Ways To Evaluate A Baseball Pitching Coach Or Instructor

You can find baseball pitching instruction and coaching in just about every major or minor city today. It comes in all forms. The high school or college pitching coach. The baseball school, the roving clinic or the private instructor.

What qualities should you look for to determine whether you will get good baseball pitching coach or instruction or not?

First of all if the basis of instruction is a bunch of drills more than likely you have found an instructor who does not understand mechanics or how the body interpets doing drills as partial practice in a movement such as pitching that has no natural breaks. Whenever you try to isolate a small movement you risk adversely effecting the whole.

As stated before, doing partial practice drills in isolation and then trying to re-insert that practiced movement back into the pitching delivery at game speed will be disruptive and over time will produce worse results. This is why doing drills normally does not break bad habits. The bad habit always seems to come back.

The pitcher’s body interprets the drill as a completely different movement.

The better way is for the baseball pitching instructor to understand what is causing the problem and have the pitcher make the needed adjustment. The problem here is that most instructors do not fully understand what effects what in the pitcher’s delivery.

If for example the pitcher’s stride is too short…and many coaches never address this…then the question is what is causing the short stride. It is normally poor weight shift. The pitcher does not understand how to move from his back leg to his front leg. This may get the upper body moving out in the same plane as the lower body. Once a pitcher is instructed on how to shift his weight properly…his stride automatically will lengthen. And when his timing is correct, his body will feel it and the ball will feel good coming out of his hand.

But many coaches will parrot…”let stride happen.” Is this good instruction? I don’t think so since it has been shown that most power pitchers use long strides…that create more elastic energy. The longer the stride the more muscles get put on stretch. And the more explosive the pitcher is coming off that back leg the quicker those muscles will stretch.

So any program that has drills as its basis may be a red flag of how much that instructor understands mechanics from start to finish. You can’t fix what you don’t understand.

I spoke to a long time instructor just yesterday and he said he had problems with high school kids finishing properly. So I suggested that he first put them in the ideal finish position so their brain understood the goal and what the end result feels like and then to make sure that their first movement off the back leg was correct. That will normally take care of the problem.

But some will have that pitcher do endless drills that will tie up his brain in knotts…with little improvement as the end result. Lots of wasted time.

If a pitching coach or instructor does not videotape his pitchers, then you should wonder how he will identify problems that create faults. Not too many of us can use the naked eye in one of the fastest human motions known in sports.

Videotape works to help the instructor and to let the pitcher know exactly why he is creating problems whether they be with inconsistent velocity or command of his pitches…or sore arms. So the instructor identifies the problem…then works on improving the previous movement which normally creates that problem. Now we have the instructor and the pitcher on the same page…working together to solve the problem. This gives the pitcher some peace of mind because he knows the instructor knows.

Hopefully, the instructor is well versed in all phases of mechanics…not just his favorite part.

Whenever an instructor tells a pitcher to make an adjustment, that instructor should be able to clearly demonstrate what he is trying to convey. Many cannot.

For example, when an instructor tells the pitcher to push off the rubber more…he should demonstrate how to do that. Most cannot and do not because pushing off the rubber is a poor cue because coaches can’t explain the “how” of it. That is a dead giveaway that this instructor knows just enough to be dangerous.

Keep it simple. Pitching mechanics is a simple two phase skill. It should then be simply explained so that a 10 year old can understand it. Many times you get too much information that is confusing or not enough to make it clear.

I spoke to the father of D1 pitcher this week. His son is a junior RH who was throwing 90 mph out of high school. He is now throwing from 86-91 mph…with a lot of inconsistency and poor control. And yet, with three pitching coaches over the past three years not one has videotaped his mechanics or given solid advice.

He said his son is now pitching confused trying to find what he once had in high school. He is trying to get the feel back. His father said one of the pitching coaches was all about drills. Nothing seemed to work.

The large majority of high school and college pitchers out there are trying to make it using hit or miss techniques because pitching coaches do not fully understand mechanics. These kids are trying desperately to get help so they can at least understand what they should be doing. But answers are not readily available.

If a pitcher was instructed and simply understood how power in the pitch is created, what his first movement should be, the timing of that, how to finish and then how to start, the confusion would be long gone and you would see thousands of more successful and confident pitchers.

If your son’s coach or instructor cannot do that then you will have constant turmoil trying to figure out what is wrong. Most of the time it is not the pitcher…but the lack of good quality instruction.

For the parent wanting lessons for their son…there are some questions you should ask that instructor. How will you identify his problems and how will you help him fix them and how long do you think it might take? If all the instructor is doing is catching your son…then you are paying for a bullpen—not instruction. Your $50 an hour can be put to far better use.

There are a lot of good instructors out there who are educating themselves and therefor helping more pitchers succeed. But we need more.

If you have questions 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 Coaches Report.)