WINSTON, MISSOURI – For 28 years Eric Lewis has traveled the men’s fastpitch softball circuit in his home state of Missouri and throughout much of the Midwest pitching and competing against some of the U.S. and world’s best teams.
But he’s worried. The sport he loves is in trouble.
The numbers of boys and men’s teams playing the game has dropped drastically in recent years. To stop that downward spiral, a “grass roots” effort is needed.
To that end, Lewis has taught his sons, Craig, 10, and Jacob, 8, how to pitch. And he’s actively involved in recruiting and coaching youngsters for his Northwest Royals boys’ teams that compete in Amateur Softball Association (ASA) national tournaments.
And pitching is the key component that makes forming a team, boys or men, even possible.
But Help Is Available
Both Craig and Jacob are enrolled in the ASA and International Softball Congress (ISC) joint USA Developmental Pitching program.
It’s a FREE program in which coaches or parents video tape their young charges pitching motion and then mail the tapes to ASA pitching coach, Gary Mullican, or ISC pitching coach, Michael White. Both men – respected for their pitching knowledge – offer their services to help foster the growth of the sport.
“We send the video tapes to U.S. pitching coach Gary Mullican for analysis and critique,” Lewis said.
Some in the baseball world – especially coaches – site their concern that should fastpitch softball popularity increase among the boys and young men, baseball will suffer. Or that the mechanics involved with fastpitch will some how harm the performance of baseball players.
Fastpitch Helps Baseball
That’s just not so, insist many baseball coaches, including Jim Holden an assistant coach with Mt. San Jacinto Community College in southern California.
“Fastpitch develops faster reaction times in the field and at the plate,” said Holden, himself a former fastpitch player. “It helps develop quicker wrists and reaction to pitches and in the field players have to learn to make plays quicker because of the shorter bases.”
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