Fundamental Throwing Technique

Pat Ahearne, former NCAA College World Series Championshion pitcher with more than 16 years of pro ball experience shares his fundamental throwing technique tips for youth baseball players.

Transcription:

Hi, this is Pat Ahearne. You're on the way of baseball. There's a line from a really good baseball movie where the manager of the team says, "Baseball is a simple game. You throw the ball. You catch the ball. You hit the ball." So today I want to show you a couple of really simple techniques that'll help you throwing the ball. I have the opportunity to coach a lot of young players and there's two common mistakes that I see in throwing that rob people of a lot of power and a lot of accuracy. So have you ever thought, "I should be throwing the ball harder," or, "I should be throwing the ball with more accuracy?" Well, let me show you a couple of common mistakes and how to fix them to get more out of your throws and more velocity.

One of the first mistakes that I see a lot of young players and even some older and adult players make is that they just don't stand like an athlete. Throwing a baseball is an athletic move that starts from your feet and works all the way up to your hands, using the energy of your whole body. So, the first thing you want to do when you're getting ready to throw is get into an athletic stance. Now, you never see any athletes standing upright with their legs straight. So I see a lot of young players standing too tall and trying to throw with straight legs and it robs them of power and it robs them of accuracy. So, really simple. To get yourself into an athletic stance, all you do is a little flex in the knees, and little flex at the waist. And what happens is these big muscles in your legs and your hips are firing now and they're ready to go. So that's step one. Get yourself into an athletic stance.

The next thing I see is that players don't take advantage of rotational power that's available to them. Now, when you want to get maximum power out of your throws, rotation is a big part of it. So, after you get in your athletic stance, you need to turn your body perpendicular to the target. Okay, so that's mistake number two. A lot of players I see, they step straight ahead, and just throw like this, and it ends up being all arm. They don't use any of the big muscles that they could use for power and they don't get the rotation speed that they could normally use.

So let's put it all together. Get in an athletic stance. Use your feet to turn your body perpendicular to the target. Now, when you get the rotational power, it's a step in the direction. And when you land, your lower half starts rotating, your upper half follows, then your arm comes whipping through it full speed right behind it. So now that's it broken down. Let's put it all together and show it to you full speed. Okay. Use your feet. Turn yourself perpendicular to your target. Flex in the knees and the hips. You're an athlete now. Now, when you take your direction and land, then you use your rotation power. Here is what it looks like at full speed.

All right, I hope that that simple technique helps you get the most out of your throwing and gets you further along on your way of baseball. I'm Pat Ahearne and you can find me at thewayofbaseball.com.