What makes a BAD pitching Coach?

Someone who has no experience in playing the position at the top levels of the game, or someone who has no certified education of how to coach the position.

How can a BAD pitching Coach effect a pitcher?

Pitching takes a tremendous amount of muscle coordination. The body must naturally understand how to build maximum momentum and torque, to deliver an above average fastball to a specific location. It is a pitching Coaches job to guide the pitcher to reaching his athletic potential. This takes an expert understanding of the position and the athlete. If the pitching Coach is far from an expert then the chances of him being a guide to the pitchers athletic potential, is very poor. This could be detrimental to a young pitchers career because promoting bad mechanics, due to the lack of experience or education, will decrease velocity and cause injury. It happened to Me.

What are the signs of a BAD pitching Coach?

1) No experience in the top levels of the game.

2) No certified education in the world of pitching and athletic training.

3) A poor understanding of Physics Driven Pitching Mechanics.

4) A poor understanding of the physiology and psychology of his pitchers.

5) Over throwing his staff of pitchers.

6) Discouraging his pitchers from using a strength and conditioning program.

7) Forcing his pitchers to throw more breaking balls than fastballs.

8 ) Using Long Distance running to build endurance in his pitchers.

9) Excessive amounts of long toss.

10) A poor warm-up and dynamic stretching routine.

11) Not educating his pitchers on proper athletic nutrition and rehabilitation.

12) Not educating his pitchers on the mental game.

13) Uses a lot of poor conventional wisdom to coach his pitchers.

What are the signs of POOR conventional wisdom of pitching mechanics?

These are old techniques of pitching, that have been proven throw science, to decrease velocity or cause injury.

This would be Coaching the pitcher to:

1) Take the ball out of the glove and reach it to the sky.

2) Get into the T position. Glove hand to target and ball to center field.

3) Pull the glove hand in hard to your body, while pulling the throwing arm down to throw.

4) Kick the back leg up high after release. He may even use a chair for the pitcher to kick his leg over, after release, to force this bad pitching mechanic.

5) Keep your landing leg bent at release. Do not let it straighten!

6) Pull your head down hard during pitch.

7) Wipe your arm.

8 ) Slam your chest into your landing leg.

9) Move your arm faster.

10) Drive your glove hand to the target.

How to PLEASE a BAD Pitching Coach?

I will be the first to tell you that this isn’t easy. Due to the high percentage of BAD pitching Coaches in all levels of the game, ever pitcher will deal with a BAD pitching Coach a few times to many in their career. The best way to deal with a BAD pitching Coach, without him having an effect on your career, is not to avoid him but to please him. Here is some TIPS that will help.

1) Do whatever he says when he is looking and then do what you think is best when he isn’t looking.

2) Study the game, the position, physics driven mechanics and strength and conditioning. Become your Coach.

3) Do not let him catch you educating the other pitchers. Especially if he is a HOT HEAD.

4) Do not screw around when he is around you.

5) Do not talk bad about him to other players.

This is the MOST IMPORTANT TIP:

6) You must IMPROVE.

The hardest thing that any pitcher or athlete must learn, is that it is a rare case for you to find a Coach that will propel your career to the top levels of the game. This is because, they are just as concerned about their job, as you are about your job. So if you want to make it as a professional one day, you are going to have to knock down a lot of doors. You will always find support but the only person that is going to help you get their is yourself. I will leave you with this quote from Nolan Ryan.

“Pitching in the big leagues is a dream. Preparing to pitch in the big leagues is a nightmare.”

Scap Loading Issues

The problem with coaching Scap Loading is that it can promote the infamous inverted W.  The inverted W is the mechanical flaw linked to many rotator cuff and UCL injuries in professional baseball. This is when the elbows fly above the shoulders during the stride and before the shoulders fire towards the target. Scap Loading can lead to this issue because Scap Loading is the throwing of the elbows behind the back during the stride. Throwing the elbows behind the back or above the shoulders is both considered putting the shoulders and elbows in what the Physical Therapy world calls the “Red Zone.” This is a vulnerable position for the arms to be in during an explosive movement like pitching.

If you have ever watched a Major League Pitcher in slow motion you will most always find the pitcher putting his elbows behind his back or maybe even above his shoulders. It would be impossible for a Major League Pitcher to throw a 90+mph fastball without Scap Loading. This is almost proof that Scap Loading is a reaction to the stride. In my experience coaching myself and coaching pitchers is that slower strides create more Scap Loading. This is why I do not coach Scap Loading. The only time I coach a voluntary action to load the scapular is when a pitcher has such a quick stride that he is having a hard time preventing the shoulders from opening early. This is when I coach the pitcher to only load the scapular of the throwing shoulder. This will sometimes help the pitcher hold the throwing shoulder back into front foot strike to promote more hip to shoulder separation.

I really believe most pitcher coaches fail when they coach velocity through the upper kinetic chain like when coaching Scap Loading. Velocity comes from the body movements through force production of the lower half first and then the conversion of these body movements and power into the upper kinetic chain. This means you will benefit more from coaching the force production in the lower half. This means Scap Loading is a failed approach to coaching hip to shoulder separation because hip to shoulder separation is a product of an action of an explosive lower half movement creating a reaction in the inactive upper half at front foot strike. Voluntarily Scap Loading the shoulders during the stride to promote hip to shoulder separation will take the focus away from the lower half speed and also activate the shoulders before hip to shoulder separation occurs at front foot strike.

3X Pitching

This approach, I have defined here, is the 3X approach to pitching. If you are a bit confused then start with this video to learn the entire 3X approach to pitching. This is the approach to pitching velocity that is behind the ever popular 3X Pitching Velocity program.