Mastering The Art of Pitching

There is a reason why hitting is one of the most difficult things to do in any sport.  Pitcher’s have the upper hand when they play their cards right.  If you want to become a successful pitcher you have to learn the strategies of the game.  Pitching is literally a physical game of chess.  Your goal as the pitcher is to keep the hitter off balance and guessing what pitch you are going to throw.  Here are three key ingredients to ensure your success on the mound.

Change of Speed:  Varying speeds of pitches keeps a hitter off balance. There’s nothing like watching a hitter’s knees buckle when you throw a great off-speed pitch to someone who is expecting a fastball.

Location:  Learning how to read a hitter’s body language is one of the key ingredients to your success.  Learning to place the ball, throwing it at a hitter’s weakness, will help bring your game to the next level.  Everyone talks about Greg Maddux being the ultimate pitcher who can read any batter.  He simply knew where to throw to any batter he faced.  He also never threw that hard, he just played smart Baseball.

Movement:  If you don’t know by now, anyone can hit a fastball regardless of how hard you throw.  You need movement.  Even the greatest of hitters struggle against pitchers who have great movement on each pitch they throw.