Less Is More Pitching Thesis Statement

Sorry for the delay between posts. It's been a hectic few weeks with tons of pitching lessons taking up plenty of time. As we head back into the fall baseball season, I wanted to take a moment to re-establish the Less Is More Pitching Thesis Statement.

From my years of personal experience pitching at the professional level, working with professional coaches and players, and studying the deliveries of numerous major league pitchers I have come to the following "over arching conclusion" about pitching:

"The better a pitcher can create positive muscle memory through dedicated drill work, bullpens and dry run repetitions, the more likely he will be able to replicate his delivery and get to a consistent release point with out having to utilize "maximum effort." Instead, he will be so familiar with his delivery that he will literally feel looser and smoother the LESS hard he tries allowing him to apply MORE velocity, movement, and depth to all of his pitches at the end of his delivery as it naturally explodes to the plate."

The bottom line is the better you know your delivery, the less hard you will have to try to repeat it. The less hard you try, the looser your muscles will be. Loose muscles are explosive muscles and explosive muscles = velocity.

The path to this goal is through repetition. A pitcher must learn to "try less" by forcing his muscles to be so used to the proper positions of the delivery that it will literally become second nature.

All of my pitching lessons are centered around this goal and utilize light shoulder exercises, proper warm up techniques, long toss, dry run drills, short spin drills, bullpen work and mental exercises to help pitchers all over to achieve this goal.

If you're interested, shoot me a line here or on my website to get connected!

Until next time!!

Warming Up Like a Pitcher

Today's post will concern what might be considered by some to be a pretty obvious topic. Granted the idea of "warming up like a pitcher" does seem pretty apparent. However, the actual implementation of this idea requires a little more dedication and in fact, concentration.

The idea is simple. As you are loosening your arm for a day of baseball, be it practice, a game, or just tossing with your friends, it is of great important that you take time to consider your release point and create "good muscles memory." In other words, it does the "Intelligent Pitcher" no good to toss however he pleases as he prepares for the day. I have spoken frequently, especially in our Big Leaguer Breakdowns, about the importance of certain aspects of the delivery. For example, getting the elbows up to the power position, using your hips to drive the upper half to release point, and of course, balance point. To create the positive muscle memory, we must make sure that we incorporate these movements into each throw we make. If we don't, we train our muscles to move in a way that creates poor pitching mechanics.

So, one simple way to create better muscle memory as we warm up is to focus on one part of your throwing partners body. I like to use one of my partner's shoulders as a target. I alternate each throw from side to side to better simulate throwing to both sides of the plate. It's also very important to concentrate on repeating the same arm slot with every throw you make. As you increase your throwing distance, it becomes easier to incorporate other throwing techniques as it becomes more necessary to use your hips and accelerate your hand at release point to get the ball to the target.

Give these tips a try starting with your next game of catch. Then, stay consistent with these adjustments over the course of the offseason, then by the time your season rolls around you will be able to repeat your perfect delivery without the same effort.

Until next time!!!