Being a youth baseball pitcher can be tough. Coaches and parents want to help youth baseball pitchers. Pitching in little league youth baseball games is not easy. Year after year it seems as if there are not enough youth baseball pitchers to go around. There are some common youth baseball pitching mistakes that can be corrected. Here are 4 things that can reduce youth baseball pitchers velocity. Get Noticed For Your Ability Throw Harder
Increase Pitching Performance and reduce injury
1. Slow mechanical movement
2. Too short a stride
3. Breaking the hands too early
4. Not landing in a straight toward home plate
Now lets address each one of these issues.
Youth Baseball Pitcher w/ Slow mechanical movements
Slow movement can be from too many pitching drills. As a beginning youth baseball pitcher my favorite drill is the L Drill. Also known as the power position. I do not see much use in the balance drill. I use it for a little while for posture and body control and thats it. Balancing does not help you throw the ball harder. I am also not a fan of the one knee drill. I have never seen a pitcher pitch from one knee. Why practice it. After a youth baseball pitcher has gained some accuracy and body control through the L drill its time to start practicing pitching and minimize the drills.
Short Stride | youth baseball pitcher
A pitchers stride goal should be at about 80% of their height with an ultimate goal of 100% of height. This helps the body get down low into the strike zone and gets the release point of the ball closer to the plate which gives youth baseball hitters less time to see the ball.
Breaking the hands too early
The hands should separate after the pitcher starts his stride
and make a circle with the ball. The ball should come down back and up(power position) for maximum velocity.
Not landing in a straight line toward the plate
We actually paint or a draw a line to show youth baseball and little league pitchers where there foot should be landing. If the lead leg and foot are not headed toward home plate, the ball probably isn’t either.
Pitching velocity can be improved upon by simply increasing the natural body movements associated with pitching.
Use youth baseball pitching drills for form, action, and control, but don’t over do it.
