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A Checklist For Proper Pitching Mechanics And Techniques
As someone who analyzes a lot of baseball pitching video and those who pay me to analyze their son’s pitching mechanics and help them learn more about baseball pitches expect me not to miss the important factors that reduce overall pitching performance. The key to improve a pitcher’s performance is recognizing what is holding him back. Looking at pitching mechanics is a key aspect of overall pitching improvement. Many kids are missing important aspects that will continue to reduce their velocity, control and add stress to their arms.
Videotaping a pitcher’s mechanics regularly is a must. You can’t just do it once at the beginning of the season when you start your pitching workouts. However, there are aspects you can simply eyeball in order to make quick assessments such as tempo or seeing if the pitcher looks smooth. But because pitching like golf is a high speed activity, no instructor - no matter how much experience - can see the important aspects without videotaping and slowing down mechanics and going frame-by-frame. Anyone can learn how to do this, and all parents of pitchers should.
Here are some important factors to consider:
1. Speed of movement…which means is the pitcher explosive or slow and controlled? Is his tempo slow or fast? Is he like a sprinter getting out of the starting blocks?
2. Does the pitcher look natural or “over-coached”? Over-coaching appears as slow, robotic and sometimes stiff.
3. Does the pitcher move from a bent leg to get lower leading with his front hip and does he land on a flexed leg in a straight line toward the plate?
4. Is the front foot too closed off or angled too much away from home plate? ( I am seeing this a lot on young pitchers) For a RH pitcher his foot is pointed to the third base side of the plate instead being just slightly angled.
5. Does the pitcher move sideways long enough so that he completes his back leg drive before he lands? Does his back leg get to near full extension just before landing or is it still bent just before landing?
6. Is his stride length nearing 100% of his height? Short stride kills velocity and add stress to the arm
7. Is his head positioned between his two feet? (nose over bellybutton) upon landing?
8. At ball release is his support foot in contact with the ground and is his head and chest positioned out over his landing knee?
9. Does his entire support foot (heel included) stay in contact with the ground and rubber as long as possible so the weight shifts to the inside of the entire support foot while the foot drags down the mound surface?
10. Does he land with his weight on the middle to inside of his landing foot or is he falling off to one side or the other? Is he front knee positioned over his ankle? This is his foundation for transferring all the forces you want to get to the ball. If this is weak velocity and control is reduced and stress goes to the arm.
11. Does he take the ball out of the glove with fingers on top and thumb underneath swinging the hand down, back and up into the cocked position as late as possible? (or is he lifting the ball up using his elbows?) Does his throwing arm get back into a natural but fully extended position?
12. Does he break his hands late…after his lead foot is down and his head and front hip have started to move away from the rubber?
13. Does he brace-up his ankle and knee and hip so that upon landing his hip acts as the axis of rotation for his upper body?
14. Does he have good upright posture moving from the back leg to the front leg?
15. Has he removed all slow movement, hesitation and lateral (side-to-side) movement from his delivery including bending forward, leaning backwards or swinging the leg out and around?
16. At ball release is the pitcher’s head and chest positioned in line with our better yet out over his landing knee. (if his head is behind his landing knee this indicates he is not creating enough forward momentum)
17. Does the pitcher finish with his trunk powerfully flexed forward to a flat back position?
Here are some other things to watch for:
Do the hands work together and sync up with the body? I like the hands moving up with the leg out of the wind-up and the hands positioned high on the chest to move down out of the stretch. Stationary hands do not allow good timing. Get the hands moving.
Fix what the legs and feet are doing first. This is where I start. If the foundation is weak the delivery will be weak and the arm will get sore.
This list may seem overwhelming but it is not. The key is how the pitcher starts, which effects how he finishes. Fix the beginning by helping him understand that it is the body that produces velocity…not the arm. This is all demonstrated in detail in our Explosive Pitching DVD’s…
Get great deals on any pitching machine here.
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Find Out More About Baseball
There is something particular about your first baseball glove. If you met me, you would not expect me to be a very big fan of baseball. You see, I am not really athletic, and I have never was. I am more of an egghead actually. I love math, chess, and video games. As a matter of fact, regularaly I like more to play a baseball video game instead of playing catch. Nonetheless, my baseball glove has something so valuable that it is to find the right words for it: the bond it gave me to my father.
You see, playing catch is something that fathers and sons have been doing in this country for generation, and it is an activity that they will keep on doing for many more years. One of the ways for a kid to bond with is father is through a baseball glove. My father was a typical American father. He was kind of quiet and strict, and could not really express his feelings. When we went outside together and played catch with our baseball gloves, however, I knew how much he loved me. Baseball mitts - and baseball in general is great for that. It can bring people together who might not be able to talk as freely otherwise.
My father knew that I did not want to be on a baseball team and, thank you dad, he never pressured me to join. All I needed to do was to play catch with him and run around, and also from time to time shoot hoops with my friends. My own little boy is a lot different than I was at that age. He loves everything and anything that has to do with sports, and I don’t know where he got it from. Never the less, when I got him his very first baseball glove, he looked at me with the same look of hapiness that I had for my father when he got me one. Then, I knew that he was really and truly my son, and I was his father.
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Why I Think Baseball Pitchers Workouts Are Like Kangaroos
Do baseball coaches, strength or speed trainers know which type of pitching workouts are best for pitchers? Most clearly do not. Every ‘trainer’ or conditioning coach needs to fully understand why pitchers need a certain type of conditioning rather than what is currently proposed such as lots of time in the weight room to get bigger and stronger. Those who recommend that I must refer to as strength pin-heads. They believe more strength is good for every activity in sports including pitching a baseball.
These “pin-heads” need to be able to explain how skinny pitchers are able to throw with above average velocity. Sadly, most of them can’t. A “pin-head” is someone who dishes out misinformation they can’t back up with any evidence based research or someone who simply uses his beliefs as the authority. You should listen to neither…no matter what their credentials are.
How Pitching Velocity Is Related To Kangaroos Jumping
There is reference in our book The Science And Art Of Baseball Pitching regarding the ‘kangaroo’ which brings clarity to how a baseball pitcher is able to create velocity. And if you read that section of the book…it doesn’t get any clearer than that. Reading that section (31.5) should produce an ‘AH’ moment for coaches when they will sit back and realize the error of their former ways and how much time they have wasted on telling pitchers to build more strength.
The question that should be on all baseball conditioning coaches certification tests is: How would you train a kangaroo to jump further? If they don’t know how to do that, they will never understand how to train a baseball pitcher to be fit to pitch. So how would you train a kangaroo to jump farther?
1. put him in the weight room and do more squats, leg press, leg curl, leg extension?
2. strap on a weighted vest or parachute?
3. strap on ankle weights?
4. jump squats with weights?
5. try to improve his jumps by quickening his take off?
6. rebounding down the field focusing on shortening the duration of his takoff?
Do conditioning, strength or speed coaches know how to train kangaroos? Not likely. Therefore they do not know how to train pitchers.
If you had two months to train a kangaroo with good potential what would you have him do?
There is a simple method for training kangaroos — get them to jump to a level of moderate overload (fatigue), then let him rest, and repeat again. No more, no less.
This is how to train a pitcher to be fit to pitch whether it is working on his general fitness or on building his volume of pitches for games.
In my Explosive Pitching DVD’s we offer many bonus reports. One is the Bullpen Report along with a Velocity Report and Strength Report. How many actually follow the pitching drills in the Bullpen Report? Probably only a few. And you wonder why your son is not improving faster! He will never get fit to pitch throwing a typical bullpen nor will he see much improvement.
Some of you probably still believe that long toss makes sense. Unfortunately, it is just a waste of time even though just about every coach recommends it and just about every pitcher practices it. Long toss and similar pitching workouts are good if you are an outfielder but what does throwing long have to do with pitching…since pitching velocity is not about arm strength but much more about building momentum into a long stride.
Irrelevant practice is the single biggest reason why most pitchers will never reach their full potential. And especially why they will never develop maximum velocity or pinpoint control.
It is the irrelevant practice that is causing soreness and more risk of injury. And the 50% of time wasted today on irrelevant practice activities such as long toss, flat ground throwing, pitching drills to name a few is why pitchers are not improving based on the time spent practicing.
Don’t Forget - My Complete Pitching Instruction program is the only complete “pitching clinic” home study course available that is backed by real sports science research. It’s designed for parents, coaches, and players of all ages. Whether you’re a pitcher just starting out, or an advanced pitcher looking for answers, we make it simple to understand for both the parent and pitcher.
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Pitching Machines – Common Sense Will Keep A Player Safe
As a coach it is our responsibility to teach sports safety. Many experts say it is the number one responsibility of any good coach or parent. Players need to learn to practice good safety in every sport. The great sport of baseball is no different. Baseball and softball is among the most popular sport in the United States. In the United States there are over 6 million kids from the ages under 14 playing organized baseball and softball. There are three times that playing the game recreationally. In 2005 there were an estimate of 175,000 kids treated in hospital emergency rooms for baseball and softball related injuries.
Baseball pitching machines are very simple and easy to operate. The key is to use them properly. I have been to many of practices and watch untrained coaches and players use equipment and get hurt. Here are 5 key tips to reduce of chance of injury when using a pitching machine.
1. Make sure that an adult is always presentwhile at the batting cages. As adults we are good role models for our players. We as adults are supposed to be more mature and smarter. Everyone can remember being a kid. As children we feared nothing. Coaches and parents look for hidden dangers. Make sure the player is aware of possible dangers. It is always better to be safe than sorry.
2. Batting helmets are a must. Batting helmets are a mandatory product to help prevent or. Chin straps are good to keep the helmet in place. Face guards have shown to prevent facial injuries.
3. Dry baseballs are also a key for a pitching machine. Balls will absorb moisture from many sources and become dangerous. Look out for bad pitches. Make sure that the pitching machine and baseballs are dry before use. A great idea is to use pitching machine baseballs. They are designed not to retain water. The pitching machine baseballs will give a batter a great pitch every time.
4. Make sure a player uses common sense. Have the player focused. Teach the player on what to do if there is a wild pitch. Teach the player how to move properly out of the way of a wild pitch.
5. Have a plan. Act quickly if an injury occurs. Have a properly stocked first aid kit and know what to do in case of an emergency.
I only bring this up because I have seen it happen. I was coaching an away game and a young palyer was getting loose in a batting cage, not paying attention and he got hit in the side of the head. I know that it could have been prevented if only proper precautions would have been taken. No matter what the age of the athlete is, stay out of the hospital emergency room and stay on the baseball field. Always pitch safety first.
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