You may think you can make it to the Major Leagues. It’s great if you have aspirations to do that. Realistically the chances of you making it are very slim, regardless of your talent. I don’t want to damper your spirits. But one statistic says that there are almost 400,000 pitchers in High School that want to pitch in college. Of those pitchers, there are less than 7,000 open spots for pitchers even at the collegiate level. What about all of those college pitchers that want to play in the show? Take the number of Major League teams and multiply that by about 15. What is going to separate you from the others?
One thing is for sure. If you have aspirations to play at that level, you have to either have a natural God given talent to throw the Baseball, or you have to have solid mechanics. Most Hall of Fame pitchers have both working for them. Proper mechanics will help you prevent arm injury and sustain your career. Here are a few tips to follow to ensure you have good mechanics.
Make sure you take a stride toward the plate; don’t just step! This means that you will lead with your hips and not your knee. When you take a stride your hips lead the way; when you step, you open up too soon and lose power.
When you take your stride, make sure it is at least as long as you are tall. Also, make sure that your head is over your center of gravity (belly button) all the way to foot strike. Many pitchers fall into the trap of leaning back to try and get power. When your head is too far back, your energy follows and you are at risk of not only throwing more balls than strikes; you are also putting your arm at risk every time you do that. Some pitchers also drop their front shoulder when they take their stride. This raises their throwing arm up higher and keeps their head too far out in front of them. These pitchers tend to keep the ball low which can work in their favor until they start throwing the ball in the ground. It happens to a lot of pitchers with that habit.
When you pitch you also have to make sure you keep your weight more on the balls of your feet than your heels. Your pivot foot is used as a stabilizer for balance and power. You will have more “leverage” keeping your weight on the balls of your feet. You can’t create enough momentum to foot strike if you are falling backward when you need all of your momentum going forward.
If you are a youth baseball pitcher and want to learn how to throw a slider, The Pitching Academy can help. In fact, we can help you throw most pitches.
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