Improving pitching velocity is all the rage right now in youth and high school baseball circles, and rightly so. But no one's really talking about how to improve pitching accuracy, even though velocity without accuracy is not going to end well. How can we help our young athletes to improve their pitching accuracy? Zak Doan, who works with youth pitchers and whose most famous client is Gerrit Cole, shares some helpful pointers to help kids throw the ball with more accuracy. This is part 1 of a two-part interview.
Plus Rob answers the Question of the Week (45:58) about how to get over the feeling of being under-qualified as a youth baseball coach.
In this 53-minute episode, you'll learn:
- why Zak didn't make it to the bigs as a pitcher himself (8:51)
- how to help kids achieve repeatability (12:31)
- how to help kids who struggle with repeatability, and whether kids can "feel" repeatability (13:42)
- the process for simplifying the pitching delivery (15:25)
- the key component to help kids who are not coordinated in the separation phase of the pitching delivery (17:20)
- how to help kids who need help during separation (18:48)
- most common reason that kids miss up-and-in when pitching (20:44)
- the antidote for kids who are close to the strike zone but not consistently hitting it (21:28)
- what focus is and why it's so important (23:10)
- whether kids can recall where they last released a pitch (27:42)
- whether kid pitchers need a pitching coach and why (29:52)
- the prescription for kids who consistently pitch kids into the dirt (32:06)
- when it's important to teach pitching mechanics (33:26)
- what pitching mechanics to teach (35:26)
- the two key aspects of teaching a change-up (39:02)
- Zak on how to throw a change-up
- Chris O'Leary's web site
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Examples of how pro baseball players do not teach correctly:
What A-Rod teaches the swing should look like 
What A-Rod actually swings like (note arms are not straight nd angle of bat is forward). 
What Hanley Ramirez teaches your swing should be like 
What Hanley actually swings like 
What Josh Donaldson teaches your front foot should be at foot plant 
What Josh's front foot actually is at foot plant (NOT 90 degrees open/pointed at pitcher, but more like 45 degrees open) 
Closer look at Josh's front foot in actuality (open 45 degrees) 
One way Dustin Pedroia teaches to pivot on a double play 
Another way Dustin teaches how to do a pivot on a double play 
What Dustin actually does (from same video of what he taught) 
Another shot of what Dustin Pedroia actually does (from same video of what he taught) 
What Brandon Phillips teaches NOT to do in a double play pivot 
What Brandon Phillips actually did in a double play pivot
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