Changing arm angles

I think some programs like it, some don't. A teammate of my son's did this. He was not a hard thrower, so wasn't really looking to go D1 or anything. He was looking mostly D3 and NAIA. Some of those teams didn't like it, some of them said they thought it was good, so if you do it, you are counting yourself out of a certain percentage of schools right off the bat.

Part of his advantage is that he can throw all of his pitches from both arm slots. One of the arguments against it is that batters will know what's coming when you drop down. If you can throw all your pitches from both slots, batters still won't know what's coming and you essentially double your arsenal of pitches.

There are a couple of pro guys that will drop down from time to time in certain situations, but there are not a lot of people doing it. My general feeling is to stick with one slot and work on getting velocity up and perfecting all your pitches. No one will argue with that and no schools will be immediately turned off.

quote:

Originally posted by bballman:
…There are a couple of pro guys that will drop down from time to time in certain situations, but there are not a lot of people doing it. My general feeling is to stick with one slot and work on getting velocity up and perfecting all your pitches. No one will argue with that and no schools will be immediately turned off.

The main reason for not doing it, is it makes things just a bit harder to repeat mechanically. FI, let’s look at throwing a 4 seamer over the top and one siderarm. If its thrown over the top 1st, then from the side, even if all things are equal other than that, if the ball is at 3’ above the plate with the 1st pitch, its going to be lower on the 2nd pitch, if nothing else because the ball will be released at least 2’ lower. That means something has to change mechanically.

Oh it can be done, but it makes everything much more difficult. In general I’d say a pitcher would get much more out of practicing using the same arm angle for his pitches because it would require the fewest mechanical adjustments, than to practice throwing from a different arm slots. The great thing about it is, even if there’s no increase in velocity, there will definitely be an increase in control, which may be just as or even more important.

Agreed Stats. Repeatability is much more difficult.

quote:

Originally posted by bballman:
Agreed Stats. Repeatability is much more difficult.

I’ve seen lots of pitchers try it in games, but when you watch them in a pen its difficult to see how what they do in practice translates to the mound in a game. “Typically” pitchers will throw their pitches from their “normal” slot, then take some time and drop down and throw several of their favorite low slot pitches. But in a game they’ll throw 5-10 from the normal slot, then 1 from a low slot and then back up again.

As I said, it can be done, but the amount of work to pull it off very well is enormous. And its not like a hitter switch hitting. At least he’s getting several pitches from the same side. What it would be like for a hitter is to go up batting LH, then jumping to RH for 1 pitch then back to LH again.

It seems to work well in kiddyball, but that’s because they don’t have the skills, so not being able to throw the ball where they want it isn’t noticed nearly as much.

Thanks for the feedback...

He's not an overly hard thrower and primarily relies on change of speeds and location. In fact the V coach for whom he's playing fall ball suggested that he continue to work on the off-speed stuff to keep batters off-balance.

And keeping them off-balance is exactly why he may continue to work on it during winter workouts. He's going to ask the V coach this weekend about his thoughts as well and we'll go from there.

Thanks again for your feedback.

tzbookman,
Your HS aged son should be focusing on developement of his fastball, regardless of velocity. He can continue to practice off speed stuff in winter but he should also practice the FB.

One slot for all pitches. Consistantly trying to change new slots can lead to injury issues, repeatable mechanics is what you strive for, for all pitches thrown. Stay at the natural slot for the velocity.

I'm not trying to contradict other posters in this thread...I mostly agree with what's been said.

Relatively few pitchers really seem to master two different arm-slots but there are certainly some notable examples of it.

It would be very interesting to know when Bronson Arroyo became serious about using two arm-slots:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...TyjnfPk&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...EbKvvHE&feature=plcp