Are Coach Bill Thurston's Baseball Pitching Tips Transferable To Infielders, Outfielders & Catchers?

Baseball Coach and Pitching Instructor Bill Thurston's Pitching Principals Work Wonders For Pitchers, But One Instructor Asks If Thurston's Principals Apply To Position Players, Too...

Coach Ellis,

Do Coach Bill Thurston's pitching philosophies relate to other position players as well?

From the desk of Steven Ellis, The Complete Pitcher™:

Some of what he teaches works for some positions and some does not.

For example, Bill Thurston teaches a baseball pitcher to separate his hands by bringing the throwing hand DOWN out of the glove, fingers on top of the baseball. That's how a baseball pitcher is able to develop a long, fluid backside-arm-swing into the high-cock position.

This baseball throwing technique would work for baseball outfielders, too, because they are required to make long throws from the outfield on a line.

Infielders, however, may not want to have such a long arc with their throwing hand when their hands separate after fielding a ground ball because "time" becomes an important factor in baseball fielding success.

By "time," I mean an infielders ability to transfer the baseball from his glove to his throwing hand, and then make the throw to first base. That's why you see a lot of infielders (except third basemen) throw side-arm (or at least from a lower 3/4 arm-slot.

Now baseball catchers are an entirely different breed of baseball thrower.

The first thing catchers should do when making a throw to a base is separate the hands with the throwing hand coming UP out of the catcher's mitt (to the ear), not DOWN like baseball pitchers and outfielders. That's how the good ones can get the baseball to second base in less than 1.9 or 1.7 seconds.

So Coach Bill Thurston's baseball pitching philosophies do and do not transfer to other positions.

Yours in baseball,

Steven Ellis
The Complete Pitcher™
www.thecompletepitcher.com
www.thecompletepitcher.blogs.com