Warm Up to Throw, Don't Throw to Warm Up
Of utmost importance to our league is protecting young arms. When working with pitchers, and the team on throwing in general, it is important to emphasize a quality warm-up regimen. Here is a link to a pdf with drills you can use at home and in practice.
Correcting Improper Mechanics
When teaching proper mechanics, it is helpful to understand and correct improper mechanics that are common among youth players. Here are some common ones you’ll come across: Short arming throws, elbow height not in line with shoulders, keeping the ball too far from the head, Stepping to the left or right when throwing (instead of on the line to the plate).
Instructing on Proper Mechanics
There are numerous videos and sources of reading material on how to teach pitching. At SEPLL's pitching clinics, we have followed the process of starting backwards and working from the end (finish) to the beginning (load) of the full pitching motion. With that in mind, here are some drills in the recommended order. (At our pitching clinics, we have focused on Finish Drill #1, the Scarecrow Drill, the Low Balance Drill, and the Load-and-Go Drill, which are illustrated sequentially in this video. Here is a link to a pdf with an overview of these drills.
Step 1: Finish and Follow-Through
Ensure that the player's arm follows through all the way naturally and does not look like they’re throwing darts. Finishing drills address elbow height, transferring energy from back leg to front, release point post hip opening after stride, and follow-through.
Finish Drill #1
While in open chest position: check for elbow height, rock elbow back and forth a minimum of three times (more if necessary for those who are having elbow height problem), then throw! Video Explanation (timestamp 0:36-1:59)
Finish Drill #2
While in front foot landing position: the goal here is to get used to transferring energy to the front leg and fully follow through. Transfer weight into back leg while rocking back into arm separation, then throw! Check for back leg being off the ground or work towards that, make sure they’re not aiming “throwing darts”. Video Explanation
Step 2: Stride & Separation
This will address descending from leg kick into landing positions and combining what was learned in the finishing + follow through drills.
Stride & Separation Drill #1: Scarecrow Drill
Starting in a separated or “scarecrow” position, 3 minor leg lefts with slight weight shifting to back leg, tap to front leg. On the third leg lift throw! Video Explanation (timestamp 2:00-3:30)
Stride & Separation Drill #2
Emphasize arm separation when front leg is coming down. A common timing issue is arm separation happening simultaneously when the front leg is lifted.
A simple drill would be to start with lifted leg, separate on the way down and finish by tapping weight onto the front leg, no throw. Elbow at proper angle should be in unison with toe tap. This is an excellent opportunity to correct elbow height, keeping ball closer to body if needed, and throwing on the line for this drill. Here’s a good clip of proper separation.
Stride & Separation #3: Low Balance Drill
This is a low balance drill that leads to the next step which is loading weight fully on back leg. Excellent for balance, and good introduction to adding momentum going into arm separation and then adding our finishing follow throughs. Video Explanation (timestamp 3:30-4:45)
Step 3: Loading Up
We won’t be able to properly load up until we’ve achieved balance. This adds to the low balance drill as we are now creating full leg raise (high balance) that will flow into the rest of the mechanics. It’s good to practice both arms being raised and lowered in unison going into stride, separation, finish and follow through.
Loading Drill #1: Load-and-Go
It’s good to practice both arms being raised and lowered in unison going into stride, separation, finish and follow through. This drill emphasizes balance, three leg raises first followed by stride separation and follow through. Video Explanation (timestamp 4:44-6:30)
Loading Drill #2
A bit more advanced, but this would be helpful for getting kids used to putting their weight on their back leg. Front knee is down, player gets up on back leg and pushes in to their stride. Here is a good clip of training back leg drive.
Loading Drill #3
Once the mechanics are strong enough, explaining usage of the hips can be added to increase velocity and to get better acquainted with throwing off of a mound. Therefore this serves as a good mound introduction. This is not really a drill as much as explaining the role the hips play on the mound which builds on all of the flat ground work we’ve done up to this point. Video Explanation