Tag Archives: pitching

Hawaii Softball Clinics This Month

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If you’re a fastpitch softball player in Hawaii between the ages of 10 and 14, I have some news for you!

I just received word that Kapolei High School will be putting on Clinics during the month of January (yes, that’s THIS month!). If you’re interested in working on your pitching or defensive skills, these clinics are for you.

Here is the information…

Where: Kapolei High School Softball Field
When: January 11, 18, and 25 (all Sundays)
Clinic Schedule
Pitching Fundamentals: 9am-10am, 10:15am – 11:15am, 11:30am-12:00pm
Defensive Skills: 12:45pm-1:45pm, 2:00pm-3:00pm, 3:15pm-4:15pm
Each session will be limited to only 8 players so that each player gets enough attention and feedback.

Ages: 10-14 are welcome
Cost: $30 per session
If you have any questions or would like to secure a spot in a clinic session, please contact me and I will give you the number to call for scheduling and questions.
Now I’m probably not going to be there all day on the 25th because I have another softball related commitment in the morning, but I do plan on being there on the other dates and probably after my other event in done on the 25th. Hope to see you there!
Please feel free to forward this information to anyone you feel may be interested.
Thanks!


Coming Up Next Week…

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Just to give you a quick heads up…

Next week, here on the blog beginning on Monday, I’m running a 5-Day Mini Guide to Coaching Kids. Some very interesting stuff I thought you’d be interested in.

Plus – Fastpitch Talk Radio – Episode 19 will be ready for you soon. Continuing on the “Hot Topic” of the Month, College Recruiting. I’ll going to talk about an Academic Eligibility Issue you may not fully understand, so tune in to Fastpitch Talk Radio next week to listen in.

Hope you’re having a great weekend. I’m looking forward to the Bill Hillhouse Pitching Clinic tomorrow. IF you are on the island of Oahu and have any interest in learning about pitching, please feel free to stop by. Demonstrations will begin at 9am, 12pm, and 3pm at Kapolei High School. Call me if you have any questions, 864-3346.


Cool Fastpitch Videos at SPORTSKOOL

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Thanks to a Fastpitch World member for giving me the headsup on this website. So far, I’ve only watched the baserunning video, but there is some GOOD stuff there. If you want information, with a visual video to go along, about pitching, catching, fielding, and more, you have to take a look at this website.

CLICK HERE to go to the page of softball instructional videos.

This link will take you straight to the pitching video.

I hope you enjoy these. Oh yeah, did I mention that it’s Mike Candrea and members of the USA National Team that are doing the instructing/demonstration in these videos?


Bil Hillhouse – Times and Locations SET

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I know a lot of you have been waiting for the finalized information and details on the Bill Hillhouse clinic in Hawaii in September.

IF YOU ALREADY REGISTERED – PLEASE take note of the changes in clinic times!

Slight changes were made to the original schedule in order to secure our Saturday location.

With that said, here are all the details of the clinic…

Bill Hillhouse Pitching Clinic Sessions
September 20 & 21
Registration Fee of $35 covers ONE session on ONE of these dates.

Saturday the 20th will be at Moiliili Community Center – map
Sunday the 21st will be at Kapolei High School

Schedule for the clinic sessions on both days are as follows:

  • 9:00-11:00 Ages 9-11
  • 12:15-2:30 Ages 12-15
  • 3:15-5:30 Ages 16+

Each session is LIMITED to just 12 girls!
Get your registration form HERE
All pitchers must supply their own catcher

Small Group/Team Sessions with Bill
September 27th at Moiliili Community Center

  • Must attend pitching clinic in order to qualify for a small group session with Bill
  • Up to 4 pitchers per one-hour session
  • $160 per group/team
  • All pitchers must supply their own catcher
  • Click Here to Download Team Registration Form

To download and print the flyer for your league, your team, your friends, or yourself – CLICK HERE


Hawaii Pitching Clinic Around the Corner

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My kids are back in school and the summer is coming to an end. That means Fastpitch Festival will be here before you know it as well as the Hawaii Bill Hillhouse Pitching clinic.

The latest information for the pitching clinic is at http://allaboutfastpitch.com/Bill2008.html.

I’m still looking for a good location for the Saturday dates. I do have a field reserved, but I would like to get a spot closer to town. I have been in touch with a few people about other options and once I have finalized my decision on the Saturday locations, I will let you know.

In the mean time, people have already begun to send in their registration for the clinic. Registration forms are available here.

The cost is $35 for participating pitchers.

ANYONE who wants to come and watch (coaches, parents, players, pitchers) may come for FREE. Please encourage anyone you know who has questions or wants to learn more about pitching pitching to come to the clinic. Contact me with any questions you may have.

See you there!


Don’t Throw Hard

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“Don’t throw hard. Just throw strikes.”

Eek! I cringe when I heard coaches or fathers saying these words to their young (or maybe even not so young) pitchers. I know I’m guilty of it sometimes too. Well, not the “Don’t throw hard” part, but the part when I see a pitcher trying to hard to be too “fine” and I just want the ball in the zone because I know the batter isn’t going to do much, I catch myself saying something to the effect of just having the pitcher get the ball over the plate.

But I do NOT tell a pitcher to slow down in order to gain more accuracy.

So many times I hear young pitchers being told to slow the ball down and not throw hard in exchange for strikes. More often than not what I end up seeing is this young pitcher begin to throw both slow AND wild. So she just went from having 1 issue (not throwing accurately) to having 2 issues (not throwing accurately AND not throwing with any speed/power).

How often to you hear coaches telling their infielders, “Don’t throw hard, just get the ball to the 1st baseman’s chest.” I don’t know, maybe you hear something like that on occasion. I personally can’t think of a time I’ve heard that though. If we don’t use this “logic” for throwing overhand, why do so many insist upon using it for throwing underhand, for pitching?

I know some young pitchers try to “aim” the ball on their own. My 8-year-old does this. She starts of throwing nice and strong. Sometimes she’s a little off – the ball is the right height, but off left or right OR the ball is straight, but too high or too low. These are very minor “problems.” Yet, she will try to slow down to gain more accuracy. It NEVER works. She still throws off the plate, sometimes even worse than when she was going all out, and her ball has very little on it.

So I just remind her that she’s not gaining much by trying to go slower. I ask her if the ball was going straighter (where she wanted it to) when she was throwing slow. She always says, “No.” So she’s beginning to realize that’s not the answer. She’s starting to correct the part of her motion that IS causing the inaccuracy (releasing too late or too early, not keeping her arm swing close to her body, not stepping toward the target, etc).

The results are much better with those kinds of adjustments than they are with “slowing down” to gain increase accuracy.

I talk a little more about this in the most recent Fastpitch Talk Radio episode. It’s just a short episode and you can listen to it HERE.


It’s all in the FUNdamentals

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I’m huge on fundamentals and mechanics – and, as you can see by the title of this post, FUN! You As I’ve said many times before, fun is so important when it comes to softball, or any sport for that matter. The two times in my life that I SERIOUSLY thought about quitting this game and giving it up completely as a player, the main thought going through my mind was that it wasn’t fun any more. I wasn’t having fun playing the game and that was the main reason behind dropping the game altogether. That’s why I feel it’s important to remember that as a coach, especially at the younger ages.

Another thing I’m picky about is fundamentals. I am big on working proper fundamentals, proper mechanics until it’s second nature. One of my first softball coaches did this for me and I went back to it time and time again whenever I started to struggle. I’ve often wondered what kind of player I would have been had that ONE coach not done that because NO coach after her stressed those mechanics and drilled them like she did. I don’t know that I would have had that to fall back on if she hadn’t been so insistent on going over those fundamentals again and again and again.

Too often I see coaches breeze through the basics. They are so anxious to move on to other more “advanced” skills, but I just don’t see the rush if your team hasn’t gotten the basics down yet. For example, I’ve seen 10U coaches want to work on turning the double play when their team has a tough time simply fielding a ball and making a throw. Why even worry about how to turn a double play when you’re still having trouble fielding a ball and making good throws? I’m not saying that you should never work on it, but it just seems a little silly to me to drop the work on the basics to “move on” to something like that. I would still work the basics in practice and give it some quality time, then maybe introduce the concept of the double and work it a bit. But to spend all your defensive practice working the double play in that particular situation doesn’t make sense to me. Work the fundamentals and those “advanced” plays will come.

Same with when you start pitching. Work those fundamentals! It always baffles me to see coaches/parents/players wanting to go from never pitching before to throwing 5 different pitches in a year. Of course, if you have an unbelievably talented athlete that happens to catch on to the fundamentals and to all of the other aspects of pitching THAT quickly, than by all means, go for it. But most of us don’t have that type of superhero ability. Fundamentals is what’s going to give you the most power and the most accuracy whether it’s throwing overhand or underhand.

If you’re looking for a DVD on pitching fundamentals, the one I personally bought is from www.HouseOfPitching.com (Building the House by Bill Hillhouse).

Another one that’s currently on special for $19.95 is available at Softball Performance. But that pricing is only going to last for the next day or so. If this is something you’ve been looking for, now’s a good time to get it.