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."

How Simple Drills, Will Make Your Pitcher Better!!!

Does it make any sense at all when a baseball pitcher with pinpoint control makes a throw to one of his infielders and misses him by ten feet? Always remember that as a baseball pitcher, once you throw the baseball to the plate you become a defensive player like everyone else. One of the best baseball pitching tips has nothing to do with baseball pitching. It is baseball fielding. Set aside some time and practice baseball fielding as well and it will be time very well spent. I would really like to see pitchers spend more time practicing their baseball fielding, which will greatly help their team, as well as the pitcher himself.

I'm well aware that most of a pitcher's practice time should be spent throwing the baseball. I'm also well aware that a pitcher who is serious about being successful should find some time for practicing his baseball fielding as well. Ten minutes a couple of times a week is all it takes.

Let's look at some very basic basic baseball fielding drills that a pitcher should practice.

GROUNDERS BACK TO THE MOUND

Field the ball and throw to all four bases a couple of times. It's amazing that some pitchers will miss their target when throwing to third base by ten feet! The reason is quite simple. They are making throws that are unfamiliar to them. Practice throws to all four bases and they will no longer be unfamiliar throws.

FIELDING BUNTS

Practice fielding bunts in front of the plate and down both lines. Practice throwing to all four bases.

FIELDING BUNTS IN SUICIDE SQUEEZE SITUATION

Practice getting the throw to your catcher quickly and accurately.

COVERING FIRST BASE

We will discuss this in detail later on. In a nutshell, sprint to the first base line about four steps from the base. Turn and run in fair territory down the line. Chest high target and tag the inside of the base with your right foot.

COVERING HOME PLATE

Be very cautious when covering home plate. Along with the line drive back to the mound, it is an extremely dangerous play for a pitcher! Make sure to stay in front of the plate and in fair territory. Make a quick swipe tag with your glove going quickly toward the ground to tag out the runner. In other words, you only want the base runner to slide into your glove and make sure the rest of your body is out of harm's way. Baseball pitching careers have ended when a pitcher has stood in the path of a sprinting base runner. Stay in front of the plate!

Baseball pitchers should practice their baseball fielding like it's a live game. If you practice at only half speed, the results you get may be only slighter better than if you did not practice at all. Hey, if you're willing to put in the time to practice and improve your baseball skills, you deserve to get all the benefits from that practice time. Don't cheat yourself.

In closing, just remember that a defensive miscue by a baseball pitcher can cost the ball game. One of the best baseball pitching tips is to practice your baseball fielding, as it is time very well spent.

Baseball Early Training for Pitchers

Early-Season Baseball Pitching Training

As is true in the case of every ball player, the baseball pitcher should begin his early-season training by getting his whole body into good condition. It is a grave mistake to think that all a baseball pitcher has to do is to get his arm into shape to throw nine innings twice a week. Many a baseball pitcher has weakened in the last part of the game, not because his arm was not powerful enough, but because the rest of his physique was exhausted; he had neglected the rest of his body while training the arm alone. Road-work, dumb-bells, handball, any- thing to bring all the muscles into play, regularly, and out-of-doors if possible, will give a man the right start in his training. And during the early-season work, the pitchers, when not in the box, should work hard to get their legs in good condition. To get good wind and endurance chase fly balls in the outfield. Practise fielding bunts off the side lines; this will help wonderfully in games—and the work will help to put you in sound condition. Another excellent exercise is that of batting fly balls to the outfield; swinging the bat will strengthen the arms and the back muscles. In order to pitch a long, hard game, your whole body will be called upon to reinforce your arm, and you will be called upon to hit and run bases like any other player; so prepare yourself by careful training.

Pitching Drills Part 1

THE PITCHER

Little need be said of the relative value of a pitcher to his team. To any one who knows baseball at all, this value is quite apparent. Other things being equal, the team with the best pitcher usually wins. And yet how few people know just what constitutes good pitching! To the average spectator, a man seems to be a good pitcher if he has lots of speed and good curves. But to a close student of the game it becomes at once apparent that a first-class pitcher must have a fast ball (and generally a curve), a slow ball, and control. The last-named qualification is the vitally important one.

Control

And yet how few pitchers to-day can define the word control! The significance of the word pitcher to them is that he is one of nine men occupying a definite position in the game of baseball. He works by prearranged signals with the catcher, who may—for illustration—use one finger for a fast ball and two fingers for a curve ball. We will grant that the pitcher has an abundance of speed and good curves; if the catcher signals for the fast ball, it is thrown, high or low, over the centre of the plate or wide—it does not seem to matter much to the pitcher—he has pitched a fast ball since it was called for. The same thing is often true of the curve ball. And the majority of pitchers to-day are satisfied to let it go at that! How often one hears the remark, "He has everything in the box to-day; yet the opposing batters are hitting the ball all over the field," and again, "He has a thousand-dollar arm and a five-cent head."

These pitchers think that control means placing every ball that they throw right over the heart of the base, waist-high. That is exactly what it does not mean. Strictly speaking, control means that ability in a pitcher which enables him (after studying the batter) to throw that ball which the batter cannot hit safely—always placing it either high or low (at the shoulders or knees) and either on the inside or outside corner of the base, avoiding the waist-high ball over the centre of the base.

Study the batsman as he takes his position to hit. In delivering the fast ball, try to place it at what is the batter's weakest point. And in pitching the curve, try to break it low; that is the only safe and successful place to break it.

How often the remark is heard that " He hasn't a thing but a glove!" and yet this same pitcher may be a consistent winner. But study him well, and it will be found that he has two of the greatest assets—namely, brains and control: brains to note and remember a batter's weakness, and the control to pitch to it.

The pitcher, on those days when he is not pitching, should study the batters from the bench. This will enable him to pick out the various batters' weaknesses, and he can use the knowledge thus gained when he is in the box. While in the game, remember the balls which the various batters hit successfully—and try something else on them the next time they are at bat. If you find that during the game you are being hit freely, stop and try to "think out" what the trouble is; and the chances are you will find that you have been putting the ball over the middle of the base, breaking your curves high, or giving the batters just what they like. Stop and think! Do not become enraged and try to drive the ball past the batter's club, because "the faster they come, the farther they will go" (unless you mix a little brains with your speed). In these days when everybody has the art of curving the ball the successful pitcher depends to a great extent upon a change of pace; that is, the alternating of fast balls with curves and slow balls. This change of pace will do more than anything else to prevent being hit freely.