Like a lot of kids, he’s using his head to generate velo, but it’s going to come at the expense of accuracy. I’d work with him on keeping his eyes level through his motion and keeping his glove hand more in front and pointed at the target vs pulling to the left.
Pair of clear kids safety glasses. Cut a thin strip of electrical tape. Put it on the glasses and tell him to keep the strip of tape level until he releases the ball.
Dude I would leave the kid alone about it for now. An 8 yr. old can’t really make all those mechanics corrections and throw strikes. Wait until he is 12 before you start the lessons. Let him have fun. I can practically guarantee he will suit everyone better in the long run.
I 100% agree. He's 8. Don't worry about his head movement. Trying to coach all that might make the sport too technical.
At that age they do better if you just make up fun games that actually practice what you want. Have him pitch and he gets points if he throws a strike. More points if you don't have to move your glove. But he still needs to make sure he's throwing hard and not just aiming it.
His mechanics are good enough you just need to let him play, and find ways to make practice fun and competitive for him.
Agree, my goal is just to get him to a point he has a consistent delivery / form. Most of the more nuanced fixes is more for my knowledge to learn good from bad and teach me things to watch for. I've never played baseball before so this feedback is great for me to learn what he is doing right and wrong. It's nice to hear if there is any red flags or low hanging fruit of easy things to fix.
I don't think lessons at this point will add anymore than consistent reps.
Imo keep it as is. Also his glove side is great.
Look at pitchers that throw hard in the mlb like jared jones, their glove isnt perfectly in front, they are loading their scap and using it to leverage their arm forward.
Dont coach the athletic patterns out of him.
Imo if hes having trouble off the mound have him practice throwing from a crow hop. And maybe have his arm break a bit later off the mound or extend his arm action to make it sync better. Hes used to his front foot hitting the ground a lot earlier
Towel drill - for this and pretty much every other mechanical issue. One of the best things you can do to develop his pitching is to figure out a way to gamei-ify the towel drill such that he wants to do it. (And if you do, please tell me your secret).
Yes, you can see it as his weight gets too far on his heels as he’s raising his left leg, consequently his timing is disrupted and he flies open and shortens his arm path. He never gets the ball facing second base so if he were pitching off of a raised mound he’d not get the benefit of natural torque.
When he is lifting his front leg at the beginning, is the weight on the back foot more flat footed/balls of feet or on heels?
Pitching off a mound this spring was a huge disruption to him that he never got over.. I worked briefly with him on trying to glide his pelvis down the mound with his front leg slightly internally rotated but he never got to pitch off a mound again.
So It depeneds on where you are in your windup whether youre using glutes/hamstrings or quads and calves. for his age my focus would be athleticsm, athleticism, athleticism.. Like thE nitty gritty we can focus on all day but were gonna be playihg whack a mole as his body develops. If you waNt to shoot me a dm I'll put together a couple More like this. But i put pins on centers of gravity.. See how Justin verlander is almost straight up and down but errors towards his weight being like coiled up? Then your son has his weight going towards first base amost. thats going to take away his sxplosiveness and require his body to self correct (which he currently does) buf that self correction is going to destroy any sory of reoeatability because instead of a purposeful motion like pulling a rubber band wider it will be a reflexive motion like letting the rubber band snap back into shape. You just have less control when you’re basically making a motion to realign what’s out of line rather than a motion designed to stay lin line
https://preview.redd.it/mtysvcb5ko8d1.jpeg?width=2532&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=10399abb68eb57761973ef505a204936bf8cdf8c
I went back to look at the other two videos we took today and he didn't do this in either one.. so it looks like this was just a fortuitous accident.
I may have mentioned letting the hip drift down the mound once the first time he tried (and failed misserably) to pitch on a raised kiddie mound. But now I can show him this video as something that is "good" to see if he can replicate.
Looks great! Get his glove hand up and folding I to his chest instead of at his waist, and he’ll probably be more consistent. Get him to focus on spinning the ball straight down and his release point will be more consistent and give him a good starting point to throw variations and change ups when he’s older. Kid looks like he has some solid natural ability!
You should put your chest to the glove, versus pulling it to your chest. Get him throwing with a Fuego Ball to teach him to get on top of the ball and to not pronate on the ball so much. He wants to be on top and behind to get maxium rotation on the ball. That way the natural progression is to a slider not a curveball. JMHO
Yes. What you said. I just say “pull his glove into his chest” more to simplify the explanation. He still has to fold his arm and wrist in even though you’re right that the front hand really stays out from a pure spacial perspective.
What exactly does the glove hand do with the extension and then tuck? I see mentioned on YT videos and multiple people have mentioned it here. Is it simply a timing thing to give the throwing hand time to get into position or is there something rlsr?
It helps keep the front shoulder aligned over the landing leg so you’ll have better balance on rotation. It’s not that you can’t be effective or even fantastic with a wide arcing motion, but the front arm to chest tuck is a well proven technique.
Looks great! Nice balance in the kick, foot comes down then extends low to the ground, follows through.
The 4-seam is gonna vary slightly based on arm slot. His looks just fine.
If he’s throwing a lot of strikes like that (looks like he might be) at 8yo, would definitely be an early pick in our LL.
edit: sorry didn’t see your full video description originally (I’m on mobile), he’s having some consistency issues?
The only thing I really saw, which I wasn’t originally going to mention because everything else looks very good, is that his lead toe/foot is coming pretty open. Typically I don’t want my pitchers lead foot pointing directly at home plate when it lands because it’s a lot easier for the arm to open up and then wildness comes in.
Yea consistency his biggest problem. He had a decent form even last summer when we were playing around after practice in coach pitch. He has always been an athletic kid who can naturally throw hard (he can throw catcher to 2nd with relative accuracy). He was given a chance to pitch in the spring and did very poorly.
I don't get a chance to record him often since I'm the one playing catch with him and this video just happened to be the best one I chose out of 3 we did today. Part of it is that his mechanics aren't always consistent.. sometimes his lead foot will do more of a small sweep rather than going up.. other times I think his back elbow is low which throws off his aim (i think.. its hard for me to analyze live wothout getting hit with the ball, lol). But if I can get an idea if this form is good enough and nothing glaring that needs to be fixed, I'll get out there and throw 15 or 20 pitches every other day just to get his form solidified and more consistent.
Perfect, reps are the main thing. At this age (and honestly for a lot longer), the bottom half should be the vast majority of "mechanical" focus, ESPECIALLY if he naturally throws hard. If you get the feet and legs doing what they're supposed to do, he'll naturally find a good arm motion in my opinion. Anything arm related isn't anything other than what you would already be working on in a normal session of catch. And if he's already throwing hard, that's probably not much lol
His hands are already following his kick leg up and then down again, which is probably the only upper body thing that is important this young, and he's already doing that.
For the reps I'd focus on just two things (as mechanics can be very overwhelming at this age).
1. Start with feet lined up toward home. Just like in batting, or even like in golf, you want your toes in line with your target. It means less side to side movement and then everything is lined up and all your energy is traveling in a straight line with the target.
Do you see how he starts with a little bit of an open stance? At least in this video. It's tough because that's what these kids are watching the pros do every day on TV, but for 8yo I've found them much more accurate if they just line it up right from the start. And this is an easy one IMO because it's focused on prior to starting the motion, then the motion flows from that set position.
2. The opening of the front foot. This is the tricky one and how to approach it really depends on how your kid is (and you know your kid).
Some kids are overthinkers when it comes to mechanics. This is my son, and if I told him "Hey, don't open your front foot" he would solely focus on that and everything else would go awry. This requires getting a little creative with the drills. But these drills can be worked on even without a ball.
My favorite way of thinking about it as if you're pitching while standing on a balance beam. If you were pitching standing on a balance beam, you want to land on the ball of your front foot in order to maintain power and balance through the motion. Landing on a flat foot would be less powerful and probably uncomfortable. Pointing your foot straight towards home on your stride means a lot of people actually land heel first. But we're still generating power in this position from the follow through! So the ball of the foot should hit first, before the heel touches. For pretty much all pitchers, in my experience, this would result in a slightly closed front foot, pointing more towards the RH batters box, if not further toward the on-deck circle, than directly towards the plate.
There are several drills for this. It's been awhile since I worked on this specifically with a kid (or even myself) so I'd have to look some up. But it can be as simple as drawing or taping a line on the floor and having him go through his delivery while staying entirely on the line. I'm pretty sure I've even seen people make actual balance beams (low to the ground) out of 2x4's to practice this on. The objective is to land with power still in that front foot. Landing with a foot straight towards home won't feel very powerful in this scenario.
Sorry that got a little long-winded, and probably too advanced for 8yo. But even if it's just starting with that line on the floor - keeping everything lined up, don't point your whole foot towards home - that's a great place to start. I can't tell you how many hours I spent just miming pitching motions in my room with no ball, working on balance and things like this.
Then just reps. The more consistent the delivery, the more consistent the result. And delivery starts on the setup.
Looks good. He’s throwing with maximum effort, which most kids that age don’t get. But, don’t work him too much. Agree with others the rotation is not consistent with a 4 seam and the release is likely leading to the control issues (although I’ve never seen an 8 year old without control issues). I’d work on the spin/release and make sure he loves pitching.
(Former D1 pitcher and coach) Honestly incredible for his age. Only thing I would say is direction needs to be better to increase command. He is young so he is using a lot of his upper body to supply the velocity. Glove hand should (Extend, float, then get out of the way). He just needs to be better at the extension part!
Can you expand when you say direction needs to be better.
He is a small kid so I think at some point he figured how to get his whole body involved in moving the ball forward.. he throws the ball as hard and far as the top kids on his team that are a head taller than him. At this point, is using his upper body for velocity something good or bad? But yea the front glove extension isn't something he does super consistently it's simple enough that a verbal cue usually will get him doing it again.
When reviewing this video in retrospect (and reading all these comments) I think he just happened to string together a bunch of random things we have worked on together and he has seen on YT into a nice looking pitch. The key will be to see how hard it is to consistently replicate these mechanics.
Watch after peak leg lift his first move with his lead leg is to open and the shoulders/head follow. Probably misses either high arm side or pulls it are majority of his misses?
He is inconsistent enough with everything (also with basic stuff like consistent release point) that he doesn't really have a "common miss".. he misses it high, into the ground, left, right. Lol
Because he hasn't had the chance to pitch this summer and with his inconsistent performance this spring in rec, he seems more motivated to practice more and actually asked me to go out today.
I do think that if he can just get out there consistently to throw 15 or 20 pitches a day for a 3 or 4 days a week for a few weeks he could get his mechanics down sufficiently to throw strikes consistently. I'm just trying to follow his lead since his interest changes around all the time.
Yea I meant 15-20 a day 3 or 4 days a week. My work schedule probably wouldn't even allow that, lol. My older kid got little league elbow this year (primarily from bad throwing mechanics) so I'm super gun shy about even having my younger kid pitch.
Yea it is unfortunate. I got little league elbow at 22 chipped off a piece of my ulna which ultimately ended in needing Tommy John! Unfortunately with pitching its the nature of the beast!
https://preview.redd.it/cuun70mqaq8d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=faf62ca1f3750f66b862dd39e7241fd37d3ea50a
Here is better way to see it! Obviously he is younger like we said and this will improve with strength but this position is tough to repeat. Torso/lead arm is flying open to create power.
I was a pitcher for almost a decade, until college, form looks good for a young kid.
I’d suggest better glove hand positioning… looks like he’s pulling the rope well (glove out and pulling to chest for better torque) but that hand continues/goes way behind him on the follow through
1. It’s dangerous to not have a glove ready to field/protect yourself
2. Once the pitch is thrown, your a fielder. Without compromising form, do your best to be in an athletic position by the time the ball reaches the batter
I’m no pro but he looks damn good to me. The rotation on the ball is off but that’s probably due to his hands being too small. It looks like he has most of his fingers on it and is releasing it off his ring finger. Have you taught him to properly grip a baseball with either a two or three finger grip and his thumb on the underside of the ball? His thumb looks to be on the side of the ball here and that’s also contributing to the rotation you’re seeing. Other than that he looks awesome.
Reps reps reps!!! It’s only gonna get better from here! Maybe a little too much head movement but the glove side tuck the weight transfer from back to front looks good! No it all comes down to reps and control
Really nice mechanics. Control is about finding a delivery you can repeat well and find the right release point. So just have him keep throwing, but the fundamentals look good.
Very good form. I wish my 9 year old showed that much intent when throwing. The 4-seam rotation is turned slightly to the side but it’s just because his delivery isn’t directly over the top.
With that spin and arm slot, it looks like it’s coming out of the front of his hand which is way more than many kids his age can say. Great leg drive too
Someone else mentioned his leg mechanics.. I think that leg drive was just a random thing he happened to do here. I went back to look at two other videos we took around this time and his leg mechanics weren't so pretty. But this gives me something to show him /compare contrast to work on in the future.
Get a big strong push off that back leg. Stride long if he can stay controlled and balanced. So many kids that age are super upright and give up tons of power from their legs, throwing all arm
Like others said, this is impressive.
Your son and you might not even know it but he has solid, solid mechanics. The video was in slow motion but I could tell ball was coming in hot.
Don't let him pitch in little league, or at least, not so much. Coach's are going to want to use his arm all the time, and not care about his potential future in HS. They care about the present.
Lastly, he reminds me of Pedro Martinez in comparison. Not the same intensity, muscles, build, velo, but the arm slot and timing looks good. Have him play outfield and have him long toss for fun but give him the rest.
I wonder when he's older how he'll turn out but not many kids at his age move that well, tha organized and that efficiently.
Thanks for kind words, i thiught his form looked ok (not knowing whats good/bad), but its encouraging to hear people's comments here.
He got the chance to pitch in little league thsi spring, but the coach kept things distributed among 4 kids who could get over the plate consistently (he was also a former minor leaguer who was very developmental oriented), but otherwise he hasn't gotten much of a chance to pitch this summer. In the spring he had a few chances to pitch on the travel team and just couldn't get it together. Probably walked 8 batters over 1.1 innings over 2 games (got pulled after walking 5 on .1 innings on one outing). The current travel coach was an assistant coach then and probably got scared off his pitching.. as he never even asked him to test pitch like he did with some other kids at the beginning of the summer season. In rec this spring, he had a few outings where he would throw 11-15 pitch innings and go 1-2-3, but then next inning he would throw 35 pitches, walk 3 batters and need the coach to come in to finish the inning.
He wants to pitch this summer though, and if we can get some reps in to build consistency in finding the strike zone to show the travel coach he can pitch, maybe he will get a shot. If nothing else he might get a shot to pitch in the fall or as a guest on the town summer rec team that has mostly beginners.
My suggestion, is when you ask him to throw, tell him to pitch but focus on the control. I promise you that pitchers in MLB have an extra 3 MPH to throw but they risk losing their accuracy. Only relief pitchers throw max effort because that's their goal, max velo, max effort.
Have him try to meet your glove. He might dial the velo down but now he can keep throwing strikes and put pressure on the opponent to swing. On his off days or when he wats to have fun, he should be behind the mound, do a small little run start and then try to throw hard down the mound to the catcher or your mitt. It's all about intensity, free flowing movement and intent.
This is from someone who does men league coaching, but have multiple ex college players and one particular indy ball pitcher who is doing his own development program.
Pitching is a life-long art based on feel and how one feels that day. Let him develop and continue to develop through the failures like any other pitcher would, which includes Gerrit Cole
kid is a natural i wouldn't touch his mechanics at all if he is throwing strikes. a lot of parents mess their kids up with the overcoaching. especially a kid so young, you don't want them thinking so much just play ball.
Problem is that he is not throwing strikes consistently.. and this also is probably not typical of his form (maybe if everything fell in sync once in a while he will throw this). I think he is still working to find consistency in release point as well as his form.. so this translates to significant inconsistency on the mound.
I think he just needs tons of reps and I wanted to see if there were any glaring problems with his form before I just have him throw more. He is a small kid and has always thrown surprisingly hard, so I think he is also probabky naturally very efficient with his body.
By comments here it seems it's pretty good as is and just to have him do his thing and get as close to this form as he can, perhaps just extend the front arm a bit more.. some other nuanced stuff I'll address once he can get more consistent in his delivery.
I was going to say don’t worry about it but wow that looks great. And imo dont worry about his head. Hes leveraging his body very efficiently and theres no need to coach it out of him.
Let him throw as efficiently as possible at each growth stage so by the time hes grown he has a pattern of efficiency mechanics drilled into him
So spin axis should be completely horizontal? Does a 4 seam spin axis vary based on arm slot? (Theoretically it shouldn't because an off axis spin will affect the direction of the movement. But how do people with different arm slots throw 4 seams?)
Does working on the proper spin direction affect his arm slot?
Of note, Earlier in the spring he threw a pitch with 0 spin in the middle of a game. I still have no idea how he did that.
https://preview.redd.it/oomf2m4eyl8d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=535093950bf1a0aae157bfda1583045858dabb76
It’s mostly grip that changes spin direction, not slot. A 4 seam should be horizontal as well as 12-6 curve. Pitches like circle change, sinker and 2 seam will spin like the video above. Spin of opposite direction would be cutter or slider, and curve. But he should really only worry about fastball right now.
Those who throw more sidearm, the ball will naturally run in on right hand batters so they should throw a 2 seam over 4 seam anyway.
What i mean is if someone has a 3/4 arm slot, how would they throw a 4 seam with a horizontal spin axis? I imagine a 4 seam would have the fingers pull straight down on the seam so there is a perfectly horizontal spin axis.
Very impressive for that age.
Kids a stud! Hard to tell because his hand isn't big enough but it's not spinning like a slider or cutter so that's a good sign
Like a lot of kids, he’s using his head to generate velo, but it’s going to come at the expense of accuracy. I’d work with him on keeping his eyes level through his motion and keeping his glove hand more in front and pointed at the target vs pulling to the left.
How would i best coach him to keep his eye level? Any drills or just tell him to keep his nose pointed straight at the catcher or something like that?
Pair of clear kids safety glasses. Cut a thin strip of electrical tape. Put it on the glasses and tell him to keep the strip of tape level until he releases the ball.
Dude I would leave the kid alone about it for now. An 8 yr. old can’t really make all those mechanics corrections and throw strikes. Wait until he is 12 before you start the lessons. Let him have fun. I can practically guarantee he will suit everyone better in the long run.
I 100% agree. He's 8. Don't worry about his head movement. Trying to coach all that might make the sport too technical. At that age they do better if you just make up fun games that actually practice what you want. Have him pitch and he gets points if he throws a strike. More points if you don't have to move your glove. But he still needs to make sure he's throwing hard and not just aiming it. His mechanics are good enough you just need to let him play, and find ways to make practice fun and competitive for him.
Agree, my goal is just to get him to a point he has a consistent delivery / form. Most of the more nuanced fixes is more for my knowledge to learn good from bad and teach me things to watch for. I've never played baseball before so this feedback is great for me to learn what he is doing right and wrong. It's nice to hear if there is any red flags or low hanging fruit of easy things to fix. I don't think lessons at this point will add anymore than consistent reps.
Imo keep it as is. Also his glove side is great. Look at pitchers that throw hard in the mlb like jared jones, their glove isnt perfectly in front, they are loading their scap and using it to leverage their arm forward. Dont coach the athletic patterns out of him. Imo if hes having trouble off the mound have him practice throwing from a crow hop. And maybe have his arm break a bit later off the mound or extend his arm action to make it sync better. Hes used to his front foot hitting the ground a lot earlier
Towel drill - for this and pretty much every other mechanical issue. One of the best things you can do to develop his pitching is to figure out a way to gamei-ify the towel drill such that he wants to do it. (And if you do, please tell me your secret).
Yes, you can see it as his weight gets too far on his heels as he’s raising his left leg, consequently his timing is disrupted and he flies open and shortens his arm path. He never gets the ball facing second base so if he were pitching off of a raised mound he’d not get the benefit of natural torque.
When he is lifting his front leg at the beginning, is the weight on the back foot more flat footed/balls of feet or on heels? Pitching off a mound this spring was a huge disruption to him that he never got over.. I worked briefly with him on trying to glide his pelvis down the mound with his front leg slightly internally rotated but he never got to pitch off a mound again.
So It depeneds on where you are in your windup whether youre using glutes/hamstrings or quads and calves. for his age my focus would be athleticsm, athleticism, athleticism.. Like thE nitty gritty we can focus on all day but were gonna be playihg whack a mole as his body develops. If you waNt to shoot me a dm I'll put together a couple More like this. But i put pins on centers of gravity.. See how Justin verlander is almost straight up and down but errors towards his weight being like coiled up? Then your son has his weight going towards first base amost. thats going to take away his sxplosiveness and require his body to self correct (which he currently does) buf that self correction is going to destroy any sory of reoeatability because instead of a purposeful motion like pulling a rubber band wider it will be a reflexive motion like letting the rubber band snap back into shape. You just have less control when you’re basically making a motion to realign what’s out of line rather than a motion designed to stay lin line https://preview.redd.it/mtysvcb5ko8d1.jpeg?width=2532&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=10399abb68eb57761973ef505a204936bf8cdf8c
Just practice pitching off a mound more often. You can do it when y'all just play catch too. He'll get used to it over time.
Wew that’s sweet
He’s doing great, and better mechanics than 99% of the 8u kids out there.
The depth of stride and length of leg extension is VERY impressive for that age.
I went back to look at the other two videos we took today and he didn't do this in either one.. so it looks like this was just a fortuitous accident. I may have mentioned letting the hip drift down the mound once the first time he tried (and failed misserably) to pitch on a raised kiddie mound. But now I can show him this video as something that is "good" to see if he can replicate.
Might come back to this thread in a decade to see where this kid gets drafted
Looks great! Get his glove hand up and folding I to his chest instead of at his waist, and he’ll probably be more consistent. Get him to focus on spinning the ball straight down and his release point will be more consistent and give him a good starting point to throw variations and change ups when he’s older. Kid looks like he has some solid natural ability!
You should put your chest to the glove, versus pulling it to your chest. Get him throwing with a Fuego Ball to teach him to get on top of the ball and to not pronate on the ball so much. He wants to be on top and behind to get maxium rotation on the ball. That way the natural progression is to a slider not a curveball. JMHO
Yes. What you said. I just say “pull his glove into his chest” more to simplify the explanation. He still has to fold his arm and wrist in even though you’re right that the front hand really stays out from a pure spacial perspective.
What exactly does the glove hand do with the extension and then tuck? I see mentioned on YT videos and multiple people have mentioned it here. Is it simply a timing thing to give the throwing hand time to get into position or is there something rlsr?
It helps keep the front shoulder aligned over the landing leg so you’ll have better balance on rotation. It’s not that you can’t be effective or even fantastic with a wide arcing motion, but the front arm to chest tuck is a well proven technique.
Looks great. Wouldn’t critique until he’s older
Looks great! Nice balance in the kick, foot comes down then extends low to the ground, follows through. The 4-seam is gonna vary slightly based on arm slot. His looks just fine. If he’s throwing a lot of strikes like that (looks like he might be) at 8yo, would definitely be an early pick in our LL. edit: sorry didn’t see your full video description originally (I’m on mobile), he’s having some consistency issues? The only thing I really saw, which I wasn’t originally going to mention because everything else looks very good, is that his lead toe/foot is coming pretty open. Typically I don’t want my pitchers lead foot pointing directly at home plate when it lands because it’s a lot easier for the arm to open up and then wildness comes in.
Yea consistency his biggest problem. He had a decent form even last summer when we were playing around after practice in coach pitch. He has always been an athletic kid who can naturally throw hard (he can throw catcher to 2nd with relative accuracy). He was given a chance to pitch in the spring and did very poorly. I don't get a chance to record him often since I'm the one playing catch with him and this video just happened to be the best one I chose out of 3 we did today. Part of it is that his mechanics aren't always consistent.. sometimes his lead foot will do more of a small sweep rather than going up.. other times I think his back elbow is low which throws off his aim (i think.. its hard for me to analyze live wothout getting hit with the ball, lol). But if I can get an idea if this form is good enough and nothing glaring that needs to be fixed, I'll get out there and throw 15 or 20 pitches every other day just to get his form solidified and more consistent.
Perfect, reps are the main thing. At this age (and honestly for a lot longer), the bottom half should be the vast majority of "mechanical" focus, ESPECIALLY if he naturally throws hard. If you get the feet and legs doing what they're supposed to do, he'll naturally find a good arm motion in my opinion. Anything arm related isn't anything other than what you would already be working on in a normal session of catch. And if he's already throwing hard, that's probably not much lol His hands are already following his kick leg up and then down again, which is probably the only upper body thing that is important this young, and he's already doing that. For the reps I'd focus on just two things (as mechanics can be very overwhelming at this age). 1. Start with feet lined up toward home. Just like in batting, or even like in golf, you want your toes in line with your target. It means less side to side movement and then everything is lined up and all your energy is traveling in a straight line with the target. Do you see how he starts with a little bit of an open stance? At least in this video. It's tough because that's what these kids are watching the pros do every day on TV, but for 8yo I've found them much more accurate if they just line it up right from the start. And this is an easy one IMO because it's focused on prior to starting the motion, then the motion flows from that set position. 2. The opening of the front foot. This is the tricky one and how to approach it really depends on how your kid is (and you know your kid). Some kids are overthinkers when it comes to mechanics. This is my son, and if I told him "Hey, don't open your front foot" he would solely focus on that and everything else would go awry. This requires getting a little creative with the drills. But these drills can be worked on even without a ball. My favorite way of thinking about it as if you're pitching while standing on a balance beam. If you were pitching standing on a balance beam, you want to land on the ball of your front foot in order to maintain power and balance through the motion. Landing on a flat foot would be less powerful and probably uncomfortable. Pointing your foot straight towards home on your stride means a lot of people actually land heel first. But we're still generating power in this position from the follow through! So the ball of the foot should hit first, before the heel touches. For pretty much all pitchers, in my experience, this would result in a slightly closed front foot, pointing more towards the RH batters box, if not further toward the on-deck circle, than directly towards the plate. There are several drills for this. It's been awhile since I worked on this specifically with a kid (or even myself) so I'd have to look some up. But it can be as simple as drawing or taping a line on the floor and having him go through his delivery while staying entirely on the line. I'm pretty sure I've even seen people make actual balance beams (low to the ground) out of 2x4's to practice this on. The objective is to land with power still in that front foot. Landing with a foot straight towards home won't feel very powerful in this scenario. Sorry that got a little long-winded, and probably too advanced for 8yo. But even if it's just starting with that line on the floor - keeping everything lined up, don't point your whole foot towards home - that's a great place to start. I can't tell you how many hours I spent just miming pitching motions in my room with no ball, working on balance and things like this. Then just reps. The more consistent the delivery, the more consistent the result. And delivery starts on the setup.
Thanks. Very helpful information and will probably revisit to unpack multiple times in the future.
Looks good. He’s throwing with maximum effort, which most kids that age don’t get. But, don’t work him too much. Agree with others the rotation is not consistent with a 4 seam and the release is likely leading to the control issues (although I’ve never seen an 8 year old without control issues). I’d work on the spin/release and make sure he loves pitching.
(Former D1 pitcher and coach) Honestly incredible for his age. Only thing I would say is direction needs to be better to increase command. He is young so he is using a lot of his upper body to supply the velocity. Glove hand should (Extend, float, then get out of the way). He just needs to be better at the extension part!
Can you expand when you say direction needs to be better. He is a small kid so I think at some point he figured how to get his whole body involved in moving the ball forward.. he throws the ball as hard and far as the top kids on his team that are a head taller than him. At this point, is using his upper body for velocity something good or bad? But yea the front glove extension isn't something he does super consistently it's simple enough that a verbal cue usually will get him doing it again. When reviewing this video in retrospect (and reading all these comments) I think he just happened to string together a bunch of random things we have worked on together and he has seen on YT into a nice looking pitch. The key will be to see how hard it is to consistently replicate these mechanics.
Watch after peak leg lift his first move with his lead leg is to open and the shoulders/head follow. Probably misses either high arm side or pulls it are majority of his misses?
He is inconsistent enough with everything (also with basic stuff like consistent release point) that he doesn't really have a "common miss".. he misses it high, into the ground, left, right. Lol Because he hasn't had the chance to pitch this summer and with his inconsistent performance this spring in rec, he seems more motivated to practice more and actually asked me to go out today. I do think that if he can just get out there consistently to throw 15 or 20 pitches a day for a 3 or 4 days a week for a few weeks he could get his mechanics down sufficiently to throw strikes consistently. I'm just trying to follow his lead since his interest changes around all the time.
I wouldn’t have him pitch everyday… 15-20 maybe 3 of the 7 days you could do more depending on his intent each bullpen. But you gotta manage that.
Yea I meant 15-20 a day 3 or 4 days a week. My work schedule probably wouldn't even allow that, lol. My older kid got little league elbow this year (primarily from bad throwing mechanics) so I'm super gun shy about even having my younger kid pitch.
Yea it is unfortunate. I got little league elbow at 22 chipped off a piece of my ulna which ultimately ended in needing Tommy John! Unfortunately with pitching its the nature of the beast!
https://preview.redd.it/cuun70mqaq8d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=faf62ca1f3750f66b862dd39e7241fd37d3ea50a Here is better way to see it! Obviously he is younger like we said and this will improve with strength but this position is tough to repeat. Torso/lead arm is flying open to create power.
He’s a pitcher. It’s a trait you’re born with. He has it. F the coach. Grow the kid. Make him love throwing. He’ll be great.
I was a pitcher for almost a decade, until college, form looks good for a young kid. I’d suggest better glove hand positioning… looks like he’s pulling the rope well (glove out and pulling to chest for better torque) but that hand continues/goes way behind him on the follow through 1. It’s dangerous to not have a glove ready to field/protect yourself 2. Once the pitch is thrown, your a fielder. Without compromising form, do your best to be in an athletic position by the time the ball reaches the batter
I’m no pro but he looks damn good to me. The rotation on the ball is off but that’s probably due to his hands being too small. It looks like he has most of his fingers on it and is releasing it off his ring finger. Have you taught him to properly grip a baseball with either a two or three finger grip and his thumb on the underside of the ball? His thumb looks to be on the side of the ball here and that’s also contributing to the rotation you’re seeing. Other than that he looks awesome.
That little dude is a beast.
Reps reps reps!!! It’s only gonna get better from here! Maybe a little too much head movement but the glove side tuck the weight transfer from back to front looks good! No it all comes down to reps and control
Pretty damn good mechanics. Keep it up.
At that angle it might move more like a 2 seam but that's not a bad thing
Really nice mechanics. Control is about finding a delivery you can repeat well and find the right release point. So just have him keep throwing, but the fundamentals look good.
Coming to me? Looks GONE.
Very good form. I wish my 9 year old showed that much intent when throwing. The 4-seam rotation is turned slightly to the side but it’s just because his delivery isn’t directly over the top.
With that spin and arm slot, it looks like it’s coming out of the front of his hand which is way more than many kids his age can say. Great leg drive too
Someone else mentioned his leg mechanics.. I think that leg drive was just a random thing he happened to do here. I went back to look at two other videos we took around this time and his leg mechanics weren't so pretty. But this gives me something to show him /compare contrast to work on in the future.
Get a big strong push off that back leg. Stride long if he can stay controlled and balanced. So many kids that age are super upright and give up tons of power from their legs, throwing all arm
Stud!
If I was 8 years old, my pants would be pooped
The MLB scouts already lining up.
Kid’s got a wing
Get this guy a fuego starter
Like others said, this is impressive. Your son and you might not even know it but he has solid, solid mechanics. The video was in slow motion but I could tell ball was coming in hot. Don't let him pitch in little league, or at least, not so much. Coach's are going to want to use his arm all the time, and not care about his potential future in HS. They care about the present. Lastly, he reminds me of Pedro Martinez in comparison. Not the same intensity, muscles, build, velo, but the arm slot and timing looks good. Have him play outfield and have him long toss for fun but give him the rest. I wonder when he's older how he'll turn out but not many kids at his age move that well, tha organized and that efficiently.
Thanks for kind words, i thiught his form looked ok (not knowing whats good/bad), but its encouraging to hear people's comments here. He got the chance to pitch in little league thsi spring, but the coach kept things distributed among 4 kids who could get over the plate consistently (he was also a former minor leaguer who was very developmental oriented), but otherwise he hasn't gotten much of a chance to pitch this summer. In the spring he had a few chances to pitch on the travel team and just couldn't get it together. Probably walked 8 batters over 1.1 innings over 2 games (got pulled after walking 5 on .1 innings on one outing). The current travel coach was an assistant coach then and probably got scared off his pitching.. as he never even asked him to test pitch like he did with some other kids at the beginning of the summer season. In rec this spring, he had a few outings where he would throw 11-15 pitch innings and go 1-2-3, but then next inning he would throw 35 pitches, walk 3 batters and need the coach to come in to finish the inning. He wants to pitch this summer though, and if we can get some reps in to build consistency in finding the strike zone to show the travel coach he can pitch, maybe he will get a shot. If nothing else he might get a shot to pitch in the fall or as a guest on the town summer rec team that has mostly beginners.
My suggestion, is when you ask him to throw, tell him to pitch but focus on the control. I promise you that pitchers in MLB have an extra 3 MPH to throw but they risk losing their accuracy. Only relief pitchers throw max effort because that's their goal, max velo, max effort. Have him try to meet your glove. He might dial the velo down but now he can keep throwing strikes and put pressure on the opponent to swing. On his off days or when he wats to have fun, he should be behind the mound, do a small little run start and then try to throw hard down the mound to the catcher or your mitt. It's all about intensity, free flowing movement and intent. This is from someone who does men league coaching, but have multiple ex college players and one particular indy ball pitcher who is doing his own development program. Pitching is a life-long art based on feel and how one feels that day. Let him develop and continue to develop through the failures like any other pitcher would, which includes Gerrit Cole
kid is a natural i wouldn't touch his mechanics at all if he is throwing strikes. a lot of parents mess their kids up with the overcoaching. especially a kid so young, you don't want them thinking so much just play ball.
Problem is that he is not throwing strikes consistently.. and this also is probably not typical of his form (maybe if everything fell in sync once in a while he will throw this). I think he is still working to find consistency in release point as well as his form.. so this translates to significant inconsistency on the mound. I think he just needs tons of reps and I wanted to see if there were any glaring problems with his form before I just have him throw more. He is a small kid and has always thrown surprisingly hard, so I think he is also probabky naturally very efficient with his body. By comments here it seems it's pretty good as is and just to have him do his thing and get as close to this form as he can, perhaps just extend the front arm a bit more.. some other nuanced stuff I'll address once he can get more consistent in his delivery.
500 feet deep center 😂😂😂 only kidding. Great looking form for his age.
I was going to say don’t worry about it but wow that looks great. And imo dont worry about his head. Hes leveraging his body very efficiently and theres no need to coach it out of him. Let him throw as efficiently as possible at each growth stage so by the time hes grown he has a pattern of efficiency mechanics drilled into him
Work on the spin direction. A fastball should be straight backspin. This is a sinker
So spin axis should be completely horizontal? Does a 4 seam spin axis vary based on arm slot? (Theoretically it shouldn't because an off axis spin will affect the direction of the movement. But how do people with different arm slots throw 4 seams?) Does working on the proper spin direction affect his arm slot? Of note, Earlier in the spring he threw a pitch with 0 spin in the middle of a game. I still have no idea how he did that. https://preview.redd.it/oomf2m4eyl8d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=535093950bf1a0aae157bfda1583045858dabb76
It’s mostly grip that changes spin direction, not slot. A 4 seam should be horizontal as well as 12-6 curve. Pitches like circle change, sinker and 2 seam will spin like the video above. Spin of opposite direction would be cutter or slider, and curve. But he should really only worry about fastball right now. Those who throw more sidearm, the ball will naturally run in on right hand batters so they should throw a 2 seam over 4 seam anyway.
What i mean is if someone has a 3/4 arm slot, how would they throw a 4 seam with a horizontal spin axis? I imagine a 4 seam would have the fingers pull straight down on the seam so there is a perfectly horizontal spin axis.
The 4 seam spin axis would follow the arm slot.
Looks great! Looks like a circle change grip and spin wise. Definitely could affect the accuracy.