The Pitching "See"-quence (Part 1 of 3)

This is part 1 of a 3-article series…

In baseball, there’s a common saying that you can’t hit what you can’t see. You’ve probably heard it.

Of course, this simple saying is often used to teach baseball hitters to keep their head on the baseball – especially if a young kid is out there yanking his head around as he swings for the fences. But, it’s certainly true: You can’t hit what you can’t see.

The same mantra holds true in pitching.

You can’t throw to a target and expect to hit it with consistency if, for example, your eyes are looking elsewhere.

But it happens.

Believe it or not, pitchers often do the craziest things, albeit sub-consciously most of the time, that take their eyes off of the target at the wrong moments during the delivery.

As a result, they’re not as consistent (or accurate) around the strike zone as they could be.

Here’s a few areas where that happens – and how to fix in each area so you can throw more strikes, more consistently...

Hands Together, Hands Still

One of the things I encourage my college pitchers to do is keep their hands together, hands still, and chest high during the initial phases of the pitching delivery – as opposed to bringing the hands over the head at the start of the delivery.

Besides adding more motion (and potential timing and sequence problems), taking the hands over the head can block a pitcher’s vision both on the way up-and-over the head… and back down again.

Look for part 2 of 3 in three days where I’ll talk about when it is OK to look away during the pitching motion. Then, three days later, I'll tell you exactly how the eyes relate to pitching velocity (you're not going to want to miss this one!).

Yours in baseball,

Steven Ellis
The Complete Pitcher™
www.thecompletepitcher.com