Baseball Pitching | The Pitching Academy

May 20, 2013 By The Pitching Academy Leave a Comment

Pitchers: The Real Truth About Strikeouts!

There is no doubt that strikeouts are on the rise in the MLB. There are so many great pitchers right now its incredible.

Although strikeouts are wonderful, they shouldn’t be your focus!

I see many pitchers trying to strike everybody out, especially in youth baseball.

Is that the best strategy to have as a pitcher?

No doubt strikeouts are great. There is no better feeling to a pitcher than striking someone out. But if that is always your strategy, you’re going to fail.

You may have heard that playing baseball is like a physical game of chess. Some batters you want to challenge, others you want to get to ground out or pop out depending on the situation. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Coaching Pitchers, Pitching Tips, Pitching Velocity Tagged With: Baseball Pitching, Pitching

January 29, 2013 By The Pitching Academy 1 Comment

Pitching Mechanics Change: Major Velocity Gains!

What never seizes to amaze me (regardless of how many pitchers I have worked with over the years) are the small and simple mechanical changes a pitcher can make that can add so much pop to the ball.

I was working with a student two weeks ago who finally understood proper hip rotation and how the core plays a major role in velocity and arm health. Even though he had understood the concept for a few months, he finally learned to “feel” how to throw with his hip and core correctly.

After throwing just a couple fastballs correctly, he turned to me and said “holy cow, that changed my life.” I laughed, but at the same time it pumped me up. I told him how I appreciated the hard work he had put into pitching and how happy I was for him.

That’s what it’s all about.

The fact is, everyone can learn to throw with power by making small mechanical adjustments that don’t take years to learn. [Read more...]

Filed Under: General Pitching, Pitching Mechanics, Pitching Tips, Pitching Velocity Tagged With: Baseball Pitching, Increase Pitching Velocity, Pitching, Pitching Mechanics, Pitching Velocity

January 24, 2013 By The Pitching Academy Leave a Comment

Are You 100% Ready to Pitch This Season?

Are you going to be 100% ready to pitch by the time your season starts this year?

Your first game will be here before you know it.

Are you doing everything you can to ensure your in top shape to handle the workload pitching requires?

Here is a brief but effective checklist of things you should be doing to ensure you’re 100% ready. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Coaching Pitchers, General Pitching, Mental Game of Baseball, Pitching Tips Tagged With: Baseball Pitching, Pitching Tips

July 11, 2012 By The Pitching Academy Leave a Comment

Pitch Count And The Unpredictable Pitcher

A few weeks ago we wrote about becoming an unpredictable pitcher, one who the batter never suspects what pitch will be thrown next.

We wrote about how important it is to keep the hitters guessing and off balance. We also mentioned your job as a pitcher isn’t to strike everyone out, its to keep them from hitting the ball hard. You accomplish this by throwing off speed pitches and having three great pitches you can throw for strikes.

Yesterday I spoke with Nate about this very topic and how important it is to be unpredictable and getting into the hitters head.

He shared a story once when he was playing single A ball, a pitcher threw him a nasty forkball; unlike any he had ever seen. He could have sworn it was a fastball, but in the end it wasn’t. The rest of the evening Nate never saw [Read more...]

Filed Under: General Pitching, Pitching Grips, Pitching Tips Tagged With: Baseball Pitching, Pitch Count, Pitching

April 28, 2012 By The Pitching Academy Leave a Comment

How to Throw Nasty Pitches!

Congratulations to Blake Brailsford of American Fork High School. He threw a no hit game last week against a very strong hitting team, Bingham High School. Today he just pitched a two-hit game into the sixth inning against Lone Peak High School; another great hitting team. This is 5A competitive baseball too; no easy task! Blake will pitch for B.Y.U. next year.

One of the many things that makes Blake so successful is this awesome C-Change. Man is it nasty!

This is a follow up video of the first how to throw a C-change video I did last year. Enjoy

Learn how to throw nasty knee buckling pitches today!

Filed Under: Pitching Grips Tagged With: Baseball Pitching, Baseball Throwing, How To Throw a Baseball, Throw Nasty Pitches, Throwing a Baseball, Throwing Different Pitches

April 10, 2012 By The Pitching Academy Leave a Comment

Preparing For Game Day : Part Two

Yesterday we reminded you how important it is to work the weaker shoulder muscles in your arm, focusing on the rotator cuff. We went over the importance of doing simple arm circles as part of your warm-up routine.

Today the focus is making surgical tubing exercise a daily part of your pitching workout routine.

The elastic band workouts (surgical tubing) are outstanding and are truly designed to stretch and strengthen the weak areas of your shoulder, specifically the shoulder decelerators. These decelerator muscles in your rotator are more prone to break down. Remember, throwing a baseball, especially off of a mound is a tearing down process on your arm.

As a pitcher you need to continue to rebuild what you are tearing down.

What are you tearing down? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Pitching Tips, Pitching Workouts Tagged With: Baseball Pitching, Pitching Tips, Pitching Workouts

April 10, 2012 By The Pitching Academy Leave a Comment

Preparing For Game Day: Arm Circles

Wow! There is a lot to do to prepare for game day. We cannot possibly tell you in one article how to prepare for each game. So, we will be sending you a ton of information about game day preparation as your season progresses.

You have heard us say several times you need to warm up to throw, not throw to warm up right?

Well, Here is a warm up exercise you want make sure you do everyday.

Arm circles.

Why? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Mental Game of Baseball, Pitching Tips, Pitching Workouts Tagged With: Baseball Pitching, Baseball Pitching Workouts, Pitching Workouts

March 20, 2012 By The Pitching Academy Leave a Comment

Off Speed Pitching

Three things make a pitcher successful when facing their competition:

1) Location

2) Change of Speed

3) Movement

Today I want to talk about movement. How do you get proper movement on the baseball when your throwing off-speed pitches? How do you do that without putting more stress on your throwing arm?

There is a very simple explanation to this. Throwing any off-speed pitch is easier than most people make it out to be.

What do most pitchers do when they first try to throw a curveball? They try twisting the ball right before release or wrap the pitch which you have seen me demonstrate on our youtube video How to Throw a Curveball.

All you need to do to get the ball to move for you is change your wrist and forearm angle at release of the ball. This is simple to do. I simplify off-speed pitching for you as I show you how to throw 10 different pitches on our pitching grips/workouts DVD.

The following pitching videos will help you get a head start on your competition this year. We have received a lot of great feedback with these free videos. Enjoy!

How to Throw a Curveball

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Pitching Grips Tagged With: Baseball Pitching, Pitching, Pitching Grips, Pitching Off Speed

March 19, 2012 By baseballfans Leave a Comment

Pitch Totals For Every Age

This week I enjoyed a great tournament in St. George Utah and Mesquite Nevada. This tournament comprised of 266 little league teams. There are many reasons why I attend this tournament every year but the main reason is I get the opportunity to watch many of the pitchers I work with.

During the tournament I discussed pitch count with many of the parents and coaches. Many were concerned about their pitchers throwing too much and wanted reassurance they weren’t doing any damage to their young pitchers. It’s good to know that so many coaches are bit more informed these days.

Here are the pitch totals I learned and apply. I want everyone to know where I got the information. It’s not mine, but I feel it is a very credible and valid resource. I got the information when I received one of my pitching certifications from the National Pitching Association in San Diego. Tom House is the founder.

Here it is: Pitch totals from 9-24 year old pitchers. (some of you coaches won’t like to see this, but I would follow it to keep your pitchers healthy)

9-10 years 60 pitches per game or 75 pitches per week

11-12 years 75 pitchers per game or 100 pitches per week

13-14 years 90 pitches per game, 125 pitches per week

15-18 years 90 pitches per game, 130 pitches per week

18-24 years 120 pitches per game MAX 150 pitches per week

24-40 years 120 per game MAX and 175 per week

There ya go, the most accurate of any pitch totals that I’ve ever encountered.

The tournament that I attended goes by innings pitched not by pitches per inning. If I coached a team I would go by pitch count instead. Some of these young pitchers can throw upwards of 40 pitches an inning if their fielding is not that great.

And don’t forget this weeks special if you don’t already have one. Our DVD series; we don’t miss a thing!

Filed Under: General Pitching Tagged With: Baseball Pitching, Pitching Workouts

March 4, 2012 By The Pitching Academy Leave a Comment

Baseball Coaches: Proper Baseball Warm-up

Are you running healthy practices (Warm-ups) for your players?

One of the best ways to help keep your team off the disabled list this season is to take time to warm them all up before any throwing, fielding or hitting happens.

I have to applaud those coaches that really take the time to warm-up their players properly before practices and games. It makes such a difference in their ability to perform.

When warm-ups are done correctly they can also help build team unity every time they take the field; this includes both practice and games.

I remember in Little League competing against teams that had very organized warm-up routines with a team captain in charge of leading all of the drills and exercises. It was an eye opener for me at an early age to see how a team unites and can really get into the minds of their competition knowing that they are on the ball ready to play hard. It’s like they won the game (mentally) before it was played.

For those coaches that are serious about building a healthy workout program for their team this year I recommend our pitching workouts and grips DVD.

You will learn:

How much is too much throwing/ too little throwing for your players

Help pitchers throw effective bullpens

Core specific training for your team

How to keep arms healthy using elastic bands

An excellent in season throwing program. Sunday-Sunday

In this DVD you will also receive the Pitching Grips portion that will help your players:

Avoid arm problems when throwing off-speed pitches

Learn how to throw all pitches using proper mechanics (critical to their success)

The correct position of the wrist when throwing any pitch and much more.

Of course all of this information and more can be found on our best selling DVD series that is the very best value of them all today!

Filed Under: General Pitching, Pitching Tips, Pitching Workouts Tagged With: Baseball Pitching, Baseball Pitching Mechanics, Pitching Mechanics, Pitching Tips, proper mechanics