My Experience (The Wild Thing...Literally)
So many talented pitchers fall into this trap of command issues. Personally I am super convicted about this specific topic, because I was that exact guy! To share my story, I didn’t always struggle throwing strikes. Actually, I probably would say I had impressive command at a younger age. Out of high school like so many other high level athletes, I dominated the competition. I had a bunch of scholarship offers as well as pro attention from plenty of scouts. Thankfully I was able to be a part of a Top 25 program at Liberty University.
With so much attention going into my college career, my confidence was through the roof. I went into my freshman fall and honestly pitched some of the best baseball of my life. This lead me to earn a role going into my first season of college baseball. While I was sky high and setup for a successful baseball career, I personally believe God had a different plan for my life than to dominate in the college ranks. With that said, sure enough my last outing in the preseason, boom down with an arm injury for 6 weeks. This took a huge shot to my confidence as a young athlete.
The rest of that season I was very inconsistent one game I would be great, the next completely off. This would ultimately start a trend which would eventually put me at the bottom of my career during my junior year of college. Starting off the season I actually earned a starting job in the weekend rotation. (In college baseball is one of the top positions on the team) Despite having such a significant role, I plummeted. I opened up the season walking more guys than I can count. One start that season I actually walked the first 5 batters I faced and was taken right out in the first inning! Yikes right! Can’t get much worse than that! I was labeled a head case and was referred to as a pitcher who got the yips!
Throughout all of this, I had every person I knew giving me advice about what I was doing wrong. Some people told me, “It’s all in your head!” While others said things like “Stay back longer,” “Dial it back,” “Just focus more,” “Make an Adjustment!” Take it from my experience, despite everyone’s best intentions none of that advice usually works. Now instead of trusting my natural motion I had been working on my entire life, I found myself desperately trying to feel what I once felt. Despite all these struggles, I decided to give baseball another shot and came back for my senior year at Liberty. The good news is there is hope!
Looking back at my college career I truly believe I did not catch the case of the yips. (The term so many baseball coaches and players assign to a player who magically can’t throw a strike) Although the yips are an actual psychological issue many athletes face, and some of the issues I was facing may have stemmed from this type of performance anxiety. I believe the majority of issues spill into mechanical issues and huge mistakes in training. I know it is no secret, but I truly believe the structure and nature of how college and professional baseball is run, ultimately does not put people in the best position for success. It is my goal to help struggling athletes take control of their careers and achieve their goals. It takes hard work, but I truly believe if you work hard enough the results will come.
Mind Set
Mind set is one of the many necessary factors which play into command. Each season I would begin with high hopes. After successful summers, all star selections, and dominating falls I would come into the season with a winning mindset. Despite this, every season would bring more struggles and I would always be left wondering, where did I go wrong? Did I work hard enough? Did I work at the right things?
An aggressive mindset must be in place in order to develop high level command. I don’t necessarily mean grunting, gripping, or grinding your teeth to deliver the ball. Instead a consistent aggressive amount of effort on every single pitch. Now don’t get me wrong I certainly don’t mean backing off whatsoever! I firmly believe every pitch should be delivered with close to 100% intention, but with that being said the motion must be smooth, relaxed, and under control. Each pitch should be selected and thrown with conviction and commitment.
Even though an aggressive mindset is important, I am still a true believer that you cannot in anyway “think a strike.” What do you mean by that you may ask? I mean no matter how hard you think about or intend to throw a ball to a certain place. If the whole process and timing is off, then the ball will not go where it is supposed to go. As I’ve discussed before, the analogy I use commonly is the golf ball analogy. Think of a golfer hitting off the tee box. The end goal is to make contact with the golf ball in the most powerful, consistent, and effective way in order to make the ball blast straight down the fairway.
This same principle can be applied to pitching. Our end goal is to create a delivery which is powerful, consistent and effective in order to get the best result. So many coaches talk about aggressively focusing on a place on the glove or changing your sights to adjust for a pitch or even changing mechanics to get the ball in the zone. These include commonly thrown phrases such as “bend your back,” “stay back,” “get out front,” “get on top,” etc. To relate this back to golf, it is similar to an amateur golfer adjusting his stance, hands, or sights in order to sort of land the ball somewhere in the fairway. He is not concerned with how it gets there or even if he will do it again on the next hole. In golf this is commonly referred to as “playing a slice.” As pitchers, we definitely do not want to “play a slice,” instead we want to bomb it dead straight in the fairway every time. This is why using these commonly taught phrases and philosophies will more often than not make a pitcher even more inconsistent.
In my opinion even the most timid pitcher with the worst thoughts could theoretically still be able to pound the zone with a solid repeatable delivery. I am not undermining the importance of the mental game of sports. Having a strong will to win and a competitive mindset are extremely important. With that said, they should be addressed once a player develops a solid delivery, regular routine, and offseason training program. Then the mental game is the icing on the cake. Now that we have discussed all of that let's get to the base of the cake, the training!
Mistakes in Training & Mindset
A common misconception among coaches and players is that backing of on a fastball will ultimately result in a higher percentage of strikes. With that said, the turn around is high level command doesn’t develop solely by throwing hard. This is in large part a problem in the way many coaches go about developing players. One set of coaches encourage players to refrain from things such as high intensity weightedball training and long toss in the off season in order to focus more on command off the mound/flat-ground. The other set spends way too much time on things such as weightedball training, long toss, run & guns, and weight training at the cost of their players being able to develop the finely the tuned skills and technique needed to pitch. These coaches often develop hard throwers, but these throwers have no skill.
I personally have been subject to both styles throughout my playing career and have witnessed other programs in how they develop players. Again, my goal is not to bash any former coaches or programs I have been apart of. Simply, I am trying to bring to light some the major issues I have seen throughout player development in the college and professional game. I have been apart of the staff which spends its whole time doing flat ground work and bullpens with no other form of throwing program. I also have seen teams where the sole focus was on weighted balls, run & guns, lifting, running, fielding practice, but at the end of the day pitchers were given 10 minutes to throw.
There must be a balance when it comes to constructing an off-season and in season throwing program. High intensity training is one of the staples of my throwing program, and truly believe there is evidence to support the use of weighted implements during the training portion of the off-season. With that said, too much focus on velocity development can take away from what really matters which is developing skill. As we dive deeper into the structure and nature of developing pitchers, Part 2 will take a look at the structure and nature of developing skill in the off-season.
November, 2018
Author,
Michael Stafford
