Who Should Call Pitches? The Coach, Pitcher Or Catcher?

I've discussed this before on my blog. But as the baseball season is now getting underway throughout most of the country, I thought I'd bring it up again.

Calling pitches is a 50/50 gig for me. As a coach, you need to develop your catcher for the next level in which reading hitters and gaining the confidence of pitchers will be critical. Part of that development will be in giving him input. One way to do this is to start out the season with a "once through the line-up" approach, meaning that as a coach you give some suggestions (pitch calls) to the catcher and pitcher before handing it over.

More importantly, it is already established that the pitcher should know what he wants to go with prior to any signal. The pitcher will ultimately always call the pitch and have the understanding if both the catcher or coach are right in the suggestion.

Remember this, "The right pitch with doubt is not nearly as good as the wrong one with confidence and commitment."

Pitching Grips: How To Throw A Hybrid Slider-Cutter

Here's a video from HasBeen, an active member of my Let's Talk Baseball Discussion Forums. What do you think about this pitch?

Pitcher's In-Season Running ... Distance Or Sprints?

Both, but to pick one I say sprints. Explosivenes and/or intent are keys to pitching. Sprinting falls in the same line. Developing the confidence provided by working harder than anyone else is essential to taking the mound and battling the hitter. This can be done with both sprints and distance, though I like how distance plays a big part with our military's process of developing warriors.

The Towel Drill ... Use It Or Lose It?

Here are a couple of responses from two Div. 1 pitching coaches, to start the conversation. What do you think about the towel drill? Should baseball pitchers use it as a tool to improve pitching mechanics ... or lose it and focus on other pitching drills or training methods?

Comment #1: Towel drills are old school. "Reaching out to a measured 5 heel to toe steps to target at waist height" is the worst thing to happen to baseball. Hate it! New thought of hitting target approximately the same area of release, neat drill but little carry over. If the individual is not throwing a baseball or incrediball etc. there will always be a tough time in the action. Work should be applied to the pitching process; we don't throw towels though my current fastball may resemble it.

Comment #2: Lose it..... I think the towel drill forces the pitcher to become too linear in the delivery.  I do think you can use it to help the pitcher with glove side/throwing side symmetry (ex.- a pitcher who has a longer arm swing, but very short glove side)In this case, by trying to reach out, the pitcher is forced to expand with glove side, promoting symmetry and timing.  Otherwise, the traditional towel drill has very little carryover to actual pitching.

Which Side Of The Rubber Should Pitchers Stand On?

If all things are equal and the pitcher can command the fastball in the zone, then the LHP should pitch on the left side and the RHP should pitch on the right side.  Keeping the arm side closer to the arm-side hitter is certainly advantageous.  However, if the pitcher with sink or run to his arm-side, it would then make sense to switch sides in order to catch more plate.  This change can affect the breaking ball at first, but over time, the pitcher should make adjustments on where to start and finish the breaker.

Guest Post: 6 Youth Baseball Pitching Tips

These articles were submitted by Coach Don Schwartz, a certified pitching instructor from the National Pitching Association. Each will pop up as a Word .doc. As always, I encourage you to submit your articles, details here.

Download Coach Dons Tip No 1

Download Coach Dons Tip No 2

Download Coach Dons Tip No 3

Download Coach Dons Tip No 4

Download Coach Dons Tip No 5

Download Coach Dons Tip No 6

Can This Hockey Drill Help Baseball Pitchers Learn To Stride Properly?

You be the coach on this one... As you know, teaching the mechanics of proper leg push to younger baseball pitchers can be tricky. Do you think this hockey drill could help?

To help frame our discussion, here are some pics of major league pitchers striding...

Hideki Okajima
  (He's a lefty, so he strides with the side of his front foot
  facing the target and his toe pointed toward 1B.)

Hideki Okajima

Gary Majewski
  (He's a righty, so he strides with the side of his front foot
  facing the target and his toe pointed toward 3B.)

Ricky Nolasco

Curt Schilling

Carlos Silva

Kip Wells

Post your responses in the "Comments" section below.

How Fatigue Effects Baseball Pitching Performance

Hall of Fame football coach Vince Lombardi was once quoted as saying, "Fatigue makes cowards of us all." Pitching coach Tom House says that "Fatigue is a pitcher's worst enemy."

When looking at fatigue as it applies to pitching, the following observations might be helpful:

* While cumulative total of pitches per game is important, pitches per inning is more important.

* Any time a pitcher throws 30 pitches in an inning, the pitcher is likely fatigued and should be removed from the game immediately.

* The physiological effects of pitching while fatigued are significant and can lead to serious injury, regardless of how mechanically sound a pitcher might be. Because of this, each pitch thrown after one enters into fatigue counts as 3.

* Extreme heat and mental stress can contribute to fatigue and need to be taken into consideration when monitoring a pitcher's pitch totals.

* Common indicators of a pitcher becoming fatigued can include loss of velocity and/or movement, consistently high pitches, the glove "dropping" at release and the more obvious indicators including facial expressions, labored breathing and an increase in perspiration.

Coaches need to remember that most pitchers will claim to feel great even though they don't. It is also important to remember that just because they can go another batter, or inning, it doesn't mean they should.

How To Increase Pitching Velocity

Maximizing pitching velocity requires not only good pitching mechanics but also the strength and flexibility to perform those mechanics well/maximally.

You should be conditioning the arm/shoulder, and strengthening the core (including the low back) and legs. You also need to be working on flexibility in areas like the hamstrings, core (including the low back), and upper back/scaps (think pinching the shoulder blades together). Learn more about pitching workouts here.

12 Reasons Good Pitchers Sometimes Get Overlooked By College Baseball Coaches

Interesting article here.