CoachMc writes "Youth Baseball Pitching has many theories and schools of thought
out there. There is website by Dick Mills about momentum pitching and velocity for youth baseball players
that contradicts most other coaching. I believe there is middle ground between
explosive pitching and traditional pitching drills. However, there are many youth baseball
pitching drills out there, and many do not seem to have much impact. So use
your head and watch your youth pitchers to see if progress is being made.
Recorded video is a great way to do this and it also allows the youth baseball
pitcher to actually SEE what he is doing and see your coaching points.
I like to use drills
to overemphasize a bad habit or technique a pitcher may have. After muscle
memory and understanding by the youth baseball pitcher has taken in, the drill
may not be necessary anymore. Some youth baseball pitchers may not need the
same drills as others. Mound practice is probably the best practice a pitcher can
have and no drills necessary at this point.
Important Facts About Youth Baseball Pitching
Important Facts About
Youth Baseball Pitching
You will learn to
pitch with marked improvement in as little as 14 days - even if you have never
pitched before! Develop better accuracy and increase your velocity with this
user friendly, concise and visual tutorial
Increasing
strength, working out with weights during the season has not been proven
to increase pitching velocity (actually it could increase the chance of
injury). Go easy on the weight training. Do you see very many bulked up
MLB pitchers?
This
includes using weighted balls. Save your money
Pitchers
should practice from the mound, practicing from flat ground simply
disrupts the natural pitching mechanics.
Pitching
is not throwing. How many times have you been on a little league field and
heard someone say “just play catch”?
Pitching sues faster motion of the body and a much smaller target than
just playing catch.
My pet peeveI
do not believe in saving the pitcher. Sure he needs rest, but a pitcher
should be practicing at full intensity and working on game like locations
and pitch counts. With all the talk lately about pitch counts
..if a youth baseball, high school, or pro for that matter,
practices a couple of times a week at 50-60 pitches , of course he will
injure himself or fatigue past that in a game situation. We still, as
youth baseball coaches, watch are pitchers and do what we can to prevent
injury, but pitchers need to practice like they may need to perform in a
game. This is not an overnight practice routine, but something to build
upon year after year.
My biggest pet peeve! It makes no sense whatsoever for a
pitcher to step to the side before pitching to the plate. You have to
stride forward and pitch the ball in very small area(the strike
zone).Whya pitcher rocks
sideways before going forward has no place being coached. If you are going
to throw a rock at a sign, do you rock sideways or rear back and fire!?
Pitch
from the stretch. There is so many things that
can go wrong in pitching, especially in youth baseball pitching. So we
should be coaching our youth pitchers to pitch from the stretch. Less room
for error, it keeps the footwork simple. When a pitcher is having trouble
the first place to look is at the feet., then
work your way up. If the footwork is bad, many bad pitches will follow. So
let’s keep it simple.In
addition, I can find no verifiable research proving that a windup
increases velocity or endurance with pitchers. Including my own son.
Less
mechanical robotic movement. Gives time for more errors and gives the
batter advantage. Keep the body moving faster and
you will throw faster and have less mechanical errors.
Ice is
used for injury. Why do many pitchers ice their arms after pitching? After
an intense pitching session you should want the blood to keep flowing and
have a normal cool down. Not shocked in to reduced blood flow to the
heavily used part of the body.
Most
pitches tire out, lose the strike zone, have arm
injury, because they do not practice enough.
I hope these 10 facts help give you some direction in coaching youth baseball
pitchers and what if any drills to use and how they should practice
