I tell my pitchers this all the time- “You are going to be so good with your accuracy that your mom will let you and your friend play catch in your hallway.” I almost always receive the same response- laughter from the players and rebukes from the parents. As much as I want them to take me literally, this is more for visual training. I want the pitcher to understand his margin for error is very small.
When standing on the mound the pitcher throws from the rubber, which is 24 inches in length. In contrast, home plate is only 17 inches across making the midpoint of the plate 8.5 inches. What that basically means is that if the goal is to throw the ball right down the middle of the plate, the pitcher can only miss his target by roughly 9 inches either way or he will throw a ball. While 9 inches may not seem like a lot in many walks of life, it may as well be a mile in baseball. Remember we consider most 35 year old shortstops ancient.
This comes to my main point- What are you focusing when you pitch? Some players simply say they are looking at the catcher. If you miss the outer portion of the catcher by 9 inches, your pitch will be behind the batter. Others say they are looking at the glove. When opened up and giving a target, the average catcher’s mitt is almost 11 inches across. That would cover over 60% of home plate and when set up down the middle, would give you only 3 inches on each side of the plate that are not covered by the glove. Therefore if you missed the outside of the glove by 9 inches, which is what the players said they are looking at, you would probably HIT the batter.
I want the pitcher to focus on a small point INSIDE THE MIDDLE of the glove. Now if your catcher is set up down the middle, you can miss your target by about 9 inches either way and still get a strike called. For those of you who are thinking “I never have my catcher set up down the middle”, having a small focus is even more important because now your margin of error is even smaller. All of this sounds great and it is assuming you throw the pitch in the strike zone. The rule book says this zone goes from the batter’s armpits to knees, but as we all know this can change daily depending on your umpire and how often he visits his optometrist.
I have worked with world renowned pitching coach Tom House on numerous occasions and one of his famous sayings is “Aim small, miss small”. Some people don’t like to use the word aim because you hear coaches yell at their pitchers from the dugout all the time “Don’t aim it Johnny!” That’s why I like to use the word focus versus aim. The definition of the word focus even sounds good- a central point of attention. I am big on the words spoken to players, because the terminology you use is just as important as what you teach. It’s funny how 2 coaches can teach a player the same exact drill, but sometimes the way it is communicated by one coach makes it click with the player.
I encourage you to use this visual technique with all of your players when they are playing catch before practice and games. Have them give a chest high target and tell them that they need to keep the ball in-between 4 points: the beanie on top of their cap, the outside of each shoulder and their bellybutton. Also remember that playing catch before practice is not considered warming up. Stretching your muscles is warming up. Playing catch is working on throwing mechanics. An article on this will come next time.
