How do you fix your mechanics when you’ve got games to pitch?

I was working with a student yesterday for the first time since last year as she spent the entire off-season recovering from an injury. We spend the whole time doing specific drills and she put in a really outstanding effort to smooth out the illegal hop in her drive through. After the lesson she asked me, what am I supposed to do in games?

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Slow-Motion Pitcher Animations

Videos are a great training aid for learning skills, but sometimes it’s helpful to be able to look at at a looping animation. For your reference, I’ve compiled some slow-motion looping animated GIFs of a few pitchers that we feel exemplify excellent pitching mechanics.

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What is “Overthrowing?”

How many of you pitchers have been told you’re overthrowing, or trying too hard? And how many of you are not entirely sure what that means, or don’t know how it feels to fix it? You’re not alone.

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Becoming More Aggressive Without Compromising your Pitching Mechanics

In order to achieve maximum pitching velocity, it’s important to push as hard as you can off the pitching rubber and get the most out of your stride. However, if doing so messes up your posture and timing, you will actually lose speed. Watch the video to learn how to be aggressive without sacrificing your pitching mechanics.

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Why You Can’t Keep Your Front Side Closed

Does your hitter or pitcher have a hard time keeping the front side closed? Drills and rep after rep not changing much? Stop forcing square pegs into round holes and expecting each athlete to abide by technical standards. Every athlete’s body is built differently, and those differences require us to make adjustments in our instruction. If your athlete has a difficulty keeping her front side closed, and nothing seems to help, watch this video.

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Correcting a “Swimming Glove” in Pitchers

Poor glove hand movement is a very common problem among windmill pitchers, especially young ones. It usually takes the form of the glove hand flying way out to the side, or “swimming,” instead of remaining on line with the catcher. Fortunately, it’s also one of the easier problems to address. All you need is a simple drill.

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Correcting Excess Shoulder Lift While Pitching

Last week I got a great question in the comments of one of my posts. I replied to the comment, but since the question addressed a problem that is EXTREMELY common among pitchers—lifting the shoulder, or allowing the shoulder to engage and control the arm circle—I decided that it would be beneficial for everyone to see my answer.

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