(another) pitching question

You see this at all levels. The towel drill is deesigned to correct this. Mty son started doing it and it ruined his last 2 seasons. I had him straightened out at thye start of thye year and he was doing great. Slowly he drifted back to the bad habit and his stats slowly balloned.
Hard throwers seem to get away with and if they do it from the start they seems to develop an early release before they fall off. My son leaves the ball up and struggles with control when he does it. The cause is when they try to over throw and don't square up after release.
They also don't keep their head steady towards the plate.

Thanks for the input, but I don't understand how the towel drill can correct this.

Hi danocaster,

You see this type of falling-off finish up through HS and you even see it in the Majors to some degree. It does seem hard to break the longer the player does it.

You might try a drill where you throw the ball back at him like a batter hits it. start out with grounders that he has to field. after a couple of throws to the side he falls to, throw it to the opposite side so that your son sees he has no way to play the ball falling off to the other side. Move to "line-drive" type throws that he has to field and defend himself by catching it. You might want to use tennis balls to throw back at him at first!

In any event he might see that falling off really puts him into a bad position to field the ball. As you move up and kids start pounding the ball back at the pitcher he will need to be able to protect himself. In any pitching practice I had with my son when he first started I ALWAYS insisted he come up with his glove ready to catch a line drive back at him. If his glove did not come up he did push-ups right then and there.

You might also try to show him that he wants his chest moving toward the plate through the release of the ball, then follow through happens. Tell him it will help him get more velocity on his fast ball. Kids always want to throw the hardest fastball.

Good luck!

The towel drill teaches you to extend out over your stride leg and release out front.
If you have a big stride it is harder to fall off until after ball release.
Usually short strides result in falling off and a higher release of the ball. This usually leaves the ball up and more hittable.
The T drill must be done properly so that you have to extend way out front.
I tell my son he would never reach the target doing the towel drill with the bad habits he has developed. The target can be the glove of another play set up at an appropriate distance on his knee or a chair.
You should read up on this drill and then get your son to repeat it with a ball inj a bull pen. I used to stand in front of him so that if he turned off he would run into me. It is a tough habit to break.
Another thing is I like a high post leg kick before it swings around landing squared up to the plate with head low and focused on the plate. I want his momentum to be towards the plate and fall towards the plate. Don't rise too quickly. When you fall off you are opening yourself up to a line drive that could take you out let alone not being the 5th infielder.
I agree with AL MA

Sorry, when I re-read my response, it may have come off as me disagreeing with your answer. I didn't mean it that way at all. I don't know a lot about pitching and I don't quite understand.

I tried to find some more info on the towel drill last night, but I'll dig around again tonight as well as trying the other things mentioned here.

I really appreciate your help.

Dano,

Tbe fix depends on the cause and that's what you have to figure out. Unfortunately, distinguishing cause from effect can be difficult. However, there are things you can focus on and experiment with.

Some things that can cause a lean to the glove side include:

> Simply trying to use the head and shoulders to generate power - fairly common among young kids who don't understand power comes up through the body.

> Instruction such as "get on top of the ball" or "throw over the top" can cause kids to lean to the glove side.

> Starting position on the rubber and/or stride direction can affect posture later in the delivery by causing the body to lean just to get the shoulders squared up to home plate if the body has tracked offline from the target.

> Postural issues early in the delivery such as leaning back (towards 1B for a RHP) or leaning towards home plate can lead to falling off.

> Dropping the glove or flying open with the glove can affect posture or pull the shoulders open early resulting in leaning/falling off.

> A lack of tempo and momentum can affect balance and posture - like riding a bicycle too slow.

Try looking at these things and experimenting with adjusting them one by one until you find the one or two things that causes the others.

On final comment... Pay attention to when your son falls off to the side. If it's before ball release, then it deserves looking at. But it it's after ball release, it's likely just his residual momentum and follow-through pulling him around - probably not a concern unless it leaves him out of position to defend himself against a come-backer.

By the way, the towel drill is simply a drill that lets you practice putting it all together. To get out front far enough to hit a target positioned at stride length plus 5 heel-to-toe steps, you have to put it all together. Posture and balance have to be intact. Glove-side has to be managed well to avoid posture and timing issues. Tempo and momentum have to be good. Mess up any one of these things and you probably don't hit the target. Hitting the target isn't really the goal - it's feedback. The goal is to have optimal mechanics and timing.

danacaster, A lot of great suggestions from RT there. If you don't know a lot about pitching it may be difficult to teach many things without getting that feeling that "am I telling him to do it right". I am all for the towel drill but at age 9, and given all the issues with getting to have machanics that can start to use the towel drill you may want to focus on some other things first and get some help to start with and possibly have someone show you how to do the towel drill. It is difficult to understand from a written description.

You might want to watch a couple games with the older kids in your park and find a kid who is pitching well and sit with your son and watch him. Talk with your son about what he is doing with his arms and body. I believe kids pick up a lot just by watching and mimicking others. Talk to parents/coaches of these older kids to get some pointers or help. They are usually glad to talk to you and try to help. Heck, you might even get some help right then after their game! You might ask if you can come to their practice to get some help with your son.

Once you get some good information about the basics of leg lift, body straight, initial arm, and body motion you will be able to work on these basics with you son in the yard.

An easy and fun thing to start with is have your son lift the glove side leg straight up as if starting the wind up and see how long he can hold the leg up, body straight, knee high and just hold it. He will learn to balance, the first step in the proper pitching mechanics. Once his balance is improved start letting him extend both arms all the way out as if pointing toward the plate with his glove and second with his throwing arm holding the ball. You can start this while balancing then progress to two steps with leg lift and motion forward and arm extension as the leg moves forward. Try to encoruage him not to kick his toe out away from him body but move toward pointing the toe toward the plate in a smoth gliding motion. This is the next process step is pitching mechanics. Actual process is that the glove side leg is moving forward as the arms extend. At this point many people start discussing what techniques are best concerning whether you get to full arm extension and arm motions as the leg moves to plant. But additional discussion with you at this point will get too technical until you master these initial basics.

FWIW,

At the very young ages here is something I've found helpful. Teaching the basic good "throwing" fundamentals is fairly easy. The problem involves each young kid being different. Some catch on quickly others don't.

To me the key is to develop the smoothest most effortless delivery. We have found that this can be done at some distance. Problem is... that distance is different from one kid to the next. Some can be smooth or fluid from 55 feet while others struggle and have to strain to throw the ball 55 feet properly.

When we see kids that can't throw a certain distance without straining and losing balance, we simply have them practice throwing from whatever distance they can using a fluid effortless delivery. We know that all young pitchers will increase their arm strength and arm speed. Sooner or later, most will be able to easily increase the distance while maimtaining the same actions. The big difference is where they start from.

We have found that even if it takes throwing 30 feet in order to learn and maintain good technique, that it's better than trying to teach good technique from a distance the young pitcher has to strain just to reach the target. From then it simply becomes increasing the distance while maintaining the smooth delivery.

Just something to think about.

We have even done this with kids in the 14-15 year old range. Instead of the 60.5 we move the catcher up a few feet. We have radar display on always at our facility. In one memorable case, we had a young pitcher throwing a shorter distance and within a few pitches he was increasing the gun reading by a couple mph. We believe this was because of his ability to maintain mechanics easier from the shorter distance. That few feet less in distance simply made things easier for him to throw correctly. We continued to workout from the shorter distance for a couple weeks until he had it down, then moved the catcher back behind the plate. The pitcher then ended up gaining significant velocity from 60.6 and he looked much better doing it.