Do Former Major League Pitchers Make Good Coaches or Instructors?

Many baseball parents have a false sense of security about their son’s baseball pitching coach or their son’s private baseball pitching instructor because they are former big league, minor league or college pitchers.

Here’s a story I got from one of our clients in the mail just yesterday. He writes:

“I have a situation which happened with Brad’s high school team last year which left me perplexed. His coach was an ex-major league pitcher from the Brewer’s organization. During the course of the season, the high school team’s pitchers did not throw one bullpen between starts or in the pre-season. Also, two of their pitchers threw over 120 pitches in their first few starts. I guess I expected a more astute and educated approach.”

Parents falsely believe that just because a baseball pitching coach or private pitching instructor is a former major league pitcher then this will insure good quality coaching and instruction. Other parents are equally secure finding out that a pitching program is designed by a former minor leaguer or a former even a college pitcher as well.

The problem is that experience is no indication of overall knowledge. The large majority of major league pitchers would tell you that they have no clue how to teach…and that is generally true in golf as well. They know what was taught to them or they know what they learned but in sports other players experiences do not transfer well to other players. Every player is different because they all have different body types.

Remember this technical knowledge of mechanics and training and conditioning in a skill sport like pitching is far superior to experience.

Parents should not feel so secure about the background or experience of pitching coaches or pitching instructors for their son. Experience can help in certain areas but knowledge of what to teach and how to teach it based on sound sports science princples…such as biomechanics, training and conditioning should be a determining factor.

The question is—what does the coach or instructor know and how does he know it.

Most of baseball pitching instruction is passed down from one coach to another. The large majority of programs you will find online produced by former pitchers…have scant knowledge of mechanics and a poor understanding of training and conditioning principles.

You can quickly recognize that instructors don’t know by what they recommend to help pitchers improve. For example if their program is based on a bunch of drills then you can be certain you have found an instructor who does not have a broad based knowledge of mechanics.

Or if you find a program that uses a lot of “training aids”…then you have found a program that will waste a lot of time and maybe money too since you will be required to purchase that large variety of training aids.

Remember this. Pitching like golf is a skill activity. It is the skill of throwing a baseball using good mechanics that can be repeated, by mainly throwing downhill to a target…while focusing on hitting the catcher’s glove.

Drills or partial practice routines may be fine for beginners but if your son is in high school or college and his instructor is having him do drills then your son is wasting his time. And you are wasting your money. These drills are a smokescreen that the instuctor does not understand how to help your son improve by helping him develop better mechanics…the activity of which is the most important single thing your son can do to get better as a top performing baseball pitcher.

The next time you think about what your son is doing to get better as a pitcher ask yourself the question—how will what he is doing help him get hitters out in a game throwing from the mound under pressure.

Pitchers don’t use training aids in games, pitchers don’t do long toss in games, pitchers don’t throw weighted balls in games, pitchers don’t crow hop down the mound in games, pitchers don’t do towel drills from the mound in games and what pitchers do in the weight room does not transfer to the mound.

What you want to hear from a pitching instructor is that he is going to first of all show your son by videotaping his delivery…exactly what the problems are and then how he will go about helping him fix those faults. And if he is a high school or college pitcher all that pitching drills will accomplish is to disrupt his delivery since the pitching motion has no natural breaks…just like the golf swing. When you slow it down by doing partial practice or drills you are disrupting the entire mechanism.

Drills for pitchers are one of the reasons we are seeing so few good pitchers today. Drills create slowness and very mechanical and choppy pitchers.

You should feel secure when your son’s instructor or pitching coach drags the video camera out to his session, does an analysis and explains the problems and the fixes.

You have just found a professional baseball pitching instructor…are rare commondity today indeed.

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.