what's up coach Dan Blewett here today we're gonna talk about how to do the
slide step / stretch in baseball so I was a reliever in my last my last three
years of pro ball a little bit of a spot starter my fourth season and then I
transitioned completely into just a reliever so I pitched exclusively out of
the slide step but the way I say slide step is different than some coaches
teach it but really what I teach is a blend of what all pretty much the best
pitchers do so I know lots of coach of the youth level they're kind of insane
about you got to be super fast to the plate and they almost hold their youth
pitchers to a higher standard than they do their pro guys so if you watch major
league baseball if you watch my league baseball college of baseball you'll see
almost all pitchers doing some sort of counter movement which is your leg going
back before it goes forward and that helps them get set keep their power
staying control but still be really fast to the plate so that's why I'm going to
teach you here today this is all about the slide step and the stretch position
okay so let's talk about stretch mechanics so the big thing here is being
fast to the plate without losing your velocity losing your command or does
losing control of your sort of game speed in general alright so with our
stretch mechanics most pro pitchers don't just pick up their foot and go and
the reason they don't do this is because this often leads to them landing with a
little bit more weight on their front foot their shoulders kind of sloped
downhill it's basically the same as a hitter who's lunging at the ball so one
of the big things that we want to prevent or in the stretch is going too
fast and a rushing quote-unquote down the mound so the way to do that is just
to make sure we have some kind of counter movement and we have some amount
of weight already sort of stacked in our back leg so the way I teach this is I
prefer that players come set with a slightly bent back leg so not fully
straight so their weights 50/50 but with a little bit of weight in here and their
knee slightly inside their toe so if they do this now my weights already sort
of back I could balance while remaining still pretty tall
so from here all I have to do is sort of knock my knees together or I could bring
my ankles together I can do either one and this is just called a counter
movement so when we're pitching from the stretch when we're trying to do a slide
step quote-unquote we are just trying to quickly get to the plate without again
losing all of our power and our accuracy and our control of our body in general
so the way we do this is we load up our back leg first so if you look at me I'm
still pretty much exactly as tall as I am with this slight amount of Bend I'm
not punching down I'm not getting shorter so I'm just taking a little bit
on my weight into my back leg the next big thing is that my feet are gonna be
about shoulder width apart if my feet are too close the only place my leg can
really go is straight up all I can really do I can't go back in front when
my feet are only six inches or less apart so that's a big thing that I
correct right away when I work with younger pitchers especially who like to
set up like this from the stretch because then the only thing they can do
is lift their leg and now it takes a long time and runners get a very big
jump towards the plate so the really important thing here is about
shoulder-width apart and this can vary picture the pitcher is not a set in
stone amount this is about how far I set up slight bend in the back leg and again
from behind it looks like this just a little bit and I'm still tall and my
knees slightly inside so now I'm set and then when I want to go to the plate all
I have to do is start with the counter movement and a counter movement just
means I'm going the opposite direction of the way that I want to go which is
obviously towards on plate so I'm here counter movement and then I go so the
stretch and the slide step they don't have to be complex but at full speed
this is what it's going to look like
so if you watch again I'll go in full-speed one more time that's a very
fast move so you don't have to be lightning quick but a lot of times youth
coaches try to hold their pitchers to this crazy standard where we're going
they're shooting for one second towards the plate Pro guys need to be 1/3 or
less that's the ideal and so what we're trying to do is just be quick without
losing who we are as pitchers so again we don't want to go up and down we don't
want to have a huge twist we don't want to have a huge leg kick but really just
this half sort of knee knock or or ankle knock some kind of counter movement to
help our hip get out and help me go up hill towards the plate is all we really
need to do as far as this slide step or stretch antics are concerned and the
last thing I'll talk about here the word slide step is just misuse it just it's
it's kind of a ambiguous term when I say slide step what I'm teaching here today
is what I actually mean some people when they say slide step they mean pick up
and go most again most pro pitchers they either are extremely good at just
picking up but still loading their back leg or they have some kind of counter
movement the way I pitched with so if you watch Bigley games watch these
relievers most of them go exclusively from the stretch and all of these guys
are doing something to make sure they still get their hip to go out first and
they still get their weight back and completely stay in control when they're
from the stretch when they're from the slide step alright so the one last time
I'm gonna throw this ball right past my camera here that would have been behind
the batter it's by thrown down the middle would hit my other camera again
full-speed very quick very in control very repeatable those are our goals for
the stretch or for the slide step alright so if you enjoyed this video
definitely hit the subscribe button below like it share with a friend check
out my links to my books my online courses so if you like the way I teach I
teach a lot more in-depth stuff in my books in my courses and of course here
on YouTube as well thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video