General
It has been said that good pitching will usually beat good
hitting. The teams that have been the most consistently successful,
have been those with good pitching. At the youth level, one
of the most important attributes is the ability to throw a
good fastball in the location you want to. Establishing a
good fastball with good control must precede the development
of a off-speed pitch, as generally the off-speed is set up
by being ahead in the count and having the batter anticipate
a fastball.
Basic Pitches
- The basic fastball grips are the two-seam and four-seam
fastball.
- The two-seam fastball is gripped along the two short
seams. If thrown with the correct motion, this pitch
will tend to sink and tail away slightly.
- The four-seam fastball is gripped across seams. This
pitch will provide for a harder straighter pitch. The
four-seam grip is the grip that ideally should be used
by the fielders to generate a hard straight throw.
- The second recommended pitch to develop is the change-up.
Four time NL Cy Young winner Greg Maddux has used this pitch
extremely effectively over his career. There are multiple
grips that can be used.
- One of them is the circle change (Maddux's ) grip
where the pitcher forms a circle with his thumb and
pointer finger and places it on the side of the ball
and then he places his next 2 fingers on the top of
the ball. His pinky finger rests underneath.
- Many young pitchers hands will not be large enough
to throw the circle change and may have to throw the
3 finger change where he grips the ball deep into his
hand with his 2nd, 3rd and 4th fingers on top of the
ball with his thumb and pinky underneath.
- Another is the football change where the ball is gripped
land thrown like a football.
- Once the young pitcher has developed a good fastball and
change-up, then he can develop the curve. The curve should
be thrown with the same arm slot as the fastball and change,
but with a different grip and hand location.
- The curve is gripped with the pointer and the middle
finger, with the middle finger along the bottom of the
horseshoe shaped seam.
- Instead of releasing the ball with your hand behind
the ball like you would with a fastball, you should
release it with your hand to the side of the ball, over
the top, with a pull down of the ball.
Set-Up
With no runners on, the pitcher will generally be is the
Wind-Up position. The pitcher should place his heels on the
rubber about 6-8 inches apart. The pitcher should hold his
glove in front of him so that the batter and base coach's
will not be able to see what grip he is using.
When receiving the sign, you should be in a comfortable position
with your knees slightly bent and your shoulders and hips
square to the plate.
- Your first movement will be a short step back and slightly
to the side with your left foot (for Right handed pitcher,
for lefty reverse all future left/right references). Try
to keep your head and shoulders still during this step back.
Your hands may move up towards your chin or eyes. It is
important to keep balanced during the remainder of the wind-up
as any excess momentum one way or the other will impact
the pitcher's control. Once the left foot has stepped back
the right foot moves to become flush with the rubber.
- The pitcher pivots his body so that his body is now facing
third base (first base for lefty).
- While pivoting, the pitcher lifts his front leg, such
that his thigh is at least parallel to the ground. This
is what is referred to as the 'Balance Point'. The pitcher's
weight should be directly over the rubber such that if he
stopped in this position he would not fall one way or the
other.
Once in the balance point the pitcher will want to now bring
his front leg down near the surface of the mound and then
out towards the plate. As the pitcher begins his movement
towards home plate, his hands separate thumbs down. At time
of front foot landing with a slightly bent knee and on the
balls of the foot and at only a slight angle to the plate,
his elbows should be at shoulder height. The throwing arm
should be cocked (about 90 degrees) with the fingers on
top of the ball facing the shortstop or centerfielder.
- After the front foot lands, the hips open to the plate,
which allows the body to bend forward. The lead arm rotates
inward and down, the throwing arm continues smoothly through
with the throwing elbow above the shoulder with the hand
behind the ball, not under.
- The throwing arm should follow through all the way around
and should finish around the lead foot ankle. The back leg
should then come around and land even with the lead leg
and the pitcher should now be a in a good fielding position.
With runners on base pitchers will use the 'Stretch' position.
The stretch is the same as the wind-up, except it skips the
small step back and pivot and picks up right before the start
of the balance point. All other aspects of the wind-up will
apply to the stretch as well.
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