Baseball Pitching Drills

4-SEAM FASTBALL

The four-seam fastball is a pitch that is used often to get ahead in the count or when you need to throw a strike. The type of fastball is intended to have minimal lateral movement. Please see picture for detailed illustration (or visit our pitching library to view the full picture) of where your fingers should go.

There are two general ways to throw a four-seam fastball. I will try to explain each of them and again, the picture speaks a thousand words. The first and most traditional way is to find the horseshoe seam area, or the area where the seams are the farthest apart. Keeping those seams parallel to your body, place the index and middle fingers perpendicular to them with the pads on the farthest seam from you. The thumb will then rest underneath the ball about in the middle of the two fingers. With this grip, the thumb will generally have no seam to rest on.

The second way to throw a four-seam fastball is to take a baseball and find the area where the seams are closest together. Arrange the ball so that those seams are parallel to your body. Place your index and middle fingers on the baseball perpendicular to the seams. What you may find here is that the younger athletes will feel more comfortable with those two fingers apart, as they will have more control because of smaller hands. What you generally want to teach is that those fingers need to be somewhat together.

The pads of those two fingers need to rest on the seam that is farthest away from you. Try to keep equal pressure with those two fingers. If you increase pressure in one and decrease the other you may have some movement, but very little. The thumb will then rest underneath the ball about in the middle of the two fingers. I tell my pitchers (assume a right-hander here) that they need to rotate the ball counter-clockwise just enough so that the thumb will fall on the apex of the horseshoe part of the seam. This gives some pitchers a little better control physically, if not mentally. A critical thing here is that the thumb needs to rest somewhere on the side to middle of it’s pad. You don’t want to push the baseball all the way back into your hand. That will decrease both control and velocity of the baseball.

ARM HEALTH

This material is an excerpt from the Lifeletics Instructional Manual, Coaching the Beginning Pitcher, written by Dan Keller, founder of Lifeletics Sports Instruction and former All-American pitcher at UCLA. More information as well as purchasing information can be found at the Lifeletics Sports Instruction web site: www.lifeletics.com.

One of the most important responsibilities of a youth baseball manager is proper arm care. Especially at the early stages of a baseball season, a manager must have a plan with regard to pitch counts and arm health.

Daily and Monthly Pitch Counts
It is not the number of innings pitched which matters most. Instead, the number of pitches thrown is most relevant to significant arm health. Pitches should be counted at all times, with the manager holding strictly to a pitch limit - both per day and per week. This ensures that no young arms are compromised for the sake of winning a youth league baseball game.

Often times, leagues set guidelines to assist in monitoring athletes’ throwing levels. Develop several pitchers and their arm strength, to help distribute the pitch load. A chart offering suggested pitch limits and games pitched follows below:

Season Plan
One of the most frustrating aspects of managing a baseball team is the topic of sore arms. Typically, sore arms are not medically serious. Instead, it is a young arm getting in shape, much like the lungs or legs of a middle aged runner after taking a considerable amount of time away from jogging. A young arm is like any other muscle in the body, it must be worked into shape at the beginning of a season. Regardless of age, size or athletic ability, a plan must be set in place to ensure that the arm has ample time to build strength and endurance.

This can be safely achieved with a simple plan. Several weeks before the first game of the season, set up a schedule designed to “ramp up” your athletes’ pitch count levels. Use an increasing scale to bring arm strength from “out of shape” to “game ready” in this time. An example of pitch counts (thrown in practice bullpen sessions) follows below:

Day 1: 25 pitches
Day 5: 28 pitches
Day 9: 31 pitches
Day 13: 34 pitches
Day 17: 37 pitches
Day 21: 40 pitches

This does not mean, however, that a pitcher needs to be ready to throw 60 pitches on Opening Day. Instead, plan on working through a long-term schedule that will have your pitchers peaking near the later stages of league play. With a plan in place, your athletes will be safely ready to throw 50 - 55 pitches by the second or third week of competition. This way, as other arms are growing tired from the rigors of a 20 - 30 game schedule, the arms of your pitchers are growing stronger and showing no signs of slowing down. Remember, each pitcher should still be held to strict daily and weekly pitch counts.

ARM SLOT ANGLE

One of the big things to look for when evaluating a pitcher, whether it be your team's or an apposing pitcher, is their arm slot. The arm slot is the position of the arm as the pitcher is turning their hips to release the ball. By observing an athlete's arm slot angle, it becomes fairly easy to tell if that pitcher’s fastball will have movement or not.

As a coach, you want to look for the arm slot to be somewhere around a 90-degree angle or more. This is measured from the shoulder, to the elbow to the hand and baseball. If you can imagine you are at the plate facing a right-hander, that area I just described should look like an "L." If it does, the pitcher’s fastball will have some movement, and that movement will usually be in towards a right-handed batter. Just the opposite is true for a lefty (depending on pressure points, etc.) The reason for this is that at release of the baseball (for a fastball or change) the hand naturally supinates, or turns away from your body, causing movement in that direction.

If you have, or see, a pitcher who does not have much in degree of arm slot, their ball won’t move as much or at all. Recently, I had a pitcher who threw the ball and his arm slot was about 150 degrees, but his elbow was not on the same plane as his shoulder so he looked like a windmill while throwing. So I had him try to throw completely sidearm. He looked at me like I was crazy, but tried anyway. His arm slot then decreased to a 90+ degree angle by dropping his elbow, and his ball moved readily. I then asked him to show me about where he thought his arm slot was, and he showed me by putting his elbow below his shoulder and the ball at about pectoral level. I laughed at him, and showed him where it really was. It was simple to fix and just takes the athlete some getting used to with plenty of pen work.

So take some time with your pitchers and look for that arm slot. Make sure that the arm slot stays the same with each pitch the athlete throws. Be sure not to vary the arm angle with a different pitch because as the athlete gets older, a good hitter or opposing pitching coach will pick up on the different arm angles related to the pitch thrown. Video taping your pitchers can make reading their arm angle easier. It can also open the athlete's eyes as to what he looks like, compared to what he may feel.

The elbow should stay on the same plane as the shoulder. I realize that the angle correlation I am making may seem confusing. It’s ok to have an angle of more than 90 degrees as long as your elbow is aligned with the shoulder. If the elbow gets to be on the same plane with the neck or head, obviously your arm angle will be more than 90 degrees, but your ball will have no movement, as you will be throwing right over the top. Those athletes also have breaking balls that break straight down and have no breaking angle across the plate. Curveballs that only break across one plane are generally easier to hit.

Good Luck!

RIGHT-HANDED PICKOFF MOVES

I utilize and incorporate 3 pickoff moves to first with my RH pitchers. The success that we have with these moves varies with respect to quickness to timing. Without either of those, you won’t pick off many runners. Lets talk about the 3 moves.

The first move is meant to pick off the runner as he is taking his lead, especially if he has NOT been taught to avoid crossing over while getting it. Imagine a RH pitcher in the stretch. He gets the sign and brings his left foot towards his right foot. His throwing hand and glove hand then begin to come together. The instant they touch, he throws or picks to first.

The second move is done the instant the pitcher comes to his normal set position. When he gets to it, he picks to first.

The final move is a timing move from the set position. Our pitchers literally count in their heads, “One-thousand-one, one-thousand-two…” until they finally throw. I tell them to vary the count anywhere from one-second to five-seconds before they throw. We do this because a lot of base runners guess at when the pitcher may go home. While perhaps not getting the out, this move ensures that the base runner will not guess and won’t get tremendous jump to second.

Now, I have explained where we do these moves in relation to the motion of the pitcher. We now have to talk about how we actually do the moves and why. The motion for the pick is the same in all three moves.

The first thing we do is gently bend our right knee. The reason we do this is because most good pitchers have a slight bend in that knee to create some gather and momentum to go home. If we can emulate our normal motion in any way when we pick, we are in good shape. This is also called a 'balk move' because of the tendency to mimick the action of throwing home. Be careful not to bend your knee too much and be called for a balk! Once we have bent our knee, we need to begin to disengage from the rubber with the right foot. So now our right foot is on the move and we like to place it on the home plate side of the rubber towards third base. This will then make our hips begin to turn and consequently will make our left foot pivot towards first base.

The biggest key to all of this is what we do with our throwing hand and glove side arm. Most pitchers, when they throw to first base, like to take their normal arm motion while pitching to pick a runner off. Well, as you can imagine, this take too much time. I tell my pitchers that when your glove and throwing hand break or split to attempt a pick, you need to do two things:

1. Your glove side must stay up and eventually your elbow will point to where you will make your throw.
2. You throwing hand must IMMEDIATELY come up to a location around your ear.

This will ensure two more things:
1. Your throw will be accurate and on the inside of the bag.
2. Your throw will be quick because you won’t be getting long with arm action as you normally would going to the plate.

With these tools and some practice, your pitching staff should have some success in picking off runners. It’s not commonplace for RH pitchers to pick off runners at first base. In fact my athletes get into plenty of hot water if RH pitchers pick them off. With that being said, it becomes very critical that you make sure your pitchers practice these things because the slightest error will result in a safe runner and a possible stolen second base.

Category: Pitching
Type: Policy

 
It is a good idea for a coach or a parent to have a “check list” when teaching his player or son how to pitch. I use a check list for my pitchers at UCLA whenever I observe them in practice or in games. The list is divided into the four phases of pitching delivery:

I.        The Preliminaries
II.        The Coil
III.        The Explosion
IV.        The Follow Through

Each of these are answered with a yes or no, both for the windup and for the stretch deliveries:

I. The Preliminaries:                                                      Wind Up          Stretch

1. Eyes- On target, concentration apparent
2. Grip- Hidden from opponent’s view
3. Body- Facing the hitter directly

II. The Coil:
1. Front Hip- Coiled to position parallel to rubber
2. Striding Knee- Bent with foot close to pivot leg
3. Front Thigh- Parallel to ground
4. Back- Bent towards hands (not leaning or arched)
5. Front Shoulder- Coiled, pointing at target
6. Pivot Leg- Slightly bent for push-off
7. Pivot Foot- Firmly planted along edge of rubber
8. Body- Compact and on balance

III. The Explosion:
1. Body- "Drives" forward after hands separate
2. Front Shoulder- Drives, then explodes (opens) fully
3. Pivot Knee- Dips, then stays near ground during stride
4. Front Leg- Strides directly to ground (no "kick-out")
5. Front Foot- Lands on open side of line from pivot to target
6. Throwing Hand- Passes behind back knee
7. Wrist- Loosely cocked, with hand on top of ball
8. Throwing Arm- Reaching out and over striding leg
9. Head- Still, with eyes on target

IV. The Follow Through:
1. Throwing arm shoulder- Finishes close to landing knee
2. Throwing hand- Close to ground, palm facing pitcher
3. Back- Bent forward and over landing leg
4. Rear end- Low
5. Feet- Recover quickly, ready position

COACHING THE BEGINNING PITCHER

This material is an excerpt from the Lifeletics Instructional Manual, Coaching the Beginning Pitcher, written by Dan Keller, founder of Lifeletics Sports Instruction and former All-American pitcher at UCLA. More information as well as purchasing information can be found at the Lifeletics Sports Instruction web site: www.lifeletics.com.

-Ch. 3 Coaching Beginning Pitchers p.35 (60-page manual)

Teaching pitching is entirely different than knowing how to pitch. Chapter 3 gives an instructional overview of teaching a pitcher, where to start and how to progress from day one. Beginning pitchers are unique in their approach and response to new and difficult material. These helpful hints will assist you in being an effective youth pitching coach, and more importantly, place the pitcher in an environment where he is most likely to succeed.

STEP 1 - TEACH PITCHING FROM THE STRETCH FIRST
The stretch position is the core movement of the full wind-up. Both the stretch and the wind-up get the pitcher to the balance point. In the wind-up, a pitcher goes through the baby-step, lift and pivot, and leg lift to get to the balance point. From the stretch, all the athlete needs to do is lift his leg to get to the balance point. There are less variables in play, and therefore less potential difficulties. An athlete can focus on the importance of waiting back and moving to the throwing position, before adding the extra variables of the wind up. The bottom line: The stretch position is easier to learn for beginning pitchers.

STEP 2 - LEARN THE RHYTHM OF MOVEMENTS 1, 2, 3
From the stretch stance, break the pitching motion discussed in Chapter 2 into three, easily definable steps. Work to establish a comfortable motion before moving into more detail. The stretch stance has the plant foot directly in front of, and parallel to, the rubber. The feet should be shoulder width apart, with a slight bend in the knees. The hands are held comfortably in front of the chest and the eyes focused on the target. From this position, the pitching motion can be broken down into three distinct movements:

• Movement #1 - Leg lift
• Movement #2 - Step and elbows to throwing position
• Movement #3 - Throw and finish

Go through these movements without a ball, stopping at each point to discuss. Take turns as player and coach, first showing the movement on the mound, then stepping back and observing the pitcher. Next, drill the pitcher with number commands ("dry work"). Starting in the stance, call out numbers to work forward and backward through the delivery:

• "Stance, #1, #2... back to #1... #2, #3"

Mix up the numbers to familiarize the movements. Next, have the pitcher got through the entire motion without stopping…

Coaching the Beginning Pitcher provides youth coaches with the information to teach pitching safely and successfully, allowing room for growth and enjoyment. Chapters include Pitch Types and Theory, Coaching the Mind, Fundamentals, Coaching Beginning Pitchers (Executable Plan), etc.

This material is an excerpt from the Lifeletics Instructional Manual, Coaching the Beginning Pitcher, written by Dan Keller. For more information and to purchase Coaching the Beginning Pitcher, visit the www.lifeletics.com.

THE CURVEBALL

***Should not be thrown by kids under 12 years of age

The curveball, when thrown in the right part of the count or to the right batter, can be a very effective pitch. However, unlike other pitches, the grip isn’t as critical as the pressure points are.

I teach my kids to emphasize more on their finger pressure than where their fingers are. The only thing that I require is that both their middle finger and thumb is on a seam. From there, I do make some suggestions. Let me explain:

Getting a grip
Let's begin with what I believe are the two best grips, although I don’t force my kids to use them. First is the 4-Seam grip curve ball. Take a look at the 4-Seam Fastball tip if you don’t remember it.

Assuming you are right handed, you need to grip the ball so that the horseshoe seam’s apex is pointing toward the outside of your hand. Then what you do is rotate the ball clockwise until your thumb finds the apex of the bottom horseshoe seam. So now the pads of your index, middle and thumb should be on a seam.

The second variation of the curveball is as follows. Get a ball and put it in front of you so that the horseshoe’s apex is pointing away from you. Now put your middle finger on the right seam (assuming you are a right-handed pitcher) that leads up to the horseshoe’s apex, or just to the inside so that from the middle to the outside of your finger is touching the seam.

Rest your index finger just next to your middle finger. Your thumb will now go directly underneath the ball below your middle finger and it should find the opposite seam of the other horseshoe.

Those are the two grips that I teach young kids, but as they get older I don’t mind what grip they use, just as long as they have a seam on their middle finger and thumb. What is most critical is the technique and mechanics of the body.

How to throw it
The arm slot and the position of the ball with respect to the wrist are the two elemental things needed to have a great curveball.

When the ball is in that particular arm slot, the position of your wrist, which will affect the ball, must be correct. The wrist must be rotated so that the ball and your fingers are pointed at your ear. As your arm comes through the slot and begins to release the baseball, the ball will roll over your index finger and create a downward spin.

You may hear some coaches talk about having a snap of the finger and thumb action to create more spin. This can be done but it is difficult with some athletes because they don’t quite understand where to snap and also may misinterpret the timing of the whole thing. If your arm action is correct as well as your wrist placement, you may not even need the snap of your fingers.

Now this particular curveball is a down breaking curve. I just teach our kids to straighten out the wrist a little to create more of a roundhouse curve. However, you can get into trouble with a flat curve because it stays on the same plane and is easy to hit.

CHANGE-UP VARIATION #2

Change-Up Grip #2

Here is another variation of the change-up grip. This is two of three. The first of the three is what I normally teach my pitchers. However having this and the third as a backup to each other is critical. Some kids find it easier to throw a deviation of the others because it’s easier to handle or what have you.

This grip is similar to the 2-Seam fastball. There are however, two differences in grip. First off, you must push the ball all the way back into your palm. Secondly, you must not put any pressure on the pads or tips of your index and middle finger.

The motion of the arm while throwing and releasing tends to be the same as explained in the first change up talked about in the Pitching Clinic. Take a look at the picture to gain a better understanding of what this should look like.

Make sure that the athlete does not grip the ball with his middle and index finger pads as they release it. The ball must roll of those fingers.

CHANGE-UP VARIATION #3

This third grip is an awkward one to try to explain, but it moves more so then the other two grips. This would only be true with the kids that could throw it well. You can experiment with it. One of my pitchers told me that this particular pitch that I was teaching was what a lot of the college coaches are teaching their pitchers. In attending the 99 CWS (College World Series) I had asked a few of those pitchers who were competing, and sure enough, this was the one. Let’s get after it…

Take a baseball and find the seams where they are closest together. Put your ring and middle finger so they are lying on each of those seams respectively. Again, refer to the picture for aid. Put your pinky and index finger on each side of the ball. Your thumb should lie underneath the ball in between your ring and middle fingers.

Now you can kind of see that this grip resembles the ‘circle’ or ‘ok’ change-up explained in the Pitching Clinic. The main differences here are:

1. The pinky rests on the side of the ball not up by the ring finger
2. The thumb and the index finger are not touching each other
3. The ball rests a little deeper into the palm of your hand
4. There is pressure underneath the ball with this grip

The pitch is thrown in the same manner as the other two types or variations of the change. This type of change can be easier to throw than the other two because of that pressure underneath the ball.

PITCHING CHAIR DRILL (VAR.)

This drill is meant for the pitcher that likes to swing their post leg out away from their body and eventually open up or closing to soon.

Get a folding chair and place the back of it close to the rubber towards the third base side. If the pitcher is left-handed, place the chair close to the rubber on the third base side of the mound.

Let your pitcher assume a wind-up position and begin their delivery. As the pitcher's left leg rises, watch it as it comes down and through the pitching motion. If the leg hits the chair at any time, one of two things is happening:

·  That they are swinging it open, causing the hips to open up too soon.

·  They are driving towards the third base side of the plate (first base for lefties) causing them to throw across their body.

Finally, as the plant leg is placed, the arm comes through the slot and the back side is released. To ensure a good back side, the right leg must be lifted high enough so that it clears the top of the chair. This ensures that the pitcher is equaling out the force from their throwing arm.

It's all about physics, specifically, Newton's Third Law — For every action (the arm), there is an equal and opposite reaction (the backside leg).

As with any drill, do this in repetition, even while the athletes are doing pen work. It will pay off dividends later, and should keep the pitcher from some serious injuries.

GRIPS


Over the course of a full Summer Academy schedule, it is very interesting to note areas of instruction consistently needing attention. At the Lifeletics Summer Academies, most of my coaching time is spent in Throwing or Pitching stations. I’ve found that a surprising amount of young players do not understand how to properly grip the baseball. There are two basic baseball grips, the 4-seam grip and the 2-seam grip.

While pitchers use both of these grips for their fastballs, position players most commonly use the four-seam grip. Normally, the four-seam grip moves less than the two-seam, and therefore has slightly more velocity. It is the easiest grip for an athlete to control, with the best chance for consistent accuracy. Following is a full description of the grip to teach young baseball players:

The four-seam fastball grip is formed using the index and middle fingers, the thumb and the inside of the bent ring finger. Gripped across two of the wide seams (“the horseshoe” or “the smile”), the pads of the index and middle finger rest on top of the stitches, approximately a half-inch apart. The thumb is tucked below the ball, resting on or near a bottom seam, and the ring finger and pinkie are curled on the side of the ball. As the size of a pitcher’s hand increases, there should be enough space between the palm and the baseball to move a finger in and out of the space (between the thumb and the index finger). Four-seam rotation should have all four seams rotating directly away from the target (backspin). *(Excerpt from Lifeletics Instructional Manual, Coaching the Beginning Pitcher. Purchase information available at the Lifeletics.com web site.)

Common Mistake: Using Three Fingers (excluding the thumb)
Young athletes tend to use three or even four fingers when gripping the baseball. With small hands, it makes sense that an athlete will use the grip that feels most comfortable… one that will not “stretch” the fingers out. Often times, this results in an athlete using three fingers.   Many athletes continue to use three fingers, even when they have grown to the point where using two fingers is not difficult. The result is an inaccurate, inefficient release.

Ask your athletes how many big leaguers throw a fastball with three fingers? When they respond in silence, confirm that the answer is zero, and then communicate that the faster they can get comfortable using two fingers, the closer they are to the big leagues.

One important exception comes with an athlete whose hands are physically too small to properly grip the ball using two fingers. In that case, instruct an athlete to use three fingers, with a clear understanding that the goal is to switch to a two-finger grip as soon as possible.

Common Mistake: Thumb on Side of Ball
The proper four-seam grip has the thumb directly below the baseball, forming a triangle between the two fingers above the ball. This allows the ball to evenly roll off of the index and middle fingers upon release. Young athletes tend to leave their thumbs up on the side of the baseball, closer to their index finger. Typically, this is a habit learned when their hands were not big enough to comfortably keep the thumb underneath. Encourage athletes to keep the thumb underneath the baseball so that the hand and arm rotate correctly.

In general, young athletes should use two fingers across a four-seam grip as soon as possible. An athlete has only a matter of seconds in which to field the baseball, set the proper grip and release a throw to the appropriate base. Not only is the athlete pressed for time, but he must also find his grip without looking at the baseball (as the batter is sprinting down the baseline). Gripping the ball correctly becomes an action based on “feel” rather than sight. The ability to feel the ball (recognize its location in one’s hand), and then execute the proper adjustments to find a consistent grip, takes thousands upon thousands of repetitions.

Accuracy is a direct result of knowing and understanding one’s own movement tendencies on the flight of a thrown baseball. These tendencies are caused by different arm angles and release points. Gripping the ball correctly and consistently can accelerate an athlete’s ability to develop accuracy. For example, an athlete like Nomar Garciaparra throws from a very low arm slot. Nearing a sidearm throw, Garciaparra’s ball flight has considerable movement from left to right (as well as top to bottom).   A four-seam grip will help to maintain a consistent pattern of movement, while the repetitions using that grip will eventually result in an athlete that understands his movement tendencies and therefore can aggressively throw with accuracy.