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    The Plate Don't Move: Making Sense of Softball Pitching
    The Plate Don't Move: Making Sense of Softball Pitching
    The Plate Don't Move: Making Sense of Softball Pitching
    Ebook151 pages1 hour

    The Plate Don't Move: Making Sense of Softball Pitching

    By Gil Arzola

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    About this ebook

    A scientific and logical approach to the least understood and mastered skill in fastpitch softball. This book takes the reader from the basics of pitching a ball to understanding the more advanced skills required to play at the highest levels. The author, a clinician, coach and instructor for nearly three decades approaches pitching from the mental, physical and scientific truths that make a ball go fast, move and hit a target. Whether the pitcher is a beginner or advanced, the book provides a fresh look from a unique perspective. Included are drills, pictures and clear, simple explainations for both players and coaches that seek to be the best they can be.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateApr 1, 2013
    ISBN9781626758599
    The Plate Don't Move: Making Sense of Softball Pitching

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      Book preview

      The Plate Don't Move - Gil Arzola

      game.

      Over twenty five years ago my daughter Christi was mowing them down in the Porter County Girls Softball league. She and my other pitcher Katie, averaged ten strikeouts a game and mostly because of them; we were undefeated.

      In those early days, before there were twenty world series, private instructors on every corner and a thousand World Series qualifiers, if your pitcher threw the ball somewhere in the vicinity of the plate, it was called a strike and batters would swing at anything close to the plate, including butterflies and shadows of birds that passed overhead.

      Katie and Christi were eight years old then and I was their head coach.

      I got the job by raising my hand when they asked for volunteers. I didn’t have to interview or pass any kind of test. The tests would all come later. And when they did I felt like I was back in high school taking a pop quiz over material I had neglected to read.

      Being a head softball coach I would discover, was hard. But becoming a head coach was easy.

      I was the only one that raised his hand.

      And I knew absolutely nothing about softball.

      I had been a coach for about three months as we were preparing for our big game versus the Pilgrims, our arch rival and the other undefeated team in our league. As part of our two practices that week (that’s all we were allowed to practice) we pitched.

      Our entire pitching practice consisted of one of the dads sitting on a bucket while Katie and Christi alternated throwing pitches to him. At least that’s what we called them. Christi more or less bowled the ball and Katie threw slingshot. And since none of us knew what we were doing, we said generic, encouraging things like good pitch or get the ball down a little.

      They each did about twenty each, we took a few ground balls, everybody hit once and then we went home. The practice was supposed to last two hours but we only really practiced for about an hour. The rest of the time we were waiting for the team to arrive, setting up, keeping kids from throwing water on each other and trying to remember how the drills were supposed to be done.

      We would eventually lose our game to the dreaded Pilgrims and finish second in the league my first year as a coach. And although that was our only loss of the season, it was at the time, devastating. And while lots of coaches would have been happy with a debut of 11-1, it was not enough for me.

      I wanted answers.

      What could I do better as a coach to help my daughter and the rest of the team improve? What could I learn about pitching and running a good practice? What could I do to win the league championship next year?

      Over twenty five years later and few days ago a division one pitcher sadly recounted to me her last meeting of the season with her head coach. She had recently finished a less than stellar season, pitching brilliantly at times, struggling mightily at others. At inopportune times she had suffered a lack of speed, a lack of movement and worse of all a lack of control. And although she had won ten games, she had lost five others and had lost the big game; the team’s last of the season, which might have taken the team into their first ever tournament appearance.

      She was an honor student and had had her best year ever pitching. Still the last game was for her, the worst thing that could’ve happened. It stuck with her for months afterward.

      And she wanted answers.

      What had she done wrong? Did she get too deep in the count too often? How could she have changed her workouts? What pitch could she add? Did she peak at the wrong time? Had she worked hard enough?

      The situations separated by a couple of decades and players of differing skill and age would at first glance appear to have little in common. One game, after all, was played in a recreational league, the other at a division one college. And while both pitchers were pondering their own big games and both coaches were sweating it out, surely most would say, one game was bigger than the other. And the solutions to their particular problems were different.

      Maybe not.

      Big games go on all the time. Stop in any town, pick up a paper or ask the local barber…someone will direct you to the local big game. Big games are big to those playing them. And whether they are big to you and I doesn’t really matter. The super bowl and the local pee wee championship are the same to those that are playing and coaching.

      The 12 and under Valpo Allstars winners of their big game.

      And at every level losing coaches lose sleep and losing players question their ability. Winning and losing and the effort it takes to accomplish our goals is not measured by where you are playing, who you are playing or how many people are watching.

      And from a pitching standpoint, the reason that a ball goes where you want it to and what decides how fast it will get there; doesn’t change. The ball doesn’t know the difference between rec ball and the Olympic games.

      A college softball coach that I knew and disagreed with constantly was fond of two phrases: in all my years and at this level.

      The first, whether he knew it or not, is of little relevance. Since doing something for a long time is no indication of competence.

      I suspect he was trying to preface whatever point he was trying to make by mentioning his experience thereby lending some degree of expertise to his comments.

      Sometimes we believe that a pitcher, coach or pitching guru has all the answers just because they’ve been doing it a long time. Which obviously can’t be true, in pitching or anything else. Lots of people have been doing things badly for long periods of time. And neither incompetence nor genius can be measured by longevity.

      So while I have been doing this over two decades and won more than I’ve lost, you shouldn’t necessary believe what I’m saying just because I’ve been saying it for such a long time.

      Athletics is no different than anything else: you should question everything. Not just what I’m saying but what every coach and clinician tells you.

      So as I ponder more and more all my years immersed in a game, if I have learned anything it is that there are a lot of things I don’t know. There appears to be no end in sight to what I can learn about this game. So while I could recite my resume for you, it doesn’t mean that I believe I have reached the end of my education or that I am always right.

      Still I have arrived at certain conclusions.

      While there are certainly differences in levels of play, playing at this level or any level is pretty much the same.

      Pitching a ball at its root changes very little from t ball to division one. I have coached in both and at every level in between. While we would like to believe we have somehow climbed the mountain when we coach in college, the field maintains its basic dimensions, the ball is always round and the rules, with varying exceptions, are pretty much the same.

      Whether you are pitching to seven year olds next to a cornfield in Indiana or trying to get a rise ball past an All American at the Rebel games in Florida, the object is still to try to keep people from reaching the three bases around you. Failing that, you are trying to keep them from crossing the plate more often than your team.

      How you accomplish that and how the ball behaves doesn’t change because of your age or the league that

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