Common Pitching Problems

The biggest thing that you have to remember with young pitchers is injury prevention. Pitching is an unnatural motion for the body to perform and puts a tremendous amount of force on the shoulder and elbow. To prevent shoulder and elbow problems, pitchers need to understand common problems that can put stress on their arm.

Common Pitching Problem #1: Sometimes pitchers tend to lean a certain way when they get to the balance point in the wind up. This is bad because not only will it create inconsistency with your mechanics and pitches but it will also put stress on your arm when you go to stride and deliver.

If a pitcher leans back that means his momentum is taking him too far or that he is trying too hard to throw the pitch (raring back). This is no good because it takes alot of work to get your arm to catch up with your body.

This can lead to throwing the baseball high in the zone, a reduced velocity, and not to mention arm injury. If a pitcher leans too far forward that means he may not be getting enough leverage.

This is no good because the pitcher will loose velocity because he is throwing with all arm. This ultimatly leads to arm problems. If a pitcher is leaning away (from home) it means he will be leaving his arm back. It is very hard for a pitcher to get over his front side when he does this because his arm is usually dragging behind. A decrease in velocity and soreness in the arm can be expected if this problem is not fixed.

If a pitcher is leaning toward (home plate) they will have a tendency to leak. When a pitcher falls forward to early the stride must be shorter and the hips may leak open too early to compensate for falling forward. The pitcher looses alot of power by doing this. Their arm is left behind and is put under alot of stress when it is made