Pitching for 7 year old

[heretolearn]

Good morning,

Just found this site and registered, looking forward to learning a lot. My son is playing Minor B this year and for those not familiar, this is the league where the coaches pitch in the beginning and then the kids pitch about half way through the season. I have been working with my son on pitching some so when the time comes he'll be prepared. However, I wasn't a pitcher in HS or College, just a thrower as nobody taught me mechanics. I don't want to overload him with mechanical advice, but I do want to get a solid base started. What are the most basic things I should reinforce with someone just starting out? Here is what we've been working on.

Stepping and taking his body toward the target
Follow through and land in the ready position
Elbow at shoulder height
Focus on the target and throw

Thanks for any and all advice!

[songtitle]

1. Have him mark his landing spot with an X, and have him check to see if he hits it. My son even does this in a game.

If he strides too short, he will tend to throw high. If he lands to the right, he will throw across his body. etc.

2. Make sure he throws his hand down hard at the ground, as it comes out of his glove. This will flip his hand/arm up faster, so his forearm is pointed up at foot plant.

3. Learn the fastball grip with 2 fingers on top and the thumb on the bottom. Make sure he can control a ball with just his thumb and 2nd finger.

4. Buy some aspirin for your ankle bruises

[heretolearn]

1. Have him mark his landing spot with an X, and have him check to see if he hits it. My son even does this in a game.

If he strides too short, he will tend to throw high. If he lands to the right, he will throw across his body. etc.

2. Make sure he throws his hand down hard at the ground, as it comes out of his glove. This will flip his hand/arm up faster, so his forearm is pointed up at foot plant.

3. Learn the fastball grip with 2 fingers on top and the thumb on the bottom. Make sure he can control a ball with just his thumb and 2nd finger.

4. Buy some aspirin for your ankle bruises

Thanks for the reply. I understand all your points except #2, especially understand #4 . Are you saying at the point he separates his hands, he should "throw his hand down hard at the ground"? I'm not really following what you are saying or what this it supposed to accomplish. I've been teaching him to separate his hands and bring his throwing arm back, are you saying it should go down toward the ground more like Lincecum?

[songtitle]

It's hard to explain in the forum. If we were talking in real life, I could demonstrate it to you in 5 seconds.

Just flip his hand down hard, out of the glove. Try it yourself. This will force his hand to go down and come back up in more of a nice easy, 'circular' motion. This an easy way to perform his arm motion in a consistent and safe manner. His arm should end up in the 'o_|' position at foot plant, and not in the 'o_/' position.

I see many kids that take the ball out of the glove with random motions. Sometimes they bend their arm, straighten their arm, pull up with their elbow, etc.

[heretolearn]

Songtitle,

I just tried that in my office, I see what you are saying. Thanks for the suggestion!

I'm working to get some video of pitching and hitting, hope to have something up in a few days to get some advice.

[coops]

I think songtitle has laid out some very good ground rules... Other advice I would give:
1. Encourage your son to not come set with feet together. I like to see the feet about shoulder width apart.
2. Do not leave glove down by knee as he is completing throwing motion. Glove should end up tucked near chest. This allows better trunk rotation and prevents the glove from becoming an anchor in younger players.
3. Point toes down when bringing front leg up to chest... I have found that when you ask younger players to do this it helps to prevent them from leaning thier shoulders back or towards first base.

[heretolearn]

coops,

Thanks for the reply. I'll take a look at the glove and make sure it's tucked, never paid attention.

[UAME]

Even on my 9-10 yo team, I only let a couple of very advanced players throw from the windup. Mandating that young pitchers use the stretch STARTS them in the correct pre-throw alignment with home plate, so there are fewer, less complicated movements required to deliver the ball with more consistency.

[heretolearn]

We've been going from the stretch so good to get some reinforcement. I agree with you, less movement is better when starting out.

[AdamInNY]

My sons are 9 and 7, just pitch from the stretch. Have enough to deal with with just that.

[tg643]

Here's my advice for seven year olds pitching .... NO !!!!!!! If you ignore my advice I suggest he not pitch more than twenty pitches per week. That would be three or four hitters. At seven he should be learning how to throw properly, not pitch. Until he can throw properly he can't pitch properly.

[heretolearn]

Here's my advice for seven year olds pitching .... NO !!!!!!! If you ignore my advice I suggest he not pitch more than twenty pitches per week. That would be three or four hitters. At seven he should be learning how to throw properly, not pitch. Until he can throw properly he can't pitch properly.

Thank you. Definitely something to consider as I don't want it to negatively impact him.

[tradosaurus]

My advice would be to always pitch from the stretch to minimize the potential for being unbalanced.

Also throw for strikes not speed, basically pitch for the batters to hit it. As he gets older his accuracy will improve as will his speed.

Make the pitching motion exactly the same, over and over, to help with accuracy.

Leave him at pitching until he reaches 30-40 pitch count or until his accuracy fails. I've seen many of frustrated little league pitchers because the coach left them in too long.

[heretolearn]

tradosaurus,

In regard to pitch count, should we be throwing a little bit every day to build his strengtt and confidence? What is a good rule of thumb? I like the idea of long-toss but it's probably over-kill at this point? The biggest thing I notice is having him continue to throw with his legs as the distance inscreases. It seems as though he wants to start throwing more with his arm so maybe that point at which his mechanics change is the distance we should stop for now?

[tg643]

http://www.asmi.org/asmiweb/usabaseball.htm#Counts

The link I provided comes from ASMI. ASMI was started by Dr. Andrews. He's one of the foremost authorities in the world on sports orthopedic injuries. He's one of the top surgeon in the world in this area. His organization has done extensive research on youth sports arm injuries. The site does not list recommended pitch counts for seven year olds. Can you figure out why?