Pitch Better With These 4 Youth Baseball Pitching Guidelines

By Steven Ellis, former Chicago Cubs pitching pro

Somebody once said that the pitcher represents 50 to 75 per cent of a team's defensive strategy. Maybe that figure is too high, and maybe it isn't. The point is that a pitcher can make or break his team. And so, it's only natural that most youth baseball pitchers want to pitch. There's a certain thrill in rising to that challenge that makes it easy to understand why a boy wants to get out there and pitch.

So what are some basic guidelines to help you become a better pitcher?

First a pitcher has to have control, natural ability, a strong work ethic, the will to win, and above all, courage.

Let's explore some of these youth baseball pitching guidelines in greater detail. Here are some basic youth baseball pitching guidelines that any pitcher must have to succeed:

1. The will to win is perhaps better described as a "fighting spirit," which must not be confused with a bad temper. A good pitcher learns to curb and control his temper for his own good and his team's. Many pitcher at the youth level give the other team an advantage when they show that they can be angered easily. The other team, if they're good, will usually exploit that weakness.

2. The next pitching guideline is control. Control is truly the secret of a pitcher's success and is his most important asset. This guideline gives him the advantage over the hitter because he can spot-pitch to a weakness, and it gives him confidence and poise, which are a great part of any good pitcher's makeup.

3. Natural ability can vaguely be labeled as what the pitcher has in the way of physical assets: height, stamina, strength of arm, the ability to react quickly and throw the ball hard. Remember, however, that many pitchers have mage good despite the lack of one of more of these qualities.

4. Courage is as essential as control in my opinion. It's also as important a guideline as natural ability. The pitcher's mound is no place for the chickenhearted when everything depends on a single pitch to "get in there" when everything's on the line.

As you work to develop your pitching skills and learn the fundamentals of pitching, keep these youth baseball pitching guidelines in the back of your mind -- and work to be the very best, every day, at displaying command of each one.

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