Paisleys Pitching

Making sure my identity outgrows the game ✨👇

When I was 16, I started attaching my identity to softball and my performance—and it stressed me out so much I honestly didn’t even want to play anymore.

Taking a step back and figuring out who I was outside of the game changed everything. I came back loving softball more than ever, and that’s what led to everything that followed—D1, All-American, records, pro. Finding yourself doesn’t take away from your game… it’s what elevates it. It’s what helps you with the tough times, the lows and all of the character building that we know all too well with sports.

If I can help you with one thing this week, it’s to focus on something else that you love. Take a moment, even just 20 minutes to do something that doesn’t involve sports. It’s only going to help you on the field and encourage you to grow off of it 💞🙏🥎

False, wrong, only if I never used them before, I can but it’s not smart, wrong, I can but should track fatigue, some of us 😫

Okay a little more fun info now these;

Calling something natural doesn’t make it safer. Overuse is overuse. Torque and velo is always going to be a lot on our bodies.

Don’t think I need to dive in on the 450 bros 😂

There’s a lot more than just legs in a softball pitching motion, and usually when we try harder to “use” them more on a pitch we do the opposite. Please don’t overlook your timing, trunk and upper body as a pitcher.

Hurrying and warming up is a dangerous slippery slope. This one’s mainly for youth coaches - give your pitcher time please.

We can hit, and honestly even if you don’t love it I encourage you to keep practicing it for overall athleticism. It only helps your pitching motion and who knows when you might need it in the future.

I threw in 7 games in a row from Saturday morning to Sunday morning at the Colorado Sparkler. Did I get hurt? No. I was definitely sore, blisters and mentally exhausted. Does that mean it’s okay? No. Track your pitches, monitor your fatigue and try not to let the will to win a game hurt your future if you want to play in college.

This last one sucks. Lots of softball pitchers will continue to do really well with throwing overhand. Some unfortunately are going to face things like the yips. I believe has some really good insight on this in the baseball community and it’s not really talked about how to work on it with softball pitchers. To think we just need to practice it more is quite the misunderstanding too. We practice making plays a lot, there’s usually some deeper things going on. If you’re facing this I encourage you to explore different training modalities, get your body checked out and some cool neurological training 🙌

As funny as these were to make, I think it’s just as important to talk about them ❤️🫶 🥎