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Assume you have a very young, inexperienced HS team that has lots of problems. The pitching has an overall strike percentage of 51.9 and 1st pitch strike percentage of 49. In 58 innings they’ve walked 54, hit 20, had 35 wild pitches, and given up 47 SBs in 52 attempts.

 

Obviously there’s more than 1 problem, and obviously each pitcher has different problems or different degrees of the same problem. Right now the games are all little more than scrimmage games, so the only thing really being played for is experience and the opportunity to get better. Here’s my question.

 

Why continue messing with signals and trying to hit spots that aren’t going to be hit? Why not just have the pitchers try to throw the ball right down the middle? That way the “pace” of the game will get a little faster, there’s no thinking about how to execute a certain pitch or worries about whether a pitch or location is the right one, even though the chances are pretty slim either one will be achieved.

 

Yes, I understand there are certain things a good PC can do to help this pitching staff, but the truth is we don’t have a good PC, and even if we did, while one practice a week will of course help, it isn’t gonna help a whole lot. My thinking is, get rid of as many of the ancillary BS things that pitchers think about, and boil it all down to one simple thing. “Throw the ball over the plate and make the batters hit their way on!”

 

Ordinarily that’s not something I’d suggest with much sincerity, but ordinarily I’ve never seen the staff as a whole having so much difficulty. Also, I’ve been around the block a whole lot of times and ask a lot of people of varying abilities how to teach a pitcher control, but no one seems to care. The overriding thought is, “Learn to throw it hard and worry about control later on.” That may be an ok philosophy for little kids, but now we’re talking about HS aged kids who very likely don’t have any more than 2 years at most before the game drives them out.

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I asume we're talking summer HS ball. Given what you have shared about this team, maybe it's time to start from scratch and coach them over the summer as if they were little kids. Use that philosophy along with the idea that you're going to lose a lot over the summer and concentrate on velocity and mechanics. In my experience, you don't really teach control. It comes with repitition. You learn how to throw with velocity and then you throw a lot with velocity. These sound like inexperienced pitchers who need to forget about walks and K's and concentrate on mechanics, letting the chips fall where they may. Forget spots and just try to throw it hard over the plate.

At that age, not really sure if I am good with just letting guys throw right down the middle of the plate. Maybe divide location into thirds: rather than setting up with the targets on the corners, setting up middle-away, middle, and middle-in. While throwing down the pipe may have a positive effect on the bottom line in terms of strikes thrown, reducing walks and HBP, maybe even runs (depending on the skill of their comp), these kids are still developing and I would still want them to get some feel for location and learning how to pitch. You still want to stress setting a good target and the pitchers focusing on hitting the glove.

 

Are these kids just not great players regardless of age? Are their mechanics completely butchered? Are they trying to do too much? Are they scared to be in the zone and nitpick because they are worried about getting hit hard?

 

Why is a summer league team practicing only once a week? Even in that one practice, I am sure a flat ground session between starts would help.

 

Just my opinion though

Originally Posted by roothog66:

I asume we're talking summer HS ball.

 

Yes, it is summer HS ball. No tournaments, just a bunch of games to try to get the boy’s some more game experience.

 

Given what you have shared about this team, maybe it's time to start from scratch and coach them over the summer as if they were little kids. Use that philosophy along with the idea that you're going to lose a lot over the summer and concentrate on velocity and mechanics. In my experience, you don't really teach control. It comes with repitition. You learn how to throw with velocity and then you throw a lot with velocity. These sound like inexperienced pitchers who need to forget about walks and K's and concentrate on mechanics, letting the chips fall where they may.

 

You’re correct. Very inexperienced pitchers as a group.

 

Forget spots and just try to throw it hard over the plate.

 

I have fundamental disagreements with the “hard” part, but I do agree about trying to just throw it over the plate and let the chips fall.

Originally Posted by RGDeuce:

At that age, not really sure if I am good with just letting guys throw right down the middle of the plate. Maybe divide location into thirds: rather than setting up with the targets on the corners, setting up middle-away, middle, and middle-in. While throwing down the pipe may have a positive effect on the bottom line in terms of strikes thrown, reducing walks and HBP, maybe even runs (depending on the skill of their comp), these kids are still developing and I would still want them to get some feel for location and learning how to pitch. You still want to stress setting a good target and the pitchers focusing on hitting the glove.

 

I don’t disagree in general, but there’s no reason trying to throw the ball right down the middle is incompatible with setting a good target and focusing on it.

 

Are these kids just not great players regardless of age? Are their mechanics completely butchered? Are they trying to do too much? Are they scared to be in the zone and nitpick because they are worried about getting hit hard?

 

In performance they’re below average, but not because they’re poor athletes.

 

Generally their  mechanics are not very good, and I honestly believe at least some of that is because they’re trying to do too much.

 

Since I’m not a coach, I do talk to the players, but I don’t try to find out what they’re thinking. Gotta be careful about stepping on toes.

 

Why is a summer league team practicing only once a week? Even in that one practice, I am sure a flat ground session between starts would help.

 

Because that’s as much of a commitment as they can get. Heck, these are 14-16 YOs and it’s summer in Sacramento. We have 3 players practicing with the HS football team, then coming to games and practice. We have 2 players going to basketball practice after baseball.

 

Then throw in that this school has never had either a summer or fall baseball team in the last 14 years. The baseball program is fighting for credence among all the other sports at the school, and it’s a difficult battle.

 

Just my opinion though

 

Nothing wrong with your opinion at all. It’s just a bit more difficult than most would believe.

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