Youth Baseball Pitching

Discuss all things Cardinals Baseball
Post Reply
AWvsCBsteeeerike3
"I could totally eat a pig butt, if smoked correctly!"
Posts: 27272
Joined: August 5 08, 11:24 am
Location: Thinking of the Children

Re: Youth Baseball Pitching

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

Little update.

The one kid I was talking about earlier in the thread got shut down for the year due to a growth plate fracture or something in his elbow. Not sure exactly what it was, according to his doc it's not caused by pitching/sports in general, but pitching will prevent healing. Fine to throw a ball every now and then (play 1B) but don't want him pitching. So, he's out the rest of the year which is unfortunate timing because we got bumped up classifications about a week or two before we got the news.

Have a tournament this weekend which should be interesting. Going to have to rely on some of 6-9 guys in the rotation to get some tough outs.

We decided not to teach them breaking pitches yet and just continue to focus on throwing strikes.

Tougher competition without one of our better pitchers is going to be....a challenge.

User avatar
Joe Shlabotnik
Hall Of Famer
Posts: 23103
Joined: October 12 06, 2:21 pm
Location: Baseball Ref Bullpen
Contact:

Re: Youth Baseball Pitching

Post by Joe Shlabotnik »

AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote:
April 26 22, 1:25 pm
So, he's out the rest of the year which is unfortunate timing because we got bumped up classifications about a week or two before we got the news.
Excellent! Shows your philosophy is effective. You're going to need to charge those parents more next year! :wink:

User avatar
mikechamp
Hall Of Famer
Posts: 10132
Joined: April 17 06, 5:05 pm
Location: Southwestern Illinois

Re: Youth Baseball Pitching

Post by mikechamp »

We also have a tournament this weekend, though the forecast doesn't look good.

At your age level, I would most definitely be focusing on strikes and splitting the plate in half (or thirds, if you really want to push them). Changeups would be the next progression, IMO.

Can the injured player swing a bat and not harm his recovery?

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
"I could totally eat a pig butt, if smoked correctly!"
Posts: 27272
Joined: August 5 08, 11:24 am
Location: Thinking of the Children

Re: Youth Baseball Pitching

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

Just got back from Fayetteville about 3 hours from here. Went 0-3 this weekend. Lost 9-3, 9-6, and then 8-4 today.

No real point to this post other than I’m so frustrated and that we didn’t play better.

User avatar
Joe Shlabotnik
Hall Of Famer
Posts: 23103
Joined: October 12 06, 2:21 pm
Location: Baseball Ref Bullpen
Contact:

Re: Youth Baseball Pitching

Post by Joe Shlabotnik »

NYT article on Tom House, his work with kids, and his Mustard app.
Today, House is putting his knowledge and experience into an app called Mustard, designed to help parents and coaches correct mechanical flaws in young pitchers. The app’s A.I., built from tens of thousands of three-dimensional models he has compiled over decades of motion-capture studies, analyzes uploaded video and makes recommendations for things like head angle and hip separation. It then feeds the user an assortment of recorded drills, almost all of them executable without the need of a partner, to address whatever issues are identified.

User avatar
mikechamp
Hall Of Famer
Posts: 10132
Joined: April 17 06, 5:05 pm
Location: Southwestern Illinois

Re: Youth Baseball Pitching

Post by mikechamp »

I just went to the Google Play store, and can't find that app. Hopefully it gets posted soon. Sounds intriguing.

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
"I could totally eat a pig butt, if smoked correctly!"
Posts: 27272
Joined: August 5 08, 11:24 am
Location: Thinking of the Children

Re: Youth Baseball Pitching

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

From what I could tell looking at their website, it’s a $25/month subscription which gets access to, among other things, the ability to submit videos and have them analyzed (looks like by an algorithm) that provides comments and drills to work on mechanics.

Has a high rating on the Apple App Store. But that $25/month is just for one person from what I can tell. Have to tag to individual being submitted and I don’t think there is a way to tag multiple people from the same account.

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
"I could totally eat a pig butt, if smoked correctly!"
Posts: 27272
Joined: August 5 08, 11:24 am
Location: Thinking of the Children

Re: Youth Baseball Pitching

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

Downloaded the app, took some pretty [expletive] videos of little AW warming up from the side and front and uploaded them. The video quality was very poor, especially from the front due to lighting (and I was trying to take them during the warmups for an inning which kind of made me feel like a goober, but whatever).

Anyway, all for free, I got a report back in a couple minutes that included the following metrics all with a pass/fail according the app's goal:
Timing (time from first movement to footstrike): Goal is 1.05 seconds
Stride Length (self explanatory): Goal is 90% of height
Posture (basically head drop/raise up/down): Goal is less than 2% of height
Lift & Thrust (angle between two lines created from the plant foot both extending upward, one towards the lead knee at max lift and one towards the lead hip at max lift): Goal is 18 degrees or more
Torque Retention (back shoulder rotation prior to footstrike): No goal, simply pass/fail, don't rotate.
Swivel (glove hand stays inside body): P/F
Stack & Track (shoulder rotation at release): Goal is to be square or less than 10 degrees rotated away from home plate
Balance (angle between center of gravity and head vs center of gravity to vertical): goal is 15 degrees or less
Release (I'm unclear on what criteria is, but generally speaking 8-12" in front of lead foot): P/F

With each of those metrics, the angle or grade is given and you can tap it and it will pull up the explanation of what they are looking at then give suggested drills to help improve complete with video explanation.

Also, I signed up as a coach but submitted as myself so that was free. I think, so long as parents sign up for a free account and download the app, coaches can tag players when uploading videos. I presume the information is then sent to that account as well as the coach.

The app is somewhat clunky, but the information provided is really outstanding. Very neat.

ETA: And it will give these metrics for each pitch (some are only side, some are only from the front) and then compile it into a report taking averages and what not. Also, probably due to the poor quality, some of the metrics it gave were way off. For example, on timing, little AW had a range from 0.77 to 1.91 with two right around 1.1. I think in one, he may have gone from the windup :)

Better videos probably resolve most of these issues.

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
"I could totally eat a pig butt, if smoked correctly!"
Posts: 27272
Joined: August 5 08, 11:24 am
Location: Thinking of the Children

Re: Youth Baseball Pitching

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

Sometimes I find myself just pure ocd over little league games like right now. Can’t sleep can’t get it out of my head.

User avatar
Joe Shlabotnik
Hall Of Famer
Posts: 23103
Joined: October 12 06, 2:21 pm
Location: Baseball Ref Bullpen
Contact:

Re: Youth Baseball Pitching

Post by Joe Shlabotnik »

AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote:
June 3 22, 11:13 pm
Sometimes I find myself just pure ocd over little league games like right now. Can’t sleep can’t get it out of my head.

Post Reply