How do you best teach kids to pitch? By NOT focusing on pitching mechanics, of course! If that raised your eyebrow, Lantz Wheeler of BaseballThinkTank.com and creator of the Core Velocity Belt explains why. This is Part 1 of a two-part series.
Plus Justin Stone of elitebaseball.tv answers the Question Of The Week about what to tell a team before a big game.
In this 40-minute episode, you'll learn:
- Lantz's thoughts on travelball
- what's wrong with the current state of pitching instruction today
- what does it mean to 'trust what you feel'
- how to train instincts
- why photographs of pitchers in certain positions of their delivery can be misleading
- why fixing the mechanics doesn't always fix the release
- whether it's good or bad to tell a kid to remember the last delivery since it was a strike
- how to help kids who consistently throw too high or too low
- how to talk to pre-high schoolers differently from high schoolers
- whether to coach a kid who struggles during a game
- an ingenious idea for giving pitching cues
- whether to leave a struggling pitcher in to "figure it out" or to take him out before s/he further ruins the team
- how to handle sensitive kids
- whether every kid can throw 90 mph if they work hard enough
- Lantz's opinion on the so-called "10,000 hour rule"
- whether unathletic kids can become athletic
- whether coaches can help kids become more athletic through team practices
- Sessions 11 and 12 on how to teach pitching with Travis Kerber
- Episode 30 and 31 on digging deeper into better pitching with Ron Wolforth
- YBE affiliate link for EliteBaseball.tv
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