slobintoronto video clip

No Chris! NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Chris would want the stretcher placed next to the mound and the surgeon in the dugout, awaiting the next pitch.

I'm NO EXPERT, but I think this young man has good mechanics. I'm not a fan of starting with the hands behind the head because it's just wasted motion. Start at the chest and keep your eyes focused on the target. Gets good push, stays balanced and has a good finish. Looks like a strikeout pitch, too!

Thank you. Any other comments are more than welcome.

This young guy has too much going on. I am not sure if he is rushing his motion because you are taping or not.
His feet are moving too much. When he rocks back he should rotate his foot with less motion. He almost steps to the rubber after lifting it, Just take someweight off and rotate the foot. Keep the hips steady and do not wrapthem back. Lift leg comes straight up and drops straight down until it almost touches the dirt and slides straight out to plant. try to keep the body weight back until almost ready to plant. He should resemble a scarecrow with his legs spread wide open as he starts to come forward rotating his hips and planting his front foot. Drive hadr to the plate and bring his back leg to a squared up position and hold that position with head down focused at the plate for a second before starting to rise up. He is in one motion rushing back to the mound.
I can't see his front elbow very well but it looks a little low when glove arm is extended.
One of the goals of good mechanics is to gain control of the body so you can repeat the motion over and over. In the video he is rushing through his pitch.
With your affiliation with Tem TO you should get Marc Picard to instruct you pithcgers.

Not enough help from the hips and might be landing on his heel. I like the arm action. I'll bet he does pretty good.

slobintoronto,

The frame rate in the video is poor (i.e. missing/duplicate frames) so it's tough to feel 100% confident in what I'm seeing. With that said I think there is certainly room for improvement in this young man's delivery.

Take a look at this...



The area I'm trying to isolate in this clip is his lower body. Tell me what you see.

Jason

Just a dummy talkin her but the thing I noticed is his lead toe never is pointed down so he lands on his heel with his foot out of position. Then his lead shoulder is flyin open too soon so he will be off the plate and wide to righty. the term I use is his hip is draggin and not gettin the velocity from body that he could. But as I said dummy talkin here I am sure some experts will chime in.

Thanks very much to everyone for all the input. I am taking notes.

Here are a couple of things that I noticed. 1. You start on top of the rubber and move forward breaking contact wioth the rubber in the process. Be carefull, you need to maintain contact with the pitching rubber. Also, going forward can make it hard to balance. 2. Your front shoulder opens up when your foot lands before you have committed with your throwing hand. This can cause you to fly open and miss up and in. 3. It is hard to tell from the film, but it looks as though your head is well to the left of your front foot. If it is, try to keep it over your foot. This is usually caused by opening up too early and using too much of the upper part of your body to achieve rotation as opposed to the hips. All in all you do a lot right and I am sure you will have a successful spring. Best of luck, and I hope the info helps.

quote:

Originally posted by hsballcoach:
Here are a couple of things that I noticed. 1. You start on top of the rubber and move forward breaking contact wioth the rubber in the process. Be carefull, you need to maintain contact with the pitching rubber. Also, going forward can make it hard to balance. 2. Your front shoulder opens up when your foot lands before you have committed with your throwing hand. This can cause you to fly open and miss up and in. 3. It is hard to tell from the film, but it looks as though your head is well to the left of your front foot. If it is, try to keep it over your foot. This is usually caused by opening up too early and using too much of the upper part of your body to achieve rotation as opposed to the hips. All in all you do a lot right and I am sure you will have a successful spring. Best of luck, and I hope the info helps.

Thanks very much.

Mark

Mark

The clip is actually about par for the course for the majority of pitchers this age so it is good that you are sincerely seeking help before internalized to the point of no return.

One thing that was mentioned by several others that is glaringly obvious is the lead foot>

Landing of lead foot should be toe to heel and not heel to toe. This has to be corrected and soon. How do you do that? This is what I do with pitchers that I have helped correct this major pitching flaw in delivery> Get an ole coke crate or box the same size in height and width as coke crate. Have pitcher practice stepping over crate from sideways position as in stretch over narrow side of crate with crate turned face down(open side down). Forget slide-step for now because the crate will be too deep to allow this and not purpose of drill anyway. This drill can be done from stretch windup or full windup but better as I described from stretch windup. Lead foot will be forced to land toe to heel in this drill and correct movement will be internalized in muscle memory after a while. Some faster than others. Drill will also force lead foot to land in more closed position as should be as in almost 45 degree angle when toe to heel action occurs in landing as pitcher is forced to step over crate.
Would give examples of successful pitchers that I have worked with who are in Major Leagues today that have used this very well kept and guarded drill but not in name dropping mood today

The second glaring lowerbody flaw is the back pocket needs to be more visual by hitter when bringing front leg forward. This can be easily accomplished by pitcher consciously thinking about keeping front side closed as long as possible when coming forward and pitcher can also work on breaking hands a little later as also mentioned.

Could also try to be a little slower and methodical overall movement in full wind-up. Also, as mentioned by HS Coach, remain in contact with rubber in side step of full wind-up.

This is a start and hope suggestions get this fine young pitcher on the right track.

Shep Does Care

Shep,

I have a 12 going on 13 who pitches. Got any clips of mechanics to use as a guide?

Thanks,

MJM

Clips?

Didn't Cap_n say he was working on something like that for us?

Would recommend a few sites but prefer to remain mutual in tug of gurus' war

SHep

quote:

Could also try to be a little slower and methodical overall movement in full wind-up.

Another thing that I suggest is develop rhythm to accompany this methodical movement which should be consistent in tempo

Shep

quote:

Originally posted by Shepster:
Clips?

Didn't Cap_n say he was working on something like that for us?

Would recommend a few sites but prefer to remain mutual in tug of gurus' war

SHep

No, not really. I'll be assisting those who do not have their own web space. I'll assist by upoading their throwing clips to the HSBBWEB. This will not be a bank of pro pitchers to chose from, or a "how to clinic" or anything elsa by me...simply a helping hand in posting clips. I'll spell this out later when I have time.

I'm also encouraging everyone to cease with further mocking comments toward C.O. He believes with conviction in what he's doing, so let it stand at that. Further posts toward C.O. will be addressed by the staff of the HSBBWEB.

Sorry about that Cap_n and glad you cleared that up for 1228.

Agree with the other part too...

Shep

Thanks again to eveyone who responded.

......not a problem Shepster

With all due respect, when CO comes on and makes medical diagnosis, will you handle that also?

The staff at the HSBBWEB is dedicated to preserving the integrity of the site no matter who the poster is. Medical diagnosis is not appropriate for this web site.

quote:

Originally posted by PGStaff:
Not enough help from the hips and might be landing on his heel. I like the arm action. I'll bet he does pretty good.

Thanks much. He does do well. What we are trying to do is increase his velocity. His strike to ball ratio is fine. If we can increase his velocity, his off speed stuff will be much more effective.

Thanks again.

BlueJay man,

PM back at cha'

PG Jerry is absolutely correct IMHO about arm action being good, very good in fact.

Potential is there with hard work.

I also agree with PGJerry about what he said about future

Seek and you shall find the Holy Grail of pitching. It's not that difficult for those with open minds, but you must seek as you are Mark.

CUDOS,
Shep

Dunno if anybody mentioned it but make sure he keeps that mitt tucked in tight..it'll help him with his rotation and that front shoulder.

Slob, (love that name)

You're getting some good information here.

FWIW, My suggestion is also to stay closed and stay back. Keep the front (left) hip and front (left) shoulder towards the plate longer. Then think about throwing with the "belly"! For some reason I've had a lot of luck with having pitchers think in terms of throwing with their stomach! Seen some pretty good velocity jumps!

thanks again. that idea about ¨throwing with the stomach ¨is a great one. I am working with this boy tonight indoors. I am recording him again and if you don't mind, I would like to email or post the clips in here for further review.

Let me know.

S-I-T-

Just follow my suggestions/instrctions and I'll do it since this is an ongoing thread.

Capture the video on the high speed of your camera. That should give you 30 fps.

Slob,

I don't always have time to do these things, but do enjoy helping if someone cares to listen.

Please do post or better yet email - pgjerry@qwest.net

Might not be immediate response, but I'll give you an opinion. There are others who can give you some great advice, though.

Best of luck

sorry for not responding guys. bin absolutely swamped. thanks again and I will email some clips.

Hi Cap'n:

I am a new member, so take this for what it is worth…

My son is ten (they make ten year olds today that are 5’0”, 140 pounds, and size 9 shoes). We live about an hour or so NW or Toronto. Having said that though, he has virtually lived with folks at Frozen Ropes (Guelph), The Baseball Zone, Don Martin’s etc. for the past three years. He pitched underage last year, having trained throughout most of last spring at FR. His coach then was a guy with a lot of Pitching experience (has a son on the Thunderbirds). This year he is playing in the COBA loop and his coach is an MLB scout. I know squat but, I have sat through hours of lessons, taken down tons of notes from these guys. I summarize a lot of stuff for talks on the long drive to games and practices.

My son is fairly sound for his age with a year of pitching experience under his belt. I took him in to (Frozen Ropes) last weekend for a “special” lesson with one of the coaches who is usually reserved for kids at your son’s level. My son normally pitches from the stretch but has been told to maintain a full wind-up as well. These are the new things that he learned that may be applicable:

When the glove and the stride leg move out together, the glove (or alternatively forearm) should be moving out with the kind of force to punch someone in the face. This will keep the shoulder high for better vertical balance and control of the throw (his words were it was the “key element” to achieve strikes).

My son has an overhand slot. He is quite strong for his age and his throwing arm elbow is shoulder high throughout the entire throw. This next point is not all that much of a revelation. They want the throwing arm shoulder to be showing to the plate at the follow through (slap the back pocket etc.).

One thing I had asked at the beginning of the lesson is to get some instruction on defensive maneuvering after the throw. My son has also been trained to have that high leg kick that your son uses at the end of his throw. At the same time though, the pitcher ends up turned around so he has less of a defensive stance. Once the throw is released, there could be more of an effort to direct the trailing leg to the side instead of sweeping him around. Right now his back is to the plate. During the lesson, he managed to get my son so he could expose that back shoulder, as well as shoot the leg off to the side after the throw. If he’s digging down though to throw at “full tilt” (not the regular 90% throw), it is hard to stop the momentum.

Another thing I saw in the Slo-Mo video is his throwing hand position at the Tee. A number of trainers have placed an emphasis on pointing the hand back behind you with the hand somewhat relaxed and on top of the ball, wrist bent forward (ie. ball pointing at the ground). It’s hard to tell but I am sure his hand is not pointing back. It looks a bit cocked (perhaps to the point a batter might see the grip).

A lot of guys have talked about the high knee raise and that the ankle hinge should be loose and toes pointing down. My son throws from the stretch. His knee comes up and comes straight back down and then skims the ground to the plant. I am not sure whether he was taught this because of the stage he’s at or whether it’s supposed to be a long-term thing. Being heavier set, it has really worked for him. Although it took a lot of balance practice, it keeps him straight up and down. There is also a side benefit of skimming the ground in that his plant stays aligned with the target and in the same place. Lately, his knee raise has been coming up higher (like your video) and the instructor said to him that he doesn’t really need to (it may cause some rockering and add to the delivery time).

I know I’ve written a lot here. It’s far easier for all of us to watch a video twenty times over and dissect things. Again I repeat, some of the things my son has been trained may be for the stage he’s at now. Some could be totally wrong – and if so let me know.

I will say one thing, it may be worth the trip to Guelph for you. Last year on three or four well-spaced ½ hour lessons my son started out as an underager and whehn the season started, he didn’t have a run scored against him for six weeks. He has had tune-up’s with three different guys in Guelph over the past year and they are all consistent. Of course, you’d have to come into Terrier territory... could get your butt bit off by the dogs you know...

Besides what we covered above, we talked about mound stance for the full windup, how to “step off”/balks, a number of things to change timing between pitches and psyche the batter, and worked on his change-up – the whole lesson was ½ hour (actually he gave us 45 minutes). When my sons throws at 90% capacity, he normally throws 49-52 mph on the gun. I would say that based on the glove-pop yesterday, he was throwing harder with the same effort. We are in a very cool place right now. He has three pitches (4-seam FB, 2-seam with good movement, a change-up which he has been working on for a month now). The development of consistent mechanics since last year is allowing us to work at a whole new level this year. A month and a half ago, he threw 57 strikes in 60 pitches. Since that time, our workouts have been oriented towards strategic pitching within the strike zone. It's not all there yet but, hey... we have three years until the curve ball! Yesterday, I asked for a low outer lane 2-seam, followed by a low outer lane change-up, followed by a high inside 4-seam. The only one he had to re-try was the change-up which he got on the second try.

If you want a contact name etc., ping me.

Doug

Sorry about that. I should have addressed that to slobintoronto.

Doug