Pitching tips – How to Pitch Accurately

Now last week I talked about how to pitch hard fast balls. Well, on that post somebody brought up that throwing accurate balls like Greg Maddux and Jamie Moyer is more important than throwing fast balls. I agree to some point, but throwing fast ball is something that pitchers can’t give up on. But how nice would it be, to be able to pitch fast and accurately? Here are some tips that I can provide as to how to pitch accurately.

1. When practicing, concentrate and remember every single pitch

Although I would really like to provide you with a easy way for pitching accurately, basically practicing is the number one thing to do. But just practicing like a crazy idiot will not work. There is a certain way. Every single time you pitch, you need to concentrate on every aspects, such as the way you released, the feeling that you can on the tip of your fingers and etc. This is essential in pitching accurately because by remembering what you did in all those pitches, your body and your mind memorizes how to pitch if you want to pitch outside low corner or inside low corner. As you remember and memorize the coordination of your body every time you pitch, you gradually learn to be able to pitch where you want to.

2. Have stable lower body when you release the ball

Although I mentioned this in my last post, I will say it again. The key to pitching is having a stable lower body. Some things that you should do to make your lower body stronger is running. Run, run, run. Running everyday will make your lower body stronger, and allow you to have a stable ground when you pitch. If your lower body is stable, your upper body will also be stable, which allow you to throw the ball at a more solid and steady position. If your lower body shakes then you will obviously have problems pitching at a steady position which will make it hard to pitch accurate balls.

3. Look at where the catcher’s glove is the whole time you pitch

In the case of amateur league, I have seen numerous pitchers who don’t look at the catcher’s glove from the beginning of their pitch to the end. Some pitchers start raising their leg as they are looking somewhere else and look at the catcher at the last moment of pitching. It is very important for the pitcher to look at the catcher throughout the whole delivery of the ball. By doing this the pitcher can concentrate on where they want to pitch.

An example of a pitcher known for his accuracy is, of course, Greg Maddux.

Pitching tips – how to pitch fast

Most of the people who start baseball and start pitching ask me. How do you pitch fast? That is the number one thing that everybody always ask. How do you pitch 100 mile fastballs. Well here are some tips I can provide you.

1. You must use weight shifting when pitching.

When you pitch, you should keep your weight centered on your back leg. When I say back leg, I mean the leg that you balance on when you raise your front leg. For example, for a right hand pitcher, the back leg would be your right leg. Anyway, it is important to keep the weight center on your back leg. Then, at your release point, or when you actually throw the ball off of your fingers, you quickly shift your weight to the front leg.

This is important in that you can put all of your weight into your ball as you shift the weight from the back to the front. This is probably the key thing to pitching fast. An example of this is Ryu-Hyun-Jin, a famous left pitcher of Korea.

2. Keep your stride long

Stride is the action in which after you lift your knee, you move your leg forward to land. Keeping your stride long allows you to pitch at a point that is closer to the batter. This not only allows you to pitch faster (because you can throw at a lesser distance to the batter) but it also stabilizes your accuracy. A good example of a fire baller with long stride is Tim Lincecum. He has a long stride that is almost as long as his height or even longer.

3. Use your hips efficiently.

Even if you have a weak arm, you can still throw fastball with just the rotation of your body. If you have a nice, soft pitching form, you can overcome that weakness. Something that you should do to overcome that is using your hips well. The timing when the hip opens up is very important. Many pitchers open it too fast or some pitchers open it too slow. In order to open it at an efficient timing, you can use your front shoulder or the stride knee to lead. Or, you can use your glove to make it an imaginary wall that you push right before releasing the ball. Whatever you do, if you make sure that your hip doesn’t open up too fast or too slow, you can use that rotating energy to whip the ball at the batter. The rotating energy will definitely make your ball faster. An example of a pitcher who uses his hips very well is Roy Halladay.

Pitching style – Three quarters

The second type of pitching style I will talk about is the three quarters pitching style. Three quarters is the type of pitching in which the arm of the pitcher is between the waist level and the head. Three quarters are also frequently used by pitchers in Major league and other pro-league. The release point of three quarters is a bit lower than the overhand, but it still has its advantages. One of the advantage is that the three quarters allow difference in the angle of the pitch. Instead of a straight pitch from up to down like the overhand, the three quarters come in a diagonal angle that is hard to hit for the batters. After batting against a overhand, seeing the ball coming in a diagonal angle can cause confusion for the batter. Also three quarters allow you to use the full strike zone, meaning that you can use all up, down, left, and right. This is not the case for overhand pitchers.

Another advantage is that the three quarters allow both speed and change. When I mean “change” I mean the breaking balls that can be used with more efficiency with three quarters. The angle of the three quarters allow the pitchers to throw better angled breaking balls. For example, if a overhand pitcher throws a slider (a breaking ball that breaks sideways or downward with considerable speed) it can only go sideways with little angle in the pitch. It is also hard for them to use the left and right of the strike zone. However if a three quarters pitcher throws a slider the pitch has more break, or change that will make the batters swing.

Disadvantage of three quarters is that first, the tailing of fastball is weaker than overhand. By this I mean that the ball has less edge, or spin than the overhand pitch. To put it easily, three quarters fastball is weaker than overhand fastballs. Another weakness is that the pitch can be easily read. This means that the batters have more time to figure out what kind of ball the pitcher pitched, whether if it is a breaking ball or a fastball.

Some famous three quarters pitchers are Randy Johnson, Ryu-Hyun-Jin from Korea, Park Chan Ho, and others.

Pitching style – Overhand

If you watch a game of baseball, we can see that all of the pitchers have their unique form of pitching style. Some pitchers use their whole b0dy to throw the ball forward, or some pitchers use their tall height to nail it down to the catcher. All of these pitching styles can be divided into four kinds of style. Today, I will be writing about one of them. The overhand pitching style.

Extreme overhand pitcher Hideki Okajima

The overhand pitching style is the most common kind of pitching style that the pitchers use. As the wording can tell you, overhand pitching style is when the pitcher throws the ball at a release point highter than the head. The swing of the arm is perpendicular to the ground, and the swing goes over the head. This high point of release allows the pitchers to give a faster and higher delivery, which is part of the reason why so many pitchers pitch overhand.

The overhand pitching style’s advantage is that,like I said, it can make your ball faster. The projectory, the backspin that is put on the ball when pitched overhand, and the height of the release point all allows the pitchers to throw faster. It also has the advantage of allowing the pitcher to put their weight on to the ball, making the ball heavy and fast. The high release point also allows the pitchers to pitch good curves that will drop from a high point to the low ground.

The disadvantage of overhand pitching style is that it is easy for the shoulder to get damaged. The excess work that the shoulder must go through during the pitch causes stress and tiredness to build up. Extreme overhand pitchers are known to have a short careers. Another disadvantage is that since it is so common, the projectory of the ball is well known to the batters. This might lead to getting hitted on a massive scale.

Many famous pitcher who use this pitching style are Tim Linccecum, Nolan Ryan, Roy Halladay, CC Sabathia and others. These pitchers are known, or have known to have a fastball that overwhelms the batter.

SK Wyvern’s mad 15 consecutive wins

The SK have just won their 15th consecutive win in the baseball season on May 2nd. Their record right now is 23 wins and 5 loss, first place in the league with a winning percentage of 0.821 percent. They have tied the record with the 2008 SK Wyverns and 2000 Hyundai Unicorns for playing the least games to get 20 wins during the season. In a matter of 25 games, this year’s SK Wyverns were able to reach 20 wins. SK’s invincibility was already quite well known, but now they seem impossible to beat. This is because not only is the result surprising, but the process of this 15 consecutive wins is also shocking.

Currently, of the 28 wins, the starting pitchers have recorded 16 wins out of the 28. Per game the starting pitchers pitched for 5 and 2/3 inning and recorded an ERA(earned run average) of 2.60. Out of the total 156 innings that they pitched, they striked out 130 batters. A pitcher with such record could be the ace of a team. But this record is the average of the starting pitchers in SK Wyverns alone.

Record of starting pitchers of SK

Kadokura – 6 wins no loss, ERA 1.98, Pitched 36 1/3 innings, 39 strike outs

Kim Kwang Hyun – 4 wins no loss, ERA 0.29, Pitched 30 2/3 innings, 28 strike outs

Song Seum Bum – 4 wins 1 loss, ERA 2.23, Pitched 32 1/3 innings, 16 strike outs

Glover – 3 wins 1 loss, ERA 3.03, Pitched 35 2/3 innings, 25 strike outs

These 4 starting pitchers are all in the top 10 of wins, WHIP, ERA, and in other areas. They are currently all in the top 10 ranking of the overall pitcher ranking.