Last Day for Pitching Mechanics/How to Teach Pitchers

This week has been great!  Nate and I have sent you some great information about pitching mechanics.  We started off the week sending you two pitching videos; one about how to throw from the windup properly and another about how to maintain balance throughout your delivery.  Remember, with proper balance comes accuracy and with momentum going in the right direction means increased velocity.

Nate and I also sent you a couple of articles.  The one that got the most feedback was when Nate shared his story about helping his own son with his mechanics.  Many parents could relate to the excitement that Nate shared with you this week.

Just a quick reminder!

Today is the final day of pitching mechanics week.  That means it is the very last day to get our pitching mechanics DVD for only $25.

Many people have already taken advantage of this weeks opportunity to crank up their mechanics.  If you haven’t yet, now is the time!

For those of you who are struggling with any of the following on the mound:

  • Struggle throwing strikes
  • Lack Velocity
  • Push the ball when throwing
  • Throw faster playing catch than on the mound
  • Consistently throw the ball high
  • Back of Arm, elbow or bicep hurts often
  • Pitching motion changes frequently
  • Stride is short

Take a look here now!

And please, If there are any questions you have in regards to pitching and hitting we would love to help anyway we can.

A Drill To Help Young Pitcher’s Velocity and Accuracy

Yesterday I sent out an email about my ten year old who just expressed interest in playing baseball this upcoming spring for the first time. Based on the emails we got in response, there are a number of you who have a young guy of your own who is new to the game. I wanted to share what my son and I worked on last night (after soccer practice of course) in the attempt to work on the correct fundamentals with the upper body while throwing. I have found that teaching correct throwing or pitching mechanics to kids ten and younger works best when you can start with knees on the ground. Once they get the hang of how the upper body works, then go ahead and introduce the legs and stride into the mix. Anyway, here is what we did last night; try it with your son, and I’m sure you’ll have some success. He’s making some progress, but clearly has some work to do.

• For all you baseball purists reading this, please excuse the soccer attire and baseball combination… [Read more...]

Pitching Mechanics: Throwing From The Windup

Can throwing from the windup give you more velocity?  Many pitchers feel a significant difference in velocity when they throw from the windup than from the stretch.  Is it psychological?

If you have been receiving these emails for awhile now you know that a lot of effort goes into throwing a baseball.  There are so many variables to your mechanics that can decrease or increase velocity.

Nolan Ryan once told Tom House (his pitching coach) that he is consistently clocked throwing 3 miles an hour faster when he lifts his leg up to his head as opposed to lifting it only up to his hip.  Typically, the higher the leg lift the longer the stride and the more momentum you will create toward your target.

So, yes!  To answer the question above, most pitchers can throw faster in the windup than from the stretch.  However, it’s not because a pitcher rocks back and forth more; it’s not because a pitcher is “swinging” raring back and firing as we hear many coaches say.

Take a look at our latest video about pitching from the windup.  We give you a ton of pointers about how to keep your balance so you can throw hard strikes.

If you haven’t picked up our pitching mechanics DVD yet now’s your chance.  This week it’s not that it’s just a bargain, it will give you the insight you need to take your game to a higher level.  You will know what to work on everyday to take you to that level.  This pitching mechanics DVD is part of our new series.  Have a great day!

Are You Being Misguided In Your Pitching Instruction?

Last week while I was working with an athlete I asked him, “How do you know that what I’m teaching you is the correct way to pitch?” His answer was, “Because you’re a coach”

That comment sums up a problem and thus the topic of this email. How do you really know if the instruction your son is receiving is actually what the guys in the Big Leagues are doing? The only way to know for sure is to educate yourself on proper mechanics. And since this is pitching mechanics week, I’ll address it from a pitching perspective.

Here are a few things to make sure you’re doing on a regular basis to verify your athlete is receiving valuable and accurate instruction: [Read more...]

Pitching Mechanics Week

Last week our focus was all about pitching grips; many of you took advantage of last week’s opportunity with our pitching grips/workouts DVD.  We know you won’t be disappointed.

This week our focus is geared towards pitching mechanics.  We all know that pitching mechanics play a key role in your success as a pitcher.  But how much time are you spending each week working on them?  My guess is not enough time to get you exactly where you want to be.  Maybe you aren’t spending the time you need to because you don’t know exactly what you need to do to improve your mechanics?  Maybe you don’t know what good mechanics should look like?

Whatever the problem: Let us help you achieve your goals!

Today’s video is designed to help you maintain your balance with a proper leg lift.  Pay particular attention how to lead with your hips.

This week’s pitching mechanics special

We are offering our new pitching mechanics DVD, part of our new DVD series, for only $25.  Just what will you get?  Check it out!

How to throw faster!

How do I throw faster?  That is one of the most common questions we get asked. There are many things to do to help you throw faster and eating a lot of food to try and gain weight is not one of them.  Most pitchers are doing things that keep them from throwing harder; most of them involve poor pitching mechanics.

Conditioning, nutrition, genetics and your mental game also play a role in how fast you throw.  Yes, believe it or not, if you are not conditioned to throw the baseball you will have a hard time maintaining your balance throughout your delivery which makes it impossible to throw correctly.  Being fit to pitch, following a nutrition plan (which is linked to being fit to pitch) and focusing on your mental game directly effect how you will perform. They all affect your pitching mechanics one way or the other.  However, today I just want to focus on throwing faster when it comes to pitching mechanics alone.

Here is a list of questions you can ask yourself to ensure you aren’t cheating yourself out of a few miles an hour. [Read more...]

No Slouching, It’s Time To Work

For the last two seasons, more and more parents are contacting both Dan and I in the early fall about hitting or pitching lessons with their son. The “off season” is much shorter than it used to be as people realize that competition is fierce in the middle school and high school levels.  It take more than just a few months of baseball in the summer to develop skills that create high level success.

Both Dan and I maintain that proper knowledge of the fundamentals of hitting and pitching are immensely valuable to learn at an early age.  This is why we have chosen to produce articles and videos on all things related to hitting and pitching and send them to you daily.  Over the summer we backed off to a couple emails per week as baseball slowed and many of you took vacations.  Now that school is back in full swing (for most), it’s time to resume our emails Monday through Friday mornings. [Read more...]

Pitching Mechanics: Arm Problems

Too many pitchers injure their arms.  This is caused by a variety of reasons from too much throwing, not enough throwing, poor pitching workouts, no pitching specific workout, poor mechanics and the list goes on and on.

Today I created a very short video for you demonstrating a very common mechanical flaw in the delivery.  One that any pitcher can fix easily and any coach can teach their pitcher to overcome quickly and effectively.

Do this and you will throw faster and save yourself from potential problems in the future!

Here’s the short clip:

Don’t forget that our new DVD series offer expires soon.  Take advantage of the opportunity while you can. Click here for more details!

Debunking Drop and Drive Technique

A very common velocity killer we correct time and time again with pitchers is dropping and driving mechanics. If you didn’t have a chance to read that email Monday, you can find it here on the blog.

We got a question in response to Monday’s email asking for some more depth in explaining the validity of what we teach (leading with the hip to gain momentum).

Below is a further explanation (a response to the question we received) of the drawbacks of the drop and drive method vs. leading with the hip. It’s important to understand since if you haven’t worked with your pitcher on this technique, there is a good chance he’s doing it incorrectly. [Read more...]

Big Time Velocity Killer

The last couple weeks I’ve helped out at a small handful of tryouts. Each of those tryouts I was put in charge of watching the pitchers.  I would say over 80% of the kids I watched were unknowingly using one improper motion that was killing their velocity as a pitcher.

It’s so simple to fix this mechanics problem, in fact, it took me less than three minutes to help a ten year old fix this mistake last week.

What’s the flaw? [Read more...]