Fastpitch Softball Pitching - Control Problems

I have a daughter that is very big into fastpitch softball. She started playing when she was 8 in little league fall ball. The next year she played little league in the spring ,all stars in the summer and then decided she wanted to start pitching. She started in august and pitched for fall ball little league. She worked really hard the next few months, got a whole lot better and we ended up finding her a 10u travel ball team the next spring for her play for and pitch. She played for 3 travel teams last year, 2 10u teams and a 12u team. She is 11 now and playing 12u ball for the Peaches in Yadkin, NC. She is one of the youngest on the team. Some of the girls are 7th graders and my daughter is in 5th. She is also one of the smallest. She is mainly an outfielder for this team and does really well. The coach wants her to pitch but she has had control problems. I think we have probably solved that and I wanted to share our experience.

We started going to a pitching coach when she first started to pitch. Honestly I figured she would try it and not like pitching or the work she would have to put in to become a real pitcher. I was wrong. She loves it. We go out most days and pitch and during the winter we go indoors and practice pitching, hitting and bunting. The first pitching coach we tried was at a hitting center. This woman was a great pitcher for a local college but we only went to one lesson. She seemed pretty good but we found one we liked better. This guy is one the nicest people I have ever met in my life. He actually works with my father in law, which is how we found him. He is very genuine and my daughter loves him to death and he has been coaching and teaching pitching for many years. They both teach pitching like so many others. Push off, open your hips and close them very fast. The faster you close your hips the better. She did that and actually pitched very well in 10u, especially last fall for the 10u Cardinals. They got a second place gold bracket finish with her pitching. She also got her first no hitter that tournament. Problem is, they pitch from 35 ft. Now she is pitching from 40ft. Her control left and never came back until recently.

Her travel ball coach eventually suggested something and she tried it. He said they teach this at the University of Arizona and after I researched it I found a lot more people teach this way now than I thought and it makes total sense. When you close you hips fast as she was taught, they start getting the way of your arm. Her pitches were tailing off bad to her right very often. She was worried about hitting her hip with the ball. A pitchers hips have absolutely nothing to do with how fast or accurate she throws the ball (at least not in a good way). What he suggested was don't close your hips at all. It is a huge adjustment but as she gets used to it I think her accuracy is coming back fast and her speed might actually be improving. While she is still getting used to it, when she does it right (which is more than half of the time now) she is very accurate. Also her delivery is much smoother than it was. She can relax her arm better because she doesn't have to think about hitting her hip as she releases. Now she does close up after the ball is gone but this is only for fielding purposes and has nothing to do with her pitching. It really does work. I would love to see what you guys think. This is just my personal experience. I am sure different things work for different people. Now I just have to figure out how to tell her pitching coach....

Watch Cat Osterman during her no hitter in the olympics. Notice how she never closes until well after the ball is gone.

UPDATE: My kid decided she could NOT do this... haha. Well know she does kind of a hybrid between both. She doesn't close her hips fast like she used to but she still does a little. It is what is comfortable for her. Her control is a lot better but we will find out tomorrow as she is pitching her first game of the spring.

Entertaiment Center

Cooling You Entertainment Center

We recently purchased a new entertainment center (really a big TV stand with a lot of storage). It is really nice, though. A problem I ran into is that even though it does have ventilation holes in the back, my PS3, cable boxes, and PC (yes I have a computer hooked to my TV) get very hot in there. I started leaving the door open but the PS3 still got hot and it is a pain to remember to open the door every time. My 3 year old likes to close the doors also and she makes sure she waits until I am not looking... I notice exactly 5 seconds after my PS3 freezes up.

I started looking into solutions and figured out that I wasn't the only one having that problem. There are many products made just for such reasons. There are also some do it yourself remedies to be found rather easily by just looking. Let me tell you about them then I will tell you how I took care of the problem.

First I bought a fan for the back of the PS3. $20 off Amazon. It works well but still there is a lot of heat in there. I needed something more to push the heat out of the entertainment center instead of it just hanging around in there cooking my electronics. I searched google and found these :

1) Cabcool Cooling Kit for Entertainment Center

This one is on Amazon for $39 plus shipping. I would need at least 2 and maybe more of these which takes the price up to $100+. Says it is easy to install. You have to mount these to your center. I really didn't want to put screw holes in my nice new entertainment center... This kit gets really good reviews though and most people say it works really well. I just wasn't crazy about putting it together. Also this plugs into the wall (or anything else with an outlet) so it will run all the time or when you turn on a particular component.

2) Thermaltake Mobile Fan II USB Cooling fan

I like this one, although not made especially for this purpose. It has a stand and I can hook it up to my PS3 via USB so that it only comes on when the PS3 or my computer does. It costs less than $12 plus shipping (or free if you buy 3 or more). It has lots of reviews and most are good although I am not sure how many people use it for cooling their entertainment centers. Looks like a good use for it though.

3) Cabinet Cooler Fan System

This one also gets good reviews. It comes on automatically when the temperature gets above 87 degrees and cuts off at 85 degrees so it doesn't run all the time. It is really quiet apparently and cools pretty well. The problem for me would be I would want 3 or 4 and the price is a whopping $100 EACH... whoa! I read some reviews that said it was worth it... I am not sure if I agree. I guess I should see it work before I dismiss it but at that price I would want it to cool the whole living room. Next...

4) Antec AV Component Cooler

Ok, this one looks pretty cool. It has 2 fan speeds. Most reviewers say you never need the high speed. Your component sits on top of this much like laptops sit on top of laptop coolers. The difference is the airflow comes out the back end and not the bottom (an idea I think would work well for laptop coolers also). This one also uses an AC outlet to power the unit. The drawbacks of this is that you would need one for each component that runs hot and they are $50 each on Amazon. Most reviewers say it works well but more than a few say it is made cheaper than they anticipated. The plastic, they say, is just cheap like a lot of laptop coolers. So maybe they took one and put AC power instead of USB?? Still if it works you may not care... I did.

5) Do it Yourself

I also found (and you can too) a few sites by searching the net that explain how to build your own cooling fans. Some even have thermal fan controllers to automate the system. The best I can find is about $60 for 2 fans, cases, thermal controller and power cables. That's not bad in the scheme of things. I decided against that too.

6) My solution

I looked at all these choices. I had to decide what was important. My main concerns were my PS3, my PC, and my DVR. All run pretty hot. Now I had to decide what features were important. Did I want automation? Did I want USB power or AC? did I even care? How much did I want to pay. Did I care if the fans ran all the time and what if I could hear them run. How do I want them mounted if at all?

I decided I did not care about any of it except cooling and the price. I went to Walmart - just to look at what small fans they had and whether I could use them. I expected to pay $6 to $10 for a small fan which would have probably made me choose another option. I found small fans for $1 a piece. I scanned them just to make sure. Sure enough, $1. They were small enough to fit in my entertainment center but not too small so I bought 6. I put one at my DVR, 1 behind my PC and 2 on my PS3 (on intake and one out). I am keeping the other 2 just for backups. I expected them to not give out much air or to be loud. Actually they put out enough air to keep all my components cool and I cannot even hear them. I plugged them all into a power strip so I can turn them off if I want. My stuff stays cool now and I don't even have to open the doors any longer. The total price was $6 plus tax and I have 2 extra fans. the fan casing is metal and also very well made. Maybe I got lucky finding these fans (I am thinking of going to get the rest of the $1 fans just in case I wear them out) but I am very happy with my solution. Maybe it's not for you but it works very well for me. I hope you find a solution you are happy with.

You've got to be kidding me...

Is it really only a month til Christmas? Really? This one is going to be like Christmas lite around here. There is no way we can do the things we have been doing in the years past. I have a feeling we will all be ok despite that. I mean, the holidays isn't really about presents right? As long as we are all together having a good time sitting in the living room around a nice fire listening to Christmas music and talking it should be a great one!! Right?!?! Try telling that to my spoiled ass kid... Bubbles will be fine. She is the most polite kid I have ever seen. Alex won't care because she's at the age where tearing the ornaments off the tree and running around the house screaming "we will rock you" will make her day.


BUT 'Hala on the other hand will be on the BOOK OF FACE that afternoon talking to her friends about how cheap "santa" was this year (on the laptop we bought her) and

why her family can't afford to buy her food even... (while she will probably be eating turkey, ham and other assorted goodies that must have just fallen out of the sky) and drinking some of the 6 gallons of milk we buy every week or so to FEED HER &%&$&.... Then she will text her friends that she can't reach on facebook on that wonderful necessity that is her cell phone (her 3rd phone by the way... she wears them out texting). Then I am sure she will settle down and play some games on either her PS2, or Wii or maybe even her DS. She might even go outside if it's nice and use some of the tons of softball or volleyball equipment that just appeared in the garage (because we couldn't afford that, after all)... All the while complaining that she has nothing and everyone else has everything... It's fun raising a teenager...

happy holidays

2010 A Haunted House! A Killer!! Superheroes! You'll never guess who th...

My Girls and their songs...

I know every girl is different (I should since I have 3). My 13 year old and 9 year old are different. Both are different from my 1 year old of course. But it's funny what makes them tick.

The 13 year old loved to dance and sing Hot in Here when she was little. It was

wonderful having my little baby girl running around in public singing "It's getting

hot in here - so take off all your clothes!"




Never have I been prouder as a parent. Well at least not until the 9

year old (a few years ago) decided her favorite thing to sing was " I

kissed a girl and I liked it". That was nice too.







The one year old cannot sing of course. At least not yet. Her favorite song of choice, however, is much better. "Cotton Eye Joe" by Rednex. Every time she hears it starting she RUNS into the den and starts doing her foot stompin redneck dance. It's great. And it's something for me to remember when she starts singing something worse than stripping or lesbianism. I can't wait for that.

(If you want to see the dance just search for IKERI on youtube and it is episode 6)

Well it's a Friday night and here I am sitting here at the computer watching (what else) Scrubs and trying to keep a fire going in the fireplace. My wife and mother-in-law are in the kitchen doing holiday cooking with Mahala. Keri is upstairs whining because we apparently have a mouse somewhere in the house and she doesn't want a mousetrap in her room. I am also running a new program that recovers deleted files because I got some kind of virus on the computer and could not get rid of it myself so I restored the computer and forgot to copy Alex's first Birthday pictures... which sucks... hopefully I can recover some of them. I worked last night and haven't been to sleep. It's now 6PM so I am getting just a little tired.


I have decided that I love it when my sister mentions me or my family in her blog... Not sure exactly why. Speaking of her family I attended my niece Sarah's birthday party this week via webcam. It was super awesome to get to see her open up her presents and watch her eat cake that I couldn't get my diabetic hands on. Anyway it was a great time.


Keri has 5 webshows now. If you want to see one just search for IKERI on youtube. It's nothing really... just some stuff she has taken videos of I put together for her.

In the Ebay world I bought a book for a Christmas present. Brand New!! When I got it it had ripped pages and no cover. Nice, huh. Of course the seller wouldn;t return my emails so I had to file an Ebay claim. After Ebay contacted them they told me that the person THEY got it from said it was new so that was why they sold it as new. What?!?! That makes no sense on like a hundred different levels. Anyway eventually after filing a claim I got my money back... no thanks to the seller.

ok 10pm now. I gotta get some sleep....



Ok next day.. I actually found some of her birthday pictures!! yay!! The red icing may not have been the best choice because it looks like she is a zombie feating on human flesh.... gross.... here look :





Ok gotta go. Trying to get last minute Ebay stuff up to get a little bit more Christmas money....

So here is what's been happening. I am so happy that my mostest favorite niece in the world is home from the hospital. Hopefully everyone will be healthy enough so that we can visit all The Jeffreys when we come down this time.

We bought Keri a set of youth drums. Well they are too small for her but guess who likes them? That's right... my little 11 month old baby girl is as happy as I have ever seen her when she is beating the crap out of them. It's great. See for yourself!




She also enjoys scooting on her butt across the room. Those 2 things seem to be her favorite no-mommy related activities right now. We have a den full of toys.... but she just butt scoots and she's happy.

Mahala is all about the computer and cell phone. She just talks to her friends on the computer and texts them on the phone. She texts like 4,000 times a month. Probably more than that now. That is waaaaaay over 100 a day. I don't think she even knows how to make a freaking call on that thing anymore. How do her fingers NOT FALL OFF!?!?!?!?!?

Keri likes her computer too but she is all about TALKING. Talk talk talk talk talk. I am sure she will text too when she gets old enough to have a cell phone but something tells me she likes to talk way too much to text that many times. She would talk on the phone 24 hours a day if we let her. She talks while she's playing, she talks while she's on the computer and she talks while she's watching TV and tries to when she ALREADY has friends over to the house.

The ebay experiment is still going on. I had a phone returned to me. Verizon had just sent me this phone and it didn't work right. I didn’t even think to try it out since it was a NEW PHONE... geeze... Then I had to go get a prepaid card to put money onto Paypal so I could refund his money... fun!! Why did I want to do this ebay stuff again?

Is there anyone that knows how to get an 8 year old girl to CLEAN HER ROOM?!?!?! She stays up there all freaking day and does nothing! It doesn’t matter that she can’t come down and watch TV or use the computer or the phone. She doesn’t care.

We had a thrift store sale here. Half off everything. I tried my best to outdo my sister from her sale binge at the Goodwill store. I don’t think I quite did it although we did get a lot of stuff. We did finda lot of good stufffor the girls and a good amount of Ebay stuff so I call it a success. Actually there are 2 of those stores here and we hit one in the mroning when I got off work and one that night when I got up. This is from the first store...



Now all I have to do is find time to actually put this stuff up in my store...


Ok that's it.... I am working on a little webshow for Keri (she wants to do one so bad). Maybe I can get that up next time...