LSE Pitching Philosophy
Establishing a pitching philosophy is key to being successful on the mound. This includes:
1. Hard Work – there is no substitute! Outwork, outlearn, and prepare yourself to be the best!
2. Perfect Practice – Practice does not make perfect – perfect practice makes perfect! If you are going to do something – do it right! Learn the right way, use good pitching mechanics.
3. Mental Preparation – if we have prepared ourselves physically we will have confidence in our abilities. Concentration, focused, positive attitude, goals, aggressiveness.
Pitching Goals
1. Strike One (Get ahead in the count!) – Statistics say a hitter with an (0-1) count vs. (1-0) count has a .100 point lower average. Most important pitch each count is first pitch, get strike one!
2. Pitch to advantage counts. (0-1, 0-2, 1-2) Make the hitter hit your pitch.
3. Eliminate the free pass (walks, HBP) There is no defense for a walk! Walks score!
4. Let your defense work for you. Pitch to contact–65% of all balls hit in fair territory are outs. We want the ball hit in fair territory before a 3-ball count! (3-0, 3-1, 3-2)
5. Reverse Pitching: be able to throw an off-speed pitch in disadvantage counts. (1-0, 2-0, 3-0, 2-1, 3-1, 3-2).
6. One Pitch at a Time! – the only pitch you can control is the next one. You can not do anything about the past. You can control the future. A negative pitch you threw can affect future pitches if you do not pitch one pitch at a time!
7. Make things happen on 2-2 – we do NOT want to go to 3-2, that gives the hitter an advantage that the next pitch will be a strike and one to hit. Also, if there are runners on base they will gain the advantage of running on the pitch.