Is it suitable to ask your pitcher to "dial it down" if he is struggling with accuracy. He has a great fastball & change up . Is this often a matter of the pitcher trying to maintain maximum velocity and "overthrowing"? I understand the myriad of mechanics involved with the pitching motion...any ideas on "back to basics" that can correct and eliminate the walks?
Hook Em Horns dialing it down can help but at the younger age groups most kids do not understand what dial it down means. most younger pitchers start to aim or short arm the pitch so we try to work on several things: - Trying to throw too hard - Jerking the head off the target - Tensing up - Dust on the ball or wet ball - Poor grip on the ball - Aiming the ball - Short-arming the ball - Head not still - Not consistently stepping directly at the target - Poor balance - Kicking out the glove-side foot - Inconsistent throwing motion - Taking the eyes off the target - Hooking or wrapping the wrist - Uneven landing spot (this is a big one considering some of these fields we play on) - Landing on the heel - Not pointing at the target with the glove - Dropping the back shoulder (you know who has this problem!) - Excessive reverse-rotation of shoulders - Looking at the batter and not the glove (work with them without a batter. can they throw strikes??) Hook Em were does he miss most of the time? high low in out?
I have often found that if you can get a hard thrower to 'dial down' and throw at about 90% when they start to struggle, vs trying to throw harder, overthrow or aim the ball. Doesn't always work, but can sometimes.
Hey Phil, it's chuck. Our pitcher always throws full out. I was curious about how to improve his accuracy without compromising the mechanics. I think he needs to work on #1, 2 and 13. Thanks for the feedback, by the looks of the list above, all of our kids have alot to work on.
Set up some targets and let him aim at those. Pitching is as much about confidence in your throwing as anything.
Greg Maddux and his brother Mike used to set up targets in their back yard and throw at them. The rule of the game was to knock the most targets down, not how hard you throw.
Greg did not get is pitching accuracy by accident.
Making the training fun is sometimes a great way to get them to work on stuff they need without knowing it is work.
From a mechanics standpoint Cobra08 hit the nail on the head with all the different questions. You could take 10 pitchers that are struggling with their accuracy and no two could have the same problem. You almost have to go down the list and say "Is that his problem? No. Is the next one his problem? No...." until you narrow down to the problem.
Pitchers stuggling with accuracy
Posted - 05/09/2008 : 08:47:08
