Baseball Pitchers: Why Are You Acting Differently On The Mound?
Pitchers, coaches and baseball parents who want to help their son should realize it’s no big deal if the opposing team has a couple of runners on and less than two outs or even if they score a couple of runs. Too many baseball pitchers have a tendency to start to try to do too much. There are certain things you should and should not be thinking about!
Too many baseball pitchers have a tendency to get “off track” when they have runners on base. They try to have perfect control. They overthrow the ball instead of just throwing it in a natural manner. Basically what they are doing is they are getting away from what made them successful in the first place and are no longer themselves on the mound.
If you start to press too much, the odds increase that the other team will have a big inning and a good part of the reason is you may have brought it on yourself because you stopped being yourself and tried to do “too much.” Sometimes it’s not so much them as it is you. It is simply not the end of the world if the other team scores a couple of runs. One of the best baseball pitching tips for damage control is to stay within yourself!
Some excellent baseball pitchers actually pretend that there are no runners on base. Of course they are aware of the base runners and have to pitch from the stretch, etc. But their primary focus is on making their regular good quality pitches and let the chips fall where they may. It’s almost an “I don’t care” attitude.
Quality pitches are quality pitches whether nobody is on base or if the bases are loaded so don’t let the base runners stop you from making those quality pitches. Relaxing and focusing only on the next pitch and not the tough situation you may be in is one of the best baseball pitching tips you will ever learn. Your catcher’s target is the point of focus and not the tough situation.
In a very important playoff game, here is what a fabulous pitcher once did. The opposing team had the tying run on third base with two outs in the last inning and a very good hitter at the plate. The pitcher visualized the worst possible scenario that could take place. The worst scenario was that the hitter got the game tying hit off him and then his team scored an additional run to win the game. The pitcher reminded himself that even if that happened, the following day he would be vacationing at one of his favorite spots. I’m well aware that you may not have that option of vacationing the following day but that’s not the point here.
The point here is that this totally relaxed the pitcher and he retired the very good hitter on a pop up to end the game and win this very pivotal playoff game. Relax, make a quality pitch to your catcher’s target and let the chips fall where they may! Baseball parents, players and youth coaches, I post a new FREE baseball article on hitting, pitching or fielding every Monday at LarryBaseball.com that you can add to your favorites now. I’m quite sure that you and other baseball people you share them with will benefit by reading them.ย Please feel free to use the links for your website, blog or newsletter to attract more visitors or to keep your current visitors returning. I promise you will be raising a few eyebrows.
