Father of Talented Baseball Pitcher Learns The Importance Of Vidoetaping
All About Pitching Since 1995
How do fathers help their sons become the best baseball pitcher they can be?
The first thing that is required is baseball pitching knowledge. Pitching knowledge, especially of pitching mechanics, allows parents to understand why their son’s are not pitching to the full potential whether it’s velocity or control.
Knowledge also allows parents to understand why the large majority of baseball coaches and many, many private instructors are dishing out bad information when it comes to developing better mechanics.
The problem is that most parents are listening to too many people who know just enough to be dangerous. This includes the vast majority of websites and many online forums where one parent is taking advice from another who also does not know but sounds like they do.
Here is an email that I got from a client regarding the importance of videotaping. The problem is that most parents of baseball pitchers have no idea what to look for when videotaping.
Imagine trying to help your son when you really have no idea how to begin?
“Dick,
FYI, when I purchased your program a couple of years ago, I took shortcuts and in turn, short changed my son. He also did not want to put much effort into improving other than just throwing.
My son has always got by on being a good athlete, but I always thought that he could achieve more as a pitcher. Most people would think that I am crazy. He has a 48-8 record over the last 4 years. Many players would like to be at his level. He plays a very competitive travel schedule in Ohio. Last year he moved back to 54 feet from 48 feet. He struggled with control. After the season was over, he finally decided to take it to the next level. We realized that his inconsistency was a direct result of flaws in his delivery. We spent the last six weeks going back over your program. We videotaped just like you suggested. It was eye opening.
My whole point to all of this is that we appreciate your program. We believe that it will get my son to the next level if he so chooses. We have made more positive strides in the last six weeks than we did in the last four years.”
Learning how to videotape your son and understanding how to recognize what are the most common mechanical faults that are stopping him may be the most powerful tool that a parent could have for boosting performance. Both control and velocity are adversely effected by poor mechanics.
Even if your son has talent he will eventually develop problems with his mechanics as he grows because everything changes including the length of his arms and legs which will effect his stride length and his ability to transfer forces. You must have regular booster sessions for adjusting his mechanics each year because of these growth and physical changes.
The large majority of problems with Little League, high school and even college pitchers are related to how they move from their back leg to their front leg. The inability to use their lower body to speed up their trunk and finally to whip the arm through.
And these lower body mechanical problems can be fixed during the season.
Most pitchers end up in a poor finish position because they do not know how to start. Ask 100 high school pitchers how they can produce more power from their mechanics and you will be given a blank stare. How can they be expected to know when neither their coaches nor instructors have ever explained it to them…usually because they do not know.
This may be why these coaches have them do long toss or drills on flat ground…neither of which can help a pitcher throw with more effective mechanics from the mound.
No amount of disruptive drills can help build a smooth effortless delivery with good timing where the elastic energy is passed off efficiently from the larger muscles of the hips and trunk to the small muscles of the arm and to the ball. In fact, drills will only produce slowness and over-thinking rather than explosiveness and smoothness.
There is no single tool available for parents that is more powerful than understanding how to videotape their son and then how to help him. It is not rocket science but simply understanding how all the parts should move with proper timing.
And there is no better time than right now to get busy doing that.
Dick Mills website www.pitching.nexcess.net
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 . 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, a Little League pitcher 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, email me at dickmills@gmail.com and ask for our special Free Coach’s Report.)
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