Haven't seen much discussion lately on location so thought it might be good to get that discussion rev'd up a bit. A short while ago Doug Romrell posted a thread related to walk-in pitching and linking mechanics together. Thought I'd post another use for Walk-ins relative to a drill we use with pitchers to help them with their location. Would be great to hear some other drills people use for grooving in location.
Walk-In Pitching For Location
- Thread starter Rick Pauly
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This might well be my favorite educational clip from Rick!
I like the walk-in pitch for this, but when the pitcher starts with this, I (the catcher) start way inside, way outside, way up, way down, riseball, drop-ball. Then, I gradually tighten it up--paint the corners. For some reason, it seems to help my girls when I start this way before honing in on being tighter to the zone.
This might well be my favorite educational clip from Rick!
I like the walk-in pitch for this, but when the pitcher starts with this, I (the catcher) start way inside, way outside, way up, way down, riseball, drop-ball. Then, I gradually tighten it up--paint the corners. For some reason, it seems to help my girls when I start this way before honing in on being tighter to the zone.
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Good stuff Rick.
JJsqueeze
Dad, Husband....legend
I've never thought about a walk through like this, but it makes a lot of sense. I'm going to try to incorporate some walk through accuracy to her normal walkthroughs and see how it goes.
For accuracy, what we typically do is just calling spots to the 4 corners and working them pretty randomly. One thing I do like to do with accuracy is to work the 4 spots in an exaggerated way at the beginning of practice. Kind of redoing what we did when she was just learning to throw to spots. Basically give me one way inside low, way outside high etc. let her feel the extremes and then work the actual zone. Then for actual pitching I tell her that if she notices any pattern in her misses, like a bunch of high ones, then go ahead and throw one in the dirt to re-establish the feeling of the other side of the accuracy boundary and try to work it to the right height from the other direction. In general she seems to make an accuracy adjustment faster this way as opposed to "trying to just aim a little lower".
For accuracy, what we typically do is just calling spots to the 4 corners and working them pretty randomly. One thing I do like to do with accuracy is to work the 4 spots in an exaggerated way at the beginning of practice. Kind of redoing what we did when she was just learning to throw to spots. Basically give me one way inside low, way outside high etc. let her feel the extremes and then work the actual zone. Then for actual pitching I tell her that if she notices any pattern in her misses, like a bunch of high ones, then go ahead and throw one in the dirt to re-establish the feeling of the other side of the accuracy boundary and try to work it to the right height from the other direction. In general she seems to make an accuracy adjustment faster this way as opposed to "trying to just aim a little lower".
I have to admit we do walk-ins almost every time we practice, but have never tried them for accuracy. But we will start this weekend!! The pitchers on our team seem to really like the old soccer ball on a tee drill to practice accuracy. We start them off at approximately 20 feet and then gradually move them back. We don't do this often but maybe once a month to break things up and have a little fun.
My DD who is typically very easy to get along with and never has anything bad to say about anyone, has one coach from her past that she did not really care for. She didn't have a problem with him personally but didn't like the way he treated other girls on the team. Whenever we do this drill, she requests that we place a baseball hat from that team on top of the soccer ball. Boy does her accuracy improve when we do that!!!
My DD who is typically very easy to get along with and never has anything bad to say about anyone, has one coach from her past that she did not really care for. She didn't have a problem with him personally but didn't like the way he treated other girls on the team. Whenever we do this drill, she requests that we place a baseball hat from that team on top of the soccer ball. Boy does her accuracy improve when we do that!!!
Rick,
Great post.
We do walk ins at every practice too.
My question is do we want the pitcher to take that extra step at the end or do we want the goal to be to resist against the front side without taking the added step?
I'm confused because I always tell my pitchers to try not to take the extra step.
Great post.
We do walk ins at every practice too.
My question is do we want the pitcher to take that extra step at the end or do we want the goal to be to resist against the front side without taking the added step?
I'm confused because I always tell my pitchers to try not to take the extra step.
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- Oct 22, 2009
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I'm a little meaner, I have my pitchers hit a softball off the Tee, baseball hats won't work, but from time to time I've heard them imagine that that softball was a brother or two.
When I'm teaching inside one thing that I like to do is remove the plate completely and have them just target the glove, which I move all over the place even outside of what would normally be considered the strike zone.
Coachmom
Good question.
The intent should definitely be to have enough front side resistance so as to avoid the extra step. The above video is really slowed down so it is difficult to get a feel for the amount of linear energy Sarah is generating in her walkin....it is substantial. She is able to get relatively stable at time of release but just can't hold it totally as you can see.
Good question.
The intent should definitely be to have enough front side resistance so as to avoid the extra step. The above video is really slowed down so it is difficult to get a feel for the amount of linear energy Sarah is generating in her walkin....it is substantial. She is able to get relatively stable at time of release but just can't hold it totally as you can see.
- Oct 22, 2009
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I was thinking the same thing Rick, for younger pitchers they can probably work on holding the resistance. Older, stronger pitches, just do the best they can.
