Are you focusing on being a thrower or a pitcher?

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!