Use all the pitching height you have
July 6, 2015 by Coach McCreary
Filed under Pitching
Scouts love tall pitchers. Go to any MLB team website and check out the heights of all their pitchers. My hometown Phillies don’t have a pitcher under 6’1″ and have eight pitchers over 6’3″. A tall pitcher who does a good job of throwing downhill is very tough to hit. Just ask anyone who has faced Randy Johnson.
Unfortunately, a lot of younger pitchers make the common mistake of giving their height back to the batter when they collapse their back leg on their leg kick. It looks like this …
No matter what height the pitcher has, when he brings his leg up during his delivery he should be at his tallest when his knee is up like this …
If he is 6’4″, he should be at or close to 6’4″ when his knee comes up in order to create that downward angle on the pitch. Collapsing the back leg lessons the angle and gives the advantage back to the batter.
Stay tall pitchers and work downhill!
A great piece of advice on creating a downward body movement to prevent flat ball movement, also the pitchers first body movement as they depart from the rubber should first be a side ways,closed,forward body,hip movement followed secondly by the stride foot and stride leg movement to stride foot touch,plant down, no collapsing of the hips, drive leg knee and ankle.
Great Base Ball-N
Don Ervin
dfervin32@yahoo.com