Warm it up Kris

Teaching our players to throw the right way takes some time. It takes persistence and this is where warm up throwing drills come in to play. The drills can be done every practice to start your daily throwing program. I have seen these drills implemented from ages eight to thirty eight. The first drill we like to call” face up”. The throwing partners are facing one another from 30 feet apart for the youngest and 45 feet apart for ninth graders and above. Your athlete is in an athletic stance, if you are not sure what that stance looks like, have your players get feet shoulder width apart and leap high as they can. When they land- you have a nice athletic stance. We start the throwing drill with ball in glove, ball properly gripped, and glove mid chest in line with the nose and belly button. This is about center of mass or gravity if you want to sound smart. We are going to rotate the glove side shoulder towards the chin, midway through the turn we are going to take them ball from the glove. We are going to reach back with the throwing arm, keeping the fingers on top of the ball, move your throwing arm forward towards your throwing partner and release the ball. The throwing arm should always be loose, never stiff. When we take the ball from the glove and reach back the throwing hand travels in a circular motion. This keep your arm path moving efficiently. We are going to call this “ The Magic Circle”. When the thrower releases the ball, his or her wrist snaps toward the target. The ball should spin beautifully off her or his fingertips creating powerful, efficient back spin. #baseball#playerdevelopment#pitching#throwing