Problems pitching to lefties

More than likely it is mental. Stay aggressive. Think about the movement on your pitches and how to use movement, angles, etc. against the lefties.

i had the same problem until this year when i started facing more lefties and i got over it after a few games it was just the fact i faced so few and wasnt used to it

As simple as it sounds, try to narrow your focus to the catcher, then narrow it further to the mitt.

The time to work on it is not during a game but between games. Get a friend or team-mate, dad or brother or mom and have them stand in as a lefty batter. Get your catcher involved or have dad do it. And then work on it. Perhaps the best way to go about it is to start with some inanimate object (a step-ladder, stick in the ground, tree etc) standing in as the lefty 'batter' try to nail the inside corner just missing the object.

Work on focusing, and throwing using good mechanics.

Repetition is key.

Good luck.

quote:

Originally posted by dad10:
As simple as it sounds, try to narrow your focus to the catcher, then narrow it further to the mitt.

Do you always miss outside to LH batters?

If so, then I agree with the above statement. You have to focus on the glove and ignore everything else. Your problem is that you are looking at the batter and not the glove, which is death.

One way to work on this is to throw pitches with a (non-swinging) batter in the box.

Yea it's always outside to lefties. An occasional one inside but it's usually in the dirt. I figured thats what I had to do to correct it. Thanks for the help guys.

quote:

Originally posted by TPBulldogs35:
For some reason when it comes to facing lefties I just can't pitch to them. It's not the fact that they hit..because they don't, but that's because they don't get a chance. I walk all lefties I face. I don't know if it's mental or I change my arm angle. I know I'd need a video to really get help but I was wondering if anybody else had this problem or can relate. Thanks.

Hi TP,
Don't know if this will help, but when my son was 9 and pitching and I was coaching, one day in the car going to a game, I mentioned that I'd noticed that it seemed like a lot of right-handed pitchers his age seemed to throw a lot of pitches outside to lefties. We talked about what we thought the reasons for that were and concluded that RHPs may be afraid they're going to hit the lefty batter. Since then, my son has made a point of pitching tight and inside to lefties, especially the first pitch or so. He's pitched against lefties (and righties) so many years now by backing them off the plate that it's second nature to do so these days. In fact, he'd rather pitch against lefties now, so he can back them off the plate! Someone else mentioned to just pitch to the glove and that's great advice. And, just remember... lefties ain't right!

Hope that helps a bit. Just see if you're going outside a lot and that may be the entire problem--a concern that you might hit a lefty. Don't worry about that--most of them recover...

haha MOST recover..thanks blue skies