Southeast Regional Shows How New Pitching Rules Affect the Game
Citrus Park Victorious!
A team from Citrus Park Little League in Tampa, Florida just defeated a team from Mobile, Alabama to advance to the Little League World Series . The league has only five majors teams in it to pick from. What did they have that Mobile didn’t have? Pitching! Pitching! Pitching!
Mobile was averaging 1 home run every 5.5 at bats during the regionals! The total home runs tonight? -0-. Neither Little League had EVER sent a team to the World Series.
Pitching Rules Have Changed the Dynamic
I have written about this before, the new pitching rules have completely changed the dynamic of the Little League World Series. Pitch count limits and mandatory rests mean that every team will need to rely on their 4th, 5th, and 6th pitchers. Gone are the days of pitching 2 pitchers until their arms fall off. Gone are the days of 15 strike out games.
Want to get your league to the World Series? Start working pitchers now!
Weekly Practice Schedule
When should you be working pitchers? During the regular season w/ a minimum schedule of:
-Every Practice at least 3 pitchers from each team should be working
-At least once a week every team should hold special pitcher/catcher practices
-Pitchers should have individual coaches that work with them once a week as well
These are minimums! Of course, you should watch their arms as well!
When game are on you should stick to this schedule for a pitcher and work it into the schedule above:
Day 1-Game Day Pitching Ice Arm immediately
Day 2-Day off after game day
Day 3-Soft throwing next day ending w/ long toss
Day 4-Pitch again, or hard throwing if not pitching
This is a good 4 day rotation, but remember, alway adjust depending on whether you pitched a game or simply practiced.
Watch the arms!
Sore arms are normal. The key is determining whether it is just normal muscle soreness or joint/tendonitus soreness.
My Limited Knowledge
The Washington Redskins trainer used to visit us each year at my prior league. He would point out that the reason arms are sore after throwing is that tiny tendons in the muscle are being broken when you throw and that creates soreness. The best way to cure this is run after every practice. This delivers oxygen to the muscle and speeds the healing process. Also, icing immediately to stop the micro swelling is very important.
If the soreness is in the muscle meat part of the arm that is normally not an issue. It needs a little rest and it will be fine. ANY soreness in the elbow or shoulder should be IMMEDIATELY looked at. If you take the point of your finger and apply a little pressure to the joint of the elbow you should get a flinch from the player. BAD SIGN! Stop immediately and see a doctor! If you raise the arm and apply a little pressure on the shoulder or have the player resist your pressure after he makes a fist similar to boxing, and you get a flinch, BAD SIGN! Stop immediately and see a doctor!
The main thing to take away from this year’s world series is Develop Your Pitchers!
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Makes it All Worth it
Image via Wikipedia I had a pitching lesson last night with an eight year old girl that has good core talent. We have been working together off and on for a few months now. In fact, her minor’s team wasn’t really doing anything for her so she often practiced with our majors team. Anyway, last night we were dodging lightning bolts so I decided to show her a few basic drills.
I have to admit, I thought this practice was pretty boring. We started in the dugout w/ a simple flip drill, then once it stopped raining, we moved to a basic one knee drill. That is pretty much all we did.
Her response? She told her dad that was the funnest practice she ever had???? Amazing!
Don’t ever forget the effect you have having on the children you coach. They are sponges, they absorb everything you say good and bad. How about we all try and be a good influence?
What is the greatest thing a kid ever said about you?
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Individual Training Requested
I am Honored
I am honored to announce that today a parent requested that I provide individual training for their child. I will be teaching her pitching and helping to develop her delivery, release, and general growth as a pitcher . She has a good core to start from and she is a hard worker. I am honored that they feel I can help her develop.
Soliciting More Clients
This is a natural extension of this blog and I would consider accepting additional clients. If you wish to discuss individual training and work out a schedule to do so, please contact me at rick@thelittleleaguecoach.com and we will hash out the details.
I look forward to working with you!
How many of you feel a personal coach is an effective way to advance your career?
Play Like You Know You Can
Image via Wikipedia
Worthy Opponent
First, I would like to thank our opponent and congratulate them on being such a formidable opponent. We play a five game series to determine who will represent our league in a district-wide Tournament of Champions (TOC) and it took five games to determine a winner! They were truly a worthy opponent. Young too, they will be VERY good next year.
Girls Showed Up
Tonight our girls decided they were going to play as good as they are truly capable of. It was an awesome spectacle to watch. While we had struggled holding it together in prior games, tonight they were clicking on all cylinders. Our pitcher was on all night, and we made all the routine plays we are supposed to make. Our hitting rarely fails us, and tonight that was the case again, so we hit well and scored 10 runs.
It was fun to sit back and watch the confidence they played with tonight. I hope they take that confidence into the TOC next week. Do you have a story of confidence? Please share it.
Pitcher/Key Attributes
Image via Wikipedia
Most Important Player on the Team
The pitcher is the most important player on the team. In fact, a team needs as many pitchers as possible! In Little League especially, it is important for a team to have at least six pitchers. With the new pitch count limits, the whole dynamic of the game has changed.
Accuracy Counts
It is nice to have an overpowering pitcher that can throw very hard. But, this pitcher will likely not be able to complete the game. That said, this is a nice characteristic of a pitcher, but more important is someone that can throw accurately.
Key Characteristics
Here are some characteristics of a good pitcher:
- Intelligent
- Strong
- Dedicated
- Accurate
- Solid throwing fundamentals
A pitcher that can consistently hit locations is very valuable. Work on hitting locations and basic fundamentals with pitchers. Development is key, it takes about a year to truly develop a pitcher for the major leagues . Patience is key here.
Can you think of any other valuable characteristics a pitcher should have? Please share them.
Get Throws Down at the Knees
Image via Wikipedia
Get Your Throws Down
When attempting to retire a runner heading to a base, it is very important to get the through down in the "tag range". This is and ofter overlooked minor subtlety of the game. How often have you seen a ball thrown up high where the receiving fielder has to reach up to catch the ball, then come down to make the tag. On a close play this is often the difference between an out and a run.
A way to practice this drill is to simply throw to the bases. (BORING!). Of course, we have to add a twist to make it fun for the kids! Here is what we did tonight:
Drill Set-Up
- 3B strattling the bag slightly offset to receive the throw from home plate .
- SS on second slightly offset to receive the throw from 3B.
- 2B backing up second
- 1B on the bag strattling to mimic a "pickoff tag"
- Catcher in standard catching position
Drill in Action
Here is the path to throw:
- I throw to the catcher (could have been practicing a pitcher too now that I think about it).
- Catcher fires to 3B trying to throw at knees, 3B makes "V Tag"
- 3B throws to SS at the knees covering 2nd (I know this is backwards, but I don’t care we are rotating anyway) SS makes "V Tag" 2B backs up
- SS throws to 1B at the knees who makes a "V-Tag"
- 1B throws to catcher at the knees who makes "2-Hand Tag"
- Catcher throws to SS’s knees covering 2nd who makes a "V-Tag"
- SS flips back to 2B backing up
- 2B makes a throw home trying to "take my head off" mimicking a throw that can be cut off or let through. (Always keep your throws down!)
- Everyone moves up a base sliding at home, 3B, 2B and running though 1B
This started out shaky, but by the time we were done, the throws were great and the outs were plenty!
Do you have a drill you use to practice throwing to the bases? I would love to hear about it.
Walks Kill
Image by StuSeeger via Flickr
We all know that walks are never a good thing , but in Little League they are particularly bad. This was never more true than in the 19-9 trouncing our team major softball team received tonight. We walked 16 batters and 14 of them scored. Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how we lost.
The team we played was very good, and I am not saying we would have won even had we not walked their girls so often. But a team doesn’t give itself a chance if it doesn’t throw strikes. At least throwing strikes you give your defense a chance, walking pretty much eliminates that opportunity.
The bright side of this equation is that we can only improve. We have worked our pitchers very hard and will continue to do so all year. They will only get better. Our defense and our offense is sound, hopefully our pitchers will be just good enough to get us by.
Get Their Arm Back First!
More than One Way to Skin a Cat
There is a lot of controversy out there about teaching pitching to children. First, there are a number of ways to skin a cat, and I don’t portend to be the end all be all for pitching. I do have 18 years experience teaching pitching to young children though and have tried a number of different methods to teach them.
This article refers to the initial training of the pitcher, the first step.
Spring Training
First we must agree that separation of the arm must occur and the arm must be back to properly throw over the top. This we can all agree on, how we get there is open for debate. To look at this objectively, we must first look at how we teach them to throw in the first place.
Step 1: Put them on a knee w/ their arm back
Step 2: Have them throw across their body
Step 3: Have them stand up sideways, separate and throw w/ thumb first to thigh, then the sky (and back)
Step 4: Have them step and throw
This is a quick synopsis of just about every Little League Coach’s first practice around the league. (or at least it should be!)
Then we step aside, and have them throw. What happens? They stop getting their arm back almost immediately! If we all had a dollar for how many times we said “get your elbow up when you throw” or “get your arm back” we would all be rich! We, of course, are all volunteers so we are all broke! But we know how they should be throwing! lol.
Avoid Arm Stress
At the younger ages, during the initial development of their pitching, they almost always don’t get their arm’s back. This means they are not throwing over the top and they are actually incurring undue stress on their arms. Therefore, the initial focus has to be on getting their arms back.
The way to accomplish this is to have them stop at their balance point. Then get their arm back bent at a 90-degree angle with their palm pointed towards center field. Once in this position, have them throw to the plate. They will instantly improve their velocity and accuracy.
Controversy
Here is where the controversy comes in.
The fact is, you want them to lock at the top and the bottom and separate while falling towards the plate. This is true, but this step comes AFTER they learn to get their arm back. Failure to initially teach them to get their arm back in the first place will result in them always throwing w/ what I call “Dinosaur Arms” (Tight, unextended arms). Minor league coaches should focus initially on getting the pitcher’s arm back, then having them separate later.
Success the Greatest Teacher
I have had very much success teaching this way. If you don’t teach them to get their arm back first, they struggle to learn it later. If you teach them to get their arm back at a young age, transforming the point at which they actually separate is easy for them to comprehend as they get older and the transition is easily made.
Failure to teach them to get the arm back in the first place risks injury and undue stress at a young age.
Do you have a trick to teach a young pitcher to get their arm back? If so, please share.
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Pitchers/Catchers Spring Break
It is now spring break. This means that every other team is hanging out at the beach while we practice and gain an advantage on them! Then they wonder why we are better? This gets back to my friend’s quote, “I always found that the team that practices the most, wins the most” Duh. Anyway, practices during spring break are not mandatory, but they tend to be well attended anyway. This is because we draft only dedicated players.
Tonight we did a drill with the catchers that is very effective. We have them get into standard catching position and place two balls in front of them to their left and right and slightly in front of them. They wear shin guards only. I then get in front of them and point either left or right. They are to jump forward and in the direction I point and hit the ball w/ their knee. This gets them to jump sideways and forwards at the same time creating a good angle for blocking and demonstrating the proper motion for blocking balls left and right.
Do you have any great catcher’s drills? Please share them with us.
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Variation of the Around the Horn Drill
New Pitching Drill
Today we had pitchers and catchers practice and I discovered some great new drills from the Ohio Fastpitch Connection.
The drill we implemented today was a variation of the walk-in drill. For those of you unfamiliar w/ the walk-in drill here is how it works:
- Stand about 2 steps behind the pitching plate.
- Walk towards the plate and “walk in” to your motion.
- Pitch as normal.
What this accomplishes is getting your pitcher’s motion moving towards the plate. So often they want to simply pitch w/ their arms and they forget almost all of their power is derived from their lower body. This is a great drill to do every day!
The variation I found at the Ohio Fastpitch Connection was combining the “walk-in” with the “long-toss” drill. For those that don’t know about the long toss drill it is simply extending the throwing distance between the girls every five minutes or so and have them throw long. They should not “whip” the ball, but should throw “over the top” with smooth, flowing, motions.
Combining the long toss w/ the walk-in was a very good drill. We started about 20′ apart and slowly backed them up to a distance of 60′. By the time we moved to the 40′ pitcher’s plate, they thought it was short and every one of them threw harder! This is a great drill I will use very often in the future.
Do you have a pitching drill to share? Post a comment below and let us know about it.
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