Target Alignment and Throwing Strikes?

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Pitcher's Pathway

I think the $200+ price tag makes it way too pricey for me to ever consider purchasing.

Thats a good point! I will definitely look into changing it!

We bumped the price down to $169 for professional model and $159 for youth model! Should be finalized on the site by this afternoon!Thanks for your feedback

With all due respect but did you get permission to push your product on here by MNMom? We're not a big fan of spam on here and virtually each post you've made has some sort of reference to your product.

Also, I don't see anyone ever actually paying $170 for your product if they actually know anything about baseball and pitching. I could take a drawing of your product, a can of paint and go make that on my bullpen mound. I can spend $5 on the paint and use this idea about 6 or 7 times before I have to spend another $5 on a new can of paint. So I can probably get through a season spending about $20 on paint rather than spend the $170 plus I can get about a decade's worth of use out of the paint before I come close to spending the money on your product versus what I would spend on a can of paint.

I realize I'm sounding very harsh and that's not my intention but your product looks like a gimmick.

Aside from advertising on the site, it's not a bad aid. Concept is good. I can do you one better though coach. I used to just draw a line in the dirt on the mound to guide my pitchers when I saw that their stride was off. Even cheaper than paint.

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Originally posted by bballman:
Aside from advertising on the site, it's not a bad aid. Concept is good. I can do you one better though coach. I used to just draw a line in the dirt on the mound to guide my pitchers when I saw that their stride was off. Even cheaper than paint.

I agree that the concept is a good one and can do some good in fixing some mechanical problems or train properly to avoid bad mechanics. It's just not something I would spend $50 on let alone $170.

You got me on the line in the dirt but I will just counter that my pitcher's eyesight is worse than your guys. That's why my guys don't feel bad about giving up homeruns - they never see them LOL

We used to use sticks, or anything else kicking around the bullpen. I have seen coaches lay down a thin board on one side also. I do like the concept, with some fine tuning and some pricing adjustments it could be a good tool.

The one concern I would, particularly with younger pitchers is to make them too mechanical. Pitching should be fluid and sometimes I think we get into too much analysis and I could see younger pitchers focusing too much no the device and not being fluid. That is one reason I would not want to nail it into the dirt, use it early in a session and then get it out of the way and work on pitching,

This site and letstalkpitching would be good places to advertise and I would contact Mnmom here and Steve Ellis about sponsorships. You could also consider getting one or more of the seasoned coaches here get one and do a review and write up for you. Ground up products like this one are always interesting and there are some knowledgeable coaches here that might help you.

Looks like something you could use to fix Jered Weaver's mechanics. Who knows? You might be able to make him into a minor leaguer with it.

Thank you all for your feedback. Definitely not trying to over spam anybody or the message board. We are currently talking to the site about purchasing a banner ad!
The product isn't a gimmick and I realize you can put down a board, spray paint, or even a stick. Those are actually some of the things I used throughout my 40 year coaching career and that's why I created this device. I wanted create a quality product that would last, show stride length, give visual feedback and line up directly with home plate. I realized I had a great product when I started selling it to Division 1 pitching coaches who were very knowledgeable about the game. I've had several coaches say this product is exactly what they need, because target alignment is such an issue.
We came up with the pricing based on manufacturing costs and pricing for other baseball products/trainig devices. The majority of our customers have been high school and college teams,so the cost hasn't really been an issue. However, I understand how this can be expensive for an individual, thats why this product is better for team use or indiviuals who are serious about pitching.
CADad- great sarcasm on your part! Weaver is a guy who definitely throws across his body, but obviously he's a big league pitcher and one of the few who has gotten away with it injury free. My biggest concern for a guy who throws across his body is his how long his arm will hold up and sometimes it cause a decline in velocity. I hate to seeing a players career cut short, because of bad mechanics.

Thank you again for all your feedback

I hope you sell a ton of them to be honest. I know I sound like I'm hating on your product but I hope you are successful with them.

I haven't seen any proof that throwing across the body is hard on the arm and for a pitcher who counter rotates it is sometimes necessary to stride closed to be effective.

I would never teach throwing across the body but it's also not as big a deal as most people think. I may be completely wrong here because I'm not a doctor but I would say the area for injury in across the body would be the front hip. It is basically the midpoint for gaining leverage since you now have to get over top the front side to release the ball. During the motion most of the weight / force of the body is pushing the hip and this is where an injury could occur.

Actually, I think it is probably good for most pitchers to learn to drive close to straight toward the target. However, I wouldn't go nuts about changing someone who throws across their body unless they obviously aren't able to clear their hips and are losing significant velocity or are having to make adjustments that impact their control.