The excitement of anyone can win in this point of the college softball season is in fact - exciting. But in reality what we are watching are pitchers who are on a slow decline… a thread 🧵🪡
July 20th Elite Skills Camp:
Below is what's getting close to selling out and what is left!
6 pitchers
6 catchers
6 corners
5 middle infielders
We have really good talent signed up! Excited to see you all there 🚂
#boilerup
So excited to see the whole
@PurdueSoftball
team today ❤️ The break was too long without this group who keeps us laughing or smiling daily with their craziness
Excited to be here. It’s been such a great time already these past two weeks & getting to develop relationships with the staff and playing. Pumped to do all things pitching. 🚂
#boilerup
Save the date! Bittinger Stadium is about one hour from Alliance Nationals in Westfield/Kokomo, IN. Come see our beautiful stadium and campus in person!
Save the dates! Our January prospect camps go live this Saturday 👀 We will host two skills camps and one pitching/catching camp
#boilerup
We hope to see you there!
My biggest wish in travel ball is that parents/coaches allow players to be kids. Enjoy & act their age. Why we put college recruiting on middle schoolers is crazy, why elementary/middle school athletes have recruiting social medias blows my mind. It’s disturbing to say the least
2 prospect skills camps, 1 prospect pitching and catching camp, & a “Future Boilers” youth camp.
January is going to be awesome.
Sign up now 👇🏼
#BoilerUp
My hope for softball is that we will be able to have open minds to grow the game:
1. Pitching needs to be taught differently
2. Kids are KIDS. Not $$ or elite athletes
3. Tech/data/science are great = requires admittance we were wrong at some time in our coaching career
Tons of camp opportunities this Summer w/ Purdue Softball:
TCS Colorado - June 30th
LP4U New Lenox, IL - July 9th
P/C Camp :
Offense/Defense:
Elite Skills Camp - July 20th
For the love of the softball gods, announcers, please STOP saying the underhand pitching motion is natural. Especially when glorifying pitchers for throwing 150+ pitches within a 48 hr period (not including warm up 😟)
Picture shows one piece of evidence to prove otherwise
Had a woman yell at me from the stands to “control my players because they are leaving the bases early.” They were getting good jumps… we don’t continuous steal, we don’t delay steal. The girls were truly working on getting good reads.
P.s. these were 10 year olds.
Maintenance bullpen today and some fun nerdy pitching stuff came up!
I noticed a significant drop in velocity which was a 🚩. Decided to take some video and noticed timing of load was not good.
As she is pulling into her front hip that foot is NOT getting into the ground.
Times have changed. Athletes don’t need dictator coaching. This generation is smart and have endless opportunities to learn & become special athletes. We strip that away when we coach robots.
Athletes need freedom to learn, ask questions, and be themselves.
Elite hitters hit the ball HARD.
love that we are getting exit velocities from these WCWS games. Velos in the 70s + and that’s what is going over the fence. 70’s+ off LIVE pitching.
Ways I talk to the Purdue pitchers about velocity.
Firstly, velo is a tier of 5MPH and I dont expect the pitchers to throw or PR every single session.
Secondly, we talk about what affects velo: s&c, time of month, stress, workload, etc
Due to high demand, there has been a WAITLIST added to our pitching and catching prospect camp for pitchers.
As of now we are sold out but sign up with the waitlist just in case!
Being told this was as good as I was going to get in college was a tragic reality because I had reached a ceiling that was pre-set by my surroundings. What I did walk away with was the desire to become a better pitching coach for the generation after me
Often coaches or pitchers get rid of the fastball… but WHY?! This is the body’s neutral pitch. It has a spin profile that is SO important to their pitch profile.
Taking it away is like hiding a piece of someone’s jigsaw puzzle while they look for it in front of your face!
If I could give one piece of advice to parents and players in travel softball or probably youth sports in general -
Coaches should not view the athlete as disposable. They picked the athlete for a reason and now it’s their job to coach, create culture, develop.
A lot of fun stuff happening with
@PurdueSoftball
this month! Join our weekly camps as we just announced hitting camps that are now open for registration. Check out and the attached graphics for details
#BoilerUp
I will never understand why we elevate playing sports injured. As if athletes don’t have the rest of their lives to live
Wellness & development go hand in hand. W/o both we cap the athlete
Instead we praise “pushing through.”What’s the why behind their injury in the 1st place
My heart and soul in a podcast. I love them so much and such a great pod. My favorites:
- not every pitch is created equal
- developing is hard, incentives for health over trophies & we need to have systems to keep pitchers healthy
- ash is as feisty as ever 🤣
Tonight was great. Had such a fun, open minded group of pitchers. Grateful for their positivity, willingness to learn and vulnerability during our mental session ♥️
I would much rather be exposed as a pitching coach using ball flight data/high speed camera/biomechanics/research — than continue to teach the hottest drill/trend. I want to coach healthy athletes that throw 🔥 based on data/research & empower athletes with that knowledge.
So far 2/2 on freakin' awesome pitching clinics. Always amazed at how these athletes show up with an open mind, ready to work and take feedback. Lots of fun tonight. One more P/C clinic left for 2023. Only half the slots available for both catching and pitching!
#boilerup
The Dodgers playing the way they currently are isn't fun
But you have to appreciate this
This right here is why Dave Roberts is one of the top managers in the game
Are you passionate about softball? Want to shape the next generation of pitchers? Join our team advancing softball player development!
Apply here:
Know someone who may be interested? Tag them below.
My people 🫶🏼
Continuously crushing the softball space by openly talking about the hard things. How we manage athletes is such a delicate piece of the puzzle. It’s a tough pill to swallow when we look back and see injuries and health come from mismanagement. It starts with us.
Pitcher development doesn't stop in-season! Join
@ashtsunshine
and
@rykerzc
as they dive into the crucial differences and challenges faced by college coaches in this new episode of Redefine The Circle!
Playing “U Remind Me” by Usher in the bullpen…
Pitcher: Who is this, it sounds familiar
Me: USHER
Pitcher: I knew he sounded familiar
*looks up year it was released*
Me: it came out in 2001
Pitcher: I wasn’t even born yet!
☠️☠️☠️
Packing for the conference tournament and there’s a spider in my suitcase that CRAWLED IN MY SHOE. How do I explain why i set my luggage on fire with all my Purdue clothes inside? Asking for myself…
3 spots left for our LAST weekly catching clinic, and 5 spots left for the LAST pitching clinic of 2023. Come spend time with
@jordynrudd63
and me! Small group setting where the athletes get more personalized instruction. 🚂
#boilerup
Sign up @
What makes backspin so special and how do softball pitchers actually achieve it?
Thanks to all the information
@S2_Breakthrough
collects every pitching session, we can see the variables that go into backspin and why not everyone should chase backspin.
Time and time again, baseball and softball coaches at some point give the speech “this game is a game of failure. If you’re afraid to fail, then this game isn’t right for you…” blah blah blah. A game of failure, yes. But….
The reality - pitchers are tired and overworked. Little recovery, tons of travel, less lifting, with increased play will decrease efficient patterns, or decrease the compensation/s they have that make them great and effective pitchers. How can we slow the decline?
Understand how to develop more than 1-2 starters with 2+ pitchers that ride the bench. A baseball mindset w/ a lot of pitchers who have specific jobs and pitch only a certain amount per week.
Our body is not meant to handle the workload of pitching 2+ games in 24hrs.
When Caitlin Clark was a kid, her dad couldn’t find a girls league for her age.
So she joined a boys league and won an AAU state championship.
Parents even complained she shouldn’t be allowed to play with boys.
Now, Clark owns the NCAA scoring record—for both men and women 🐐
My heart is so full being here surrounded by a staff of awesome humans who allow me to be 100% myself, & a team/pitching staff who has welcomed me with open arms and EVEN BETTER growth mindsets!
Why is tunneling your change up important?! I have recently had a pitcher who has an awesome -8+ inch drop ball, along with all her other pitches being top spin. Her change up though, was +8 inches vertical break. Below is her drop ball on
@RapsodoSoftball
insight camera.
Grateful doesn’t come close to describe what
@S2_Breakthrough
does for the softball community. Or what they’ve done for myself specifically. Feeling extra sentimental after an awesome day of listening to awesome speakers. The game, coaches and the athletes deserve this.
Weekly pitching and catching camps are now open for registration. Click for all the info. 🚂💪🏼
11/1 @ Bittinger Stadium under the lights
11/15 & 11/29 @ Mollenkopf indoor facility
Grades 4-7 @ 6-7:30PM
Grades 8-12 @ 7:30-9PM
Yes, the Ole Miss player made a mistake but bashing her on social media is just as bad. Surely she gets it. And let the coaching staff handle it.
These are college athletes, AND HUMANS. Was it right, no. But it’s not for us as a softball community to tear her down.