Cultivate a ‘WOW’ Factor With Your Pitchers

Originally Published in: Fastpitch Delivery

Provided by: NFCA

Have you ever watched a pitcher and your first thought was, "Wow, that kid can pitch?" I love when I see that. I am not as happy when we are about to play that pitcher, but none the less I love to watch good pitching. I am saddened that more and more the "wow" pitcher is few and far between.

As a college coach, I spend a lot of time watching pitchers. I am either watching the pitchers I coach, scouting pitchers my team will face or watching pitchers to potentially recruit. But the more I watch, the more I am wanting to see that wow factor for pitchers, but yet not seeing it very often.

There has been a trend in pitching that leads pitchers to feel they must do everything and yet forget the importance of having a wow factor to their pitching. Sometimes pitchers are so busy trying to come up with something new that they neglect to be exceptional at what they currently do.

Why have pitchers gone away from having something that causes people to stop and look, get giddy to see again and to ultimately go, "Wow, that was fun to watch?"

A wow factor can be any number of things. It can be a single pitch that they throw really well, it can be speed, it can be super-late movement on all of their pitches ... the list can go on, but every pitcher should work to have something that is jaw dropping about their pitching.

As coaches, one of our jobs is to help our pitchers find their wow factor. To be honest it is not hard to find out what this will be for a pitcher. Just ask what they love to do as a pitcher?

This can be anything. Some will say they love to throw fast, others they love to make the ball move and some may even say result-based things such as strikeouts or miss hits. It really doesn't matter. They key is this will only work if the pitcher loves what they are doing, otherwise they will not totally commit to the process of developing and growing their wow.

Now, one point of caution to coaches. We have to check ourselves when it comes to this. Sometimes we get set in our ways and want to choose the wow for our pitchers. Be careful with this. I absolutely respect a coach's right to their own philosophy and system of doing things.

If you know me at all you will say I seem to have a system for everything I do, but I have also learned that people don't fit in nice little systems and we have to work with them where they are. I have had to learn that my system, while valuable, is not more important than the success of the people who have to work in them.

Now, your pitcher will definitely have something they love to do. By no means does this equate to this part of their pitching being at the wow level, but finding out what they love is the first step. As we all know, simply loving something won't make it great. It will take a bit of work and time.

A wow factor is no doubt a subjective measure, but the good news is our sport has many measurable aspects that can help your pitcher measure their progress towards wow. Get creative with these things.

If it is speed, set goals and timelines for speed and clock them regularly. If it is movement, use video to measure how much and where the ball is moving. If they are results-driven in what they love, set numbers and see how they compare to the rest of the country. Somehow find a way to measure progress. This will keep them motivated, and, since you are working on something they love, it will be even more fun for them.

The wow for a pitcher should be something they use often, or it is not a wow factor. It is the trick up your sleeve. So this is something that must be practiced almost everyday, if not everyday.

I am all about addressing weaknesses and making those areas better. It is a must in our sport. We all know the lack of addressing weaknesses will result in consistently struggling with the same things. You absolutely have to work on what you do well. If you don't, what you struggle with will bring down the average of your skill as a whole to the point where you do everything kinda good, but nothing well.

This adjustment might mean having to streamline how many pitches your pitcher is trying to master or mean they have longer workouts, but either way the wow factor has to be a priority in practice. Once the wow is working in practice, pitchers must learn how to use this to the maximum in games. This is where coaches can be most helpful.

Since we are many times calling the game and setting the strategy for the hitter, we need to help our pitchers see how their wow will look in a game, against different types of hitters and in different situations. This will help them develop their wow even more and use it more effectively in games.

A wow factor is not a guarantee that you will win games, championships or break records. Every pitcher doesn't have to have one — many don't — but hitters keep hitting the ball farther and faster than ever before.

Hitting is becoming the name of the game. However, pitching is about disrupting hitting and what better way to disrupt hitting than to have the batter say, "Wow, that girl can pitch!"