My 10 year old will be pitching in little league this year, pretty much his first time pitching beyond maybe 5 or 6 innings last year (where he hit more batters than he got out). I don't know enough about pitching mechanics to know if he is throwing correctly or not, and I'd rather not see him trash his shoulder (he needs that for football season). He throws pretty hard, and when he misses it's usually high or WAY off the plate.

I posted some clips from today's practice and if anyone that knows this kind of stuff can take a look at them I'd be very appreciative. I'm not looking to groom the next Ron Guidry, just make sure he isn't doing something that will cause problems later on down the road.

http://media.putfile.com/From-side---1

http://media.putfile.com/Good-from-front

http://media.putfile.com/Side-259

http://media.putfile.com/Side3

Thanks.

Xbiggio7x where are you!?

JD,

He actually has really solid form. Most kids when the first start pitching jsut try to throw the ball. The majority of you speed comes from leg push and he does a good job. My only comment is his stride needs to be right at the plate. He is falling to the left a little bit, like a batter stepping in the bucket when they hit. Other than that dont let him throw curveballs and he should be fine.

JD,

A few things that might help. First off when pitching from the windup have him squared up facing the plate. His first step should be back behind the rubber and then continuing toward the plate. As it is now he is losing alot of velocity and probably control by using the side step perpendicular to the plate which is also causing him to move his right foot as well when his left foot slides away. The only thing that right foot should be doing is pivoting on the forward motion.

Secondly he is not bending at the knees on his continuation (causing the generally high pitches) or getting any push at all from his legs. From the pictures it appears to me that he is throwing entirely with his arm as his right leg is pretty much trailing behind. Again having him windup and use a back and then forward motion instead of the side step should help in this regard. Just have him slowly go through the motions and get that back and then pivoting down and then tell him to concentrate on pushing off the rubber on his delivery, you can't really push off the rubber if you are not bending your knees. Hope that helps some.

Thanks guys, BTP rules!

Rhound, I have told him that curveballs are only for pussies that can't throw a fastball, hopefully he'll listen to that for a while. My brother did a number on his arm throwing curves too early so I don't want that to happen for sure.

Piers, he had trouble with the mound because the hole in front of it was too deep and crooked for his normal stance. I probably should have had him go from the stretch to take that out of the equation once I saw him shuffling his right foot like that. I have tried to have him step back and forward and he had a LOT of trouble keeping his balance, so someone had recommended the side step. I had to remind him to keep that step short while he was throwing though, he has a tendency to make it much longer/wider than I think it should be. Maybe now that he's thrown a bit more he can keep his balance on the step back, we'll try that some more.

Keeping his front leg stiff (on landing) has been a problem since the beginning, and I've been working on that with him. When he remembers to land with it bent a bit it seems like he's more consistent. Do you think having him focus on pushing off more will naturally lead to him bending the front leg too, or is it more of a 'bend at the waist - bend at the knees' thing?

Xbiggio7x has said that he will "have to take a look after class."

Anyone ever heard of the umass minutemen!? That's D-1 my friends.



P.S. I got a hit off of him in Fall Ball.