How to teach pitching to kids
... a well respected pitcher is like a stone wall; nothing distracts him, his next goal is to get a good stretch. The stretch will help in keeping his arm loose before he starts his warm-up tosses in the bull pin. This is where he will fine tune his arm and make sure everything is alright and ready to go. Now it is about ten minutes before game time and he is ready as he will be, he has that look in his eye that this is his game and he owns the other team. The star spangled banner is finished being preformed and the mighty slayer of men steps on the mound ready to do battle. You hear over the loud speaker “NOW BATTING”, and you know that any minute the first pitch is going to be thrown. That first pitch sets the tone for everything that is going to happen, is it going to be a strike? Is the umpires’ strike zone going to be fair? Are you and the catcher going to be on the same page? Is the pitcher going to feel good about himself? These are just some of the things that go through your mind before the very first pitch. The pitcher gets his sign from the catcher; he shakes him off not once but twice. Now he comes to the set at the belt and everything happens in one quick motion. As the pitcher rocks back he has to make sure he is isn’t stepping back to far as to throw him off balance. If he is off balance no matter what he does form that point he isn’t going to throw a strike because he can’t recover and get balanced again. His rock back motion is perfect and he is well on his way to throwing a strike. Now that the rock back is successful he comes to the balance point. When you get to the balance point you should be at a ninety degree angle with your front foot. You should almost be able to balance a glass of water on your front leg if done properly. The balance point and the rock back motion are both key steps in helping you on your way to throwing a strike most of the time. After al...