Friday, March 29th, 2024

Finish like a pitcher

October 23, 2015 by  
Filed under Pitching

One of the biggest things I have to teach young pitchers is how to finish like a pitcher.  When I say “finish like a pitcher,” I mean this …

Pitcher

  • Glove tucked near the hip
  • Throwing hand “hides” under the glove
  • Throwing arm side hip and shoulder are pointing at the target
  • Head up and eyes level
  • Back foot off the ground
  • Weight over their landing leg/foot in the center of the mound

The reason why I have to harp so much on this is because most young pitchers spend the majority of time in other positions on the field where the throwing finish is more like this …

Fielder

This motion works in the field because they will have to throw longer distances and hit the target at chest height.  They need to finish upright to do that.  

But that doesn’t work on the mound.  

As a pitcher, they are required to throw the ball 60’6″ (max) and need to hit the lower part of the strike zone.

Unfortunately, most young fielders take that same throwing motion with them out to the pitching mound.  They don’t finish and the ball undoubtedly comes up in the strike zone.  Their ERA usually goes up too.

This offseason, if you struggled with throwing consistent strikes down in the zone, you may need to focus more attention on finishing like a pitcher and less like a fielder.

2 comments on “Finish like a pitcher

  1. Yes, finish like a pitcher, a great piece of advice, let the body function as it wants to instead of holding it back at or just past it’s vertical position/the wall while recoiling the arm up instead of letting it do what should come naturally, what it naturally wants to do which is after release point is to relax and follow on through to it’s natural finish position which enables the arm,shoulder and all other body parts effected by the tremendous torque,tension,and abuse created during every ball thrown during each delivery to it’s intended target to prepare for the next throwing movement.
    Great Base Ball-N
    Don Ervin
    dfervin32@yahoo.com

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