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Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Baseball Throwing - Throwing Drills


www.AdvancedSkillsTee.com

By Dick Birmingham

I think an excellent drill for infielders is what I call the Four Corners Drill.

I have stolen drills and I have created some that no one has stolen from me. One drill is called Right, Left, Pick-it-Up and I have used it a lot. It is a great drill.

I got this one from Gene McArtor at the University of Missouri. I have used it for a lot of years and I think it is really excellent.

If my partner and I were on the back side of the corridor and we had a guy at this corridor and a guy at that corridor and this guy throws that ball to me, I want him to throw it right into this center circle. If this guy wants to show his hands that is alright too. I don't think there is anything wrong with that for him to show his hands away from his body, thumb to thumb, then what I want this player to do is to get his feet involved as he is catching the baseball.

To do this, we exaggerate by having you step across with the pivot foot, across the front like that and make a little hop as I if you are catching the ball and throwing. You catch the ball and step across and throw to that circle and he throws to this one and back and we just go around that way. Now, you have to do this with all right-handers. You stick a left-hander in there and it will be one heck of a drill. There is no telling where it will go.

But, this is an excellent drill because it emphasizes some of the things that are basic. You want people catching the ball with both hands, you want that guy throwing into that circle, you want the feet involved and you want a throw with a squared back foot and a closed front shoulder.

I guarantee you if you step across here you can't open that shoulder. You are going to stay closed, until the right time to open it. You are not going to open it prematurely.

Then there are some other variations you can add to this drill if you want to reverse it and circle. There are a lot of things you can do with this drill.

Later on, you can change it to a shuffle drill where he takes it and just kind of shuffles his feet to throw as opposed to stepping across.

What this helps to fight against is the infielder that fields the ball and he steps behind to throw in that direction.

Now, it doesn't make much sense if you are going to try and throw a guy out over here to field the ball here and step toward the outfield because what happens is he gets his momentum built up in the wrong direction.

That is why it is better to shuffle or even to kind of crow hop or to step across because you are driving at the place to which you are throwing. It puts you in a position of strength as opposed to weakness. You are letting your body work for you as opposed to against you.

I think that is very important.

To learn more baseball throwing tips and get more baseball throwing information to help develop your baseball players visit the Dick Birmingham Sports Championship Baseball Drill Book at http://www.BaseballDrillBook.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dick_Birmingham

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Hello Baseball Friend,
I welcome any comments or suggestions. If you have a question or a topic that you would like to read about, please leave a comment and I will try to address that topic as soon as I can. Good luck in the coming season!
Have a great day, Nick