To put it lightly, our pitchers struggled throwing strikes this last weekend. I’ve been thinking a lot about how to help them develop more control. The best thing I can think of is homework.
If these same kids were learning to play the violin, they would be expected to practice. Probably daily. And probably practice a lot. That’s how you get better at something. The music teacher probably wouldn’t continue working with a child that only played their instrument during their lessons. Why should baseball be different?
Baseball is a skill driven game. It takes a lot of time to develop the tools it takes to be successful with this game. The players on our team are more invested than a recreational player, and they want to be able to compete with the top programs. If that is going to happen, they have to do their homework.
If you take pitching as an example, being able to consistently repeat throwing mechanics is essential to having good control on the mound. The player that has more repetitions of their delivery will have a better chance at being successful throwing strikes (or throwing out of the strike zone when they need to).
The players that only work on throwing at a practice or a game are going to struggle to advance their skills. That is why we need to start assigning homework. If a player will put in 15 minutes a night, I believe they will find greater success at the ballpark.
Homework can come in different forms. Parents could take their kids to the cage or play catch with them at the park. But it can be much simpler as well.
In order to give my players some tools to gain that control, we went through several options of things they can work on over the next few days to see if we can perform better next weekend. None of the homework requires a lot of time or specialized equipment. They can just pick from this list and
- Jobe exercises for arm health
- Drills for developing body control
- Airplanes
- Skaters
- Side hops
- Dry throws with a towel in front of a mirror
- Visualize throwing for five minutes
I believe the players that put in the work will see the gains. Reminds me of my favorite Derek Jeter quote.
There may be people with more talent than you, but there’s no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do.
Derek Jeter