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How Much
Time Should I Spend on My Pitching Mechanics?
I’m sure most of you
know I have a son who is a college pitcher. He was
very fortunate to be able to have options out of
high school. He loves pitching and has been working
on refining his pitching mechanics for years. His
biggest challenge, like most, is being consistent
with his mechanics.
My son’s choice was
the University of Washington over several other
schools when he can out of high school. Why? Well,
economics certainly had some weight in the decision.
But, one of the biggest factors that helped him with
his decision was that he liked hearing from the head
coach was that he wouldn’t mess with his pitching
mechanics. He wouldn’t try to make huge changes and
overhaul the way he throws.
Of course as a dad
and a pitching coach, I loved hearing that the
college coach lets the kids be who they are and not
make big changes in the pitchers mechanics. And,
looking at one of the pitchers at the University at
the time, Tim Lincecum, I believed what the coach
had said. He didn’t change guys. If you haven’t seen
Tim throw, he is a little unorthodox, but does a lot
of things we preach very well….he wouldn’t be
pitching in the major leagues this quickly after
college for the San Francisco Giants if he doesn’t
have sound pitching mechanics.
A funny thing
happened…
A funny thing
happened at my son’s school after Tim was drafted in
2006 and won the Golden Spikes Award (kind of like
the Heisman Trophy of baseball). The head coach went
to a seminar in the south over the winter with some
self-proclaimed gurus of pitching mechanics. From
what was explained to me was that they really
emphasized changing pitcher’s throwing arm action
and scap load. For what benefit, I believe to help a
pitcher throw the ball harder….to gain velocity.
That’s a dangerous proposition advocating changing a
natural arm action dramatically.
I’m all for a great
arm action and understand scap load, but I don’t
subscribe to the focus on it for the sake of
something new to talk about. I’ve seen a lot of kids
change their arm actions slightly as they improve
their pitching mechanics and timing, but not because
they have worked on arm action. It’s because their
timing and sequencing was better. My older son is a
perfect example of that. His arm action cleaned up
because of the better tempo and timing, not because
of the arm action itself.
Back to my story. Tim
and his father had their own language and pitching
mechanics lingo. To make a long story short, this
coach went to this seminar and what I gather looked
at what Tim was doing and came up with trying to get
some of the pitchers in the program to do this arm
action thing called dangling. It kind of looks like
you are picking up a ball out of a bucket and
lifting it straight up with your elbow leading the
way. Some pitchers have that natural arm action,
others don’t.
Well, he tried to get
my son to “dangle” and change his arm action. He
tried to get others to do it too. I can think of a
lefty pitcher on the staff that really changed his
arm action. His dad is furious over this stuff. What
subsequently happened was he took a kid who was
throwing in the high 80’s and low 90’s and tried to
change him, and turned him into a kid who was
throwing 84 one day and 92 another and couldn’t find
the strike zone.
When the coach saw my
son was struggling with control, he promptly tried
changing his other pitching mechanics. He wanted my
son to band aid his challenges by speeding up his
leg kick…..speeding up his hands break…..adding in a
hitch in his arms….you name it, they were putting
band aids all over the perceived “problem”.
Oooh, I can’t
stand watching my son’s struggle
on the mound…
One day, during the
early spring season, I was visiting my son and got
to watch him pitch in a game. Of course, I knew if
some of the changes he was making because we talk on
the phone regularly, but couldn’t really visualize
what was happening with his pitching delivery and
the result of his changes.
I remember watching
him in the bullpen while he was warming up. Boy, was
I surprised at his delivery. My jaw dropped. I could
feel my stomach tightening and my breathing slowing.
The stress and frustration was building in me. I
wasn’t frustrated for me, but I knew my son was
struggling and could see his confidence dropping
like a rock. All of this before he even threw his
first pitch in the game!
His smooth rhythm and
tempo was gone. He looked like someone lit a
firecracker under his feet and the firecracker had a
really short fuse. He definitely became a max effort
looking pitcher. It’s no wonder he struggled with
throwing strikes, he was so focused on his arm
action and trying to throw harder and keeping the
coach happy that he couldn’t develop a repeatable
pitching delivery. Well, you can imagine the outcome
of his outing.
Too many walks….not
many hits, but it’s tough to keep a college team
from scoring when you walk too many.
I did have my video
camera with me that day and was able to tape a few
pitches from different angles.
Spending hours in
front of my computer screen
I went home and
looked at his video. I compared his video to several
major league pitchers and looked at some of his old
video footage. I spent hours on it. I was determined
to find an answer.
For the longest time
I was looking at the mechanical issues with his
pitching. I had several of the instructors at our
academy look at the video clips too. We all had the
same approach, what was wrong with his pitching
mechanics?
After pouring over
the footage, it donned on me…it wasn’t his pitching
mechanics that were off…it was his timing and tempo.
His mechanics looked great. They hadn’t changed.
What had changed was his rhythm, his tempo. It was
horrible. His sequencing and timing were awful. For
all this time, we were looking at the wrong thing!
It all made sense
now!
Through the magic of
the internet, and him being a couple of hundred
miles away, I was able to show him some different
clips and had him discover the tempo and timing
issue on his own. He was able to pinpoint the time
when things started going wrong. It was when his
coach told him to get going faster. He sped
everything up. He sped up his leg kick, he sped up
his body momentum, and he was trying to speed up his
arm action. He was searching for his timing.
We talked about it
and he went back to the drawing board and focused on
this new-found tempo and timing thing. It worked
great. Like a charm. I was even able to quantify his
timing through his videos. I also looked at the
timing for all the major leaguers. They all look
different with their mechanics, but they do a lot of
the same things along the way. There is also a small
window of time in the pitching delivery that they
get a lot of things done. In other words, from one
point of the pitching delivery, to another, they all
get it done in about the same time. For example,
from the leading hip of the pitcher first going
forward to foot-strike, there is a window of less
than one-tenth of a second variation from the best
major leaguers. My son’s number was way off the
mark.
It took a while for
him to be consistent with it, but he forgot about
the pitching mechanics part of it and only focused
on being on-time. Funny thing about the complaint
from his coach on the arm action dangle thing. They
all stopped when he was throwing strikes.
His velocity was way
up, his strike percentage went through the roof…and
he heard nothing more from the coach on changing
mechanics. As of the writing of this article, my son
is pitching in a collegiate wood bat league in New
England for the summer. He has struck out 20
batters, given up twelve hits and walked two…one of
which was intentional in about 20 innings. All while
not focusing on his pitching mechanics, but just
focusing on his tempo and timing.
What’s the lesson
in this story?
There are times when
you need to work on your pitching mechanics….or what
we call principles. We all need to get better and
more efficient with them. But I would also spend an
equal amount of time on your timing and tempo too.
Stick to your principles. When you have a period
where you are struggling, don’t focus on your
mechanics. Yes, go back and make sure you are
adhering to your principles, but focus on your
rhythm, tempo, and timing.
My son developed a
saying through his struggles. Go slow to throw
harder. He has maintained his body momentum going
towards home and a pretty good speed, but he has
focused on taking his time with his leg kick and arm
separation while he is falling towards home.
His timing has
been awesome.
One lesson for my
son….he is leaving his university and transferring
to another with a better situation for him and his
pitching. Look for more information on that later.
Bottom line, spend at
least a third of your time on creating a consistent
and comfortable tempo, timing and rhythm. Discover
some key thoughts and feelings when you are throwing
well. Go back to those keys for you when struggling.
Until next time….keep
training like a champion today!
About the
Author
Bill Mooney
is the owner and lead instructor at the BioForce
Baseball Academy in Beaverton Oregon. Here’s what a
couple of former Major League Pitchers and Pitching
Coaches say about Bill Mooney and BioForce Baseball.
“Bill Mooney is one of few
pitching coaches in the nation who has been
Certified by The National Pitching Association and
Functional Fitness, Inc. I have found that Bill is
one of the finest young pitching coaches in the
country today. His knowledge and instruction are
the most up-to-date and progressive you’ll find.
With his knowledge, teaching skills and background
Bill does an outstanding job helping pitchers
perform at their peak and remain healthy.”
~ Dr. Tom House
Dr. Tom
House is a performance expert, Former Major League Pitcher,
and
Former Major League pitching coach. Current coach
and mentor to many star major league pitchers such
as Randy Johnson. Co-founder of the National
Pitching Association
“As
a former major league pitcher, pitching coach and
former coordinator of pitching for the Montreal
Expos/Washington Nationals, I am always searching
for information and instruction that can help me
improve. Most would guess that the best, most
informative teachings come out of the professional
game, but it has been my experience that the
instructors who have dealt with hundreds of kids
from all ages really have seen what works and
doesn’t work.
Such is the case for Bill Mooney and
BioForce Baseball Academy. Having watched him
interact and teach what we know today to be right, I
would not hesitate to allow him to work with our
pitchers. To place that trust in someone is the
highest compliment I can pay to a fellow pitching
coach. Without question, Bill Mooney is an
outstanding coach and one worth learning from and
training with.”
~ Brent Strom
Brent Strom
is a
former major league pitcher and former pitching
coach for the Houston Astros and Kansas City Royals
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