@adbono posted:I have never been a fan of players both pitching and catching. My first advice would be to pick one or the other. If he/you/coach insists on do both here are some suggestions on the pitching side. Work exclusively out of the stretch until he is commanding the baseball. Make sure that the length of his stride is at least 90% of his body height. At release have him focus on letting his chin and his chest keep moving toward the target as long as possible. This will help him get better extension. Tell him to try and finish with his back parallel to the ground, head up, eyes on the target. My suspicion is that he is too upright at release and is cutting off his extension toward the target. If necessary, tell him to exaggerate to the point of throwing the ball in the dirt to get the feel for a different release point.
Thanks. He’s pitched from the stretch since he was 9, so that’s nothing new for him. Funny thing is after his last 2 outings the other coaches were commenting on how fast his moves to first and second were. We always thought he was slow.
The upright comment makes sense and I have seen that a few times but haven’t watched closely enough to see if he’s doing it every time. When he practiced pitching in the past he always had an exaggerated finish.
I also wish he could just catch, but it’s a smaller private and most of the starters right now are two-way players. Coach said he’s not going to pitch him on days he’s catching. And since my son is going through the yips and lobs the ball back, he’s not putting in many high stress throws behind the plate right now.
At the end of the day, he’ll be a starter in key positions on a team with several P5 commits, so I’m not going to complain where he’s playing. Now if I can just get him to add on 30 lbs we’ll be all set!