Those of us who have coached high school baseball understand the importance of having solid pitching. A good smart pitcher can carry a team a long way toward winning championships and if you are fortunate enough to have two, with proper management that championship can be obtained. Of course, hitting and fielding are crucial in the scheme of things, but, a strong pitcher can often overcome poor fielding or weak hitting, so, in my opinion, winning starts with pitching.
Pitchers in high school are often the better overall athletes and coaches must use them somewhere in the line up even when not pitching, therefore, the coach must be careful not to over use his arm even if it means losing a game during the regular season. Kids at this age think that they (and their arms) are indestructible and as their coach, one must manage them to protect their future as well as the present.
To list every thing that I tried to do with my pitchers would be too exhaustive, so, here are a few things that I stressed to them regularly. During preseason workouts, I wanted every pitcher to throw no more than 50 pitches to a catcher after warmups. This allows him to work at other positions without damaging his arm, and it allows catchers to get their legs in shape to squat. I encouraged them to work on location and changing speeds, about 30 pitches from the wind up and 20 from the stretch.
I gave them this goal--hold the opponent to 4 earned runs or less. I wanted them to understand that win or lose they would be successful in my mind if they could do this. If we got beat by not scoring more than 4 runs, it was not the pitcher's fault at all!
I often used this statement with my pitchers: "You're not gonna throw hard till you throw hard!". It simply meant to practice as if you were playing a live game. Push yourself to increase velocity by working on mechanics daily, even at home.
You get batters out by a) simply overpowering them with fastballs, b) changing speeds, c) throwing a pitch he's not expecting, d) throwing a pitch he is expecting, but in a location he can't handle. In this age of pitching machines and batting cages where hitters can spend ample time in batting practice, the latter three ways of getting a batter out are of greater necessity.
Never give in to a batter. By this I meant, make him hit your best stuff even in a batter's count like 3&2 or 2&1. A walk is not the worst thing in most cases, and a single is better than any extra base hit.
I wanted my pitchers to come set in the stretch differently on every pitch with runners on base. Every pitcher is different in how they stand on the rubber to take the signs from the catcher. Some will stand up right with glove about chest high and ball in throwing hand behind his back, others will bend over and prop with glove hand on the knee and ball in throwing hand behind the back...either way is fine for what they do after taking the sign is what needs to vary. Teach them to come set with the ball and glove chest high and also with ball and glove waist high. Teach them to take a normal leg kick from both positions, and, teach them to slide step from both positions. Teach them to vary the pause between coming set and delivering to the plate. Teach them a standard move to first to set up their best move to first. Teach them how to step off the rubber to make an appeal to a base and how you wish them to react to first and third double steal situations. All of this may seem trivial, but, it will be beneficial in keeping stolen bases down during a game as runners cannot time the pitcher as easily when trying to steal.
I wanted them to understand that no matter how good they were, there would be days when umpires would squeeze the plate on them, or batters would seem to hit every thing that they threw and our fielders would make a lot of errors behind them. This is the game of baseball. The only thing that you really can control is your mind. Do not get discouraged or frustrated...just pitch!
These are a few things that helped me be successful as a player and coach and I hope they might help someone who wishes to give coaching baseball a try. It's a great game!
