Being a baseball coach can have its challenges. One of them is leaving the comforts of home for the city of your current team.. I have lived in a lot of cities for baseball season. Let me list them, Sarasota, Tampa, Billings, Plant City, Greensboro, Cedar Rapids, St. Petersburg, South Charleston, Chattanooga, Hagerstown, Louisville, Cincinnati, Scottsdale, Goodyear, and now Greeneville, Tn. The drive this time was five hours and thanks to my guardian angel, uneventful. We arrived and reported to Tusculum University which would be home for the next 12 weeks.
I am the pitching coach for the newly formed Greenville Flyboys in the Appalachain League. The gear is legit and don’t forget I was in the major leagues for eight seasons. The first day is complete once you fill out paper work and of course, move in. The people here have set up housing for me , a four bedroom apartment, on campus. Yes, on campus housing for the first time since 1986, that is 35 years ago for those of you without calculators.
This place is mostly furnished, many I have had in the past, have not been. I also do not have to turn on the cable, because there is none. I didn’t have to put the power in my name or water, anything for that matter. I did bring in a suitcase full of clothes and shoes. The mandatory baseball bag and gear, duh. I also brought two boxes of food and cleaning supplies so I can make the transition easier. Having ready to eat food is healthy and money and time saving.
After one night there were some additions that were necessary to make the dorm apartment more ” home sweet home” like. It took me 24 hours to realize there wasn’t a stove!! No complaints, cause there aint no crying in baseball. I headed to the store and got creative! I found a George Foreman indoor grill and an Egg Bite Maker. Whaattt??? The Egg Bite Maker is a small appliance you plug in and make small egg “muffins”. Ill report back on whether it works well! I threw in an old school Mr. Coffee coffee maker and finished the shopping journey with purchases of a mattress pad, (the mattress is not a real mattress it’s more like a box) some area rugs, blankets, candles, Clorox and a mop! Now that the apartment was ready it was time to get some sleep and get ready for the first practive with The Flyboys!! Lets Go!
On day one of my throwing velocity class there are two dozen young athletes, all with the desire to throw harder. This professor of velocity briefly outlines the class. Weeks 1-6 we will assess your ability to move, we will measure one’s strength, learn and execute the exercises, drill work will be performed with the sole goal in mind- which is- to promote arm care while learning to throw the ball hard. As the class enters the final week of our ramping up period we begin to discus the velocity enhancement portion of the course. One point we must emphasize, velocity gains are not linear. When heard, the average athlete thinks” that does not apply to me”, but for the majority of athletes and people. this will become true. It is the frustrating part of training. The lack of weekly gains can cause one to question the methodology of the program design, it makes one wonder” what am I doing wrong”. Driveline baseball, a pioneer in baseball research and player development, displays a graph where athletes hits a lull and underlines this part sucks. Many other strength and conditioning blogs have written about strength gains not being linear. Many times a climb in strength will often be followed by a dip in power before we climb to a higher threshold, Reaching a PR ( personal record) in velocity is an amazing, rewarding, exhilarating feeling. A reward for all my hard work. It makes me fired up to see the athlete hit another PR.
Sports often mimics life and as we know, success is not always linear as well. We climb the corporate ladder each year and all of a sudden, we are passed up for one promotion, just one, and self doubt begins to creep in our thoughts. Professional baseball players usually start their careers in Rookie level baseball. Man, the next year I am moving on up the Low A baseball. The next season comes, a promotion to High A. The over confident thoughts of, I have this figured out is at the forefront of my mind, I will be major leaguer in two or three years. But, the harsh truth is, next year I find myself repeating the same level of competition. What is happening, we ask ourselves. Why are they doing this to me? I was on schedule to make my Major League debut in two more years. Will people look differently at me since an not climbing up as fast?. I possibly wish I would have been more humble and not talked so openly how I was on the fast track to stardom. We all face road blocks, detours, temporary plateaus in our personal development, our professional life and even in our pursuit of elite velocity. How we react it what separates people/ athletes in their relentless pursuit of excellence.
A bump in the road is not a crossroad, let’s not a mountain out of a molehill my momma says. She is right. However, spending too much time standing in place is an issue if you are truly chasing excellence in your life or in your athletic goals. Many times, we look outward to find fault in one’s lack of personal gains. Richard Bach, an American writer widely known of some of the 70’s biggest sellers, wrote ” The worst lies are the ones we tell ourselves”. Those lies are dangerous. In this classroom, the teacher- that’s me- is selling the point that we are going to look inward when things are not going our way. This arm care and velocity program is based on principles. We are going to ask ourselves if we are meeting the given criteria are we controlling the controllables? Difference making areas we need to examine; proper sleep, calorie intake, hydration. We are going to check these boxes first. Let’s examine our foundational principles. Question one, how am moving? We are going to walk through the FMS movement screen, re test our strength and check our technique through slow motion video. Self examination, one might state. One that doesn’t weigh heavy on opinions but on facts. One particular frustrated participant found himself to have poor range of motion and needed to follow up with corrective exercises. His upper body strength had lessened with his performance. He honestly stated how terrible he had been with proper hydration because it simply has not been a priority. I give this young man props, he looked inward. A plan was out in place. Best pitching advice I was ever given, ” plan your work, work your plan”. Thanks to Larry Rothschild, long time major league coach, for that gem. A player development plan, one could replace the word player with personal or career, we have to have plan of attack. Now, that we are focused on the process, the gains are climbing once again.
gains have not been linear. A personal development plan is in place for this eager student!!
I am 56 years old, close to 57. I am a former professional baseball player, a pitcher to be exact. My last competitive pitch was 32 or so years ago. I have been a minor league coach, a pitching coordinator and a major league pitching coach over the last 33 years. The reason for the background information lets the reader know where I have been, the Comeback, is where I am going. I am going to have everyone join me on this amazing comeback. The main obstacles, besides the obvious, is that I have had two hip replacements, I have had three knee operations, a shoulder repair, a torn elbow ligament and top of this aging process, arthritis is trying to crawl up my spine and into these long, thin fingers.
First attempt to throw my age in velocity.
Well, you see day one of the comeback, an embarrassing and miserable 53 miles per hour, measured by the amazing pocket radar smart coach app. Another bit of pertinent information is that I am leading an arm care and velocity training class, twice a week at Diamond Fit Performance in North Raleigh, NC. Yes, this former Major League coach of eight years is pouring it out twice a week for his students, aged 11 to 19. Since the 2019 season ended I have received hard earned certifications in Driveline Youth Baseball Training, Rapsodo Pitching, Functional Movement Screen and I have finished all but the the final step of Driveline Foundations of Pitching. Put that on top of 33 years in professional baseball experience and I think we have the makings of a well educated class. The students are posting personal records for velocity each week but the real test will come as I begin to put myself through the rigors of the arm care and velocity training. I have consulted with physical therapists, certified strength and conditioning coaches as well as my knowledge attained from the new certifications for class content. Oh yea, did I say I was a major league pitching coach as recently as 2018? I have some advantages in my class, I once pitched for Dr. Mike Marshall, the creator of weighted ball training. Hmm, the plot thickens doesn’t it? Did you know Mike Marshall pitched in 106 games in 1974, won the Cy Young Award that year. He was 15-12 with 21 saves. He logged 208 innings pitches. Crazy! We cant even get starting pitchers to 200 innings in recent seasons.
I will keep everyone updated as the comeback moves forward. Lets put all the new concepts to the test! Along with some ancient concepts as well. Very few coaches have been privy to work with the hardest thrower ever, Aroldis Chapman, as well as with Dr. Mike Marshall, a Hall of Famer closer and many other of the best pitchers, coaches, people and analysts in the game of baseball. Next time, lets see if I can improve my velocity and throw my age.
The pitch referred to as a changeup is an excellent weapon for a pitcher to have in his or her arsenal. The pitch when thrown with confidence has made those with marginal talent -good. It has made those pitchers with good talent into millionaires and it has helped those with above average ability- into super stars. One does not have to look anywhere but the 2019 World Series to see Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasberg dominate the opposition with a flurry of nasty,diving and darting changeups. The pitch should be developed and utilized by all who want to become a pitcher. Velocity is king these days but there is NO reason a pitcher can not learn to change speeds with his pitches. One may ask, “ why is it important to change speeds”. Well, the answer lies with your opponent, the hitter. Hitting with all of its new gurus abound, still comes down to one important thing, timing the pitch. If the batter swings early or late, the ball is put in play slowly or completely swung and missed. Being a long time coach I am confounded when pitchers are reluctant to learn a changeup. Maybe it is the name, it isn’t macho enough. Terms like power change, spread change, ring finger change, 601 change are all more powerful words than simply changeup. Mentality is a key when throwing your nasty changeup. Let’s take a look at a few grips.
The okay or circle change has many variations depending on fingers length.Bugs Bunny or 601 change befuddles hitters. Practice with fastball like arm speedUse a variation of this grip. Slider the thumb up towards the index finger to slow it down even more
The videos show three nasty changies that I like. We know that quality changeups are slower than the fastball, they have less spin than the fastball and they have equal to or better than release extension of the fastball. These can be areas of emphasis when learning to throw one. Of course we want the same arm slot as the fastball as well. A common mistake in learning this pitch is trying to place it in the strike zone. The pitch just needs to look like a strike for the majority of its flight towards the batter. Find an aiming point on the catchers body to start your changeup is important. You want your disgustedly good change to look like a strike and the movement will take it to the bottom of the strike zone and below the zone. When the catcher gives you the sign, universally, a fingers wiggle, grip it and rip it. Check out these quarantine nasty pitches thrown with our styrofoam balls.
Check out the release on this spread change. Excellent hand position and the ball action is unrealThis okay change has late action. The pitcher sold it using fastball arm speed and finish.
Some common questions are about the speed of the change. There isn’t a magic number or percentage of velocity but let the hitter tell you if it is too hard. If so, spread your fingers some and/ or Move the middle finger away from center of the ball. You can find away to kill spin with your grip, the depth of the ball in your hand. You can do it, deliberate practice is the key to designing a nasty change. Also, I am asked if it is hard on the arm. There are no studies out there to suggest this issue. One big thing the change does, it keeps pitch counts down. If your son pitches in little league or you coach a team you know pitch counts are crucial to survival in a tournament. Be safe everyone
Today let’s learn how to throw a slider the right way. We are using styrofoam balls for a few reasons. One, we are indoors and don’t want to beat up the walls. Two, the styrofoam balls give the thrower instant feedback. If you throw it correctly the wicked break is easily seen, if not, you spike it in the dirt or it floats the wrong direction. Three, it is safe for all ages to learn. One of the throwers you will see in the videos is a female. She has never thrown sliders, curves and change ups but in the upcoming weeks, she will throw them with brilliance. The next video will talk about the proper grip.
Gripping a disgusting slider
We will speak about grips all the time. Good grips are the foundation to throwing the ball whether from the field or from the mound. To be good at throwing or pitching we need a strong foundation. The grip is just that. The slider grip is easy to find working off the center of the ball. The pads of middle and index finger are hooked fairly on the seam. The next dynamic part to this equation is the action of the hand and fingers at release. Remember, we will always get our hand in to the Magic Circle when leaving the glove. Once our hand is passing our head on the way to release point we will move into the release action. Throw the pitch with a loose arm but the slider is a violent pitch. The video below will show us more
Slider chop
Told ya it was violent. The slider takes deliberate practice. One can transition from styrofoam ball to baseball with no problems. Remember that picking a starting point to aim at is important. While the curve will have a lot of vertical break, the slider will have more horizontal break. It is thrown with velocity and has a similar trajectory of a mid thigh high fastball. This pitch takes some strength to be thrown properly. I prefer young pitchers choose one breaking ball, the slider or the curveball. For a young pitcher to have two breaking balls is very advanced. Enjoy the stay at home sliders, you will be spinning them off the mound one sizzling summer day soon.
Check out finger action, late breakWicked spinStay home slider
This is a fun drill for any overhand thrower. Baseball or softball, young or old. On the included video, we did the drill inside a batting cage. It can also be done in a net in your backyard or there are so many portable nets I have seen on the baseball and softballs fields. I like this drill because it encourages athleticism and it promotes throwing fast. If your team has a pocket radar gun or some type of device to measure throwing velocity, use it. It makes the drill more fun for the players. The players I have seen make a competition or game out of it. One can keep score on who improves the most, not who only who throws the fastest. This often leads to your players towards learning the proper warm up, to practice away from the field, to do the band work that we are going to introduce and to improve their athleticism by moving fast. To do this drill get 40-50 feet away from the net. In our video, we were thirty five feet away from the net. Our player in the video, Payton, gained about 25 feet in his momentum moving forward. He used a simple step behind foot work, a simple shuffling of the feet. One can also use heel to heel shuffle forward. This is the footwork involved in throwing the ball across the diamond or throwing longer distances. The timing of the weight transfer is important when doing this drill and when throwing across the field. When the athlete improves their footwork and improves the timing of proper weight transfer, they will see an increase in velocity. That is a reason we want to measure and document each players throwing velocity and their increases. Remember the grip we use is extremely important as well. What else is important , come on? The throwing hand and arm working in the magic circle. This is a drill I like because it is enjoyable for the athlete, it teaches athleticism and it is a skill we can measure. Each coach can add his or her own twist to make the throwing drill more fun to his or her particular team. A fun fact for everyone, an elite throwers arm travels at 8500 degrees per second, meaning the arm would spin around 24 times before coming to a stop! Whaaat! This fact I read years ago in an article in popular mechanics about throwing velocity. Stay safe everyone and enjoy throwing the ball. It is for everyone.
This drill is one for developing powerful movement patterns for overhand throwers. We want to emphasize drills and exercises that cue the body in move in the most efficient and most powerful way possible. The good drills, like this one, can be done just about anywhere not only at the field. This drill does require that the catch partner be ready for some velocity so throwing in a net or fence at a short distance might be the best plan. In this drill we will make three aggressive faux throws to target in the direction we are facing and on the fourth cycle we will pick up our glove side foot and turn to the glove side and throw the ball fast to out net a short distance away. Accuracy is not the emphasis of the drill. This drill begins with the thrower in an athletic stance, feet shoulder width apart. The throwers hand are together at mid chest height, in a direct line with the chin and navel- remember center of mass? Of course, you do. Rotation of the upper body is an important part of this drill, make sure you are getting a nice turn. As we begin our cork screw turn the ball will separate from the glove, the hand will travel through the Magic Circle, the glove arm reach out towards the target, while remaining flexed and natural to the particular athlete. The glove arm will work back towards the body as the throwing arm unfurls forward with proper wrist snap and finish. We want the fake throws to be aggressively emphasizing arm speed. Make sure we get the same coil on the throw forward. Lift your lead foot as the ball seperates from the glove, stride towards the target and let the ball fly. Do this drill on days you want your athletes to work on velocity and power. I have had six players at a time in a batting cage doing it. Remember, the distance is short, it is for all ages, throwing into the net or fence is suggested. The drill is named after a good Rodney Dangerfield movie which has nothing to do with baseball but the movie is a classic.
This drill is a good one to teach your athlete about weight transfer. It can be added to the other two throwing drills we have spoken about or to substitute in your rotation of drills to keep it fresh. During this drill your players need to back up a little because we are going to throw faster than in the other drills. Make sure your team is lubed up well and ready to let the ball go before starting this. To do this drill, we are going to hip to the lead foot, taking a small hop forward before hopping back to the throwing side leg. Now, we are going to teach our athlete to hesitate on that back leg for a short time. How long, about the time it takes to snap your fingers. Let’s talk about what the players doing during that hesitation. We should encourage them to really slow it down to “feel” the body weight loaded on the throwing leg side, And, we want to teach them to push down into the ground before driving forward. Wow, this is going to be enlightening, career changing to your athlete. It is something called ground reaction force, it is important to athletes, especially our pitchers and hitters. We will talk about that later in simplified terms. Let’s get back to executing the drill; we have hopped back, pushed down into the ground and now we begin to drive forward towards the target, our throwing hand separating from the glove-on time- our hands works the Magic Circle- back to forward in an efficient manner, unfurling forward as we release the ball out in front of your face, fingers behind the ball. The ball peels off the fingertips creating powerful backspin. When you watch the video, watch the lead leg, it stops or blocks your momentum from going any further this is extremely important. Have fun, doing this one. Take 10-12 reps and really slow it down when initiating this into your practices..
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
No BS Baseball 