Pitching Magic

A guide for fastpitch coaches who know nothing about the windmill delivery
but need to help their players or daughters become pitchers

Click here to see the 8 minute video overview of PitchingMagic.

Take a tour of the Pitching Place The official training facility of PitchingMagic

Fastpitch Pharisees Do what they do, not what they teach

Five Fundamentals for Every Pitcher Video version of the five fundamentals

Key Things Pitchers Should Do or Not Do (and those that do not matter)

Teaching kids how to pitch can be a terrifying experience for those without a background in fastpitch pitching. Many such coaches compare the experience to that of watching a magician do card tricks. The magician can obviously do it effortlessly, but how it gets pulled off is a mystery.

A novice coach may watch some experienced pitchers to try to learn how to teach a beginner. The coach will note the many different ways that pitchers begin their motion and the many ways they finish. What is harder to notice is that from roughly the time the ball is at its highest peak until it is released, for that half circle almost all of the top pitchers do things pretty much the same way. Doing things improperly during that half circle will reduce speed and accuracy. What comes before and after is just style that helps the individual pitcher execute the half circle properly.

It’s not magic for a 9 year old to be able to throw hard and accurately, but she needs to know the “tricks” more formally called “technique.” Pitching is not rocket science. It does require a careful application of some basic mechanics and lots of repetitions using proper technique.

PitchingMagic is a step by step approach to teaching the pitching motion. Each step builds upon what the student has already learned until at the end of 28 steps, the pitcher is throwing pitches. The first 17 steps are done without a ball so they can be practiced anywhere. One step is how to grip the ball. The next two are done with a ball in the hand, but not released. The next 4 release the ball but the pitcher must do so with her eyes closed and finally the last 4 are throws she can see.

The importance of working without a ball, then working without seeing the result, is that young girls are often very results oriented. They want to throw strikes. As such they will tend to do things that are not transferrable to ultimately becoming a very good pitcher. But as long as they are having "success", they often don't care about the possibility of throwing 60 mph some day, on the corner with movement. The result is that many pitchers develop very bad habits that are difficult to break. While they may be very good pitchers at 10U and 12U, without a firm commitment to good fundamental technique, they can not achieve the real "success" that they are capable of.

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Click here to see the manual.