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I Love
Deception!
I’ll give you a
little background on me. I promise this won’t take
long and there is a point to all of this. No, I
won’t break out the baby pictures or the family
vacation videos.
I grew up in Southern
California, playing my high school baseball near
Anaheim Stadium, got hurt my freshman year in
college, hung up the cleats, went on to get a
finance degree from Cal State Fullerton, got
married, had four great kids, moved to Oregon….and
the rest is history.
Along the way, I
worked for a few companies including a couple of
large banks and corporations. Bank of America,
Norwest Mortgage, Chicago Title.
I learned a lot of
great things from these companies. Managing
people….customer service…etc. I climbed the
corporate ladder. Not because I knew someone. Mostly
because I have high integrity, got the job done and
worked hard and smart.
One thing I learned
from these companies and certainly from my parents
early on, was that you can’t be deceptive to your
customers, your peers, and not to your employer.
You might be
successful being deceptive to those folks for a
short period of time….but it catches up to you….and
fast.
But I love deception
…….as an instructor.
So, how does
deception come into the equation here?
Well, we are now
talking sports….more specifically pitching in
baseball.
Deception has a
tremendous amount of value for a pitcher.
A pitcher has to be
deceptive….and no I’m not talking about the
integrity and honesty part……the on field competition
part.
A deceptive pitcher
off the field won’t last long either. On the field
it’s a different story.
What is deception
anyway?
I think about
deception for a pitcher to be an asset. If the
hitter sees something that is not there, or is
different than what it looks like, then the pitcher
has the advantage.
We all know the only
two things the hitter has control over is when he
swings and his timing mechanism.
Yes, there are some
hitters that will try to deceive the pitcher….set up
a pitcher to throw a certain pitch…but that’s not
that common, especially at the lower levels of
baseball.
The pitcher’s job is
to mess up the hitters timing.
How can he do that?
Well, throwing off
speed pitches of course is one way. A great
change-up is still one of the best pitches in all of
baseball.
The pitcher can also
do it through later movement of the fastball, later
movement of the curve, and certainly later movement
of the change.
Why is late movement
so important?
Obviously, the later
the movement, the harder it is for the hitter to
react. Most of us have been told to see the ball hit
the bat since we were t-ballers. Have any of you
actually seen the ball hit the bat? I bet not.
What actually happens
is that we lose site of the ball at some point when
we swing. We put the bat where we think the ball is
going to be. If the ball isn’t there, then we get
that poorly struck ball…..a pitchers dream.
How does a pitcher
get that later movement?
It’s pretty
complicated, but I’ll simplify it here for you. The
later I release the baseball in my delivery, the
later the movement. If my mechanics won’t allow me
to release the ball later in my delivery, then I’ll
get a loopy curve and a straight fastball.
Not a good recipe for
success as a pitcher.
Another aspect of
deception is visual. The closer I release the ball
to home plate, the less reaction time the hitter has
to swing. Just think about the difference for
hitters at the full sized diamond and the little
league field.
Now some folks say
height has a lot to do with a later release point….I
would agree to a certain extent.
I’ve seen very tall
pitchers release the ball at 5 to 6 feet off the
rubber, and I’ve seen young 5-foot pitchers release
the ball close to 7 feet off the rubber.
No kidding.
Let’s put it this
way, a tall pitcher has the “opportunity” to release
the ball closer to the hitter than the shorter
pitcher.
Bottom line, if you
don’t have the strength and the flexibility so your
mechanics can work efficiently, you body be
explosive, then deception is probably the least of
your worries.
Wow.
I’ve covered a lot
today. I hope you got the message.
Overall, focus on
improving your body to be a better, more athletic,
more explosive, and more durable pitcher….and you
had better learn a good change-up!
The season is coming
up fast. So you’d best get going on your training if
you are not training yet.
Train like a champion
today!
P.S. Sorry about the
personal history lesson. Hope I didn’t put you to
sleep. Look for the release of our newest DVD…it’s
going to be about developing power and plyometrics….something
every baseball player needs to incorporate into
their regiment.
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