Pitching Simplified

PITTMAN’S PITCHING POINTERS

Pitching is more than just throwing.

Learn the hitting flaws.

Then learn how to pitch to the specific flaw.

If you’re at the Little League level, eventually your catcher will learn the flaws, too. Right now he’s learning to receive, block pitches, set defenses, and busy watching the hitter’s feet and bat speed while tracking your pitch.

Pitching coaches and pitchers have their own language and sayings to get the message across:

Sit and Drive…Land at a 45   

“Sitting” helps you to not “rush”, but instead, stay balanced in your delivery. As you step toward home plate, stride so that the ball of your lead foot and toe will land at a 45 degree angle. This ensures proper hip rotation after your lead foot lands, and that you’ll be using your legs as well as your arm in your pitching mechanics.

Push, pop...over the top...leaves you with pep in your step

The push is the balanced push off of the pitching plate (pitcher’s rubber). Pop is a term for the hip rotation after landing the front foot at a 45 degree angle during the delivery.

“Over the top” is the action of the trailing foot in a complete follow through (this happens naturally after your pitching arm elbow passes by the opposite knee following your delivery). Hence, after your elbow passes your knee in your follow through, your throwing side foot will rise above your throwing side hip without any extra effort on your part. This is what pitching coaches actually mean when they say “bend your back” in regards to a follow through.

Leaves you with pep in your step

This just means that you’ll have more endurance/stamina because you’re using your legs and your body to pitch with…instead of just using your arm.

Shoulder to shoulder makes your pitches bolder

For control of your pitches, your front shoulder heads (points) to the location you want your pitch to go. After delivery, your back shoulder will point toward the same target that your front should was targeted at… which greatly improves control accuracy and will occur naturally with the correct follow through. This is what pitching coaches call “full rotation”.

Bolder pitches means that you’ll spot your pitches to areas that hitter’s have trouble hitting solidly (they prefer to hit the ones that are thrown over the middle ten inches of the plate in the strike zone).

Pitching to a dime* makes the hitter bitter

The mitt is not the target for the pitcher. It is better to throw (not aim) to a smaller target. A dime target is small, but if you miss- you’ll miss “small”. [Remember a pitcher targets areas away from the middle ten inches of the plate.] Instead of pitching in the middle of the plate, you’ll focus on the catcher’s knees and shoulders since they are usually outside of the middle ten inches of the plate. Therefore, visualize and concentrate (focus) on a dime located on the catcher’s knees and shoulders as targets before and during the delivery of your pitch. *Also, contrary to some coaches’ thinking, you’re never too young to develop this kind of concentration skill… especially when pitching.

Any coach, on any level worth his salt, routinely has his pitchers practice pitching to a designated catcher. At each league level, from Little League to MLB, pitchers follow a Sequence Pitching Schedule. This is another important process to help pitchers develop arm strength, confidence, and command & control. During sequence pitching sessions, it’s imperative that the pitcher’s pitches are charted by a helper. This promotes a game like atmosphere…to simulate game like pressure.

Also, during the throwing session, the pitchers usually alternate throwing 5 pitches from a full windup and then 5 pitches from the stretch. The number of pitches thrown during a session depends on the number of days until the next scheduled appearance in a game. Once the number of pitches to be thrown during the session is determined, the catcher will call the type of pitch and the location for each pitch. On the Little League level, 1 is a fastball and 2 is a change. In higher levels of competition, more types of pitches are thrown, and the pitches are numbered respectively. Locations are also numbered on the catcher. The right and left knees of the catcher are numbered 1 and 2 & the right and left shoulders of the catcher are numbered 3 and 4. On a side note, since the pitcher is getting valuable feedback from a capable helper after the session, make sure the helper has a clip board with a pencil and paper that have rectangular strike zones with cubes inside the rectangles to note the location and type of pitch thrown during the session. For the benefit of the pitcher’s focus, the helper shouldn’t interact with the pitcher until after the throwing session. The helper will silently circle pitches that miss their spot and mark pitches that are on target during the session. It is recommended that punishment of some type for missing the called location be used to make the session more competitive among the pitchers on the team.

GRIP

With seams, the pitch will sink. Across the seams, the pitch will not sink as much. Some will suggest that gripping a ball across the seams will make it rise. Even the best power pitchers don’t really have the ball rise when their grip is across the seams due to physics.

Choking the pitch will reduce the velocity. Also, choking the pitch is better for younger pitchers because it produces a natural change up. When a pitcher matures, usually when they start shaving, a pitcher can learn breaking pitches and other grips for a change up.

Your ultimate goal as a pitcher is to keep the hitter off balance by changing the speed and location of your pitches. Be stoic & never show your emotions in a game when you are pitching. Do this and you will have an edge over the hitters you face.

High school baseball players in Benbrook alleged to have sacrificed chickens to improve performance

BENBROOK -- Police are investigating allegations that two Western Hills High School baseball players were involved in an act of animal cruelty with chickens, reportedly in an effort to improve their performance.
The two players, whom the district did not identify, were kicked off the team for the rest of the year and disciplined, school officials said.
The students are alleged to have sacrificed chickens -- possibly baby chicks -- on the baseball field, according to sources with knowledge of the incident.
Western Hills baseball Coach Bobby McIntire said he hadn't had a chance to talk to the students involved yet and does not know why they did it. "Baseball is very superstitious, and I assume [movies like Major League] are where they got it from," McIntire said.
Fort Worth school district spokesman Clint Bond acknowledged that an incident occurred during spring break at Western Hills. He said he did not know how many chickens were involved. He declined to say how the students were punished and referred further inquiries to the Benbrook police, who are investigating.
Police officials did not return phone calls or emails Wednesday afternoon.
Western Hills was 5-12 overall and 2-2 in District 6-4A going into Wednesday night's game against Southwest High School.
Sacrificing a live chicken to end a hitting slump was referenced in Major League. But instead of a live chicken, teammates brought the struggling player a bucket of fried chicken. Last year, in an effort to end a nine-game losing streak, Heath Bell with the San Diego Padres asked a clubhouse attendant to bring in a bucket of chicken.
It didn't work as the Padres lost their 10th straight after finishing off the chicken.
This is the second reported incident involving Fort Worth high school students and animals this year.
In January, baby chicks and live fish were thrown during a pep rally at North Side High School. Bond said five students were disciplined in that incident.
Sandy Grambort, equine and livestock coordinator for the Humane Society of North Texas, said she was disappointed to learn of the high school incidents and encouraged more education about the humane treatment of animals.
"These kids ... to them chicken comes from a plastic bag, and they may not understand that chickens are living creatures that feel pain and feel fear," Grambort said. "... You have to look at the intent behind these kids' acts. That's what needs to be addressed."


Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/03/30/2962340/high-school-baseball-players-alleged.html#ixzz1I91duL3Y

Article in FW Star-Telegram

By Eva-Marie Ayala

eayala@star-telegram.com

 http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/03/30/2962340/high-school-baseball-players-alleged.html#ixzz1I92A4fu2

BENBROOK -- Police are investigating allegations that two Western Hills High School baseball players were involved in an act of animal cruelty with chickens, reportedly in an effort to improve their performance.

The two players, whom the district did not identify, were kicked off the team for the rest of the year and disciplined, school officials said.

The students are alleged to have sacrificed chickens -- possibly baby chicks -- on the baseball field, according to sources with knowledge of the incident.

Western Hills baseball Coach Bobby McIntire said he hadn't had a chance to talk to the students involved yet and does not know why they did it. "Baseball is very superstitious, and I assume [movies like Major League] are where they got it from," McIntire said.

Fort Worth school district spokesman Clint Bond acknowledged that an incident occurred during spring break at Western Hills. He said he did not know how many chickens were involved. He declined to say how the students were punished and referred further inquiries to the Benbrook police, who are investigating.

Police officials did not return phone calls or emails Wednesday afternoon.

Western Hills was 5-12 overall and 2-2 in District 6-4A going into Wednesday night's game against Southwest High School.

Sacrificing a live chicken to end a hitting slump was referenced in Major League. But instead of a live chicken, teammates brought the struggling player a bucket of fried chicken. Last year, in an effort to end a nine-game losing streak, Heath Bell with the San Diego Padres asked a clubhouse attendant to bring in a bucket of chicken.

It didn't work as the Padres lost their 10th straight after finishing off the chicken.

This is the second reported incident involving Fort Worth high school students and animals this year.

In January, baby chicks and live fish were thrown during a pep rally at North Side High School. Bond said five students were disciplined in that incident.

Sandy Grambort, equine and livestock coordinator for the Humane Society of North Texas, said she was disappointed to learn of the high school incidents and encouraged more education about the humane treatment of animals.

"These kids ... to them chicken comes from a plastic bag, and they may not understand that chickens are living creatures that feel pain and feel fear," Grambort said. "... You have to look at the intent behind these kids' acts. That's what needs to be addressed."

Staff writer Drew Davison contributed to this report.

Eva-Marie Ayala, 817-390-7700

Coach Traub Talks Cues

http://coachtraub.com/

Today’s Mental Skills Tip –  Let us review the steps of a best effort performance, given that motivation is sufficient. You must have an ideal performance state, meaning that your mind and body are ready to perform up to your potential. You must know your job in specific, controllable terms. And you must do your job without thinking too much (focus). Occasionally the environment will lead to these things happening naturally. In such cases, no adjustment is needed to give a best effort performance. The rest of the time, however, athletes will either find a way to get themselves where they need to be or they will perform below their potential.

   Training mental skills must begin with a distinct understanding of how to have mature approaches and responses to your sport, both in practice and in performance. Consciously creating an ideal performance state takes it to the next level. Elite athletes build up their confidence on purpose, they manage their stress and adrenaline, and they focus superbly on the task-at-hand. Knowing where you are and where you want to be are two challenging awareness skills, but knowing is not enough. To give your best effort, you must also have an effective strategy to get from here to there.

    A cue is anything that represents something specific; it stimulates action. It's a hint, a suggestion. It's something said, something done, or a symbol that leads to a specific line of action. It guides your mind and body towards a specific target. It can lead you astray, too, but used wisely, cues can be quick and powerful reminders of what you need to do to get to where you want to be. After they remind, they can also help take you there.

    For a cue to have a significant positive impact, it must lead you in the right direction at the right time. To take you to an ideal performance state, you must know what you are like in your ideal state. (I call these your green light indicators.) For example, you might perform best in a particular situation when you're confident, intense, aggressive under control, grateful, relaxed, focused, having fun, and feeling like you have something to prove. Once defined, you can pick a cue to lead towards any or all of these attitudes and physiologies. If it does so naturally, great. If it has to be built to cue the right things, that can be done, too. Examples: the American flag could be used to remind you to be grateful for this opportunity and to have fun. A sign with team colors may remind you of your team's mission, what you have to prove, and to be aggressive. A wristband you got from me that says, "Best effort one play at a time" may remind you to be focused and intense. A little foam stress toilet may help you to focus and stay confident by "flushing it" when something bad happens. The self-talk "just do what I always do" may remind you to be confident in his preparation and to relax. An image of your mother and the sacrifices she's made for you may promote relaxation and self-control while reminding you that you have a lot to prove because your mother taught you that your best effort is always good enough.

   All these cues sound great, but they won't do any good if you don't remember to use them when you need them. You can use them as part of a routine, therefore making sure that you don't forget something important to your mental preparation. Or, you can remember to check your "traffic light" indicators at certain pre-planned points during a contest to see if you are off track. Or, you can depend on your instincts to tell you that you're off track. Once you recognize the indicators of a "red" or "yellow light," actively gather yourself back to green by employing a cue that you've already planned for this challenging situation. These awareness and gathering strategies are sophisticated skills, but giving a best effort performance is a sophisticated goal. If you're ready to take luck out of the equation as much as possible, it's time to use cues to help you create an ideal performance state!

Sharing This Bit Of Humor From A Retired Law Enforcement Friend

A Texas DPS Trooper pulled a car over on I-35 about 2 miles out of West. When the Trooper asked the driver why he was speeding, the driver answered that he was a musician, magician and a juggler and he was on his way to Austin to do a show that night at a SXSW venue and he didn't want to be late.

The Trooper told the driver he was fascinated by juggling, and if the driver would do a little juggling for him then he wouldn't give him a ticket. The driver told the Trooper that he had sent all of his equipment on ahead and didn't have anything to juggle. The Trooper told him that he had some flares in the trunk of his patrol car, and asked if he could juggle them. The juggler stated that he could, so the Trooper got three flares, lit them and handed them to the juggler. 

While the man was doing his juggling act, a pickup pulled in behind the DPS patrol car.  A drunk, good old boy, driving through from Mansfield got out and watched the performance briefly. He then went over to the Trooper’s patrol car, opened the rear door & got in.
The DPS Trooper observed him doing this and went over to the patrol car, opened the door and asked the drunk what he thought he was doing. The drunk replied, "You might as well take me to jail, ‘cause there's no way I can pass that test."

put me in coach March 5, 2011 05:08 PM

Pitching Talk

Pitching coaches and pitchers have their own language and sayings to get the message across. One day, somebody should come out with a bilingual dictionary. See if you can translate the messages. I'll post the gist of the messages in another post in the future...if there's any interest.
Here's just a sample of some of the cleaner ones:

Sit and drive...land at a 45
Push, pop...over the top...leaves you with pep in your step
Shoulder to shoulder makes your pitches bolder
Pitching to a dime makes the hitter bitter
Pitch it right makes the work slight   as opposed to...
Pitch it wrong makes the game long

And you thought it was just "throw strikes", "in and out-up and down...keep 'em off balance" or my favorite hum babe, rock 'n fire.

Once Was A Pitcher

Back in the day, I fancied myself as a pitcher. It didn't seem to take too many years for me to go from having a plus fastball to minus, minus. Poor rotator cuff workouts and an anterior capsule shift were the main reason for the deterioration of my "live" arm. Mechanics can't be blamed either because I was considered to have  "pretty good" mechanics. The only other fault I had was maybe I was too methodical...too mechanical and probably predictable. This prompted Lenn Sakata to give me the nickname Delbot...as in Delbot, the robot. The dreaded ROBOT tag... this was, and still is, an unwelcome nickname for any pitcher, even if it's true. Sadly, this thorny nickname caught on, but at least was shortened to where they just called me Bot. However, to be honest, before this term of endearment took hold, my defense mechanism promptly kicked in and I dubbed Lenny with the "Bugs" nickname. Although, if you look at Lenn's antics and stunts through his career, you could give a good argument for giving him the nickname of "El Crazo". One thing he did well was play baseball, and if you don't know baseball players, everybody gets a nickname.

In the next post, I'll throw out some pitching coach jive that'll resonate with the pitchers and maybe give position players and baseball fans a chuckle.

Summer 2011 Dominican Republic Camp

Dear Coach Pittman,

I am excited to announce that the dates are set for our summer 2011 Dominican Republic Baseball Camp.   We are actively recruiting high school baseball players (2011, 2012 or 2013 graduating class) to join one of two 15-man teams that will travel to the Dominican Republic.  Each of these trips will be led by Division I head baseball coaches and will immerse the player in the Dominican Baseball culture which produces more major leaguers, per capita, than any country on the planet.

These trips are a unique combination of baseball, culture and fun.  I am confident that any player who attends will have a memorable and rewarding experience.

Summer 2011 open session dates are:

• July 20-26 with Michigan State head baseball coach, Jake Boss
• August 3-9 with Indiana University head baseball coach, Tracy Smith

All of the details are at http://www.dominicanbaseballcamp.com .  If you are aware of any players who would have an interest in being part of this unique experience please have them contact us.  Please forward this email to any players who may have an interest.  

Please feel free to call for additional details.  I welcome the opportunity to speak with you and tell you more about baseball in the Dominican.

Sincerely

Sam LeBeau
Dominican Baseball Camp
http://www.dominicanbaseballcamp.com
(434) 466-2128