quote:
Originally posted by pitchersmom2012:
My 14-year-old son is a 6'3" RHP and he rarely holds men on base because he's got some mental thing about throwing to his player! When he does throw over there, sometimes it barely makes it because he throws it so softly or he tries to underhand it. This problem just started this year. Any ideas how to fix? When he gets into high school, I know this is not going to be acceptable!
The 1st thing he has to learn is, he doesn’t have to throw over to hold a runner on!
Here’s 3 very good things to understand from Baseball Excellence.
· Vary his times to the plate. This is extremely important. Simply by not going to the plate with a predictable rhythm he can keep the runner off balance. He can do this with just a silent count. And he can work on it during his in-between starts bullpen.
· Hold the ball. That’s it, just hold the ball and don’t deliver it. Sometimes a runner will get so anxious that he will take off any way.
· Step back off the rubber. A pitcher can do this after he has held the ball for a time. Step off with the throwing side foot and look over at the runner. (When a pitcher steps back off the rubber he becomes just another infielder and he can do anything he wants with the ball. But you have to step off with the throwing side foot.) A coach can help his pitcher several times in a game by simply telling him to “step off” in stealing situations. That gives the opposing coach something to think about and it helps the pitcher be aware of a possible steal.
Supposedly Satchel Paige very seldom threw over to 1st. His idea was,
If I step off, what is the runner gonna do?The 2nd thing he has to understand is, not every runner is going to attempt a steal, and he has to learn how to tell the likely runners from the unlikely runners.
But by far the most important thing for him to understand is, the guy he needs to concentrate on is that guy with the bat in his hand!
I’m gonna take a real wild guess here and say that he’s seldom if ever had a pitching coach who’s given him equal time in the bull pen throwing from the stretch as from the windup. Here’s a reason why I think that’s important.
In the last 2 years, the HS team I score for’s pitchers have thrown to 818 batters from the windup and 842 from the stretch. Its opponents have faced 686 from the windup and 1,766 from the stretch. Think about that! Chances are, a pitcher is gonna face more batters throwing from the stretch than not, so it only makes sense that they should practice at least the same amount of time for each.
Why is that important? IMHO it has to do with comfort. If a P is comfortable in a situation, its just one less thing that will allow him to get rattled. Does the teams he plays for break out his stats by whether he’s throwing from the stretch or not? If they don’t, I suggest you do it for him to try to impress on him how important it is to practice that part of his game.
