Towel Drills For Baseball Pitchers

Towel Drills For Baseball Pitchers

A lot of older pitchers may have heard of or seen some of their teammates performing baseball pitching drills with a towel.

If you don't know what the purpose of the towel drill is, or how to apply it in your own practice, this is what I consider a good application of the towel drill for baseball pitchers.
With towel drills for pitching, what you are looking for is proper form and proper timing - and it manifests by making contact with the glove like he shows it being done in this video clip (below) of a college pitcher performing the towel drill in pitching practice.

Remember this, however, the pitching towel drill is about putting it all together with your baseball pitching mechanics to let the release point happen where it ought to.
Good posture and balance, good momentum, good timing to stay closed and rotate late, etc., will get you out front and hit the pitching target with the towel correctly.

The towel drill is NOT about arm extension or "snapping down."

Pro Baseball Pitching Techniques

In this article, I share with you some simple ways that you can improve pitching technique and mechanical efficiency, both of which will help you throw harder and have more control.
Lead arm - From the cocked position to the follow through.

When the throwing arm arrives in the cocked position, the lead arm is bridged ñ the lead elbow is up at shoulder height and pointing toward home plate. Simultaneous with the turning of the hips and shoulders, the lead elbow is pulled down to the side of the body. This is called the tuck and it helps to generate the speed with which the hips and shoulders turn. The glove remains in front of the elbow during the tuck and is held close to the body. After the follow-through, the lead arm should be brought back in front of the body with the glove up to protect the pitcher from hit balls. A good defensive position after the pitch is often lacking at all levels. A major problem for young pitchers is the habit of throwing the glove behind the body during the follow-through. This is easy to spot when looking for it and can easily be corrected with practice.

Throwing arm - From the cocked position to the follow through

When the arm arrives at the cocked position, the stride foot is planted and the front hip and front shoulder are at pointed at the target. As the hips and shoulders turn or open up, the throwing elbow points to the target and the palm turns from facing sideways to facing up. The acceleration of the hand (including the snapping of the wrist) determines the ball's velocity. The throwing hand proceeds past the head and the ball is released at a point where the ball and the rear foot form a line that is approximately 45 degrees. The hand then crosses the chest to a point below and outside of the knee of the stride leg. This follow-through allows the arm to decelerate. Deceleration protects the arm. Pitchers should concentrate on throwing the ball downhill. This will occur if they have their elbow up at the beginning of this sequence.

Throwing arm - From the break to the cocked position

After the hands break, the throwing arm should take a down, back and up path until arriving at the cocked position. Young pitchers should focus on the throwing hand. The ball should be pulled out of the bottom of the glove when the hands are breaking. The hand should stay on top of the ball (palm down) when taking the ball down and back. The action here is circular. As the arm comes up, the ball and palm of the hand turn outward (toward the short stop for a right-hander). When the elbow of the throwing arm reaches the height of the shoulder and the hand is over the biceps, the pitcher is in the "cocked" position. The palm should still be facing outward. At this point, the front leg should be planted and the non-throwing shoulder should still be pointed toward the target. When taking the ball back, some pitchers extend too far and are not able to get the ball in the cocked position soon enough. Their front leg is planted, their body is ready to turn for the throw, but the ball is too far behind them. Throwing the ball from this position greatly reduces velocity and, more importantly, puts a great deal of stress on the shoulder. Another problem occurs when the palm turns toward the target while bringing the ball up to the cocked position. This also puts too much stress on the arm during the early acceleration of the hand.

Breaking the hands

Many young pitchers break their hands improperly. Although when and where a pitcher breaks his hands may not seem real important at first, the break affects arm mechanics and is a root problem with many pitchers. I have been to clinics where pitchers are taught to break during their knee lift ñ "breaking an egg with the knee" is the mental image they teach. This should be avoided. The breaking of the hands should occur after the pitcherís weight begins moving toward home plate. A more serious problem, in my opinion, involves where the hands break. Pitchers should break their hands directly in front of their bodies, preferably up around the letters. Many young pitchers like to break their hands behind them (RH pitchers breaking by their right hip). This often creates many problems (and is thus a root problem itself). First, the throwing arm will often stop after the break to allow the lead arm time to catch up, ruining a smooth, continuous circle action with the ball after the break. Second, the lead arm does not get to the bridge position soon enough, and often arcs out away from the body instead of moving directly toward the target. (The bridge here is a line between the elbows when both are lifted, pointing toward the plate.) This arcing of the arm and the time it takes to bridge can throw the lead shoulder open way to early. When the shoulder opens before the lead foot is planted, velocity is reduced and arms can be injured.

Beginning the windup

Many young pitchers have difficulty with balance. One of the reasons is poor mechanics at the beginning of their windup. Many are taught to take their rocker step (the initial step behind the rubber) straight back. The reasoning for this is that you want the pitcher to take his weight straight back so that all of his weight is coming forward toward the plate when the pitch is delivered. One problem with this advice is that the pitcherís weight shift is stopped during the knee lift (thus his weight does not continue forward after stepping back). The pitcherís weight should be back when the front knee is lifted and he should be able to balance on one leg.

A second problem with this advice is that many young pitchers lose their balance going from a straight back rocker step to their pivot (with their other foot) inside the rubber. Young pitchers should begin their windup by positioning themselves (if right-handed) so that their body is facing between third base and home plate (or between first base and home plate if left-handed). The rocker step should only be a few inches and angled toward first base (for righties). Importantly, the pitcher should try to keep his head and weight over his front foot. This will allow him to make a smooth and balanced pivot into the knee lift part of the windup.

Pitcher's lead leg stride

Many young pitchers fail to keep their weight back when striding toward home plate. They often start with their weight forward before their leg lift is complete and they often loop their front foot toward the plate in a way that shifts their weight forward too quickly. Young pitchers should consider adopting an "up-down-out" movement with their lead leg. The knee comes straight up (to the point where they can balance themselves), and then goes straight down within a few inches of the ground, and then slides above the ground toward home plate until the stride is complete.

Landing of lead leg

A common problem with young pitchers is the mechanics of their lead leg. When striding toward home plate, some pitchers come down on a completely stiff leg, with their knee locked. This creates a whipping motion in their delivery and will generally create arm problems at some point. In fact, a few major league pitchers having this problem had their careers cut short after a couple of years because their arms went bad.

Another problem, perhaps more common, occurs when pitchers fail to stiffen the lead leg after it comes down. This greatly reduces the velocity on the pitch. When the stride foot lands, the knee needs to be bent. As the pitcherís weight comes forward, the lead leg must stiffen up, providing resistance to the pitcherís weight and thus producing more velocity on the pitch (the same principle holds true when hitting).

Teach Your Kid The Perfect Pitching Delivery

Learn The Perfect Pitching Delivery

What Is "Flying Open"?

Flying open early during the stride and cocking phase of the baseball pitching delivery is a common fault experienced by all pitchers no matter of age or experience. Young high school and college pitchers have to learn HOW to stay closed, and experienced pitchers must FOCUS on staying closed until the stride foot plants during the pitching delivery.

What Is "Staying Closed"?

Staying closed means that until the stride foot plants giving the baseball pitcher a stable base, the lead elbow, the shoulders, and throwing arm stay aligned to the plate during the pitching delivery.

The next action (sequence) in the pitching deliveries is for the trunk to powerfully horizontally rotate tocreate angular velocity (torque), which is the major source of power, arm speed and pitching velocity!

The fault of "flying open" occurs when upper body, shoulders, and arms open with the stride leg and front hip. This is a natural tendency biomechanically, but this action decreases rotational forces (angular velocity) and puts the pitching motion out of sequence, negatively effecting control and velocity plus creating unnecessary stress on the shoulder and arm muscles.

"Flying open" causes the arm to drag because the stronger & larger muscles of the legs, hips, and trunk have already fired and are not available to create torque. Because of the lack of torque, most of the pitch velocity has to come from the shoulder and arm muscles, which will cause early fatigue.

Pitching Techniques And Drills To Stay Closed

Teach the baseball pitcher an efficient, balanced, aligned and compact pitching delivery.

1. Rocker-pivot-lift drill
Get to a balanced posting position without swinging the foot or leg up. Make certain the pitcher closed up the front side but doesn't over-rotate.

2. Down and out stride drill
Do not swing the leg or foot around and down. This technique will help keep the body aligned to the plate.

3. Lead with the front hip bone
This pitching technique helps alignment and generates lower body forces for a longer and more powerful stride.

4. Stride drill
For direction, landing flat-footed on a stable base with the toes pointing inward slightly (10-15 degrees).

5. Hand break and lead arm action drill
Use a flexed elbow as a rifle sight. This helps to keep the arms and shoulders aligned to the plate and keeps the upper body closed.

6. Mirror and abdominal drill
Perform the "down and out drill" and "stride drill" in front of a mirror. Concentrate on the lead elbow and shoulders staying aligned (closed) to the plate.

Even though the front hip has opened upon stride foot plant, the lead elbow and front shoulder should stay aligned and closed. Learn to contract the abdominal muscles to keep upper body closed. A pitcher should consciously feel the abdominal tighten during his pitching delivery.

7. Cocked position drill
Remember that the natural tendency is for a pitcher's upper body to come open with the front hip and stride leg. "Staying closed" is a LEARNED, not a natural TRAIT, and must be understood and developed.

Once a young pitcher masters this pitching delivery technique, you'll see improved control, more movement on the fast ball (due to torque), and an increase in pitching velocity.

Baseball Pitching Tip

Baseball Pitching Tip

The first step in this process is acquiring a thorough understanding of baseball pitching technique and good pitching mechanics.

The three important techniques of a sound delivery are balance, direction, and timing. Regardless of the particular nuances of any pitcher's delivery, the ability to achieve and maintain balance-that is, body control-throughout his delivery is important.

Maintaining direction to the target and the overall timing of the delivery as it relates to the separation of the hands and the movement forward to the target play huge roles as well.

Remember this, if becoming a major league pitcher is your goal, you must not develop what we call "minor league habits." In other words, don't take shortcuts to developing your pitches; take the time to learn to throw with proper pitching techniques and use your pitches effectively.

Pitching practice has several purposes. Learning to perform, developing, maintaining, and perfecting skills and technique are the basic objectives of a beneficial pitcher's practice.

In the pursuit of these objectives, such areas as developing quality pitches, locating your fastball, fielding your position, developing explosive pitching mechanics, etc., all play important roles during practice.

On the other hand, don't overdo it and become to caught up in your baseball pitching technique to the point where it starts to detract from what you're trying to accomplish.

This type of pitcher makes himself think of too many things at once, becomes confused, and can damage his performance.

A basic understanding of pitching technique and a good bit of work ethic and determination are all that is necessary to put you on the road to solving your own problems and coaching yourself to become a better, more technical pitcher or pitching coach.

Baseball Pitching Motion

Have you ever had a coach tell you that pitchers should keep their shoulders level? I'll bet many of you have. Maybe you've read it in a book or manual that was written by an "expert". Actually, that can be some of the worst advice that can be given to a pitcher. I'm not exactly certain as to who invented this nonsense but I think that it's a relatively new idea (possibly 1980s or 1990s).

Most of us know how important it is for a pitcher to keep his weight (upper body) back while going out to footplant-especially if he wants to throw HARD! Early in the delivery, this can be accomplished by gradually bending the back leg as the stride leg is moving out. When the pitcher gets close to footplant, he cannot bend his back leg anymore. In fact, it will actually straighten some, due to pushing. At this point, at least for high arm slot pitchers, the only way to keep the upper body back is to tilt the shoulders so that the front shoulder is higher than the back shoulder. The pitcher can then rotate his shoulders over the longest distance possible.

As I write this, I'm looking at the sports page from a newspaper that I've been saving since April. It has an excellent photo of Roger Clemens taken from the 3b side, an instant before footplant. He has already completed pushing-off and he has a very extreme shoulder tilt. Also, there is a video clip of Sandy Koufax on the main page of this site. Although it's a front view, it's easy to see his extreme shoulder tilt, also. When watching a game on tv, it's a little more difficult to notice a pitcher's "tilt" from that back view.

Pitchers (such as Clemens and Koufax) that have high arm slots need more shoulder tilt than lower arm slot pitchers (Pedro Martinez). This is because high arm slot (high ¾) pitchers rotate their shoulders through a plane that's closer to vertical in relationship to the ground, while low arm slot (low ¾) pitchers rotate their shoulders through a plane that may be almost horizontal, or parallel to the ground. So, the level shoulders advice isn't quite as bad for the very low ¾ pitchers

A pitcher has to match his shoulder rotation to his arm slot (or his arm slot to his shoulder rotation). So, if a pitcher has a very low 3/4 arm slot (almost sidearm, like Pedro), his shoulders rotate, or spin like a top-almost horizontal to the ground. If he has a high 3/4 arm slot, his shoulders rotate, or spin almost like a wheel-close to verticle to the ground.

The way that a "wheel" spinner can spin, or rotate his shoulders over a longer distance is to have his shoulders tilted back (front one higher than the back one) when the rotating begins-just before footplant. A good example is Roger Clemens.

The way that a "top" spinner can spin, or rotate his shoulders over a longer distance is to somewhat turn his back to the target (showing the back pocket, or counter-rotating) just before the regular rotation begins. He will not need much, if any shoulder tilt. A good example is Pedro Martinez.

A "wheel" spinner can show the back pocket in addition to shifting his shoulders back. This hides the ball from the hitter a bit longer. Obviously, the later that the hitter picks up the ball, the better for the pitcher. Also, anyone that's done a lot of reading at the Setpro site knows about the concept regarding the relationship between accelerating over a greater distance and increased velocity.

A pitcher that has an "inbetween" arm slot (regular 3/4) will have to tilt his shoulders back some AND show the back pocket for maximum velocity.