Misconceptions on Pitching
" I became a good pitcher when I stopped trying to make them miss the ball and started trying to make them hit it." - Sandy Koufax
In today's world of pitching, it is velocity or bust. It seems that most pitchers are concerned about having velocity. Their thought process is, is that I must throw hard. If I throw hard then I will be seen and get noticed. Well you may be able to throw hard, but all that makes you is a THROWER, not a PITCHER. Pitch velocity is a huge asset to have as a pitcher, but it is not everything. Deception, routine, and feel are three traits that no matter how hard you throw, a pitcher must need. All three traits of deception, routine, and feel go hand in hand. All three are in a great pre-pitch and pitch mechanics for pitchers. All three of these traits are practicable and controllable for a pitcher.
Deception is simply how well the pitcher hides or moves the baseball from the batter. The important part of deception is to have the ball shown at the last minute possible to a batter. Deception comes in many forms, but at the end of this post I will put in a link of the oddest pitching mechanics of all time, but as you will see deception is key, and there are many forms of it. Seeing is believing and to a batter, nothing is more important than seeing the pitch coming at them. Deception can also be after pitch release as well. A pitch with movement and velocity can cause vision issues for the batter. Like I stated earlier, there are many forms of deception, and it is important for pitchers to have both movement and speed with their pitches. If you have deception in your delivery and pitches, then you will give the batter an uncomfortable experience while up to bat.
My next trait to discuss is routine. I have touched on this topic before in prior posts, but in baseball and life, nothing is more important than a routine. If you have a routine, you are halfway there to being successful. But the important part of a routine is finding whatever works best for YOU. There is no cookie-cutter approach to a routine. But a routine must be practiced. Whatever pre-game and pre-pitch routine that you choose to do, it must have an efficient pace to it. There are typically 15 seconds between pitches. With a pre-pitch routine, if you can shave off those 15 seconds and have your pitch called already before the batter is ready and set to hit, then you will yet again make the batter uncomfortable and you are applying your will upon them. It puts the pitcher on the offensive, and the hitter is on the defensive.
Lastly I will discuss feel. Feel is a lost art to some pitchers, but ask any professional on how important feel is to them, they will give you many examples on how important it is. When you watch the video at the end of post, you will see crazy deliveries. You will ask yourself, how in the world do they pitch the ball like that? The answer is feel. To practice feel, the best thing to do is to slow down your mechanics. This is not a bad thing, it is just like learning how to ride a bike. Do you just go full speed at learning how to ride a bike? Of course not! Pitching is the same. If you can have consistent feel for a pitch and pitch it where you want it 7 times, then you can go up a notch in percentage with how fast you want to pitch the ball. Intervals for this typically go, half speed, three-quarter speed, and full speed.These three traits often get over looked when I hear pitchers talk. If you add these traits along with velocity and command of the strike zone, you will be a dominant pitcher in whatever level that you are in.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=oddest+pitching+mechanics&view=detail&mid=AC67E9CEE4D551135F2DAC67E9CEE4D551135F2D&FORM=VIRE
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