Throwing vs. Pitching

Often I receive emails from prospective clients who have children that are 8 and 9 years of age asking what they can do to help their kids become pitchers.  The answer I always give them is, "don't make them pitchers, make them throwers."

If you have a young athlete at home (ages 6-9) who wants to become a major league pitcher someday,  enable your athlete to be a thrower first and a pitcher second.

It is very important to develop the athlete's throwing ability before ever thinking about the actual pitching process.  The most important activity to practice with a young athlete is how to properly throw a baseball.  Here are a few key components to becoming an effective thrower:

• Being athletic and using your body
• Rhythm, tempo and timing
• Grip
• Long toss
  

Being Athletic and Using Your Body

Being athletic and using your body to throw a baseball is very important when learning how to throw a baseball.  'All the body, all the time' is a great phrase to explain throwing.  Always moving your feet to throw and not just taking one step, being aggressive with your steps towards the target, and remaining sideways as you move towards your target are simple ways to explain this process.  A lot of the time pitchers make themselves into robots, thinking they need to look a certain way and be very controlled while on the mound.  But when you are young, if you learn to throw the baseball with aggression and with your whole body moving with you, it will be easier to make that a part of your pitching process later on.

Any young athlete should be able to notice the freedom they have when throwing with a friend and using all of their body.  Guide them toward feeling that same type of freedom when they get on the mound and see what they can come up with.  Most times the kids will be able to figure out what is best for them all by themselves.

Rhythm, Tempo and Timing
Rhythm, tempo and timing are three very important parts to the throw and can be learned at very young ages.  Try doing any type of drill but make sure the athlete is focusing on the fluidity of their movement––their rhythm––and how easy they can make the movement.

Running or skipping is a great way to illustrate tempo.  Show them examples of moving too slow, too fast and then a happy medium.  Let them figure out the right tempo while they throw a baseball.  If they move too slow or too fast they should be able to recognize that and feel what that is like.  Then help guide them towards that happy medium and ask them how their body and arm feel when they are throwing; they will be able to tell you exactly what worked and didn't work in each instance.

Timing refers to the process of taking the ball out of the glove and the time the athlete actually commits to the throw.  Taking the ball out of the glove too soon is a big problem young throwers seem to experience often.  Most people would think that taking the ball out of the glove early is better for young athletes to throw; they feel it helps get their arms into position to throw the baseball on time.

Watch your child throw and see what happens.  If you are looking at rhythm, tempo and timing, you will be able to determine the right time for the athlete to take the ball out of the glove.  The athletes will also be able to tell you whether they are on time for the throw.  Too early will feel slow and heavy, too late will feel rushed and out of control, but on time will feel just that.  It will feel smooth, easy and fluid and be very easy to notice.  

Grip

Always work with a traditional four-seam grip when developing a young athlete's arm strength.  If the athletes hand is too small you can always try a three finger grip.  Just make sure the thumb is underneath the baseball and cuts right through the middle of the ball.

If the athlete can do a traditional grip and has a big enough hand, make sure the thumb is directly in between the index and middle finger on the bottom part of the baseball.  Simply point the baseball at yourself to check and see if your grip is correct.  Rotation is the key when using the four-seam grip.  Your throwing partner should see nothing but white coming at them if you are throwing the ball correctly with proper spin and rotation.

Long Toss

Long toss is one of the most important components to becoming an effective thrower. Long toss is also the key to creating the arm endurance and strength that every pitcher needs.  Some people would say that long toss creates arm endurance but not arm strength.  Long toss creates arm endurance AND it can also increase arm strength.  However, if an athlete never increases the distance of their throws through long toss, they may never have the opportunity to throw with quality velocity on the mound.

In addition to getting the arm in shape, long toss can also be used to steadily increase the distance a thrower can actually throw a baseball.  If an athlete can throw a ball farther and farther as they use the long toss process, and is also able to use the athletic components in long toss and transfer that type of freedom to the mound, then the long toss will convert and the athlete will be able to throw the baseball harder when on the mound.  This explains why athletes can gain plenty of distance on a long toss throw but for some reason are not able to throw with any type of real velocity on the mound (they are not able to maintain the athletic movement and freedom they have in a long toss throw on the mound).

In other words, if an athlete never learns the ability to throw a ball far (master long toss), they most likely will never be able to throw a ball with significant velocity on the mound.  But if we can assist the athlete in creating as athletic of a throw on the mound as they use in long toss, it will transfer to the mound and the young athlete will be grateful for their long toss work.

Long toss is the most important technique that a young thrower can have.  The ability to throw the ball far and understand the importance of long toss is invaluable.  Avoid going too far into explaining the process;  help them to understand the importance of using the entire body aggressively to throw the baseball and throwing the ball as far as you can when doing long toss.  There is a complete art to long toss and it is a very satisfying and fun workout once the young athlete truly understands what long toss is all about.

Learning to be a Thrower
No matter the age, athleticism rules when you are an athlete and learning any type of sport.  The most athletic kids will almost always be the best players at a young age, but that won't always be the case. Provide your young athlete with the proper knowledge and time in order to learn how to be a thrower. Young athletes at ages 6-9 have plenty of time but also need to start throwing and developing their craft at an early age.  Remind your athlete that they don't need be in any rush to be the strongest, biggest, fastest kid on the field of play.  No need to be discouraged; just have fun and start the process to success.

The Complete Pitcher's Workout

Often parents ask me, "What should my son be doing for workouts to prepare for the season?"  It's a great question for every young pitcher to ask himself.  Every time a pitcher goes out to train they should know what they are going to do that day and what the focus of the workout is going to be.  With a simple program, pitchers of any age can get the most out of their training time.  There are several throwing programs that a pitcher can utilize in their training.  The first is for a throwing workout.
 
The throwing workout program normally includes:
Body preparation
Long toss
Focused throwing
Arm care
Body work

Body Preparation
The first part of ANY throwing program or workout should be body preparation.  A normal body preparation consists of three things:  visual work, balance work and joint mobility work.  The whole point in preparing your body for the training it is about to do is to wake up the nervous system.  You want the body to respond to the work it is about to do and you also want the body to accept the work.  This includes visual work, balance and joint mobility.  The body preparation portion of the training session will assist in waking up your nervous system and will allow you to get the most out of your training for the day.

Long Toss
Once body preparation is finished it is time to move on to the throwing part of the workout.  Long toss is what most people, including myself, like to call it.  I will go into the particulars of long toss in later blogs, but the basis of long toss is to throw as far as you can for that specific day, nice and relaxed on the way out and then more intense on the way back in.  A normal long toss period during off season training sessions may last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour depending on how far that particular pitcher can throw a baseball.  With long toss, there should be no rush to back up to the farthest distance; the pitcher should take their time.  As for younger kids, naturally their long toss session may not be as long because they will not be able to throw the ball as far.
 
Focused Throwing
Immediately following the long toss portion of the training session there should be some sort of focused throwing.  There can be several ways to use this portion of the workout including velocity work, command work, bullpens, flatground, working on off speed pitches and many more ideas.  Whatever the pitcher chooses to work on that day is not as important as the focus they bring to the process.

Arm Care
Now we move on to the arm care portion of the session.  For this part the pitcher should have a handful or so of exercises that assist in keeping the arm healthy.  Scapula movement and rotator cuff exercises should be the focus.  Making sure the body knows how to move the scapula properly and also doing maintenance work on the rotator cuff muscles in and around the shoulder should go a long way in keeping the pitcher's arm healthy.

Body Work
Last but not least in the training session should be some sort of body work.  How many and the type of exercises the pitcher chooses depends on what type of weight training work they do during the week.  All of the week's schedules, weight training, throwing, conditioning, etc. should all work together and be thought out before the week begins.  This way the pitcher will know exactly what they need to be doing each day and how hard to push themselves depending on what type of training and intensity level they are using for the week.

Normally it is recommended to do some sort of cardiovascular work at the end of each training session.  I usually have my guys doing short bursts of speed with small rests in between drills.  If the pitcher is going to do strength exercises with cardiovascular work for that session, make sure to do the cardiovascular work first and then do the strength exercises. (There are all sorts of different point of views on this particular subject that also will be discussed in future blogs.)

Once the pitcher gets a feel for the workouts it is very easy to follow the program and plan out the workouts before they go to the field to throw.  Remember to make the workouts as specific as possible but also make them as fun as possible.  Try adding in fun games that are challenging and will also help with developing you into the pitcher you are wanting to become.  We will discuss the individual parts of the entire training session in later blogs.

For now, have fun and enjoy! 

     

Passion for Pitching Says Hello

     Can you believe it?  Doug White and Passion for Pitching has started a blog.  I remember when CD's first came out, it took me a full year before I even thought about buying something other then a tape cassette.  Now the kids these days don't even know what tape cassettes are.  I have over two hundred tapes of music sitting in storage right now collecting dust.  Not to mention the VHS tapes I also have after refusing to buy this thing called a DVD player.  I thought there was no way CD's and DVD's would be the mainstream thing.  Plus, they were always so expensive compared to tapes.  Look at me now, I own my own business, I work for the Cardinals Organization as a Minor League Pitching Instructor, I have my own website, youtube video clips, and now my own blog.  What a world we live in huh?  A place where they allow all sorts of people from all sorts of walks of life to get on the internet and share whatever it is they want to on their own blog.

     For weeks now I have been wondering what I could write about on a blog.  Should I talk mechanics?  Should I discuss pitching strategies?  How about workouts and the million different ways there are to prepare your body for competition?  Well, all that is great stuff and we will cover it all as I get a hang of this blog stuff.  I am absolutely positive that one idea after the next will come to me and I am also positive that everyone out there who will be reading and supporting this blog will have a hand in that creative process.  But first I wanted to use this first blog to give everyone the ground rules for this Passion for Pitching blog.

   The Ground Rules

Ground Rule #1 - The blogger is always right!  Not really, but I always wanted to say that.  There will be topics discussed and passed along this blog that not everyone is going to agree with or believe in and that's okay.  I started this blog to allow for a creative outlet and pass on some things that I feel strongly about.  But I also started this blog to learn some things as well.  The more people that get involved here and share their thoughts and ideas to what is being posted, the better we can all get in our quest to enjoy the game of baseball more.  Let's use this outlet to create some great things and broaden our horizons so more athletes and coaches can improve and enjoy the game of baseball.

Ground Rule #2 - This blog is for entertainment purposes!  That is not to say this blog is for laughs only and should not be taken seriously, but at the root of all this information that one can absorb in the game of baseball, it should be for the joy of it.  That is also not to say that the game isn't tough and built on failures because it is.  But that is where the enjoyment comes from.  The enjoyment comes from going 0 for your last 7 and then going 3 for 3 in your next game and scoring or driving in the winning run.  That is what baseball is all about.  You have to take the good with the bad and that is so much more true in the sport of baseball then any other sport you will ever participate in.  So lets enjoy and not take it so seriously, we will have plenty of time for that when we get on the field of play!

Ground Rule #3 - Your participation is wanted!  I can't wait to interact with the individuals who will come across this blog.  Let me know what topics you are interested in on the subject of pitching.  I will do my best to answer any questions you have or reply to any thoughts or comments you give to my blog posts.  There will be a lot of talk on this blog about other sides to pitching then just mechanics, we may even talk about life from time to time, but either way this blog won't work without your participation so come and enjoy!

     The second post is coming soon!  Check out my website at passionforpitching.com and sign up to be on my email list to keep up to date on all the latest!