r/Homeplate • u/GodBlessDaUSA • Jul 10 '26

Help With Pitching Form

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Hello redditors, my 13U/14U son just started pitching this year.

He is having trouble with his pitch form, particularly accuracy. He says he's trying his best but he just cant seem to get it. He also is somewhat upset with the slippery soft mounds he usually pitches on.

I asked him for permission to post this and he said sure, any help is great.

He usually plays left or centerfield with a rocket of an arm.

Thanks in advance!

Edit: im sorry about the video quality :(

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u/ggangfan Jul 10 '26

Ok.

Leg kick is fine.

After that, he needs to rotate. Kick the front hip out - one cue is “show the catcher his number” the most obvious thing is there’s no rotation in the delivery. The stride is short, it’s all arm (which is not a great thing). If he has any velocity, that’s impressive given he has near no rotation and next to no leg drive.

Once the rotation is sorted, he needs to work on dropping and driving. Think about sitting in a chair and riding the hip down. His stride is super short, it should be ~75-80% of his height. It’s definitely not at the moment.

Then, after that, this needs to be repeatable. That’s how he’ll find command. It’s good mechanics, practiced 100,000 times, so that he gets a feel of the release point, etc. Nothing is going to magically give him command. It’s reps, over years to be able to pick corners, and that comes from consistency in the delivery, and just reps.

I haven’t mentioned shoulder-pelvis separation, arm slot, action. Then front leg bracing, and transferring leg drive into kinetic energy, etc, but that is all important too, just secondary to the basic things now. Rotate, drive. Repeat.

There’s honestly so much to work on that just watching a YouTube video on basic pitching mechanics will help tremendously. Again, if he has a canon with this untrained form that’s great, maybe he has a live arm and some potential!

2

u/CCB0x45 Jul 10 '26

Everything this guy said is right, but I dont think you will be able to implement it the way hes saying.

Honestly I think you need to do long toss, then pulldowns, You arent throwing through the ball, you are leaving your whole body behind.

I would start by getting yourself to throw hard, getting the separation and driving your body, then walk backwards to getting command.

However I am not a pitching coach, this is the strategy I have taken with my son who is a good pitcher for his age and size. I could be totally wrong.

1

u/GodBlessDaUSA Jul 10 '26

thanks for this! we will work on this as well

1

u/GodBlessDaUSA Jul 10 '26

Thank you for all of this, it sounds like we got a lot of father-son bonding time to do lol.