Pitching

Pop in a tape of Game 5 of the World Series and have him watch Lincecum and Lee. Those guys throw low 90's and dominated both teams with change of speed and location. Show him all the Rangers bad swing and misses on sliders and change ups.

Seeing is believing!!!

Excellent thought.

I would be more worried if a 14 year old didn't want to throw hard. Solutions simple, get him a pitching coach. Two best in my opinion are Linty and Mike Bacsik. Good luck getting an appointment with Linty, though. But honestly, there are a lot of guys who know there stuff, plenty of ways to skin a cat. I would recommend that you try and stay with the same guy all four years though, helps to stay consistent.

If he's that enamored with velocity, send him to a velocity camp. These are no joke, though--your son has to really want it. PM me if you want details.

quote:

Originally posted by Big Red:
I would be more worried if a 14 year old didn't want to throw hard. Solutions simple, get him a pitching coach. Two best in my opinion are Linty and Mike Bacsik. Good luck getting an appointment with Linty, though. But honestly, there are a lot of guys who know there stuff, plenty of ways to skin a cat. I would recommend that you try and stay with the same guy all four years though, helps to stay consistent.

If he's that enamored with velocity, send him to a velocity camp. These are no joke, though--your son has to really want it. PM me if you want details.

I don't necessarily agree with the recommendation that a player should stick with one pitching coach for all 4 years. I know one of the coaches you mentioned actually recommends this if the other coach is competent, knows what he is doing and can offer a different voice. You never know what a player can get from a different coach that he wasn't getting from his regular instructor, no matter how qualified or expert the regular instructor is.

Moving to higher levels the player is going to move from coach to coach and this also further prepares the player's ability to adapt to more than one coaching style and voice. Of course, what is being taught has to be on the same page but we are all different and that is good.

I think some players suffer from one instructor for a lengthy period of time, whether it is complacency due to comfortability or a lack of exposure to other ways.

I agree. What I'm saying is that a player should have a single PITCHING coach that he goes to on a semi-consistent basis to keep his mechanics grounded and who can help him if he is struggling. It's hard for a coach to know whats wrong if he has never seen whats right. He's going to get enough "different voices" through the 2-5 coaches he has on his high school team, and the 2-8 that he gets playing summer ball. Not to mention the most important one coming from his dad.

I am convinced he has the ability. We have been to pitching coaches in the past, probably for two months consectutive, and my son would fail to implement what he was being taught. Would look great in the lesson but it wouldnt translate to gametime. He has been a "Sunday" pitcher a large part of his youth career and has pitched in some high pressure tourneys\situations so I know the ability is there. I just know that once he hits that brick wall at 15 or 16 whenever kids really start hitting velocity then pitch placement will be that much more important to him.

I guess part of the reasoning that it may be immaturity is his inability to recognize something that everyone knows is uber-important as a pitcher. He is not stupid..I dont think...:-).

So shock collars arent legal?

Since we are discussing pitching, I was wondering if anyone has been to or heard of the Paul Ahearne pitching velocity camps and whether or not they are productive..thanks

quote:

Originally posted by CBancroftjr: Since we are discussing pitching, I was wondering if anyone has been to or heard of the Paul Ahearne pitching velocity camps and whether or not they are productive..thanks

I would recommend it.

Thanks

I'm certainly not gonna pick a fight with FD, but to most 15-18 year olds around here this year, low 90's is max effort velocity.

Lincecum and Lee are phenomenal right now, but both had some control issues early on. Lincecum walked 82 his first year in college; Lee still holds the record for walks, both season and career, at his juco. Control comes with maturity; velocity is a gift from God.

Extreme velocity is a rare thing, and it is treasured. Last October, I watched a kid named Stetson Allie throw his first pitch at Jupiter at 98 MPH -- to a point 8 feet up on the backstop. He walked three and they all scored on WP's. Fast forward to August. He cashed a $2.5MM check from the Pittsburgh Pirates. Will he ever make it? Who knows. But he obviously will be given a lot of chances to fail. By contrast, there were a bunch of high school seniors there throwing 83 MPH strikes all day, and right now they've got a really good chance to pledge the fraternity of their choice.

Get the kid to either of the coaches mentioned if you can. Both will be pretty blunt with him about what it takes. They will talk to him about mechanics, but they can't be there on the weekends to see if he soaks in what he was told during the lesson. That's the maturity part, and sometimes that's in short supply no matter what your age.

I also echo the Beast's recommendation of Paul Aherne's pitching workout camp. He will wear your kid out and teach him how to work.

quote:

Originally posted by No one of consequence:
Extreme velocity is a rare thing, and it is treasured. Last October, I watched a kid named Stetson Allie throw his first pitch in Durham at 98 MPH -- to a point 8 feet up on the backstop. He walked three and they all scored on WP's.

His name was Calvin "Nuke" LaLoosh by the way...not Stetson.

quote:

Originally posted by CBancroftjr:
Since we are discussing pitching, I was wondering if anyone has been to or heard of the Paul Ahearne pitching velocity camps and whether or not they are productive..thanks

I recommend it. That is the velocity camp I was referring to. I guess Frozen Ropes and DBat don't do it anymore? I'd heard the FR one was good.

My son has attended Paul Ahearne's Pitching & Velocity boot camps for the last several years. The legs, core and shoulder conditioning along with extensive band work has increased my son's velocity every time.

Is there a link for this camp?

http://www.dallasstarsbaseball.com/
Contact Paul Direct

My son has also attended Paul's velocity camps the last two years and has increased velocity. The other benefit is that the workouts strengthen the declerating muscles, helping to prevent arm and shoulder injuries. The players do have to be self-motivated as I have seen parents put their money down the drain by their sons not putting full effort into it.

If your not serious about pitching at the next level, don't waste your time or theirs. Its not for the weak hearted or weak minded. Its also good for catchers. JMHO.

While we're making suggestions for that camp, you might want to bring an old/cheap glove. The medicine balls tend to ruin the the pocket of the gloves, especially around the palm.

We still do ours. We filled our sessions last season to the point we had to make a new class. This year we are very close to capacity again.

http://frozenropes.com/Uploads...ls%20fall%202010.pdf Flyer here

We have found that there can be some control and feel improvements even though this is a pure velocity class. These improvements can be attributed to the fact that the release point doesn't change regardless of the ball weight.



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