Becoming a Great Pitcher

Do you love baseball? Well if you do you might be interested on learning how to be a great pitcher, or if you already are one improving yourself. I'm sure at times friends or teammates have told you that you are not a good pitcher, or that you are simply not good enough to pitch, but i don't care who they are because they are wrong. In my eyes anyone can become a pitcher as long as they really want it and determined to become better. Now i would like to start off with the basics. First, the Windup. There are two types of pitching; pitching from the windup, and pitching from the stretch. You pitch from the windup when there are no runners on base. You pitch from the stretch when you do have runners on base. Now to become a good pitcher you need to be comfortable pitching both of these ways. Ok, so the windup. When pitching from the windup your starting position should be feet together heels facing the rubber. Secondly, your pitching motion. Still in the windup position if you are right handed take a step with your left foot to your left; if you are left handed do the opposite. Now turn your right foot sideways still touching the rubber; left handers do the same with your left foot. Next, bring your left leg up off the ground right infront of your body, making sure your leg is even and not tilted to one side; left handers do the same with your right leg. As you are lifting your leg up you should have the ball in your throwing hand and with your arm completely extended you should start a circle with your arm. Now when you are about halfway threw this circle motion you should bring your leg down at an angle basically just like taking a medium sized step and make sure that when your foot lands it is aim directly at the catcher. Otherwise your pitch will be off your target. Lastly, right after your foot lands the circle motion with your arm should be above your shoulder. This is about the time that you want to release the ball from your hand. Now when you release the ball your arm should not just stop there it should continue its motion until it is about at your waist on the opposite side of your body from which ever side you threw the ball from.

Second, pitching from the stretch. Your starting position should be right foot on the rubber facing sideways, left foot directly across from it about 2 feet facing the same direction. Opposite if you are left handed. Next, if you are right handed bring your left foot up so it is about 5 inches from your right foot. From there it is exactly like pitching from the windup. Just lift your leg up and your on your way.

Now just two helpful tips, when pitching from either the windup or the stretch you have to always be balanced, and never throw your hardest, just hard. That way the ball won't go out of control, and if you carefully follow everything above and use common sense you are sure to become a great pitcher.

P.S. I'm sorry but it is to hard for me to explain how to throw certain pitches as some of them are to complex to understand through words and pictures.