justbaseball posted:roothog66 posted:Dominik85 posted:2 or 4 seam? I think a low spin 4 seamer is never good.
however I would not try to tinker with that yet and Focus on developing command and Velo.
So, a serious question because, after 35 years of coaching I still don't have an answer; how do you "develop" command?
It is a good/serious question. I don't know the answer really - our older son tells me that he ultimately moved into a reliever role in pro ball because he didn't have the same command that starters have. Why couldn't he be trained to have more of it?
But a clue to the 'develop' part that may be worth something? Our younger son, who has such good command that at times he has been coached in pro ball to throw pitches more out of the zone on purpose at times. In his HS program (different from older son's and one of the best), nearly every bullpen came with a command and control "game." PC would award points, hamburgers, milk shakes, whatever....to the pitchers for winning a 'game' of locating their pitches. The program in general had high rewards for locating pitches in practices and games. Pretty much a mindset, embedded in his brain.
Don't know if that is largely responsible? Or maybe its just a skill not everyone has? But I gotta believe that four HS years had more than a little impact on his command.
I think some element of command comes from the pitcher gaining a precise understanding their movements - maybe call it awareness. My 2017LHP at some point starting talking about why an individual pitch did not end up where he wanted it. I guess he developed some sort of feedback loop to where he didn't have to be told - which is good because the difference can be so small as to escape most observers. He has decent control, but seems to have an excellent grasp of what occurred during any given pitch. He may not be able to make the correction instantaneously, but eventually he'll start putting it where he wants. Also helps when he is given instruction and potential changes and helps with the back and forth with the coach on what's working, what's not working and possibly why (is the change affecting other aspects where the net effect is negative).