Pro Pitcher Guide

Don't ever let a coach tell you that you need to throw a pitch with a certain grip or a certain way. The key to developing your arsenal is trying different pitches with different grips until you find something that you can throw consistently with the same arm action as the rest of your pitches.

Now I am not saying to not listen to your coaches, they are trying their best to help you become the best pitcher you can be. If they show you a new pitch or a new grip, try it out and try to make it work, but if you don't feel comfortable with that pitch or grip, don't be afraid to try new pitches with new grips.

Another thing we must realize is that developing pitches takes a lot of time and practice. it might take you 3 months or maybe even a year to become comfortable with a pitch- just make sure you are playing catch with it everyday to develop it.

*Story time*:
My rookie year my pitching coach was Bob Forsch, who had a 16 year MLB career and was very good at developing young pitchers. My first day I was throwing a bullpen and while he was watching me, I threw a nasty changeup that he had questions about. I threw a palmball changeup(and I had a lot of success with it) because I was never comfortable with any other changeup grip. He told me that hitters at the higher levels would recognize the spin of that changeup so I needed to throw a circle-change. I had a lot of success over the next couple of years as a starting pitcher, but I struggled against leftys because I never got comfortable with that circle-change. I would dominate rightys, but leftys would hit .290-.310 every year off me and my GM said that kept me out of the big leagues.

After years of struggling with the circle-change, I decided to scrap it and go back to my palmball-change. It took me a couple of months to relearn it, but once I did it became one of the best pitches in my arsenal. After I got my confidence back with it, I started dominating leftys(to the tune of sub .200 BA against leftys) and my career took off. To this day I still think about how much quicker my career would have taken off if I just trusted myself and kept my change up. Again, my coach was trying to help, but as a pitcher we must trust in our ability and trust ourselves first and foremost.

Let's talk about work ethic:

There isn't a player that has made it to the level of professional that hasn't worked his tail off for years. But the thing is once you get to the level of professional, that is when the real work starts. That is what separates the successful major leaguers from the guys that never make it out of rookie ball. This is not a 9 to 5 job, it is a 24/7 career.

I was drafted because I would wake up at 5am and run a few miles while my college teammates slept in because they were out until 3am partying. I was drafted because after a game I would be in the weightroom preparing myself for my next start while my college teammates went to hangout and play video games. I was drafted because I was extremely strict with my diet while my college teammates were eating junk food. I was drafted because I was fully committed on being the best pitcher I could be. I was not the most talented guy( I sat 89-91), but I was drafted high(6th round) because I was fully prepared to perform at my best every time I stepped on the mound.

The thing about work ethic is that it is 100% on you to get the most out of yourself everyday. You may have trainers and coaches that push you, but it's all those times you are in the weightroom by yourself or the miles you run while everyone is asleep that will dictate how far you make it.

How hard can you push yourself when no one is watching? Do you have the mental fortitude and self discipline to push yourself beyond what you think your limits are? Those are the questions you must answer if you want to have a future as a professional ballplayer.

**CONFIDENCE**

- One thing that always gets overlooked when talking about elite athletes is the confidence they posses and the effect it has on their performance. The thing about confidence is we can’t fake it and it has to be earned.

- The only way to earn confidence is by putting in the work that allows us to stop self doubt. If we know that we have put in the work physically, we can now have positive self talk that tells us how good we are because of all the hours of practice we put in to perfect our craft.

- One of the keys in getting into a flow state and performing at our peak is being able to hyper focus. We can only reach hyper focus when we aren’t thinking about anything besides executing our next pitch- that includes taking self doubt out of our minds.

- And if we are truly pushing ourselves to be the best pitcher we can be, then we should never doubt our ability to preform and our confidence will grow immensely!

I have every parent asking me daily on how their kid could increase arm strength and velocity and I tell them all the same thing; long toss. The best and safest way to increase velocity is long toss. There are two things that a young pitcher must remember about this: It needs to be done consistently and you MUST do arm care after long toss to help your arm recover quickly. Building arm strength is not easy, but it is simple. Doing these things consistently will help you increase velocity over time.

We cannot be in control of the game if we cannot control our mind and our emotions. A fan should not be able to tell whether you are getting hit around or you are throwing a perfect game- that's how much control you should have over your body language. This will allow you to have laser focus on the task at hand: Execute the next pitch.

All great pitchers realize the importance of watching other pitchers pitch. Sometimes you might pick up a mechanical key or even learn a new pitch by closely watching another pitcher.

I remember watching Roy Halladay throw a bullpen and I was amazed by his cutter. After his bullpen I picked his brain about how he gripped and threw his cutter and now it's a major tool in my arsenal.

Always pay attention when an elite pitcher is pitching and don't be afraid to ask him questions about his craft- it might be the key to taking your game to the next level.

There’s a lot of talk about the science in increasing velocity and the mechanics behind it, but when it comes to getting outs; it’s about disrupting the hitters timing. The ability to locate your fastball to all 4 quadrants and throw your off-speed, with the same arm action, off of that located fastball is one way we disrupt hitters timing.