Youth Pitching Drills - How To Teach And Develop Quality Throwing Mechanics For Baseball Pitching

By Steven Ellis, former pitcher in the Chicago Cubs organization

A good drill for developing your throwing skills is the game ‘21’. Be sure to find out ahead of time whether or not your partner "stands on 16"!

You and your throwing partner stand 60 feet apart (45 feet for the Little League guys). Alternate turns and accumulate points by hitting different parts of the body. 2 points for a head-shot, 1 point for a body shot (shoulders to the belt) and no points if it’s not on the body but can be caught. Minus a point for any ball thrown in the dirt or over the head.

NOTE: Make sure to contact the appropriate local sanctioning body for this event and decide ahead of time whether the 3 knockdown rule will be in effect.

A good twist on this drill is to “phantom” making a play and then having to make the throw to finish it. An old baseball cliche is, “Million dollar play, 5 cent throw.” Fielding is just the first step, you gotta complete the throw.

‘21’ is a great drill for practicing extension and throwing THROUGH your target. It’s not a game of darts – don’t ‘goose’ it over there, firm throws. Playing catch, odd as it may sound, is an underdeveloped skill. A strong arm is great but not if you can’t throw the ball where it needs to go. Remember, you need to Practice with a Purpose

Long Toss:

Maybe the most misunderstood drill for throwing. Long toss will strengthen your arm - if you practice correctly.

When you alter your mechanics i.e. arching your back to create a higher arc,just to get the ball out there, you are defeating the purpose of the drill.

In order to develop arm strength and to avoid injury, it's important to maintain the same mechanics you use when you're playing catch at 90-120 feet.If you start jerking your head off-line to compensate for the arch you have effectively stopped practicing to get better.

Arm strength at every stage of development is going to be different. You can stretch your arm out as far as you want until you start dramatically changing your mechanics to get it done.

Pay attention to the flight of your ball. If the ball "sweeps" or "cuts" on you, you're not staying on top of the ball. Unless you're a pitcher (in which case "movement" is good) the ball should never tail on you. Get straight 4-seam grip and throw through your target.

Throwing accurately comes down to feel. If you are a position player, you need to feel the ball coming off both fingertips. And, always use a 4-seam grip.

Finding your grip is important, especially if you've just fielded the ball and you're under pressure to get rid of it in a hurry. Here is an easy but very effective drill to practice getting the correct grip:

* Throw a ball up against a wall or step, catch it in your glove, and without looking, find the proper 4-seam grip quickly.

Just throwing the ball into your glove works too. There are always small opportunities to get better. Any small thing that can help you throw more accurately is definitely worthwhile.

The most important aspect of any baseball training is quality not quantity. This is a fine line that with time and practice you will need to discover. If you continually practice something the wrong way you’re simply reinforcing bad habits. When you get to the point where you are tired and can’t concentrate, you won’t be able to execute….shut it down and take it to the house.

You'll first want to get an understanding of when your hips currently start forward relative to your knee reaching the apex of the knee lift. (The apex of the knee lift is a good checkpoint by which to compare the start of hip movement.)

Have someone watch you and let you know when you start forward. Once you know this, then you can start to make adjustments. If your hips start forward right at the apex of the knee lift, then try to start them forward slightly before the knee reaches the apex (i.e. while it is still on its way up). Also try to get your hips going a bit faster in addition to sooner.

Start off making a small adjustment. Practice that and then make another small adjustment. And so on and so on.

Make sure you don't sacrifice your knee lift. Instead swing the stride leg out front faster. This will definitely feel awkward at first and will take lots of reps for you to get comfortable with it. Give it a chance.

The following drills will help you practice this:

1. Stand perpendicular to a chain link fence with glove side next to fence and throwing arm side foot about 8"-12" from the fence. Simply lift the knee and push the hips into the fence. This is a simply way to practice starting the hips sooner.
2. Cross-over drill: Stand in the stretch position. Then cross the stride leg over in front of the pivot leg. Bend the knees a bit if necessary to get the stride foot heal to touch the ground. Simply go through your pitching motion from this position concentrating on getting the hips going. The crossed-over position helps emphasize the hips since it puts you in a position where the hips are already out front. This drill can be done on flat ground and from a mound.
3. Narrow stance drill: Same as above but instead of crossing over the front leg, simply place the stride foot next to and touching the pivot foot.
4. Normal stand drill: Same as above but using your normal starting stance.

Drills 2 through 4 above represent a progression from a position that overexaggerates things to your normal stance. Make sure when getting the hips going that you don't introduce a posture issue. The head and shoulders will stay slightly behind the front hip into release but there shouldn't be a big lean back toward 2B.