Starting to learn to pitch.....

[SuicideSqueeze]

My son moves up to kid pitch in the fall.
He cant wait.
Even during last season he would ask to go pitch on the weekends.

I'm entering unknown territory here so I think I need some help.

Most importantly I want to build a solid foundation to grow from as he gets older.

I think timing and mechanics are the most important thing at this point.(Am I wrong?)

We watch a good bit of YouGoPro's channel on YT and John seems to have a good way of communicating that my son can understand and his vids arent too long.

J-Bands year round throwing program seem like a good idea (but what do I know).

So, what would you do to get started?

drills on mechanics?
Lots of long toss?
Nothing because he's almost 9 so who cares?

TIA

[Vette74]

My son is the same age. We make sure everything is on a line to home plate. I got this from someone on here, take a diner ketchup bottle and fill with chalk and draw a line from the rubber towards home plate. Make sure he lands on the line in the same spot. On the glove side most kids have a tendency to fly open. When he is pitching have him reach out to grab the catchers hat and pull it to his arm pit.

[SuicideSqueeze]

I thought about having him wait....but I also recently learned most kids stop playing baseball by age 12 (either by choice or by the game letting them know they're done)

I dont think that will be him...but theres no way to know.

since he has wanted to pitch since he was 6 I figure let him have fun.

I'd hate to tell him to wait and then he is out of the game before he gets to do what he really wants.
He's not going pro and likely wont play in college....so whats the harm, ya know?

[mys]

with my kid, I wanted to make sure he threw properly. his pitching motion was kind of a mess from 8u until recently. didn't do a thing about pitching, either pitching specific mechanics or mental side. coaches would try him bc he has a strong arm but he'd go out there, walk a few or get hit and they'd take him out.
now, at 13u, he has a pretty fresh arm and 5 more years of general baseball experience to draw upon as he starts actually working on pitching. while other kids threw hundreds of innings in the past few years, he's fresh.

[JoeG]

Luis Tiant was my favorite ; )

That is how to get kids excited about baseball. Watch Luis Tiant!

[pthawaii]

If I were you and I was able to dictate what he did, I would avoid pitching until he was older, as in 13-14. Personally, I feel like most young kids aren't strong enough in their legs to pitch properly, so many of them end up being to upright, pulling with their shoulders and getting their arms into bad positions. Plus, if they pitch a ton as a pre-teen, you'll have to work that much harder to undo all the bad habit when they do become strong enough to pitch properly. As others said, work on throwing properly. My 2 cents.

[songtitle]

Should I worry about how high he gets his knee or if his front foot crosses his back leg?

Coil in. Ignore the rest. Matters not.

[pattar]

Some players do really well just watching MLB pitchers on TV and trying to mimic them. My son was so cute at the age of 5, mimicking around 20 different MLB pitchers (and Satchel Paige, of course!). We noticed he almost always threw strikes when mimicking Cliff Lee, so that became the foundation for his pitching style. But he already had pretty good throwing mechanics before all that, so that's what really mattered.

That is how everybody used to learn to both hit and pitch. Growing up in MA in the 70's and 80's we had some interesting windups to copy Bob Stanley, Oil Can Boyd but Luis Tiant was my favorite ; )

With the advent of high-speed video, etc. nowadays there are probably better methods of instruction but I am not sure they are more fun ; )

[SuicideSqueeze]

Pattar - I think he does. He has a strong accurate arm. His coach this season said he thew harder than most kids in Minors (9u). He throw a mini 'pen session after practice one day and his coach who said he could go at the next level already.

I'll try to get some video of him throwing later in the week.


Song - Thanks....thats the kind of stuff I need.

Should I worry about how high he gets his knee or if his front foot crosses his back leg?
Or just let that work itself out?

[JoeG]

Does he throw properly in general? If not work on that as AdaminNY said. If so, then related to what JettSixty said, have him look at mechanics (footwork,etc) of his favorite MLB pitcher
and see if he can emulate it. In a related story, my 3 YO son has watched his big sister play so much FP softball in the last year that when I tell him to pitch to me he performs a very good windmill action..not sure how I should proceed from here ; )

Ditto what others have said - throwing with good mechanics is where it starts. The kids who can throw very well usually have no problem transferring that over to pitching. There are always many players of any age who have poor throwing mechanics and those players usually can't pitch very well.

Some players do really well just watching MLB pitchers on TV and trying to mimic them. My son was so cute at the age of 5, mimicking around 20 different MLB pitchers (and Satchel Paige, of course!). We noticed he almost always threw strikes when mimicking Cliff Lee, so that became the foundation for his pitching style. But he already had pretty good throwing mechanics before all that, so that's what really mattered.

[songtitle]

Just like hitting. Coil inward AS you go forward. Hold it as long as you can. Stay on your back heel as long as you can hold it. Don't stride with front leg, use the back.

Release the hands/ball when the front knee drops even with hip. Measure your height, and mark that off as X each time you setup. Stride to X.

Don't: balance on the rubber, worry about how high/low the leg kick is

That's $5,000 of free pitching lessons. [smiley]

[pattar]

Does he throw properly in general? If not work on that as AdaminNY said. If so, then related to what JettSixty said, have him look at mechanics (footwork,etc) of his favorite MLB pitcher
and see if he can emulate it. In a related story, my 3 YO son has watched his big sister play so much FP softball in the last year that when I tell him to pitch to me he performs a very good windmill action..not sure how I should proceed from here ; )

[JettSixty]

You start with proper footwork. Otherwise, everything else will be off balance and out of synch.

[AdamInNY]

My son moves up to kid pitch in the fall.
He cant wait.
Even during last season he would ask to go pitch on the weekends.

I'm entering unknown territory here so I think I need some help.

Most importantly I want to build a solid foundation to grow from as he gets older.

I think timing and mechanics are the most important thing at this point.(Am I wrong?)

We watch a good bit of YouGoPro's channel on YT and John seems to have a good way of communicating that my son can understand and his vids arent too long.

J-Bands year round throwing program seem like a good idea (but what do I know).

So, what would you do to get started?

drills on mechanics?
Lots of long toss?
Nothing because he's almost 9 so who cares?

TIA

I'd probably pass on the j-bands for now. I can't imagine getting a 9yo to constantly do those....

Hindsight is 20/20, but if I were to do it again at that age, I'd just worry about throwing. Amazes me that even at 15U I see kids pitching that look awful simply throwing a ball. I like the Wasserman drills for getting the feel for throwing.