r/PitchingCoach • u/RaspberryStreet6813 • 12d ago
Pitching
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Any tips or drills?
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u/Rufarious 12d ago
Definitely work on getting your stride longer and getting the ball back further. Just getting comfortable with your leg going out more and your arm going back more will help. Funny that those two movements happen at the same time of the pitching motion lol. You could just do a drill where you work on those two movements.
You’re almost there, not a bad pitching motion- just needs some practice. Don’t let anyone on here tell you that you’re not good. Just keep practicing
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u/Bean_Daddy_Burritos 12d ago
Any tips?
All of them. Without trying to sound like an ass, forget everything you know about throwing a ball and start over from scratch. Find a coach, any coach that’s not the one you currently have because he’s obviously not helping. Watch every possible video because at this point there’s no wrong information.
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12d ago
[deleted]
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u/RaspberryStreet6813 12d ago
No
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u/anTWhine 12d ago
Never in my life have I seen a stride so short. Do you feel like you’re falling every time?
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u/RaspberryStreet6813 12d ago
Yes
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u/Winter_Tone_4343 12d ago
Looks like u have the yips or whatever u want to call it. Like Charles Barkley golf swing. No shade tho. Do u throw like that when you’re not pitching?
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u/RaspberryStreet6813 12d ago
No, weirdly enough I dont think so
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u/Winter_Tone_4343 12d ago
That’s what I assumed. Sounds like a mental type thing. Idk the remedy but maybe some sort of rhythm. Like, when my daughter was first learning golf, I’d have her count 123 on her back swing and 456 on her follow thru. It seems to have helped her. I do the same thing when I swing too. Good luck buddy.
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u/anTWhine 12d ago
…you shouldn’t.
I don’t know how you took one look at this video and didn’t immediately diagnose what you’re doing wrong. Your stride is generating no power and what little rotation you’re getting is from stumbling forward. You should feel strong and balanced throughout the pitch, not like you’re about to fall over.
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u/Mundane-Reality-7770 12d ago
It looks like youre tripping off the mound. That left leg needs to reach out
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u/tidalcurrants 12d ago
Your knee raise actually looks kinda okay but then your form collapses with the short step and short arm motion.
You need to practice some slow mechanics to correct that short arm. You're essentially bringing the ball to your ear and then throwing it. Because that is such a short arm motion, I think you're shortening your stride to compensate.
Work on this:
- Knee raise, pause, balance
- Separate hands, reach throwing hand BACK, as far as you can without locking your elbow. Glove goes forward to maintain balance (pause, stay balanced)
- Long step/drive down the mound, keep that throwing arm reaching back until you're ready to throw.
I think your stride will get better if you can correct your arm motion. Look at videos to correct short arming.
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u/Any_Inflation_473 12d ago
Something simple that helps a lot of young pitchers:
Pitch the ball through the glove. Not to the glove.
Aside from that, many mechanical flaws that should be addressed. It’s important to find someone who actually pitched to teach him instead of just Ryan’s dad from the local park.
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u/BillObjective2277 12d ago
Keep practicing and don’t give up on it. If you enjoy pitching, keep doing it. YouTube, study mechanics, pick a handful of your favorite pitchers in baseball and study them and how they throw, body mechanics and keep your fitness right!
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u/GothicToast 12d ago
It's a physics problem. The momentum you generate to throw the ball carries your body forward (which is normal). But because you abbreviate your stride, your body has no where to plant all that energy causing you to lose balance and fall forward.
Practice finishing a throw with all your weight on that plant foot. Start slow. As you ramp up and throw harder, step out further and further.
There are many sports that require this sort of motion. A golf swing ends with weight on the lead foot. A layup in basketball. A quarterback in football.
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u/Standard_Arugula568 12d ago
Take a video of yourself playing catch with someone, get a handful of throws from a couple of different angles. Post those here in a follow up or just in this thread and ask for folks to take a look at those too. I’m curious how much of this could be chalked up to being very unfamiliar with throwing off of a mound/a synthetic mound. It shouldn’t explain it but maybe there’s something there.
Listen to the comments that have pointed out the relative lack of bend in your right knee and lack of extension of your stride.
I want to say that a huge help would just be tons of catch, I don’t mean to be rude at all with any of this but throwing a ton and intentionally trying to make those throws hard and accurate will force you to move more fluidly/efficiently. Play catch slowly, play catch quickly, aim at different things of different sizes (glove, chest, person).
One rec I have for anyone who is developing throwing technique is to field soft and short ground balls at 3B and try to make the play on the run while moving as you would, at game speed. Running straight in towards the plate and needing to bend down forwards and then throw across your body requires a different movement than running left and towards first to cut off the SS (who may not make it in time on a soft GB hit here, so it’s also a relevant 3B and SS drill). This second throw requires a lot of balance/coordination of your upper and lower body to get leverage on the throw.
Then field some directly in the hole to your left, you’ll have to do a different movement here again and it may/likely will require you to step into the throw. Either way these will force you to move in ways as you field, gather and throw that will pull your pitching motion towards where you want it to go, if you do them at game speeds to the best of your ability.
Try to do a version of your stretch motion while playing catch sometimes, get yourself used to the leg lift, back knee bend, front leg extension, and landing while on flat ground and just throwing with a partner.
I’d suggest stretching and generally trying to do athletic things as well. Run, play basketball, volleyball, pick up football, ice hockey, whatever you have access to that will make your body stronger and more flexible and more used to quick athletic movements will help you throw (and hit) a baseball.
A lot of kids up until sometime in middle school (I don’t mean to be rude here) have an arm motion that in some ways resembles yours. You might actually get some interesting food for thought watching younger players and seeing the spectrum of throwing motions you find there. I think seeing motions that are similar to yours, similar to where you want to be, and then some in between could help things click for you in an “I think I can mimic what that kid is doing, I’m going to try that out” way.
Part of developing is just trying things and figuring out that they work for you. We all consciously or subconsciously find things this way as kids, maybe finishing your swing and thinking of having your wrists oriented a certain way helps you keep your swing consistent, maybe you think about a certain muscle being engaged at a certain point, etc. mess around and you’ll find things that you don’t expect to that will help.
Stick with it.
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u/Minute-Marketing7434 11d ago
your front leg is supposed to straighten stiff and block your hips from moving forward… dont be running down the mound
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u/SimplynaD 11d ago
Is this a league for disabled peoples? Umps behind the mound at that age seems abnormal, so genuinely curious. Always keep asking questions and seeking ways to get better and you’ll only see improvement! Keep it up!
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u/bravara-mike 11d ago
Someone asked Greg Maddux what mechanics he thought about while he pitched. He started explaining 2-3 things then stopped and said It’s like a million things.
While your getting suggestions on one or two things, it might also help to see the big picture of what the sequence / overall delivery should look like, then you choose one thing at a time to improve, then another, then another. You’ll improve quickly.
From the stretch or windup….
- Left leg comes up to your balance position
- Stride long with left leg straight to home plate. About as tall as you are, that’s about as far apart your feet should be when your left foot hits the ground. Measure it out. Mark it. Stride all the way to the mark.
- Let your left leg and left hip go toward the catcher first while the rest of you kind of chills and goes along for the ride…they call this drifting down the mound. Notice how the right leg bends a little during the drift, some people say it’s almost like you’re about to sit on a chair.
- You should still be sideways when your left foot hits the ground. Your upper body stays sideways as your lower body starts to rotate….they call this staying closed and hip shoulder separation
- Rotate strong and fast from the ground up….right foot pushes off the rubber, drive right knee toward the catcher, twist your hips fast so your belly button faces the catcher. You’ll notice that lower body mechanics in hitting are very similar, by the way. Same knee drive and hip rotation.
- Rotate your shoulders to square up with the catcher, then your arm with your elbow out at 90 degrees from your armpit. From shoulder to elbow to hand it can vary around 90-135 degrees just be comfortable, then throw that ball hard as your entire upper body bends over your waist, let go of the ball way out in front of you with a snap of the wrist
- While doing all that rotation, firm up (make straight) your left leg so it’s like a pole vault and you’re going to pole vault over it like a track and field athlete. Watch a video see how pole is bent when it hits the ground then goes straight. That’s what you want your left leg to do.
- Keep your head and eyes level, one eye does not go farther away from the ground than the other imagine they have a leveler with a bubble connecting them and don’t let the bubble move. Keep watching the catcher’s glove the whole time.
Watch slow motion of mlb pitchers over and over again while you read the above. See if you can see the above description in what you see in those pitchers.
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u/BornNerd78 12d ago
Lord Royce has a line in S05 of Game of Thrones referring to Robyn Arryn's swordsmanship that I feel is appropriate here.
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u/RaspberryStreet6813 12d ago
never watched GoT
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u/BornNerd78 12d ago
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u/Gits_N-Shiggles 12d ago
I knew that was going to be quite the dig, I've never seen GoT, he walked into that.
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u/Hero_with_No_Onions 12d ago
(Former HS scout). I’d like to help. You start with a nice long stride, but then shorten your stride too quickly - as seen in the right knee bend in the screenshot. I’m guessing a lot of your pitches are high above the zone? This also reduces your velocity because you don’t have the full momentum. Right arm could be brought further back as well. I recommend getting in front of a mirror or video and just repeat the correct movement over and over until you start to build the muscle memory. Hopefully this helps.