Do These Baseball Pitching Drills Make Sense To You?

There is a baseball pitching school in the Houston area that has developed a new type of training that does not conform or is not back up by any sports science training principles. On the front of their school they should have a sign that says: Invented Here…Even If It Makes No Sports Science Sense.

Actually the owner of the school has simply copied what he teaches from another instructor who has no baseball background and whose instruction and philosophy is also not backed by any sports science training principles. In both cases their training philosophy was created out of thin air. Both are weighted ball advocates…which should tell you a lot about what they actually know.

Here is an example and what you should look for if you would like to verify if a particular instructor knows what he is doing or not…because if he doesn’t you are wasting your time, money and maybe your son’s baseball pitching future.

Let me give you an example of some of the foolishness that is being taught at this Houston based pitching school…all of which is disguised as pitching instruction… to the unknowing public.

This particular baseball pitching school uses a lot of drills as the basis of their instruction. Towel drills, weighted ball drills, even throwing uphill on a balance beam drill. It’s hard to believe that it could get much more foolish than that…but it does.

These types of drills should be a red flag that the instructor (and school) does not fully understand pitching mechanics or sports science training principles…since my understanding is that he is teaching mostly high school and college pitchers. Having pitchers of that age group doing pitching drills is like teaching a Little League pitcher how to throw a hard slider. It makes no sense.

One of the interesting drills that he has his pitchers doing is to start at the top of the mound and then do a crow hop down the mound and throw as hard as possible into a net. I wonder if that is how he is showing them how they picking up velocity?

Does anyone see a problem with that drill? Does anyone believe that the drill has any value and if so why? And do you think that the “crow hop down the mound” drill will help a pitcher get hitters out in a game? And why?

I am honestly amazed at how these instructors invent this hogwash that they call instruction that is wasting countless high school and college pitchers time and effort.

So what could be the idea of that drill? Does this instructor actually believe that doing a crow hop down the mound throwing as hard as possible will actually have any transference to the act of pitching? I don’t.

And where on earth did he get this idea? From an other instructor who invented it out of thin air…because he thought it made sense. Monkey see…monkey do.

And the feedback from the kids doing it might be that—”Yes, I feel like I am throwing much harder.” That’s wonderful because you should be throwing a lot harder since using a crow hop down the mound in what is creating more momentum… which is totally different than what a pitcher does while moving from a stationary position from the rubber while transferring his weight from one leg to another.

Does this mean that crow hopping down the mound is a total waste of time. Yes it does. There is no similarity between the two different activities…which are pitching and crow hopping down the mound. The only similarity is the ball.

And honestly, this is what is happening at various baseball pitching schools all over the country. Why? Because it is much easier to invent a useless drill that an inexperienced instructor can have a group doing than it is to instruct one pitcher helping him improve his pitching mechanics.

This “crow hop down the mound” drill would be comparable to having a javelin thrower throwing from a stationary position without using a crow hop…because the instructor reasons that it will help him develop more power when he finally does a crow hop. That is called “invented reasoning” that sounds good to the unknowing public. The public will buy it if it sounds good…even if it makes no sense because unfortunately they think being a former pitcher is all the credentials that you need to instruct.

Drills are a good way for pitching schools to keep kids occupied because the pitchers and their parents believe that pitching drills will make them better. But they won’t. In fact, more than likely these drills will make them slower because that is what partial practice drills do and these drills make pitchers more mechanical.

All these useless drills interfere with the pitchers’ timing and their ability to develop a smooth effortless delivery…all because baseball pitching instructors are not educated in sports science and continue to invent useless drills and routines that have no basis in productive sports training principles.

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.