7 Components That Guarantee Pitchers Will Improve For The Upcoming Season
by Dick Mills on December 09, 2009
How can you be sure you are following correct pitching advice so that mechanics, velocity, control and functional strength improve for the upcoming season?
Here are 7 steps you can follow to insure that pitching skills improve and pitchers are "game ready" when the season begins.
First of all only listen to those who have pitched at a high pro level...AAA baseball or the big leagues. They have real experience. They are battle tested. Not scouts or former college players. They lack true professional pitching experience.
- Only follow pitching information that is backed by science.
- Understand why not videotaping is a waste of time if you expect lasting improvement...drills ruin pitchers. Towel drills, kneeling drills or balance drills. The brain does not register even the best verbal instruction nearly as well as visual feedback from videotaping. This is the secret.
- Know why improving strength and conditioning alone or arm strength cannot improve velocity...only mechanics can improve velocity. Your son needs both whether he is in LL or high school/college.
- There are no magic bullets for improving velocity...like long toss or weighted balls or arm exercises. It's just hype.
- Ball control is a combination of improving mechanics and target practice throwing a higher number of pitches at game intensity than most coaches recommend.
- The body produces velocity by momentum, a long stride from back leg and hip drive and by transferring forces from the lower body to the trunk and then finally to the arm as late as possible. As Tim Lincecum always says..."My body does the work...my arm is along for the ride."
- Pitching is a skill activity that requires much more practice than is commonly suggested. Your son needs at least two practice sessions from a mound each week to get ready for the season. For HS/college pitchers I suggest two 75 pitch bullpens per week the month before the season opens to get ready. For LL pitchers two 50-60 pitch bullpens.
Finally, if your son will be expected to throw 75 or 100 pitches in a game the first part of the season he had better have done that in a few practice bullpens prior to the season...otherwise how will his body be ready to do it in a game? This is why there are so many sore arms early in the season. Pitchers are simply not fit to pitch because they have not pitched enough in preseason to get their bodies and arm ready for the game.
I could go on but this is a short list of what is required to produce improvement in mechanics, velocity, control as well as to "reduce" the risk of arm injuries. Saving a pitcher's arm for the upcoming season or for the game actually increases the risk of injury.
If you are missing any of these components going into this next season then you can expect that you as a pitcher or your son will not have really improved very much. That puts you all the way back to square one...trying to figure out what is wrong when that is what the off-season is all about.
Remember..."pitchers are made in the off-season." What are you doing right now to improve your pitching skills?
These are some of the important aspects I have been focusing on in our Explosively Pitching DVD program since 2004. We teach parents how to help their sons use their bodies to pitch instead of just their arms. Not only does this improve velocity but reduces the risk of arm injuries.
See our Holiday Discounts on our instructional DVD's: http://www.pitching.com/products/
"I had spent several hundred dollars on a pitching coach who was leading my son down the path to ruin. He embraced every failed philosophy and technique you've identified - long toss, towel drills and more drills ad nauseum. My son's skills were deteriorating. When I found your website and read your report, I sense intuitively your words had merit and deserved further study." Mark Smith, Downers Grove, IL
