Calling All Pitching Coaches

[traderumor]

I am working with pitchers age 9-10 age range and wanted to see if anyone had any links to helpful websights or book/video recommendations for teaching beginners to pitch. I take this very seriously and have not coached pitching before, but did pitch for 4 of my 5 years in little league, but still consider myself a novice.

[jmcclain19]

What about Tom Emanski? :)

http://www.pitching.com/pitching_articles.php

http://www.davislittleleague.org/coaching_pitchtip.asp

And for injury prevention, here is a good primer
http://www.bassett.org/pdf/elbow.pdf

Also - I would recommend "Play Ball the Ripken Way".

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400061229/102-6990250-5537764?v=glance&n=283155

I found that book to be excellent for all aspects of youth baseball.

[Superdude]

Definitely go with Tom Emanski! What's he got now...like 18 straight national AAU titles! Plus Fred McGriff has a cool cameo in the commercial. :thumbup:

[Blimpie]

Definitely go with Tom Emanski! What's he got now...like 18 straight national AAU titles! Plus Fred McGriff has a cool cameo in the commercial. :thumbup:I can still picture the McGriff wearing the stylish foam/mesh hat in that infomercial....

http://81x.com/authors/potatoes/mcgriff.jpg

[traderumor]

What about Tom Emanski? :)

http://www.pitching.com/pitching_articles.php

This link to Dick Mills site was one of the best I found. I find his take on things to be similar to the approach I planned on using, with the teaching of mechanics that properly use the lower body to deliver the arm. After reviewing some of the basics on various sites, I was encouraged to see that I was at least conversant in each area. Here's hoping I can help some kids get started off on the right foot.

[Superdude]

Awesome pic! That hat is sweet! :eek:

[traderumor]

My debut as acting pitching coach started out rocky with a 6 run first, some walks, some due to defense lapses, but finished strong with giving up just 4 runs over the next three innings. The offense came alive and walked and ran their way to a 19-10 victory in a game called after 4 innings due to time limit. Yes, this is live pitching only league for 9-10 year olds, lots of walks here in the early going, hopefully I can bring that down some on my side of the diamond.

Practice tonight, we learn how to grip a four seam fastball and work on extending and following through on every pitch.

[danwl]

I am in a similar situation. My son is 9 and playing his first year in the minors - kid pitch league. I managed him in "fall ball" minors last year and am coaching with some other guys this season. I played in HS, but didn't pitch and had relatively little knowledge. After looking at a number of sources, I started with A Parent's Guide to Pitching, by Brad Woodall, who pitched with a couple of teams in the majors, Braves, Cubs, maybe somebody else. Amazon has it: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0967958903/ref=pd_rate_dp/002-4741933-7522429?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155

What I like about this book is that it has simple, clear, direct descriptions of the fundamentals of pitching, with ideas on how to express concepts to kids. I know that there is a heckuva lot more to pitching than is expressed in this book, but my goal was (is) to get my kids grounded in some of the fundamentals at this age, then it will be a matter of adding sophistication as they grow, not having to relearn a new way to do it. My basic goal was to allow them to have some success now and not to screw any of them up for the next level.

This book was also at my level, and didn't require me to get a Ph.D. in pitching to teach some of the basics. I am trying to grow as a coach as my kid gets older, too, so I'm also looking at some of the other sources mentioned in this thread. While I am generally suspicious of folks whose basic line is that everybody else has it wrong, I also like Dick Mills' site a lot. Hard to have a better poster boy than Zito, I guess.