quote:Originally posted by TBP:
Thanks to all for the warm welcome.
I guess you can call me crazy but if I have a tool that increases a player's enjoyment, understanding and performance without risk, I am going to use it, regardless of age.
In every 10 yr old and up league I know of, kids pitch. As long as kids are pitching they should be coached to do it in as safe a manner as possible. This includes both mechanics and performance. Good mechanics help them to pitch with as low an impact on their arms as possible and good performance (getting batters out) increases their enjoyment and lowers their pitch count per inning.
Young pitchers have two main methods for getting batters out without resorting to breaking pitches. They can overpower hitters with speed or they can disrupt timing with fastball-change up combinations. The only way to objectively measure the differentials between fastball and change up is with some type of measurement device. He only way to empirically demonstrate the results of delayed shoulder rotation is with a gun. What we should be doing is using every tool available to improve our player’s experience. We should be encouraging parents and coaches to grow in their understanding of the art and science of pitching. The radar gun can be a useful tool in this. It is too bad more people are not using them as they could.
Cadad,
Thanks for mentioning the issues with the glove radar. If you can get the glove in the direct line of travel pretty early, you get pretty good readings. You do sort of have to average things out though to get the truest picture of what is happening. I have a good read on variations introduced by movement at this point. I have also cross calibrated a couple of different times with Juggs and raw readings seem to be at about 6 mph below peak for the pitching distance we use. In truth, we use it more for differentials and relative baseline than for an absolute velocity reading. There are differences with all guns and the algorithms used to calculate peak velocities so it is all a bit relative. For us the convenience of use out weighs the other issues.
Good luck to all,
TBP
I will be perfectly honest with you....
I couldn't agree more!
The first time my son ever had a real gun on him pitching from the mound was before his 11u season. We were training in an indoor facility and the Dad who ran the joint had a radar gun to calibrate the pitching machines to what people wanted it to throw. Puttint two and two together, it was only a matter of time before someone with the gun in hand pointed it at the pitchers on the end to see what they were throwing. One day this happened with my son. He was getting warmed up on the mound getting conditioned for the season and one of the coaches started gunning him.
As he warmed up the pitches gradually increased in mph one by one until he was maxing out but still in rythm hitting the strike zone. He was also gunned on his offspeed pitches. It was through this experience that we learned a little something about his Change-up and corrected it that season wich led to great success in games. Because of this success he had fewer long innings and thus- a fresher arm. What we learned was that he was not throwing his CU fast enough and the gun provided the proof of it. I was trying to teach my son that an effective CU was roughly 8-10% slower than the fastball and not 8-10 mph slower for this age. So, with gun readings present we were able to dial in the correct mph to get that 10% drop from his fastball velocity.
That season, in city LL play, all the kids who knew him went around saying "he has a new pitch", when in reality it was just an improved existing pitch he already had. Thanks to the gun he was able to have a greater and more enjoyable season. Guns aren't bad for the sport even at an early age.