Throw Strikes-DUHHHHH!

"Throw strikes, but don't let him hit them!"

The pitcher should respond, "Thanks for the tip. I was trying to throw balls."

My boss asked me to come by and watch his team (11U) and son play since they were up near my house a couple weeks ago.

2 things that I found so distracting. Maybe it was because I had just learned so much and it stood out now.

The Dad of the pitcher kept continually screaming at his son "throw strikes" and "throw harder, you're throwing too slow". So, after every pitch the son would look at the Dad to see if he had met his approval. Of course, the Dad would bury his head in his hand or roll his eyes, etc. It devestated this young boy. I finally had all I could take. I went up and stood by the Dad and began bragging on how well his son pitched, asked about his training, etc. etc. Just to take his mind off his son, and his son's attention of the Dad.

The son would come in rubbing/holding his elbow which told me he was experiencing some pain. His Dad would ask how it felt and the son said "ok". Dad would just tell him to not say anything to the coach.

I left.

I have no doubt in my mind I've said this myself without ever knowing it. Like I said in the other post though - I'm a talker and there is a difference in just saying it just to be saying and like the dad YGD is describing. Life and death is lying on the line with each pitch and its horrible for the kids to suffer through this.

I've been guilty of saying it in the past.

Usually it is in the past when my son tried to nibble at the corners instead of just going out and challenging the hitter. I don't say it much anymore now that the boy is in HS but whe he was younger he would sometimes try to think too much on the mound.

if you are a parent, then the obvious better thing to say is something "constructive." The only way you will understand what "constructive" means is to pay for several pitching lessons, attend them yourself, and begin to understand the mechanics of your son's delivery. Once you understand what he should and shouldn't be doing, and what tendencies he has when he is "off", then "stay back", "dont overthrow", "finish" etc can actually be helpful, when you can see something he may be missing. You only learn this if you are a pitching coach yourself or you have listened to a pitching coach correct errors. The next best answer is to teach the boy how to loudly say what RJM said. The boy may have also been rubbing his elbow to get out of the game. I've seen that as well. Just the same, better safe than sorry.

When my son was younger and pitched he was told this numerous times. It turned him off to pitching so he spent his time catching instead. Occasionally coaches will ask him to pitch, but he still has that "throw strikes" yell ringing in his ear. As a result, he is the perfect pitcher if you want to hit bombs.

I always made sure I was on the bucket calling the pitches so I didn't have to say throw strikes i could give a sign for it and believe me I wasn't always asking for strikes. How about "Throw a groundball" " pitch to contact" or my favorite " lets see how far he can hit it!" I usually just yell why don"t you just bean him and keep your pitch count down if you are not going to throw strikes! You might get a few dirty looks for that comment (just kidding))You see it all in youth baseball> Sometimes I think the parent needs to be trained by taking them to a 18u game and working their way down to the 10 u level and notice the environment along the way.

Love the comment about working backward from 18U to 10U, Around the Horn! That's just plain brilliant.

I have herd that allot
"Throw Strikes"
"You Gotta Hit A Spot"

Well No Kidding

I usually say,
"Ok, You gotta relax here"
"Get back in your rythem"
"Mechanics!!!"
Or I'll start yelling out Percentages, like 75% or 55% and it may seem like I would be telling my fielders something but in fact it to tell the pitcher to bring down his velosity a bit so he can hit that spot or throw that strike.
If I go out to the mound to have a word with my pitcher I usually dont even talk about baseball. It confuses most of them and for that short second they forget about throwing bad.

Those seem to work for my pitchers anyway! I try not to fluster them, it just makes it worse.

GsKaWa- You tell your pitchers to throw 55% of their maximum velocity during a game?

JP24 I would think it could be compared to walking around the mall with the seniors in the morning before the stores open at 18u level. To black friday shopping at the 10u level! I wish i could have found this site before we started our journey, it might have sped up the learning curve however we were surrounded by good people the whole way thru and still are and I wouldn't trade any of the learning because it has shaped who we are today. The point is we LEARNED!

quote:

Originally posted by J H:
GsKaWa- You tell your pitchers to throw 55% of their maximum velocity during a game?

Not to mock the game or anything, but yes I have. The one kid would try to throw so hard it would go over the backstop.LOL So I would tell him to throw 55% because that was just over half and he would hit the strike zone more often! Its weird I know but this was at the 13/14 league and he was getting stikeouts with 55%. LOL

Given 13/14's throw about 70 mph you coach them to throw 40 mph if they're not throwing strikes? How does that help in their development? Taking something off to throw strikes typically involves taking off 5-10 mph at that age. Bad coaching never sounds weird. It's not a mockery of the game. It's a mockery of coaching. LOL!

I was not a pitcher and I am not a coach, but I remember my college coach telling a pitcher once, "Your job isn't to throw strikes, it's to get batters out."

I once heard Nolan Ryan talk about being a very wild high school pitcher. The more walks he put up, the harder he tried to through. He said something like, "I knew I was never going to learn how to throw strikes at 100% by trying to throw strikes at 80%."

quote:

Originally posted by Jimmy03:

I was not a pitcher and I am not a coach, but I remember my college coach telling a pitcher once, "Your job isn't to throw strikes, it's to get batters out."

One of my summer coaches a few years ago used to refuse to let us ask the guy on the radar gun how hard we were throwing. In fact, it bothered him when some of the stadiums we played at had gun readings on the scoreboard because he thought a lot of us, as college pitchers, were throwing to the numbers. He told us "I don't care if you f-a-r-t the ball out of your a** to home plate. If they don't hit it, I'll keep putting you out there."

We had 8 pitchers from that team sign professional contracts with MLB teams.

Oops. "throw" not "through". I should read these things before I hit send!

Had a pitcher at 10 to 12U who was all about how hard he could throw, getting K's and his Dad had a radar gun. So he would throw 2 innings of no hit ball (the ball was never put in play) and use 58 pitches. We'd then take him out and he'd get mad.

Finally we talked to the Dad and said put the gun away and told the kid all we want you to do is throw it down the middle. Told the catcher to set up on the point and put his glove belt high. We told the pitcher if anything bad happened it was our fault but we just wanted to try something different. The kid had natural movement on his pitches and would miss the target by 6-10 inches so we weren't too worried about grooved pitches. He threw the same 55 - 60 pitches of 5 inning 1 run ball. It was beautiful.

Never could get him to stick with it consistently since he was a bit of a rock head about the K's. The other coaches and I would joke in our tournament planning about when we were going to use Nuke Laloosh.

Is yelling "Nice and easy!" or "Right at 'em!" any better?

quote:

Originally posted by J H:
GsKaWa- You tell your pitchers to throw 55% of their maximum velocity during a game?

In most areas of the country, catchers wear this on their wrist:



In Northern Ohio, they wear this:

How many of you get in trouble with parents for the thing's you say on the field that they don't understand?

1. I'm a big proponent for batters standing in there an "taking one for the team." I'm always telling them to "Wear It!" when they jump out of the way. One mom was heard to say "does he really want Johnny to get hit by the ball? That's awful!"

2. If I have a younger pitcher consistently throwing outside, I'll try to move him inside by telling him "don't be afraid to hit the batter."

3. I want my catcher to throw a line drive down to 2nd on a steal. I hate that rainbow throw. So I'll tell him to throw it right through the pitcher's head.

Moms don't like me. Even my son's!

quote:

Originally posted by leftyshortstop:
Oops. "throw" not "through". I should read these things before I hit send!

Um, you know, there is an edit function on your post that allows you to go back in and fix it.

quote:

Originally posted by RJM:
Given 13/14's throw about 70 mph you coach them to throw 40 mph if they're not throwing strikes? How does that help in their development? Taking something off to throw strikes typically involves taking off 5-10 mph at that age. Bad coaching never sounds weird. It's not a mockery of the game. It's a mockery of coaching. LOL!

It doesn't mean they lower their throws to 40 it just means to take something off the pitch for a bit to get your control. But if thats what it takes, thats what it takes. I am not gifted a team of perfect players. I take whoever signs up and teach them what I can for that season. Some things work some dont. Some players want to be there, Some want to play in the dirt.

quote:

Originally posted by biggerpapi:

quote:

Originally posted by J H:
GsKaWa- You tell your pitchers to throw 55% of their maximum velocity during a game?

In most areas of the country, catchers wear this on their wrist:



In Northern Ohio, they wear this:

LOL thats funny. No seriously, I have a kid on my team this season who has come up from the Little League majors. They told me He can throw hard but he cant pitch. I had him on the mound after watching him doing some light throwing. The first pitch went right over the backstop and far. The 2nd pitch went over the backstop even farther. So I told him to throw about 55% and it smacked the catchers glove doing probly somewhere in the 60's. Its going to take some time to get his power under control to get him to the 80's where I think he's going to hit by his Freshman year! I would rather teach him slow rather than try to have him throw hard with no control. He usually plays 3rd base, but he doesn't have the wheels for the outfield.

.55x = 60
x = 60/.55
x = 109

Holy Cow!!!!

.



Not quite holy.



.

quote:

Originally posted by GsKaWa:
So I told him to throw about 55% and it smacked the catchers glove doing probly somewhere in the 60's. Its going to take some time to get his power under control to get him to the 80's where I think he's going to hit by his Freshman year! I would rather teach him slow rather than try to have him throw hard with no control. He usually plays 3rd base, but he doesn't have the wheels for the outfield.

How did you know it was in the 60's?
80's as a freshman? I doubt it.

Your statement above shows that you know nothing about pitching.

I am not sure if you are here to educate or impress us, but the above statement makes you look rather silly.

I'd dial it back a bit, just a suggestion.

quote:

Originally posted by TPM:

quote:

Originally posted by GsKaWa:
So I told him to throw about 55% and it smacked the catchers glove doing probly somewhere in the 60's. Its going to take some time to get his power under control to get him to the 80's where I think he's going to hit by his Freshman year! I would rather teach him slow rather than try to have him throw hard with no control. He usually plays 3rd base, but he doesn't have the wheels for the outfield.

How did you know it was in the 60's?
80's as a freshman? I doubt it.

Your statement above shows that you know nothing about pitching.

I am not sure if you are here to educate or impress us, but the above statement makes you look rather silly.

I'd dial it back a bit, just a suggestion.

TPM, I am afraid you're the one that looks silly, as well as arrogant, and condescending. Most anyone who has spent a good amount of time around baseball these days can tell if a ball is in the 60's range given all the devices available. And as stated before, my frosh and many others we know can throw in the 80's as verified by my Jugs gun. You just don't look as smart as I am sure you are when you’re so critical and wrong to boot. Does being a HSBBWEB Old Timer make you the fair judge of all motives and the right to lecture how, when and what to post. Might I respectfully suggest you dial it down a before you have lost all respect.

You know I am just telling you what I have done. Like I said if it helps it helps if it doesn't it doesn't. But I dont have a radar gun, so no I couldn't tell you if he was exactly at 60 and I couldn't tell you he was throwing 109. Because that would be rediculous. Its just throwing numbers out there to confuse the other team and to shake the pitcher loose so he can throw strikes again. It doesn't need to be so literal or exact. Its not a science its Baseball, Its timing, Its a lot of things and I am not trying to be smarter than everyone else, and I dont need to impress anyone. I do kinda look silly though, From the right side of the plate.

GsKaWa, I may not agree with all that you say but I'm surprised you're still here. Just about everytime you say anything (this thread or others), someone jumps your case. Someone suggested in this thread that you back off a bit, which you might consider. But I think some of your critics should stick their panties in the freezer for a bit too.

I don't contribute alot so file this wherever you want, but this is just what I'm seeing.

quote:

Originally posted by mcmmccm:

quote:

Originally posted by TPM:

quote:

Originally posted by GsKaWa:
So I told him to throw about 55% and it smacked the catchers glove doing probly somewhere in the 60's. Its going to take some time to get his power under control to get him to the 80's where I think he's going to hit by his Freshman year! I would rather teach him slow rather than try to have him throw hard with no control. He usually plays 3rd base, but he doesn't have the wheels for the outfield.

How did you know it was in the 60's?
80's as a freshman? I doubt it.

Your statement above shows that you know nothing about pitching.

I am not sure if you are here to educate or impress us, but the above statement makes you look rather silly.

I'd dial it back a bit, just a suggestion.

TPM, I am afraid you're the one that looks silly, as well as arrogant, and condescending. Most anyone who has spent a good amount of time around baseball these days can tell if a ball is in the 60's range given all the devices available. And as stated before, my frosh and many others we know can throw in the 80's as verified by my Jugs gun. You just don't look as smart as I am sure you are when you’re so critical and wrong to boot. Does being a HSBBWEB Old Timer make you the fair judge of all motives and the right to lecture how, when and what to post. Might I respectfully suggest you dial it down a before you have lost all respect.

Please read his post. He stated that he really didn't know what he was throwing because he doesn't have a gun. He guessed.

How can a pitcher go from 60's (somewhere) to 80's (he did say 80's) in such a short period of time?

If he knows how to do this, than share the secret!

Are you talking about throwing velocity or pitching velocity.

I never heard of teaching a pitcher to pitch "slow".

Have you?

quote:

Originally posted by mcmmccm:
…And as stated before, my frosh and many others we know can throw in the 80's as verified by my Jugs gun. …

Well mcmmccm, all I can say is, y’all must be feeding your young’uns something in Md that us Ca folks don’t have access to. I’ve scored HS ball for 2 different large schools herein the greater Sacramento area over 11 years now, and in all that time, I’ve only seen 2 Frosh who could hit 80 on either team. Are there Fr in the area who can do that? Absolutely! But “MANY” would be a huge overstatement.

GsKsWa=Tradasaurus / Tradasaurus=GsKsWa

quote:

Originally posted by TPM:

quote:

Originally posted by mcmmccm:

quote:

Originally posted by TPM:

quote:

Originally posted by GsKaWa:
So I told him to throw about 55% and it smacked the catchers glove doing probly somewhere in the 60's. Its going to take some time to get his power under control to get him to the 80's where I think he's going to hit by his Freshman year! I would rather teach him slow rather than try to have him throw hard with no control. He usually plays 3rd base, but he doesn't have the wheels for the outfield.

How did you know it was in the 60's?
80's as a freshman? I doubt it.

Your statement above shows that you know nothing about pitching.

I am not sure if you are here to educate or impress us, but the above statement makes you look rather silly.

I'd dial it back a bit, just a suggestion.

TPM, I am afraid you're the one that looks silly, as well as arrogant, and condescending. Most anyone who has spent a good amount of time around baseball these days can tell if a ball is in the 60's range given all the devices available. And as stated before, my frosh and many others we know can throw in the 80's as verified by my Jugs gun. You just don't look as smart as I am sure you are when you’re so critical and wrong to boot. Does being a HSBBWEB Old Timer make you the fair judge of all motives and the right to lecture how, when and what to post. Might I respectfully suggest you dial it down a before you have lost all respect.

Please read his post. He stated that he really didn't know what he was throwing because he doesn't have a gun. He guessed.

How can a pitcher go from 60's (somewhere) to 80's (he did say 80's) in such a short period of time?

If he knows how to do this, than share the secret!

Are you talking about throwing velocity or pitching velocity.

I never heard of teaching a pitcher to pitch "slow".

Have you?

Wow, you guys are going to rip me apart all you can. Ok, No problem. The kid I am talking about can throw the ball real freekin hard, not sure of the speed I dont have a gun.
When I first started working with him this spring(about 2 or 3 weeks ago) I was told that he could pitch and he could throw the ball hard. But at the Little league majors level they wouldn't let him pitch that much because he couldn't get the ball over the plate. So when I first started watching him throw as a pitcher he was throwing the ball over the backstop. His mechanics were all screwed up. To start off he didn't even know how to grip the ball. His thumb was on the side of the ball or he would have his fingers to far apart, his footwork was absolutly horrible for a pitcher. Throwing from 3rd to first he could pop the glove with a perfect strike, on the mound he was a disaster. So I showed him how to work his feet. Taught him how to create a rythem, and how his body should end up in a ready position to field a baseball(plus all the little things with guys on base and whatnot). At first I only would let him let throw the ball go with about 50% or so of his full volosity. Yes many pitches went right into the dirt in front of the plate but thats a good workout for the catcher to learn how to block the ball. As he would progress through the sessions I would have him bring his velosity up and down to find his control(this is only for throwing fastballs, I won't let him throw anything else just yet). He told me noone has ever taught him to throw this way before, they would just tell him to throw strikes.

To be completely honest after reading what I had typed, 80's might be a little high, but high 70's for his Freshman year are very possible.

Its ok if you guys think that I am wrong doing what I am doing, but I have been doing it for 10 years this way and it has been working. All the players that I have coached have gone on to play High School Baseball, but only 1 has been cut but that was due to his mouth getting in the way arguing with the coaching staff. His loss not mine, he never acted that way towards me.

How about giving me some pointers on how I can be a better coach instead of telling me how bad I am doing! I love coaching these kids and they like me coaching them so if I can be a better coach to them that would be great! Thanks guys go ahead and rip me up now! LOL

quote:

Originally posted by dswann:
GsKsWa=Tradasaurus / Tradasaurus=GsKsWa

I dont know what this means?
Could you maybe put the definition of Tradasaurus up here for me?

quote:

Originally posted by slbaseballdad:
GsKaWa, I may not agree with all that you say but I'm surprised you're still here. Just about everytime you say anything (this thread or others), someone jumps your case. Someone suggested in this thread that you back off a bit, which you might consider. But I think some of your critics should stick their panties in the freezer for a bit too.

I don't contribute alot so file this wherever you want, but this is just what I'm seeing.

I agree I probably should back off but its just not my nature. Someone else here told me to stick around? So this is what happens when I stick around! LOL thanks for the input!

GsKaWa,
I am glad that you read over your previous post.

It wasn't ripping you apart but trying to understand exactly what you were trying to convey.

I have no reason to believe that your players from LL went onto play HS ball or that you are doing anything wrong in your methods to help.

Understand that there are many guys here that have coached players onto HS, college ball and the pro game as well.

I hope that some of those guys can help you to become a better coach.

If you have any questions about pitching, they might get more attention in the throwing and pitching forum.

What gets lost in threads like this one, is just how difficult it is to 1) throw strikes on demand, and 2) teach someone how to do it. If it was so easy and all coaches could do it, you’d never see any pitcher who had a strike percentage less that the high 60’s, or who had a K/BB ratio worse than 10:1.