How to teach pitching mechanics to young pitchers

If your coaching young pitchers this season, it's important to teach proper pitching mechanics. This means that you should have a general idea about what quality mechanics look like. Many coaches and parents find it helpful to visualize quality pitching mechanics during the learning process. Check out this Pitching Mechanics Checklist. Print it out. Then head over to the Baseball Pitching Clips & Pitching Videos library, where you can see how the pitching tips on the checklist compare to what more than 45 big leaguers do on the mound. These are valuable tools.

OK, so now how do you apply what you've learned about pitching mechanics to your young pitchers in practice? One drill that I think works really well with younger pitchers is the "Simulated Pitching Motion" drill. It's easy to do:

Line up your pitchers about 5 or 7 feet apart from one another. Have each of your players make a line on the infield dirt. This will be their pitcher's mound for this drill.

Next stand in front of your pitchers and walk them through their mechanics by having them mimic your movements. (This is why you must have a basic understanding of what the pitching motion should look like!) Take them through the shift of weight, pivot, arm down, arm back, arm up, step and throw. Call out each step as the players go through the motion. There's no throwing, so this drill can be done (and should!) at all practices. You can never work enough on pitching mechanics with young and beginning pitchers.