If You Pitch, Don't Do This

Not only can you hurt yourself by accidentally tweaking your shoulder or elbow, but you look like a butt. Remember, baseball is a team sport. Don't do things like show frustration or act unprofessional, which takes the focus off of the team and puts it on yourself. Would Mariano Rivera ever do this?

You're better than that! Act professional. Do your job. Pitch your best and let the chips fall where they may. But most importantly, keep it about your team. Acting like Carlos Zambrano in this pic is selfish.

Pitching Training: 3 Reasons Why You Need A Baseball Training Partner

Almost every successful baseball pitcher has or had a training partner early on in their development to throw with, to work out with, to train with. For many pitchers, it's a dad. But it can also be a friend, a brother, or a teammate. Why are training partners so important?

1. Pitching training partners provide a team mentality. You may not want to get up and do conditioning on a Saturday morning but if you know your partner is counting on you, you will do it.

2. Pitching training partners provide technical advice. You may want to believe you got low enough on your squat, but only a good training partner can validate that.

3. Pitching training partners provide competition. Nothing pushes you to new heights like competing with a worthy training partner. Devise new and innovative training plans by sharing ideas and utilizing each other's training concepts. Experiment and learn together.

What qualities should you look for in a training partner? Read more here.

Pitching Drills For Little League

The following baseball pitching drills are for little league baseball pitchers.

Follow Through Drill For Little League

It's used to follow through properly, and effectively. Stand in front of a chair with your stride foot in proper landing position. Place your Glove arm side leg on the chair with the inside of your foot. Come to the set position and break your hands then (if able) throw to a target. This drill forces you to bend your back and follow through with your back leg.

Kneel Drill For Little League

I used this to warm up both in high school and college. An easy way to establish muscle memory on all of your pitches when locating which makes repetition of mechanics that much easier.  Kneeling with your glove arm side leg off the ground go through the normal throwing motion with your chest ending up out over your glove arm side knee. This helps with follow through along with most of the upper body action in your pitches.

Spot Drill For Little League

An easy way to establish muscle memory on all of your pitches when locating which makes repetition of mechanics that much easier. When throwing bullpens, spot from a 60-75% throw. 3 low and inside 3 high and inside 3 low and outside and 3 high and outside. Do this with ALL of your pitches.

Leg Swing Drill For Little League

This one is just used to slowly warm up and take the legs away from throwing which allows one to focus more on the muscle memory aspect of the chest and waist. The Leg Swing drill is for the pitchers who kick their leg up rather than lifting. Some people prefer the kick so not everyone will be able to use these. Start from the stretch with your lead leg BEHIND your plant leg. Lift up to the balance position and proceed with the throw. This can also help to teach leading with the hips.

[Thx, Hoysauce]

How To Be A Better Baseball Relief Pitcher

Pitching in relief requires a different approach that starting. You need to be comfortable with uncertainty, as your daily routine won't be as fixed as a starting pitchers. You will need to be able to warm up and establish command of your pitches quickly when called. For more advanced pitchers, that means throwing your breaking balls and off-speed pitches for strikes in the bullpen.

As a reliever, you can get away with being more emotional on the mound because you're only out there for a few innings at a time. That's why you see a lot of baseball closers with a bit of flair and personality. They're only out there for an inning. Yet I always preferred and tried to emulate the reserved demeanor of a closer like Mariano Rivera -- always stoic, always in control of his emotions and the pitching game.

But the most important part of being a successful baseball reliever is that you will need to shake off a bad outing almost immediately and be prepared to go to work the next day. I like to refer to this as having a "short memory." Whether you perform well and help your team win or do poorly, you must put it behind you and prepare for tomorrow. Because you never know if you're going to pitch, And you want to be ready if you do.

Workouts For Pitchers: Running Drills

Running to strengthen your legs AND cardiovascular system go hand in hand. It is an exercise that you can do year round. It is a way to know you have worked on your choice of position, every day.

Vary your running programs as often as possible incorporating a lot of sprint work. And make them fun and challenging. You must know the feeling of being in great shape. You will know when you have attained it.

Pitching coaches need to remember that conditioning is essential to any sport. Pitchers can do something very easy like running year round. Be sure your young pitcher understands this is necessary to affecting his total preparation as a ballplayer.

Scouts and coaches can always tell when a player or pitcher is in great shape!

How To Throw Pitches In Baseball

There are just way too many pictures to include in one post, so here are links to baseball pitching grips and instruction on how to throw different pitches in baseball:

How To Throw A Fastball

How To Throw A Cutter

How To Throw A Sinker

How To Throw A Curveball

How To Throw A Slurve

How To Throw A Circle Change Up

How To Throw A Vulcan Change Up

How To Throw A Slider

How To Throw A Forkball

How To Throw A Splitter

How To Throw A Screwball

How To Throw A Palmball

How To Throw A Gyroball

How To Throw A Knuckleball

How To Throw A Corkscrew Knuckleball

3 Youth Baseball Tips On Learning And Developing Proper Pitching Technique

By learning the proper pitching techniques, baseball pitchers can achieve their best velocity and accuracy while reducing the risk of injury to their arm and body. Here are three baseball pitching tips for learning and developing proper throwing technique:

1. Learning the proper throwing techniques early allows a pitcher's muscles and mind to develop the correct memory. Proper throwing can therefore become a good habit that will stay with players throughout their playing lives.

2. Proper throwing technique starts with conditioning activities well before the ball season begins.

3. Stretching and warming-up the entire body, as well as the shoulders and arms, is necessary before actually starting to throw. "Warm-up to throw; don't throw to warm-up", as stated by the American Sports Medicine Institute. Start throwing slowly, over a short distance. Gradually lengthen the distance and increase velocity. This warm-up period will vary with the individual, but will be typically 10-20 minutes.

Pitching Control: What To Do If You're Consistently Missing The Strike Zone Inside Or Outside

Many young baseball pitchers have trouble throwing good, consistent strikes. Some of this is strength (or, more specifically, a lack of overall body strength and balance), but most of the time control problems can be attributed to having inconsistent pitching mechanics. In other words, many young baseball pitchers haven't developed a repeatable pitching delivery, which is necessary to throw quality strikes with good control.

If you're consistently missing the strike zone inside or outside with your pitches, I encourage you to get out the video camera and see where your head is.

Most pitchers who miss consistently in and out do so because they don't control the movements of their head. Your head controls the flight of the ball horizontally. Even if your front side is flying open, or if another mechanical problem prohibits good balance, keeping your head still and on target will almost always help.

Relief Pitching: How To Be An Effective Baseball Closer

Great article here on Let's Talk Pitching about what it takes to be a good relief pitcher and baseball closer.

Pitching Grips: How To Throw A Running Fastball

A reader of this blog recently asked how to throw a running fastball. A running fastball is usually thrown as a two-seam fastball, yet it's the angle of your arm slot that usually determines exactly how much the pitch runs or moves.

For instance, if you throw a two-seam fastball from a very high-3/4 arm slot, it generally won't run as much as a two-seamer thrown from a low-3/4 arm slot. Red Sox pitcher Justin Masterson has a three-fifths arm angle with a slinging-type motion. Not surprisingly, his two-seam fastball gets a lot of run.

Some baseball pitchers also have success playing with pressure points on their two-seam grip. In other words, putting more pressure on one finger to manipulate the movement of the ball. Put more pressure on your middle finger, and your ball will dive. Put more pressure on your index finger, and your ball will run. Mixing it up between these two finger pressures is a great way to get hitters off balance and to get lots of ground outs and pop ups!