HOW WE TRAIN
At Foster Fastpitch we don’t start by chasing speed. We start by understanding:
how your athlete moves.
We believe velocity, command, movement and power are the result of what is happening underneath the pitch. That means we don’t want to jump straight to fixing the arm or asking an athlete to throw harder without first understanding how her body is moving. We train from the ground up.
Mobility → Stability → Strength → Speed → Power
The Foster Fastpitch Approach
Most pitchers have spent years trying to improve the top two pieces of the pyramid — speed and power. But very few have ever stopped to look at what is underneath all of that.
And that’s where the ceiling is usually being created.
If an athlete doesn’t have the mobility to get into the positions she needs, the stability to control them, or the strength to transfer force efficiently, there is only so far speed and power can go.
Eventually, she will hit her glass ceiling.
She can keep working harder on the top of the pyramid, but if we never address the layers underneath it, we’re asking her body to create something that it physically is not capable of producing.
Mobility
Can she get into the positions she needs to get into? Mobility is an athlete’s ability to move freely through the ranges of motion required for pitching. If her body physically can’t access a position, simply telling her to “fix” it usually won’t solve the problem.
Stability
Can she control those positions? An athlete may have the mobility to get somewhere, but she also has to be able to control her posture, balance, landing and weight shift once she gets there.
Strength
Can she create and transfer force? Strength gives the athlete the ability to produce force and move that force efficiently through the body and eventually into the ball.
Speed
How quickly can she organize and execute the movement? As the foundation improves, the athlete can begin moving faster and creating a more efficient release.
Power
This is the result. Power is what we see when those layers begin working together: more speed, better control, more efficient movement and the ability to create more break on the ball.
Stop only chasing the top of the pyramid. Build what’s underneath it — and raise the ceiling.
Wherever You Train With Us, the Philosophy Stays the Same
Whether your athlete trains with us in person, inside the Online Academy, or through a virtual lesson, the way we look at pitching doesn’t change.
We still believe in building from the bottom up. We still look at the athlete as a whole. And we still want to understand what may be limiting her before we simply add more cues, drills, speed, or pitches.
The difference is simply how much information we have access to.
In an in-person Intensive, we can complete the full picture — motor preference, mobility, video analysis, and Rapsodo data. Online, we may be a little more limited in what we can physically assess, but we still use the same framework to guide what we see and how we coach so that your pitcher gets the best training possible.
Our goal is never to force every pitcher into the same mold.
It’s to help each athlete understand how she moves, what she needs, and what will help her raise her ceiling.
