BREAKING THE HANDS:
Get It Out and
Get It Up
If there is no absolute method for breaking the hands, I do recommend
the absolute wisdom of a phrase taught by major league pitching coach, Harvey
Haddox, who once pitched twelve innings of a perfect game, only to lose the
no-hitter and the game in the thirteenth inning, "Get it out and get
it up".
You must get the ball out of your glove and into the throwing position
quickly. There is obviously nothing to be accomplished by keeping the ball
in your glove.
If you are slow bringing your pitching hand up into
the throwing
position, your arm will lag behind your body and throw
off your timing.
Coaches like to use the expression, "He's having trouble getting
his arm up," to describe a fatiguing hurler. You, as a pitcher can battle
this dangerous tendency by constantly remembering the phrase, "Get it
out and get it up".
I cannot overemphasize how important these seven words are to successful
pitching. You are at a critical juncture in the delivery. For the only time,
your weight has partially shifted behind the rubber to your left foot. You
are breaking your hands preparatory to bringing your arm up into throwing
position.
Don't dawdle or fumble in the glove. "Get it out and get it up".
-- Tom Seaver
"That which you do not know, the doing
will quickly teach you."
-- Lao Tzu
HITTERS WILL TRY TO PROTECT THEIR BIGGEST
WEAKNESS
Hitter stands close to the plate
WANTS THE BALL IN.
Throw the ball away, or off-speed.
Hitter stands away from the plate
WANTS THE BALL AWAY. HE IS PROTECTING INSIDE.
Throw him in.
Closed stance
LIKES THE BALL AWAY, WANTS TO CONTROL THE MIDDLE OF THE PLATE AWAY.
Throw him down and in.
Open Stance
WANTS THE BALL IN.
Throw the ball away from him.
Hands held high.
LIKES TO DROP THE HEAD OF THE BAT ON THE BALL.
Throw him up and in.
Crouch
WANTS THE BALL DOWN IN THE ZONE.
Throw the ball up.
Upright Stance
BE CAREFUL, HE LIKES THE BALL DOWN.
Throw him up and in, on the hands.
Long Stride
Change speeds. Curve. Fastball up.
If the hitter cannot hit your fastball, keep throwing it. If you throw
him off-speed pitches you are doing him a favor.
If he fouls your fastball straight back, he is onto your fastball. Change
speeds.
You must throw inside to be successful.
Don't be afraid to push the hitter off the plate, especially if he is
leaning in, looking for the curveball.
Working Against the Hitter's Stance
• If a batter has a straight-up stance, close to the plate, pitch him
inside.
• If he is crouched, pitch a little high.
• If he stands away from the plate, feed him outside pitches.
• The main objective is to take the power away from the hitter. Keep
him from putting good wood on the ball.
"That which you do not know, the doing will quickly teach you."
-- Lao Tzu
MOVING THE STRIKE ZONE FORWARD AND BACKWARD
How do you move the strike zone forward or backward? You do it by changing
speeds.
If you start a hitter off with a fastball, and he's late on it, then
give him a harder fastball inside and make him say, "Geez, I've really
got to be quicker here."
Now the ball is deep in the strike zone. It's travelled farther over
the plate before he's making contact. Now you have the batter thinking, "I've
got to quicken up".
Here you take something off the pitch with a changeup or a curveball.
Now you've got him cheating, that is, quickening his bat. He swings and the
ball is not there yet. He's out in front of it. You've pulled the strike
zone out toward the mound.
By the same token, if the batter gets around on your fastball and pulls
it foul, throw him a slow pitch and make him quick again, and get him thinking, "I've
got to wait. I've got to wait."
As soon as you've got him thinking he's got to wait, throw him hard inside
again and push the strike zone backward.
"That which you do not know, the doing
will quickly teach you."
-- Lao Tzu
SETTING UP SHOP
The pitcher's mound is your office, it's the place you conduct your
business. When you get to the mound and smooth the dirt, you are setting
up shop. Your shop.
The mound is the center of the diamond. It is the hill. It is the highest
point on the baseball field. This is your domain. This is the starting point
for all game action.
Your job is to get air rights over home plate. Your job is to take ownership
of the strike zone.
The strike zone—mid-torso to knees over the plate—is not
a sharply defined box; it's more like a balloon—changing space under
constant revision during any single game. It can be expanded or compressed
by all sorts of variables, most obviously the size and stance of the batter.
Sometimes a strike zone is simply as big as the batter, or umpire, make
it. And sometimes the pitcher is able to "sell" a pitch to both
of them by putting the ball securely in the zone in the early innings, and
gradually pushing it beyond the fringe. Once you prove to the umpire and
the hitter that you can throw strikes, you can start expanding the strike
zone a little because they are used to seeing strikes.
"That which you do not know, the doing
will quickly teach you."
-- Lao Tzu
KEEP THROWING FASTBALLS
Keep throwing fastballs. If you feel the hitters are catching up, change speeds using a changeup or a curveball. Just when they’ve got your fastball timed, throw an off-speed pitch and it will throw off the hitter’s timing.
One example of knowing when a hitter’s got you timed: when they foul your fastball straight back. What to do? Change speeds.
THOUGHTS ON THE FASTBALL
- The pitch most thrown in major-league baseball is the fastball.
- More outs are recordeded every game on the fastball than any other single pitch
- It is the basic pitch
- Every other pitch is a variation
- Every pitcher, whether a knuckleball pitcher or a fastball pitcher, throws a fastball, yet not every pitcher throws a knuckleball, a slider, or even a curveball. Therefore, the fastball is the most important pitch.
- If he’s a fastball pitcher, he needs the fastball to get most of his outs.
- If he’s a breaking-ball pitcher, he needs a fastball to offset his breaking-balls.
- More than any other pitch, the fastball must be worked on if the pitcher is to learn to throw his fastball harder than he imagined he could.
- It must be worked constantly so that he is able to throw it so that it does not merely approach the plate in a straight line, but at the last second, takes an additional rise, dip, or tail.
- A good fastball is the best pitch in baseball, and it needs a well-developed motion
- A motion that will give the pitcher the ability to synchronize his arm speed with his body’s forward momentum.
CHANGE UP
Once known as the Change of Pace. This pitch is designed to throw the hitter’s timing off.
As someone once said, there are as many changeups as there are pitchers. And that is true. However, if you don’t have a preference, try holding the ball the way you hold a two seam fastball, allow your ring finger to come up on the side of the ball on one side, while bringing your thumb up to the other side. The next thing to do is to tuck the ball deeper in your hand than you do when you are throwing a fastball.
Finally, and this is important, lift your index and middle finger off the ball. At the same time, tuck the ball deeper in your hand than you do a fastball. Tucking the ball back in your hand will cause you to hold onto the ball a bit longer,
Remember, there are many ways to throw the ChangeUp. In fact, it is said that there are as many ChangeUp’s as there are pitchers. This is one version. It may or may not be for you. But if you try it and it works for you, then it just might be your pitch. (This version recommended by Mel Stottlemyre)
Your Change Up is your Most Effective Weapon
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Your changup is your most effective weapon against hitters.
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It must be 10-12 mph slower than your fastball
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Show them fastball arm speed and they will swing at a fastball.
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Your grip will do 100% of the job of slowing down the ball.
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Throw it hard and down the middle of the plate.
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A straight change is excellent, as long as the ball spins and looks like a fastball.
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Repeat: Arm speed fools hitters.
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Repeat: Arm speed fools the hitters.
"Hitting it about timing. Good pitching upsets a hitters timing."
—Warren Spahn
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NOLAN RYAN ON PITCHING INSIDE
“Throwing inside to a hitter is at the heart of aggressive pitching. You cannot let the fear of hitting—or hurting—the hitter deter you from coming in with a fastball. Of course, it is essential to have confidence in your control and in your ability to throw inside. But don’t let your concern over hitting somebody and putting him on base take away from your aggressiveness. It you teach a hitter that you’ll throw inside—if he knows that—then his whole approach to facing you is quite different”.
—Nolan Ryan
Nolan Ryan’s Pitcher’s Bible
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