Pitching practices can get boring and workouts can become stale.
If that sounds familiar then here’s a pitching workout that’s both fun and challenging.
When working with pitchers it can be challenging fitting in time to work on and develop each pitch, as well as mixing pitches together. But I’ve started doing a helpful workout I call “Around the World” for the way it makes a pitcher throw their pitches in a circle. Confused? Then look at the picture to the right and see what I mean.
This workout (from a righty pitcher) will involve throwing 5 different types of pitches or locations:
- Drop (or low)
- Curve (or left)
- Rise (or up)
- Screwball (or right)
- Changeup
If your pitcher doesn’t have one or more of these pitches don’t worry, simply have her throw a fastball to that location. So pick a location to start and work clockwise, throwing 2 of each pitch before moving on to the next location. For instance; 2 Curves, 2 Rises, 2 Screwballs, 2 Drops, 2 Changeups. Do a few rotations of 2 of each pitch, and then switch to 1 of each pitch; 1 Curve, 1 Rise, 1 Screwball, 1 Drop, 1 Changeup.
Don’t worry if your pitcher really struggles with one or more location – that’s normal. The purpose of this workout is to really challenge your pitcher to use her pitches to hit different locations instead of simply throwing pitches. After your pitcher has thrown this workout for a while mix it up and have her work in the opposite direction. This will really force her to move from pitch to pitch and location to location – which is exactly what she has to do in a game.
For lefties, you can have your pitcher throw in the same direction but the pitch types will change.
For more help with your pitching workouts, check out the following:
