Another Baseball Pitching School Doesn’t Understand Pitching Mechanics

Parents of high school baseball pitchers are beginning to question the knowledge of baseball pitching instructors…even ones who are employeed by baseball schools that charge $50 an hour.

Baseball pitching mechanics and how baseball pitching velocity is achieved has little to do with focusing on arm action…especially the foolishness that is being taught and labled as “scapula loading.” Scapula loading is a coined arm action position that pitchers do not need to be taught…since it happens naturally as it has for thousands of major league pitchers over the past hundred or more years.

I got a call today from the father of a 15 year old 6’1″ 200 lbs RH sophomore high school pitcher who is throwing near 80 mph right now. The father had requested information on our Explosive Pitching DVD instructional pitching series. After reading the baseball pitching Free Report that includes still photos comparing a high school pitcher to a major league pitcher…he realized that his son was probably not learning all he needed to learn to boost his pitching performance over the long run.

He told me that he took his son to a local baseball academy that had apparently been using the “scapula loading” concept of arm action that originated from a Houston based pitching school that also advocates lots of drills, balance beam work and weighted ball throwing…whether you need it or not.

The instructor apparently focused during each lesson, mainly on arm action, glove position and posture. Some of that might be appropriate if the instructor had first focused on the pitcher’s lower body mechanics. However, he never did in all five lessons. It was all upper body mechanics.

The problem is that this instructor and apparently the Houston based pitching school that put on the teaching clinic forget to understand that it is the lower body that is responsible for arm speed…not the arm itself.

The dead give-a-way that this instructor was not on the right track was when the father noticed my emphasis on proper stride length and showed in my free pitching report why the high school pitcher’s stride length was too short. I asked this father about his son’s stride length. He said it was about 70% of his son’s height.

He said his son was also doing a drill where he would stride out and stop upon landing. This drill was supposed to get him to focus on his glove position and his arm action. I am sure it did help him focus on it but the fact remains that when that pitcher goes through his motion at game speed his body will not be able to do what it did when he had it stopping. The body does not understand or learn that way.

If you want results…from a high school pitcher he had better be working at making adjustments at full game throwing intensity. Working at a slower intensity or speed will not transfer.

The problem with a drill like that that stops the pitching motion is that pitching mechanics, like golf, is a two phase motor skill with no natural breaks. When you do drills and stop the motion you disrupt the a motion that is designed to not ever stop until the ball is released and until the pitcher has reached full deceleration of his whole body.

Pitching drills like this cause pitchers to end up looking mechanical and much too slow.

Instructor’s who don’t emphasize long strides should also be a huge concern for parents who are paying for pitching lessons. This instructor never addressed the pitcher’s stride length because he was too busy thinking that scapula loading actually boosts velocity when arm action does not produce velocity at all…rather arm actioin is simply a positioning device.

Be careful of baseball pitching instructors who emphasize things like scapula loading, drills such as throwing from a balance beam or those who don’t understand that long strides are important for producing velocity.

And of course these same instructors would like you to believe that weighted balls are going to boost velocity 7-12 mph. If you believe they do…I have a nice beach front condo in Sri Lanka you can rent real cheap for your next family vacation.

Dick Mills

If you have questions about this blog post or on any phase of pitching—mechanics, strength and conditioning, mental training, strategy send those questions to dickmills@gmail.com and I will answer them here.

If you want an explosive body and explosive mechanics you need to get my Free Report at www.pitching.nexcess.net. We won’t waste your time. We show you how to recognize exactly what is holding back most pitchers…find the problem—fix the problem. I show you a comparison between two high school pitchers and a major league pitcher who throws mid to upper nineties. You will see the biggest problem that reduces velocity in the majority of pitchers.

(If you are a high school or college coach, ask for our special Free Coach’s Report.)