How to throw more strikes

In baseball, there's a popular saying: "You can't hit what you can't see." You've probably heard it, right? Of course, this maxim 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. And guess what? The same holds true in pitching: You can't throw to a target and expect to hit it with consistency if your eyes are looking elsewhere.

One of the things I encourage the college pitchers I coach to do is to keep their hands together, still, and chest high during the initial phases of the full-windup pitching delivery — as opposed to bringing the hands up over the head.

There are a couple of reasons for this. I don't care for the up-and-over-the-head windup because it adds more motion, it's not compact, and it can create potential timing and sequence problems for pitchers with poor overall strength and coordination. Bringing your hands up over your head also can block your vision of your target on the way up and on the way back down again.

Now don't get me wrong here. It's perfectly OK for you to look away from the target during your delivery. I did it, and most pro pitchers do it as a way to break the monotony of staring at the same target, which can — for prolonged periods — actually make it more difficult to locate a pitch. (Your vision blurs.)

But if you look away from the target, do it early in your delivery. It should happen during the rocker step and pivot phases, early in the windup, before you get to the balance position.

When you lift up your balance leg, your eyes should come up, too, and refocus back on the target. That's key: Leg up, eyes up and refocused.

This can, for some of you who are not putting your eyes back on the target as your leg gets into the balance position, enable you to throw more strikes.