11 year old pitcher video, any advice

#1

This is a video of my son warming up before a game.

He throws 50-53 MPH, but has great control 66 % strikes. He has about 2.2 strikeouts per inning, less than a run per 6 innings etc.
He is a big kid 66 inches. I think he could have more push or speed up his delivery for more speed, but for now he is just working on lengthing his stride. He will be very tall. What do you recomend to increase his speed or take advantage of his size.

I thank you for all your help. We live too far away from any pitching coaches.

#2

He looks like he has some pretty decent mechanics already and the stats you provide prove that. 66% strike and 50-53mph are nothing to sneeze at. If he was actually pitching off a mound you could probably tack on a few more mph to that number. I would say just to work on pitch location and movement over velocity at his age. If he is averaging 2.2 K’s per inning, I would assume that you either have some really bad hitters in your league (probably not!) or he is already fooling them most of the time. So, for that, just keep doing what you are doing and let him mature naturally. How is his pitch count per inning? Is he keeping ahead of the hitters or is he loading up the count on a lot of batters? With all the strike outs is he getting a high pitch count early in the game and not lasting to the end? If that is the case then he might want to work on pitching to contact and lowering his pitch count in some innings so that he can last longer into the game. Overall, he looks really good for his age.

#3

Thank you for taking the time to look and reply.
I just found a college pitcher to help my son, which is great.

The kids he is facing are not very good,thus the high stike out rate.
His location is his best feature. He has never hit a batter in about 3000 pitches. He has 4 BB in 11 innings ( a lot of kids are hoping for a walk and just take pitches ).
His pitch count is usually 12- 15 piches per inning.
In travel ball he gives up a lot of grounders and has much fewer strikeouts.
I am lucky I have found an instructor as we live so far away from a city, and no one here is availabel to teach him.
He never seems to have a bad inning no matter who he faces. He has figured out how to make any needed corrections during the game on his own. I wiuld like for him to throw faster, but he has not his a growth spurt yet. I will have to wait and see what happens. Baseball is not very good in this town.

Thus any advice is needed and appreciated.

Thank you

#4

It really sounds like he is well ahead of the curve. At this age it is usually about creating a consistent, repeatable and mechanically smooth delivery. From what you say and looking at the video he is there.

Does he have to spot pitches - meaning is his catcher moving his target around and is he hitting that target? The better teams at this age have good smart catchers who know how to read a batter and adjust their target location accordingly. If your guy is just throwing and hitting the strike zone a lot - you may want to work on pitch location.

Does he change speeds or is he just throwing fastballs? Maybe its time to introduce a change-up or curve ball. Just make sure your instructor knows how to teach this properly and what to look for.

Has he started a pitchers workout program yet? I know he is just 11, but it is never too early to start band work, leg work and core training. This is the one thing that I would recommend at this point in his career to assist in gaining velocity. This will also help him ward off injury because if he is as good as you say - others will come a-knockin’ to gain his services.

Good luck and keep us posted as to his progress.

#5

From the wind-up:
Posture: as long as he’s pitching from the wind-up, he should be standing facing straight toward the plate with both feet at almost shoulder width apart. He’s turning his body away from the plate- not good. When he turns his body away from the plate, it loses momentum toward the plate and he must use extra energy to bring it forward. Keep his body straight, and do not turn away from the plate.
Make sure his head is stable, keep it over his center of gravity (belly-button).
Leg lift: he’s definitely bringing his leg too far behind his opposite leg’s knee. When he comes to the point where he lifts his leg, he should just lift it straight up, not up and backwards over his other knee. (when he brings his lifted leg backward, it transfers his energy behind him- you do not want that, you want energy and momentum only toward the plate).
Stride: I’d say he could lengthen his stride another foot. A longer stride will help him produce more momentum and energy toward the plate, thus boosting velocity. Now, I don’t know how tall he is, but it would be a good idea to measure him and eventually work to get him to stride a full 100% of his height. It will help his velocity as long as he can still control his body.
Arm action: I would say that he is separating his glove arm from his pitching arm too early, much too early. This accounts for the pitching arm going low to the ground and then coming almost over the top. He should not be separating his glove arm from his pitching arm until he shifts his weight forward following leg lift. What he is doing now with his arms is putting extra stress on his elbow and shoulder- change nothing and he faces future arm injury for sure. What he needs to do is delay separating his arms until weight shift forward- then keep his arms “equal and opposite”. His pitching elbow should not come above his shoulder (if it is above the shoulder, it puts more stress on the elbow and shoulder). If his elbow is below his shoulder, he will lose velocity. If it is above his shoulder, it will cause eventual injury. So just keep it practically level with the shoulder, it’s much easier on the arm.

Enough for now- hope it’s not too confusing.
Post your questions if you need me to clarify anything.
Good luck.

#6

Sorry about the double post- second time it happened this evening.
Slower internet connection along with computer.

#7

Thanks Cards Win,

Thank you for taking the time to help my son out.
I gave his new pitching coach your information.
We will start working to correct these issues.

This is great info. Thank you !

#8

How old is he.

#9

He is 11 1/2 .

#10

Thanks, sboat. I saw the age in the thread title after the fact, so my apologies. But, the reason I asked is that he looks like a pretty big kid…especially for an 11 year old.

Believe me, I’m not doubting you at all. The more youth sports I see, the bigger the kids are.

Overall, he looks really good to me. He has a pretty good delivery and doesnt go over the top with a lot of extraneous moving parts. Have fun and enjoy the next few years. They’ll be a blast.