Fuel & Fire Pitching & Nutrition

09/23/2026

Does your pitcher look like Jimothy the raccoon?! 🦝 🤣
Slouched over? Chest leaning forward while the hips stay behind?

I see it all of the time!

The hips are supposed to lead the way. It sets up the correct sequence of your pitch. Without your hips extending/flexing you’ll never get to use your legs properly.

When your weight is being thrown forward instead of using the ground to truly drive, you mess up the entire pitch.

It’s not always as simple as, “I released late” or “I need stay tall”. It’s a sequence of events that must play out correctly to get your desired pitch!

This one adjustment can take MONTHS to achieve but with a solid plan, hard work, and understanding, you’ll be just fine! Emma is really starting to get the hang of it and I was so proud of her this week. One of her goals is to get a killer riseball and we can’t make that happen with weight being over the front foot. So we have to start at the very beginning and see what the Spring holds for her 💪🏻❤️

09/09/2026

You guys 🥵
This is not even the same person I swear. Lily came to me in May and I knew there was a long road ahead of us. I watched her pitch at a game before she started lessons with me and I took notes the whole time and shared them with her mom.
Girl throws GAS but the mechanics were very messy.
I was 50 feet behind home plate and could hear the ball zipping in.
Ain’t no way could we let her continue with those bad habits throwing high 60s at 6 feet tall. Nah girl. We gotta get you RIGHT!

But it’s a slooooooow and steady process. That’s hard for someone to hear that’s class of 2028 and clock is ticking. She’s used to being applauded for the speed and on day one I was throwing pitching terminology at her that she had never heard before.

We’ve had several deep discussions on what it takes to compete at the next level. It’s not about throwing it past people. It’s time to command the ball and get some true break.
Lord knows that takes HOURS upon hours a week outside of lessons. She’s starting to catch on!

Thank you Lily for trusting the process. You will be a whole new beast for SCHS this coming year. I am so pumped.

Do not let off the gas. Push harder than ever… or I might lose it because this progress is amaaaazing and we know just what you’re capable of.

08/25/2026

Alyssa has verbally committed to Asbury 🥰💜🥎 how amazing is that?! I’m so very proud of her. This girl is so coachable, so intelligent, and a joy to work with. She’s going to show out her senior year and then head onto bigger things 🦅 You’ve got what it takes Alyssa. It’s all paying off 👏🏻

07/29/2026

Back pain, knee pain, ankle pain, you name it!

I am not the type of coach to skip over improper mechanics, especially when I see that there’s some correlation with pain that she didn’t even tell me about until today 🙃
So no we didn’t work on screwball as intended and that’s okay.

It’s one tiny piece at a time. I say this in every post. We cannot skip to adding a new pitch or working on explosive work to rack up the speed until foundation is solid. You’ll just run into injuries.
And ALSO without proper foundation you can’t create your desired breaking pitch.
She’s unable to get any type of hip rotation so her pitches are more than likely going to go inside. You can’t create the pitch you want when your mechanics aren’t in check.

I told her that heel drag is usually due to two things
1) opening up too early with poor leg extension
2) no separation

Think of it in order. I can’t have her work on separation if her plant leg won’t allow it. So we work on the first option.

B***y pops outward, heel drags, the knee and ankle on plant leg are consuming a lot of force in an undesired position. That’s where you’ll see the pain become progressively worse.

We spent 45 minutes on just working to get her hips extended for them to “reach” for the target to have her foot land at more of a 1/2 o’clock position. Everyone is a bit different so anywhere between 12 and 2 is preference.

Their true success will be measured in high school and college. Let’s help them be healthy when they get to that point. Having 3+ pitches and throwing over 55mph at a young age doesn’t look cool anymore when you’re out for 6+ weeks due to injury.

FOCUS ON THEIR FOUNDATION THEN BUILD FROM THERE.

Shoutout to Lydia for adjusting quickly today 👏🏻❤️💪🏻🥎

07/24/2026

SUCH AN AWESOME TIME 🥎🍇🥦🍊🍓
I was able to get to the opportunity to hop on this softball podcast From the Coach's Mouth and talk about two things I love with two great pitching instructors.
Softball and nutrition ❤️
Check it out for info on how to properly fuel for game day and tournament snacks!!

Podcast Episode · From the Coach's Mouth · July 23 · 58m

07/22/2026

Maddie KILLED it. Those numbers speak for themselves. The growth continues and I’m so stoked to see where it takes her 👏🏻🔥💪🏻🥎

07/16/2026

Locating low and high spots!
Some coaches really put an emphasis on using the stride foot (left foot for righties) to locate the ball.

I hear “step outside to hit your outside corner.” And “shorten your stride to make it go lower.”

Not true 😱

Make the hips/glutes in charge. That’s the center of our body. Our hip hinge into extension is the most powerful part of our pitch. Let it set the direction. Our hips are supposed to lead the way. Our stride leg is not supposed to pull our hips. You can try to stride out further for that high pitch but if your hips aren’t leading then you can’t release in a stacked position. Instead it makes your chest fall and that ball ends up going low.

Same thing with hitting inside and outside. You step outside but the hips opened early because they never got under the shoulders. Ball is going inside instead 😖

A lot of people are visual learners. So this day we pretended the random red thing was a baby cactus or a big cactus. With low pitches she attacks the baby cactus with her hips. High pitches she will drive those hips over top of the big cactus.

I’ve explained to her in the past that it all boils down the shin angles and hip extension, core control, etc. That goes in one ear and out the other. So that’s when we make it silly! She had fun while absolutely killing it at hitting those 4 quadrants with her FB. Go Aspen go 💚💪🏻🥎

07/09/2026

Man oh man the past three weeks of All Stars has had me biting all of my nails off.
I’m so proud of every single one of my girls 🥹

Aspen: the girl had an ERA below one 😳 and a batting average above .600 😱 sis was also holding it down at third when not on the mound.

Emeri: a two strike bunting queen! The speed demon laid out for a fly ball in left field and ended up fracturing her finger (pitching hand 🥲) the day before the final game.

Kinley: I might have said a few cuss words over being so pumped over her killer 2nd base skills. Ball could hardly get past her.

Elowen: she was so determined to mow everyone down! Had the ball blazing in there! Although she didn’t make it to championship game she was at the ballpark every night cheering on the other teams (and buying all of the squishies).

Olivia: I’m so proud of her! She really helped carry her team to the best of her ability. Odds were stacked against her but she stayed hopeful and pitched each ball with her whole heart ❤️

Brooklyn: my little nugget 🥹 she played in 9u and killed it as their pitcher. She also played on the 10u team and didn’t let her young age hold her back. She got a piece of the ball almost every single time on some solid 10/11 year old pitchers 💪🏻

Adeline: my 9u hard little worker!! She had a lot of pressure on her and still didn’t give up. As soon as her team was out of the tournament she went straight home and got to work to be better than ever 👏🏻

Kinny: scooped up every low ball and hopped to the moon to get every high one. Girl was a wall at first base

Annie: every time she got up to bat I was watching the outfield scoot a little further back. Killed that dang ball! And was a beast at third base too.

To my other girls that aren’t pictured: I am so proud of you each of you and love watching you all grow.

Special shoutouts to the girls that don’t go to me but I love seeing them succeed! SC Addy Leitner pitched her heart out in several innings to help them get to the championship. FKCC 9u Kate Benson was a stud to help them win the championship. 10u FKCC Sutton Collins has insane grit. Her confidence and hard work helped her team win the championship! I didn’t get to see much of her but I got to read about 12u FKCC Isla Hapka shut it down to win the championship too. Huge congrats to FKCC for sweeping it all 💚👏🏻 go win state for District 5!

These young girls are amazing! You forget how young they are when they play because they’re so impressive. So very proud of all of them 🥹

06/30/2026