Why Many Top Little League Pichers Don’t Ever Make It In High School

Parents of top Little League pitchers may have a false sense of security about their son’s pitching future ability because they are above average pitchers.

Many of these above average Little League pitchers don’t end up pitching at the high school varsity level for one good reason. Poor mechanics.

Their mechanics may serve them in Little League but when the distance to home plate from the mound expands their inability to use their body to produce velocity stops them. They not only lose the ability to produce force but end up as “arm throwers” and thereby getting them closer to injury.

The video above of the 12 year old Little League pitcher is a good example. He throws 62 mph, which is above average for a Little League pitcher, and has great pitching stats to back him up. He would have to be considered dominant with 116 strikeouts, only 17 walks in just 44 1/3 innings.

But after posting his video to our Member’s Forums, several members including me, provided him with some excellent feedback about what needed to be improved.

“Here is what I observed and passed on to him: Breaks hands too early (arm up too early)…rotates early…no leg drive, short stride…no bracing action. Lots of room to improve velocity.” (and control while reducing stress to the arm.)

The end result was that at ball release, like so many Little League and high school pitchers we analyze, did not have his head and chest out over his landing knee…a telltale sign of moving too slow.

So this Dad learned that his boy has five mechanical faults that are not only costing him velocity but are putting additional stress on his throwing arm.

This boy has a nice smooth delivery but he just needs to work on developing more momentum using his back leg and hip so he creates a longer stride, more front leg and hip bracing action while getting his arm involved much later.

I estimate there tens of thousands of parents of pitchers at the Little League and high school levels who will continue to wonder why their son’s cannot perform better.

It all comes down to understanding how to recognize problems and fix problems by videotaping.

Without getting feedback from videotaping parents, coaches and instructors at all levels are just guessing. And their guessing is not only reducing their son’s performance but getting them closer and closer to a serious arm injury that could stop their pitching career cold.

Videotaping a learning how to recognize mechanical faults is the key to improving velocity and control. This is what I have been focusing on in our Explosively Pitching DVD program since 2004. We teach parents how to help their sons use their bodies to pitch instead of just their arms. Not only does this improve velocity but reduces the risk of arm injuries. http://www.pitching.com/products/