Ron Lefebvre's Perfect Pitch Video: Softball

Called The Perfect Pitch with Ron LeFebvre on the actual video, this low-budget hand-held video camera production features professional coach Ron LeFebvre teaching young female students the secrets of good softball pitching. Emphasizing that pitching styles vary widely, LeFebvre shows viewers how to use the basics of good pitching stride, release, and follow-up in conjunction with the natural style of the pitcher. While some of the information is good, the program would have benefited from tighter editing and more slow-motion and graphic enhancements. But the real drawback here is the fact that the producer, Raetec Manufacturing, has a bigger objective in mind than teaching kids softball pitching: namely, the "Strike Out" training backstop. The video opens, closes, and includes in the actual content, advertisements for this piece of sports equipment. a second video, Ron LeFebvre's "Perfect Pitch" Video: Baseball uses the same format, only the students are boys and the pitching is overhand rather than underhand. There are much better, and less commercially driven, videos on the subject. Not a necessary purchase. (R. Pitman)