If you’re a pitcher playing for a competitive softball team, it’s just natural that you’ll want to improve your game and take it to the next level. After all, you probably want to be the go-to person of your coach or want to dominate every batter that comes your way.
But how do you become a better pitcher? There are several ways of doing this and I’ll show you some of the most important things to you right here. Ready? Read on and learn more.
Stay Healthy
What’s the use of trying to become the best pitcher if you’re not healthy enough to play the game? So here’s an important advice you’ll get from this piece on softball pitching tips: stay healthy.
By being healthy, I’m not just talking about being free from illnesses. I’m also talking about preventing illnesses and staying injury-free.
How do you protect yourself from illnesses? You can do that by eating healthy and the right amount of foods. For example, protein helps your body repair itself faster and carbohydrates fuel your body and let your perform the most intense tasks you need to do while playing.
Meanwhile, there are three things you can do to stay injury-free: improving your mechanics, get enough rest, and strengthen your muscles, tendons and ligaments.
Stay Loose
You might think that flexing your muscle would help you pitch harder, and therefore throw faster. Of course you can throw harder with that technique, but throwing faster is another thing. You see, when you flex your muscles, they contract which results to a slower throw to the hitter.
So if you want to throw blinding-fast pitches at the hitter, you must instead keep your muscles loose. Just take a look at different athletes of various sports where speed is a key component in the game: basketball, running, tennis, etc. The best players of these sports have some routine that will help them loosen their muscles up before playing the game. You should try doing that too.
Increase Your Core Muscles’ Strength
Core training is another important softball pitching tip for any budding pitcher out there. And that’s because of several reasons.
First, if you have strong core muscles, your body will remain stable throughout the pitching motion, keeping your throws consistent and efficient.
Another thing is that your core muscles are important in creating rotational power, something that good pitchers rely on for a good throw. With strong core muscles, you’ll be able to throw the ball with more power and force.
Finally, strong core muscles help prevent the risk of pitching-related injury. Since these muscles are often used when pitching, making them strong enables them to survive the stress involved in doing the pitching motion.
There you have it, some of the most important softball pitching tips you need to become a better pitcher. Integrate them in your game and in your normal training routine and see the difference they make to your game.