7 Faults That Kill A Little League Pitcher’s Velocity
by Dick Mills on March 11, 2008
How can a parent, coach or instructor help a Little League pitcher improve his pitching mechanics and his throwing velocity?
Here are seven pitching faults that reduce every Little League pitcher's velocity:
- Slow movements and hesitation.
- Short strides (stride should be 100% of the pitcher's height).
- Not moving the body or landing in a straight line toward the plate.
- Taking the ball out of the glove too early (the hands should break apart after the pitcher starts into his stride).
- Breaking the hands too high on the chest (this will get the arm up too early).
- Not swinging the arm down, then back and up.
- Not using the back leg to get the pitcher low so he can create a longer stride.
But what are the causes of these problems that ruin pitching mechanics and pitching velocity in most Little League pitchers? Too many Pitching drills is one answer. As soon as we stop wasting our time on too many pitching drills then pitchers will learn how to use natural movements that allow their bodies to work faster delivering their arm.
Remember pitching drills are a fairly recent practice activity in baseball. They largely did not exist until about the late 80s. Prior to that pitchers did not use pitching drills. I was one of the those pitchers as I pitched in Little League in the fifties. I played high school, college and pro ball in the sixties and seventies without doing one pitching drill or may I add without ever doing long toss.
The balance drill, the kneeling drill and the towel drill are what create slow moving and robotic pitchers.
The large majority of major league pitchers for the past 100 years or more never did pitching drills.
In 2004 I stopped recommending pitching drills based on sports science research. We have found a far better way to teach beginner pitchers how to use their bodies to produce velocity instead of their arms...all without drills.
Pitching drills produce slow movements and hesitation and create very mechanical pitchers who think far too much about every step in the delivery rather than thinking about pitching as a total body motion where the body moves explosively toward the plate to deliver the arm. The arm is used mainly for control.
When Little League pitchers are taught how to use their back leg to drive their front hip and body toward the plate faster into a longer stride (100% of their height) onto a bent front leg then their velocity will almost instantly improve.
What all parents, coaches and players must understand is that pitching velocity is the result of speed of movement from total body actions rather than from arm strength. Research has proven that arm strength has little to do with pitching velocity. Not knowing this will cause you and your son to waste a lot of valuable time on what does not work for improving velocity.
When coaches and instructors begin focusing on using more natural full-body movements in pitching and doing less pitching drills while teaching the pitcher to move faster, only then will pitchers naturally and more automatically improve their velocity, their control, reduce stress to their arms and improve their overall performance.
