Travis Kerber of Elite Baseball Training concludes his master class for youth baseball coaches and parents on how to teach pitching to kids. This is part 2 of a two-part interview with Travis. You can catch part 1 of the interview in Session 11. As a side note, it's pretty neat how what Travis teaches lines up with what Chris O'Leary emphasized in Session 10 about dangerous pitching mechanics...and even what Joe Hallinan discussed in Session 2 about psychology in youth baseball. Love it when our guests have a dovetailed, unified view!
Also, Justin Stone of elitebaseball.tv goes deep in our "Ask Justin" Question Of The Week about the value of choking up on the bat. Have your own question? Ask Justin!
In this episode, you'll learn:
- whether swinging the glove-side arm in a circular path during the delivery is important
- how to achieve hip-shoulder separation
- two primary reasons why kids may throw slower as a pitcher than as a fielder
- the one thing you need to know to teach kids how to be consistent in throwing strikes
- what to teach if your pitcher's glove-side arm flies open after delivery
- whether to teach proper release point
- two ways pitchers can increase injury risk
- whether over-the-top deliveries a higher injury risk than 3/4 deliveries
- whether teaching a "tabletop" follow-through is important
- why you shouldn't teach curve balls to young pitchers even with recent studies concluding that curve balls are not dangerous to young arms
- why youth pitcher change-ups are basically the same speed as their fastballs, and what to do about it
- how Travis teaches the change-up grip
- whether pitchers should fool around with different grips for a fastball delivery
- what three skills/qualities Travis looks for in a good pitcher
- what's the difference between attitude and mentality
- what Travis looks for in his video analysis
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