Marketing Tips: Making this fundraiser work for you!
How your team or League gets paid! We send payments to your PayPal account on a monthly basis at the beginning of the month. Again, you will receive 50% of the total sales you make. If there are any questions, you can reach both of us at the following email addresses: Dan Gazaway - dangazaway@yahoo.com Please look over the marketing information below. This will help you get started right away! Thank your supporters Here is an example of what you could send those that participate in the fundraiser: On behalf of (your team or league) we would like to thank you for supporting our baseball team by participating in our Pitching Academy fundraiser. Your support enables our players to participate in leagues and events that will help in developing and improving personal discipline and character, both on and off the field. Without the support of people like you, we would not be able to reach our goals in helping these young players. Thank you once again for your generous support. Sincerely, (your team) Articles for Email
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Pitching
Articles: Article #1 – Power Pitching – Throwing With Legs and Hips Some of the most common flaws pitchers make while transferring energy toward the plate is shortening their stride and not utilizing their hips to generate power. Pitchers rely heavily on upper body strength for rotational power instead of complete hip rotation. This inhibits a pitchers ability to utilize complete body involvement with each pitch. In this pitching video I demonstrate what your hips should do right before your landing leg hits the ground. This is an integral part of pitching mechanics and should not be ignored! Here’s why: Your hips are connected with your core; your core connects to your upper body; as your upper body continues to rotate it brings your throwing arm around to release of the baseball. Therefore your arm is simply “along for the ride” if your mechanics are in check. If you want to be a power pitcher and keep your arm healthy, it is imperative that you learn the following pitching techniques demonstrated in the video below. For tons more great pitching info, check the Pitching Academy’s DVD package deal here. Dan Gazaway will walk you everything you need to know to help your pitcher succeed at any level. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIot4yhqRBs&feature=player_embedded
Article #2 – How to Increase Velocity 3-5 MPH Perhaps every pitcher wants to learn how to throw faster. The majority of pitchers who try to speed up the ball end up using more of their throwing arm to do it. This can cause serious injury and it doesn’t help increase velocity anyway. So how pick up 3-5 mph? The key to increased velocity is creating more momentum toward home plate. Pitchers often lose power when their momentum goes in a different direction aside from the direction they are throwing. Pitching Velocity Tip #1: Use more of your legs and hips to throw the ball as opposed to relying on your throwing arm for velocity. This can be accomplished with a longer stride. Pitchers should stride at least 100% of their height or as far as they can allowing proper hip rotation. A longer stride produces more momentum; you don’t see pitchers in the major leagues throwing ninety plus miles and hour with a short stride. Pitching Velocity Tip #2 Lead with your hips! This means that your hips lead the way toward home plate, not your upper body or your knee. In the below video I explain the difference between a stride and a step. Many pitchers tend to step (decrease momentum) to foot strike, while others (who throw faster) take an actual stride. Pitching Velocity Tip #3 Use your landing leg as leverage to increase your momentum to the plate. Watch this video to see what I mean. Because too many pitchers generate momentum the wrong way, Dan Gazaway of the Pitching Academy has spent some serious time explaining this concept and more in his new DVD series. He’s great at teaching this concept so parents and coaches can relay his message. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqorZLqRUm0
Article #3 – How to Throw a Great Curveball Every pitcher wants to learn how to throw a curveball. Why? Because it’s effective and it gets hitters out. There’s nothing like throwing a curveball that makes a hitters knees buckle. It’s a great pitch to have in your arsenal because hitters never really learn how to hit a curve or adjust to it. Hitters can hit a good curveball but they can’t hit a great one. Even the greatest of hitters struggle hitting it; they just hope they don’t miss the opportunity to hit a fastball when it comes. How to Grip a Curveball: Gripping a curveball is simple. Place your thumb on the bottom seam of the baseball and then place your middle finger directly above your thumb; splitting the baseball in half with thumb and middle finger. Your index finger is placed right next to your middle finger. Make sure your index finger applies no pressure on the ball. When you start throwing the curveball you can experiment how tight you want to grip the ball. If your grip is too tight the ball can “squirt” on you or it will not make it across the plate. If your grip it too loose you will lose complete control and the ball won’t even know where it will go. Thumb and middle fingers are the only two fingers that apply pressure on the baseball. How To Throw a Curveball: One of the biggest issues pitchers have when they begin throwing a curve is changing their fastball mechanics. Don’t! Throw the curveball, or any other pitch, using the same arm slot and arm speed as your fastball. The only thing that changes is wrist and forearm angle. With the curveball your wrist and forearm angle look like a “karate chop”. To get an effective rotation on the ball, released the ball late. The curve will squirt or hang when you release it early or you don’t keep your glove in front of you at release. I explain this in greater detail in the YouTube video below. Curveball Mysteries Unveiled There are many myths about how a pitcher should throw a curveball. Most of the methods I will bring up on this article actually work; but at the expense of a shorter career and an unhealthy arm. If you are serious about pitching for a long time avoid throwing a curveball using any one of these methods. A) Wrap the curve: This is when you throw the ball with a bent wrist. It is called wrapping the curveball. There is a reason why coaches like to teach this method to pitchers; it works! The problems arise when a pitcher complains of sharp and deep elbow pain. Throwing a curveball like this is also a hit and a miss with your control. Some days you’ll find the strike zone with it and others you won’t. The overall issue I have with it is that is unhealthy to throw like this. B) Twist or snap your wrist: In this brief pitching video I explain this myth in greater detail. If you twist your wrist right before release of the baseball you will experience elbow problems in the long run. In fact, you will know that it is wrong to throw the ball like this to begin with because your arm will tell you it’s wrong. Why do pitchers continue to throw like this? Again, this method works for some pitchers because it does impart rotation on the ball. The wrong rotation, but pitchers find success with it so they continue to use it. C) Throwing the curveball over the top: In no way, shape or form do you want to change your natural arm slot to throw another pitch. Along with the below video on how to throw a curveball, The Pitching Academy has devoted nearly an hour on different pitching grips in their new 4-disk DVD series. If you’re serious this season about learning the correct way to throw a curveball, change up, slider, etc. you owe it to yourself to pick up the DVDs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEq5xZvqGXc&feature=player_embedded
Often times baseball players get caught up in perfection. It makes it difficult to enjoy the game and perform at your best when you try to be perfect. I know at times I get into great depth about how to throw the baseball with proper throwing mechanics; for good reason. But sometimes we forget to simplify a process in our mechanics that can make a significant difference in our overall performance on the mound. If I were to pick one mechanical weakness, that can correct several other mechanical flaws and simplify pitching, it would be to keep your head over your center of gravity (belly button) while heading toward home plate. Most pitchers know that this is mechanically correct, yet many overlook the importance of it I think because of its simplicity. This is what I mean: Right after your leg lift you begin weight transfer toward your target. keep your head over your belly button all of the way to foot strike. Foot strike is simply when your landing leg hit (or strikes) the ground. After working with thousands of pitchers over the years, I have seen this one mechanical change help many pitchers throw harder with more accuracy. Their timing becomes better and they learn to “feel” how to pitch because their entire body is moving toward the plate not to one side or the other. When a pitcher keeps his weight back, toward second base, they are really losing a ton of power. When teaching the principal of “head over bellybutton” I often say to my pitchers “go with the pitch” in other words don’t hold anything back. Keep your energy going toward home plate. We also have other pitchers who have similar mechanical (balance) issues and lean forward when they pitch. I call these pitchers “leaners.” This is when a pitcher leads with his shoulder, not his hip, and he drops his shoulder keeping his head IN FRONT OF his center of gravity. When this happens it is very difficult to throw strikes, either the ball is too high or too low because it messes, not only with timing of release, it can throw off the pitchers natural arm slot. One of the best things about The Pitching Academy’s new DVD series is that Dan Gazaway spends a lot of time teaching you, the parent or coach, how to teach you athlete. With is attention to detail Dan accomplishes this task very, very, well.
Hitting Articles:
Article #1 – How to Solve a Hitting Mechanics Problem Solving a hitting mechanics issue can be highly frustrating for any competitive athlete. I compare this problem to me trying to find the cause of an engine problem in my car… I usually have no idea where to start. Good news, there is hope for you here. I’m going to simplify your understanding of hitting mechanics in the hope that you can begin to solve your own issues with your swing. Most of time, (close to 100%) I place the blame on the lower half of the body as causing the majority of kinks in a swing. I have even helped athletes correct their bat path by correcting how their weight transfers in their lower half. This being said, the first problem that usually occurs for many athletes is the failure to shift enough weight to the backside prior to the swing. Or, they let their weight shift forward before the swing occurs. Either way, much of the power and bat speed can be lost if either of these two scenarios occur. Let’s start with the first problem, failure to shift weight to
the back side. Most all hitters begin with their weight nearly evenly distributed on both legs during their
stance position. When the pitcher begins his windup, the hitter will need to move some of the weight to the
back leg. This is commonly referred to as getting into the load position. The purpose of this is to store up
some energy to be used in creating bat The second hitting mechanics problem mentioned above occurs when a hitter loads his weight properly though just prior to rotation he shifts the weight forward towards his front leg. This problem creates much of the same effect as the result in the above paragraph – poor lower body power and the over-usage of the upper body in generating the power. Shifting the weight forward onto the front leg prior to rotating prevents the hips from opening. When this happens, it becomes virtually impossible to hit inside pitches with any amount of consistency. The only solution to the problems explained above is to keep the weight back at the beginning of the swing, and balanced in the center to center-front at the swing finish. A sure sign of weight-transfer problems is when the front knee is bent while making contact with the ball. To see more on how Nate Barnett of The Pitching Academy teaches this concept, you need to take a look at their newly released DVD series. Nate provides tips from his professional background as a hitter. He is a very clear instructor and will walk you through the entire swing in a step by step manner.
Article #2 – What You Need To Know About Crushing Slow Pitching I hated slow pitchers when I was playing ball. I would have the best hitting mechanics, everything would be great with my swing coming into the game, and then there would be some puss-baller on the hill that would foul everything up. I’m sure you’ve experienced much the same. Since I’ve been done with my playing career I’ve cracked the code for how to hit slow pitchers (wish I would have learned this years ago). Here’s the three-step trick to crush all the floaters you want. 1. Widen your stance just a bit. A wider stance will allow you to keep your weight centered better. Slow guys have a magical ability to make you shift your weight to your front foot. When that happens, the Jamie Moyer affect kicks in and you’re screwed. Having a wider stance will make it quite a bit tougher to get up on your front foot simply because the angle of your front foot to front him is more gradual. Of course you can’t stride as far with this adjustment. That’s fine; you can mash the ball all the same. 2. Make sure your weight shift is smooth and slow. All kick butt hitters move some of their weight to their back leg prior to the rotation of their body. Just make sure when that ball comes in with an arc as big as a rainbow you shift your weight in a slow manner. Too quick of a weight shift will goof up your rhythm and timing. There is then a high chance you will continue to kill worms by beating the ball into the ground. No fun. 3. Give your ego a break and hit the ball the other way. Most guys love to pull the ball. I’m with you on that one. But, if you want to be successful with slow pitchers, learn to see the ball deep in the strike zone and allow your body to take the pitch the other way. If you make up your mind (BEFORE you get into the batter’s box) that the pull side of the diamond doesn’t exist, you’ll be far better off. Trying to yank the ball out of the park on a guy with low velocity will only further your frustration. Nate Barnett of the Pitching Academy is a former professional hitter. In his recent DVD series, he walks through many of the mechanical flaws that mess hitters up. If you’ve ever been frustrated and not known how to solve your hitting problem, this DVD series is for you.
Article #3 – A Quick Fix Hitting Drill For The Lower Half When I give hitting lessons to athletes I always identify first the problems in the swing from the waist down. This is because the legs and the hips are the foundation. With a sloppy and ineffective foundation, the upper body will be unproductive as well. The key then is to first be able to identify where there is a problem, and then, how to fix it. The first thing I look for is if a hitter has a solid base. If he is balanced with the weight on the balls of his feet, then I’ll move to the next step. If he’s not, I’ll shift him into the position I need him to be. Next, I’ll throw him a few side toss balls and watch how well he shifts his weight back to his back leg. If he can shift his weight to a 70%/30% or 60%/40% back side to front side ratio, then I’ll move on. Most of the time this is where the swing breaks down. Many of the hitters I work with don’t take the time to move their weight back. Therefore, when they go to swing, there is nothing in the legs that is left to create any power. The end result is a swing that is lunging forward with poor hip rotation and hands that have done all the work to create power. Hitting Drills 101: How to fix a poor weight transfer The majority of the time hitters can’t tell they aren’t shifting any weight to their back leg. Because of this I’ll start the hitting already in the shifted position with 60% or 70% of their weight on the back leg. This allows them to build some muscle memory as to how it should feel when they have move weight correctly. Then, I’ll toss a few side toss balls and see if they keep the weight back or if they shift it forward again prior to their hips rotating. If you see your hitter move his weight back to the center of his body to where he was in his original stance position, then it really doesn’t matter that he shifted any weight in the first place. He’s back to square one and will get no power from the lower half. Instead, as his swing begins, look for if his front hip opens with the turning of the back leg. Then, if this is happening, observe his weight transfer forward. Good hitters will take the energy stored up in their back leg and move it forward into the pitch as their hips open. I am not saying that all of their weight ends up transferring to their front leg; I’m suggesting that it move back to the center, or center-front. The will create tons of torque and energy needed to produce bat speed. There you go. No need to complicated tools to work on your swing. Hitting Drills don’t have to be complex, they just have to be effective. Use this article in combination with Nate’s DVD series where he demonstrates multiple simple hitting drills you can use with just a hitting tee. As you know, hitting a baseball correctly can be frustrating when things aren’t going right. The great thing is that Nate Barnett of the Pitching Academy takes his time and explains how to hit a baseball in an easy to follow step-by-step manner.
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