now with virtual recruiting this past summer), or are they already extremely interested in you?
 
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Hi Sally!
 
I hope you had a great summer softball season; it was a crazy one wasn’t it? We were able to see you play virtually, and we would like to invite you to our fall skills clinic! Our clinic is a great way to get to know our staff, and see how we run a college practice here at XYZ University!
 
You can register online here: ------------. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me at [email protected]. We can’t wait to see you soon!
 
Go XYZ!
Coach --------.
 
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Hi Sally!
 
I hope you had a great summer softball season; it was a crazy one wasn’t it? We were able to see you play virtually at ABC tournament versus DEF team. Our staff was extremely impressed with your quality at bats, as well as your play diving into the 5/6 hole! We would like to invite you to our fall skills clinic! Our clinic is a great way to get to know our staff and players, as well as see how we run a college practice here at XYZ University! We are offering a campus tour for families after the clinic as well, if you’re interested in joining us on the tour please let me know!
 
You can register online here: ------------. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me at [email protected]. We can’t wait to see you soon!
 
Go XYZ!
Coach --------.
 
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Hi Sally! 
 
I hope you had a great summer softball season; it was a crazy one wasn’t it? We were able to see you play virtually at ABC tournament versus DEF team. Our staff was extremely impressed with your quality at bats, as well as your play diving into the 5/6 hole! We are currently looking to add a middle infielder to our 2022 class. After seeing that you are interested in studying psychology on your profile, we could be a great fit for you academically. Psychology is one of our top majors on campus, and we currently have 7 softball players majoring in it!
 
I wanted to reach out to invite you to our upcoming skills clinic. Attending a clinic is a great way to get to know our staff and players, as well as see how we run a college practice here at XYZ University! While the clinic will be on a Saturday, we would love to set up an unofficial visit for you and your family that Friday. You can tour campus, meet with our coaching staff, sit in on a class, meet with admissions/and financial aid counselors.
 
After seeing you play this summer our coaching staff believes that you have the potential to make an impact for our team. I would love to set up a time to chat with you on the phone about what we can offer you here at XYZ both athletically and academically. Feel free to shoot me a text at (000)111-2222 and we can set up a time that works for us both! 
 
Go XYZ!
Coach ---------.
 
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How to  differentiate what real recruiting interest looks like:
1) Have you heard from them BEFORE the clinic invite email? This is a big one – generally if a coach only reaches out to you to invite you to a clinic they aren’t really recruiting you.

2) Is there anything about the email that is directed towards you as an individual past the “Hi Sally!” greeting?

3) Does the email discuss where the coach saw you play or details about your play? Have they done research on you (found you on your travel team website, looked at social media, etc.) to know your academic needs?

4) Is there an action the coach wants you to take other than attending the clinic? Send your unofficial transcript? Send them times that would work to talk on the phone? 

5) If you respond asking questions or ask to set up a call, do they get back to you in a timely fashion? If you ask to set up an unofficial visit do they respond vaguely that they’ll get back to you with some dates or do they seem excited to get you to campus? 

​It seems like every pitcher and their families (I apologize for generalizing; I know there are some who are not doing this!) rush to learn 6 pitches by the time they hit high school. Most end up with 6 pitches that do nothing but sit and spin due to the lack of actual development. Pitching coaches are constantly trying to bait families into paying for more lessons, so they feel the need to teach pitches too early.
 
Many of you know a lot of my story as a pitcher, but I’ve never really broken down what pitches I learned when or what MY own progression looked like. I say MY because yours will look different, just like it will look different than the other pitchers on your team!
 
7 years old – Played for our local Cinderella Softball League. Started pitching in the back yard with Mom and Dad, was completely awful - like literally sat there with a bucket and just launched them over my Dad’s head for an hour then went inside. I pitched in games when we were WAY ahead or WAY behind and never for more than a few innings. We attended weekly winter clinics with our local rec league but did not pay for private instruction.
 
8 years old - Played for our local Cinderella Softball League, and played All-Stars that summer. I continued to attend weekly winter Cinderella pitching clinics, started working one on one with a pitching coach once a week (still could barely throw strikes.) This year I pitched my first full game - we lost 8-0 in 5 innings and it was UGLY.
 
9 years old – Played for our local Cinderella Softball League, All-Stars, and after All-Stars a local travel league put together a 10u team taking the top few players from each league’s All-Star teams (The NY Lady Bandits). We played three tournaments after All-Stars, I mostly played first base and was a “Pool Play Pitcher” (Ugh. I hate the terms pool play and bracket pitchers, but I digress.) I still struggled to throw strikes, and had something that I guess we called a change up.
 
10 years old – Played Cinderella Softball, and my family decided to play a longer summer travel schedule with the Bandits, so I did not play All-Stars. I was still only pitching a fastball and a change up, working on accuracy and mechanics. At this point, I was working with a private pitching instructor. We attended 5 summer tournaments, without any trips outside of NY/PA. We did not play any fall or winter dome ball (crazy, dome softball wasn’t even really a thing) – but practiced on Sundays so we could all play fall and winter sports.
 
11 years old – Still played Cinderella softball, and was still with the Bandits. I almost quit pitching. I physically grew A LOT this year, and that combined with the move to 40ft and the 12” ball I was riding the struggle bus. On top of this, my private pitching coach wanted me to learn how to pitch a drop ball and it took my mechanics back at least two years. We made the decision to no longer work with that pitching coach, and I continued to work on my fastball and change up at home with my parents. It seemed silly to pay for private instruction when I hated going, and didn’t even know if I wanted to pitch anymore. Spent a lot of time in the back yard, worked through it, learned how to use my newly “grown up” body. Lots of tears, arguments, and balls later we (and I saw we because it was truly a family affair) finally came through it and I started to regain my confidence in the circle. 
 
12 years old – Played Cinderella softball,  played with the Bandits, and made the varsity softball team. This was my last year of Cinderella softball, as I missed most of the season due to making the varsity softball team. While I did not pitch on Varsity as a 7th grader, I did begin to work with our Varsity pitching coach. He also became my private pitching coach. After working to consistently hitting fastball spots and change ups we reintroduced the drop ball (a roll over, instead of the peel I had been taught previously) and it was legit (well, legit for a 12 year old). That summer I became a consistent pitcher (“bracket pitcher”) for our travel team and logged 2/3 of the innings.
 
13 years old (8th grade) – Played Varsity, still with the Bandits too. Halfway through our varsity season the senior pitcher was injured, so as an 8th grader I was pitching the second half of the season. I held my own and we made it to play offs – remember I was only throwing a fastball, change up, and a recently learned drop ball!
 
14 years old (Freshman Year) – Played Varsity, still with the Bandits too. The winter going into my freshman year of HS season (I was the starting Varsity pitcher now) I learned a curve ball. By the time high school season started the curve was okay – I threw it in games but it was really just a different look pitch that supported my drop. I also added an off speed pitch because my flip change was not good, to put it nicely…it was really never reliable throughout my entire career. During a random bullpen we were messing around with pressure points on the ball and somehow (I still don’t really know how) my off-speed turned into a really nice knuckle curve. That year during high school/travel season I probably pitched 50% drops, 20% knuckle curves, and 30% fastballs with a few curves and change ups mixed in.
 
15 years old (Sophomore Year) – Played varsity, still with the Bandits too. Still only threw a fastball, change up, offspeed/knuckle curve, regular curve, and a drop. We started attending some local showcase type tournaments, and I started to narrow down what I was looking for in a school and softball program. I also started attending camps and clinics of schools that matched what I was looking for.
 
16 years old (Junior Year) – Played Varsity, transitioned to a national travel ball team, the NJ Nightmare, working to get recruited. Learned a screwball over the winter – originally it was extremely effective and I threw it a lot. It started to breakdown my mechanics and I struggled to stay within the legal lines of the pitching rubber. Went back to old faithfuls with the drop and curve. The winter going into my junior year HS season I verbaled to play DII college softball.
 
17 years old (Senior year) – Played Varsity, continued to play with the Nightmare even though I had already signed to play at the next level. Continued to rely heavily on my fastball, knuckle curve, and drop ball. Occasionally threw curves and screws, I NEVER learned to throw a rise or a drop curve.
 
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Everyone’s journey looks different but for those that go on to play at the next level they all have one thing in common. They are a master at something, and good at a few other things. Without my drop ball – I wouldn’t have been nearly as effective as I was as a pitcher, or been recruited as heavily as I was. Was I the fastest? Absolutely not. Was I the biggest or the strongest or the most mechanically perfect? Absolutely not. Did I have the most strikeouts, no hitters, or best stats? Absolutely not. BUT I had something that made me different, something I had spent years and years mastering that college coaches were drawn to. 
 
Why was my drop ball so effective? I threw it at two different heights – one that started at the knees and broke out of the zone, and one that started and the hips and broke to the knees. I could throw it inside at your hip like it was going to hit you and it would finish at your ankle after you swung through out. I could cut it across the outside corner and it would finish one ball off the plate – umpires almost always called it a strike even if you didn’t swing. I spent SEVEN YEARS enhancing and evolving my drop ball, instead of adding other pitches to my arsenal. I didn’t need a rise or a drop curve (or whatever other pitch you want to plug in there) to be effective and get looks from college coaches, because my drop ball was THAT consistent and could do THAT many different things.
 
When people ask me what I look for in a pitcher when I’m out recruiting, they are often surprised by my answer. Everyone wants to know the secret to being looked at as a pitcher who can compete at the next level right? My answer is always “I want a pitcher who brings something to the staff that we don’t already have.” To stand out, you have to do something different. Seems simple right? So why when it comes to pitching do we make it more complicated? More often than not, when I pitcher starts an email with “I throw 6 pitches”, I don’t bother to finish reading the email. If you throw that many pitches, how much time do you really spend mastering your best pitch? 

I was recently asked why I never post the pictures of the smiling pitcher holding the pocket radar, or radar gun with their new high speed. I’d honestly never thought about it before, celebratory MPH pictures were just something I never felt the urge to take. After a few days of reflection – here’s the best I could come up with! (100% my own opinions on this – I know a lot of successful pitching coaches who feel differently!) 
 
I have nothing against the celebratory MPH picture – I just feel it’s more of something a parent does with their daughter. In the realm of pitching the role of the parent is to support, be excited, encourage, and offer tidbits of advice at practice on game day, etc. Parents are often SUPER excited about new high speeds – which there is absolutely nothing wrong with as they should be their daughter’s biggest fan. As a pitching coach, I feel it is my job to coach my athletes to be excited about all of their progress, not just what the radar gun says! My job is to help them become pitchers, and not just throwers. This often means celebrating things OTHER than speed – their spin rates, their mechanics, their consistency, their mentality, their focus, I could go on and on!
 
At the upper levels (not just college, this happens in travel ball and high school ball too) when our team sees a thrower who comes in and just chucks the ball super hard we get excited – because 9/10 times that’s all they can do…and hitters can adjust to speed SO MUCH BETTER than they can adjust to change in speed and movement. A thrower defines who they are based on the number on the gun – and their success will be short lived. A pitcher is so much more than the number on the gun. A pitcher uses all of the tools in their arsenal, including the radar gun, to become a master at spots, spin, AND speed.
 
1) Can you maintain your mechanics while pitching that speed?
2) Can you hit that speed consistently?
Use video to compliment to the radar gun, compare the pitches that you pitch harder to the pitches you pitch at your current speed. What changes? Do you stride further? Is your timing better? Do you snap at a different spot? Is your glove arm pushing out towards your catcher instead of to the side? How can you replicate the MOTION that creates that speed over and over again?
 
3) Can you hit spots while pitching that speed?
This one is somewhat self-explanatory. It doesn’t matter how hard you throw if you can only hit your top MPH throwing the ball into the ground, over the backstop, in the right-handed batter’s box, etc. In my mind, if you can’t pitch it for a strike it really doesn’t count as a new high speed. If you can’t consistently hit spots with it, you still have some work to do!
 
4) Do you have a change-up (or off speed) pitch that compliments that speed?
5) Can you maintain that speed while alternating your fastball and change up?
In my mind, this is one of the most important questions for pitchers overall. If you cannot change speeds, you cannot consistently be successful. No matter how hard you pitch, good hitters will adjust and by the second or third time through the line-up they will catch up. Working on increasing speed and perfecting a change-up go hand in hand. If you don’t have something to set up your fastball (Even if you only throw a change up and a fastball!) in the end your fastball speed really doesn’t matter.
 
My heart hurts when I see young pitchers SO focused on speed only (whether they are focusing on how hard they throw, or how they don’t throw as hard as others) when pitching is SO much more than that. Pitching is a mentality, it is a commitment, it is a passion. It is the mentality to work through when you feel you are peaking and aren’t getting better, to commit to creating the work ethic you need to continue to get better, and remembering the passion you have for being in the circle even when it is rough going sometimes.
 
Please remember that you are not defined by your speed. Being a pitcher means combining so many different aspects to become the best pitcher that YOU can be! I know a college pitcher who throws 55-57mph and broke the single season strike out record for her team in 2019 as a freshman. I know a college pitcher who throws 64 and only threw 15 innings as a freshman in 2019 because she had never mastered spin pitchers, and at the college level it just isn't enough to only throw hard. So yes, celebrate your new high speed! But also celebrate your new high spin rate, your new high first pitch strike percentage, your first game staying completely focused for seven innings straight, your first strike out on a perfect change up, you new lowest pitch count for a game, and whatever else you’ve been working on and are succeed at! Pitching is HARD, if it were easy everyone would do it…celebrate YOUR successes as a pitcher, not just as a thrower!