What's up, Coach Dan Blewett.
in today's video,
we're going to cover the spin move, this is one of the second base
pick off moves that you're going to need if you're a pitcher in baseball.
So there are two moves to second base.
The first pick off move is the spin move.
That's the one we'll cover in this video.
I've also done a full video on the inside move.
That's the other of the two that you need to know if you're a pitcher.
So I'll link in the description below to my other pickoff video
about righty pickoff moves to first and the inside move as well.
So if you're here
and you're not sure which one you want, I didn't want to do both
pickoff moves the second in one video because it would
have been about 20 minutes long.
So again, today's video is on the spin move,
which is one of the pickoff moves, the second.
And I'm glad you're here. So let's check it out.
All right, so if youre new here, I'm Coach Dan Blewett and I'm a former pro
pitcher in the description link, you'll find timestamps for this video.
Other videos that are related to like pick off the first base
dealing situations, all sort of stuff like that.
Also, my books and online courses, if you want to learn more about the game.
So, number one, the spin
move for work is essentially the same as the ridi footwork to first base.
And so for lefties, obviously, I'll explain and I'll demonstrate
this real quick. But your rear foot.
So if righties your right foot
is going to disconnect forward at an angle and this angle is important
because it's going to allow your hips actually a clear to second base.
And then from here, I'm going to swing all the way around
and I'm going to make my throw in one fluid motion.
The second base.
So it doesn't matter if you're right, your left.
If you're a lefty, it's going to be the same thing. Disconnects.
And then you come through and make your throw to second base.
So it's identical.
And again, for right handed
pitchers, they're picking the first this is the same footwork,
except now I go here and then I go all the way around.
So the footwork itself is actually pretty simple.
What is important is, again, and I talked about this in my eye,
my righty pick off the first base video, you can't come set like this.
And I know this I'm only talking to maybe some Little Leaguers who do this
because most pitchers stop doing this by time.
Oh, they're still pretty young.
But if you come sit with your feet too close together, even if it's like this,
your feet don't have enough room to work to execute this pickoff move properly.
You need a wider base of support. So really about shoulder width.
And again, I'll link in the description
to a video about the stress position that explains all this in more detail.
But you need your feet to be wide enough
where they have room to work in exchange, because this foot, you can see
it needs some room to exchange
and do its thing, because my hips have got to get going this way.
So if your feet are too close together,
no one then has moved, just isn't going to work well for you.
So at full speed, this move is going to be very, very simple.
You're going to, again, step and you're going to kick through.
Now, there is a little bit of like a sort of like a.
This one is going to kind of spin around.
And again, I'll get some slow motion video that I'll overlay.
But let me do a couple here to second base.
And you can see how this looks at full speed. So I can set.
Only one more. So
one thing to notice is I'm not trying to be hype
bass where everything's spinning in the air like a tornado.
You can see that I still have a little bit of a right foot, left foot.
And here's the reason.
You don't need to be insanely fast to second base.
If you can do this insanely fast.
More power to you.
But you have to understand that the consequences for being very,
very fast is going to be you're going to land a little bit off
and your hips aren't going to get through.
And that ball is going to go in the outfield.
And not only is he going to get third, but in a lot of time to score.
So if you throw the ball baat ball too far in the right center or a little bit.
Well, a little bit less. So it's going to happen and left center.
He's got a good chance of scoring from second.
You know, obviously is going to die back.
He's going to get up and collect himself.
But there's a very real risk
of catching this runner with a with a throw that is too rushed.
So you're going to catch a runner when he's got a gigantic lead
and you put on a pick off play and all that sort of stuff,
and you kind of catch him napping and make this really strong throw.
But again, you need to find the balance
of being fast, but not so fast that you're out of control.
That's really, really important,
because the worst thing that can happen again
is you mail this throw because you went too fast trying to pick a guy off.
And look, you're only going to pick a runners off once in a while.
Even if you put on the perfect play, he looks like he's going to be dead.
He's got such a big lead.
You make a tremendous throw and a great spin move.
He's still going to be safe most of the time.
Kickoffs are still pretty rare.
So don't hurt your ability to win the game by being so fast and so rushed
that you chuck it into the alpha because that happens a lot.
And the same thing that I explained in my right hand
and pick off moves video is that the length of your arm matters.
So if you want to be quicker to second base
and you know, the feet, the footwork is going to be kind of what it is.
You can always be faster with your footwork.
But since this is a long throw, you have to be careful.
You can be quicker with your arm, pulling it closer to your ear,
more like a catcher, rather than having as long as longer arm swing swinging.
So I'll try one of those here.
So a little bit quicker, but it also might be a little bit
less of an accurate throw that was a little bit high.
So the important thing to understand beyond the mechanics
of picking the second, there's a bunch of a number one you can fake to second base.
And I highly recommend you take a second base.
So this play, you can just do this.
You can just do the spin move anytime you want.
It has to be coordinated with your shortstop
or your second base because no one's going to be there.
If you just bust out this move at random, they can't read your mind.
So typically when you do a spin, move and throw it.
Either you've coordinated something with your shortstop,
your catcher, your catcher, slash your coach, has put on a play
which coordinates with your shortstop or,
you know, you already watch him crashing over.
So there has to be coordination
between you and typically your shortstop who's going to receive that throw,
because he's got to be running over and he's got to be,
you know, six, seven feet from the bag by the time you start your move.
So he's there ready to take your throw and put it down.
So you can't just bust out a spin, move, throw, or it's going to go straight over
the bag into center field because no one's there's going to be like, what happened?
I know you're doing that.
So that's number one.
That's why, say, you haven't coordinated a move.
And now you're about ready to pitch.
But that runner is so far off
and he looks like he's a guarantee to steal third right now.
You can't just bust around
and throw it through the second base because it's going to go in the outfield.
So what you do in that situation is you go OK,
and you give the most convincing arm fake that you can.
And he's going to not he's not going to take time to discern
whether you're going to throw it or not.
He's going to go, oh, crap, he's coming for me
and he's going to make a hard dove back to second base.
So when I was still in pro ball, what I was doing
all the time is I would do spin, move fakes.
I probably only threw the ball actually to second base,
maybe like twice in my last four years.
But I would do a spin move fake whenever I needed to,
because it would get the job done and I could do it any time I want it.
And there was zero risk of an overthrow.
So the more you throw the bases, the more risk there is, obviously
just from exposure of throwing a ball away.
But if you if you fake it to second base, there's a zero point zero zero chance
that you're going to throw it away.
So any time you can employ using the same footwork,
it can stinting hard arm fake to second base.
And I highly recommend
that's something
that's something that you're comfortable with,
because obviously you're going to have the ball in your hand
and you've got to be comfortable, not like spiking to the ground.
So it's something to also to practice.
But it's easy to do and it's very, very effective.
And then the other thing about that is, if I bust out a fake, guess what?
Everyone's going to know. OK,
Dan is concerned about this runner.
So now the Schwarzkopf's going to look me in the eye and say, OK,
do you want to put on a pickoff play ?
Or maybe I get assigned my coach? He says, yeah, you're right. You caught it.
He was going to go. We need to pick off the second base now.
So that's how all that sort of process works.
You always have the control on the power as a pitcher to do a fake to second base.
You can fake any time and essentially get that runner.
Back under control without throwing in.
The other thing to understand is you need to put on this one this big off play.
A lot of times coaches will do it,
but if the coach doesn't want to pick off play or if coach doesn't
isn't going to relay a sign
and you want to coordinate one and you want to throw it,
you need to have something with your shortstop.
So this is something you'll do in the game or in the dugout?
In the dugout. You'll go, hey, shortstop,
if I look at you in the eye between pitches
and I rub my leg, that means I want to pick.
Or if I look you in the eye and you want to pick.
You're going to like grab your thing.
Are you going to like grab your cap real quick?
So it has to be some sort of sign
between you, but you're going to you're going to coordinate, say, hey,
make sure you look me in the eye between pitches when there's a runner on second.
That way, if we want to put on a pick off play, we can do it.
That's the important thing. So I look at my shortstop.
He gives me the. The sign.
I come set. And now I know I'm looking at him.
I see him break.
Now I look back on the plate briefly and then I'm going to.
This video is not about coordinating those moves,
because I can do a separate one on that.
But that's sort of how this process works.
But the nuts and bolts of doing the spin move are the same.
You're going to throw it or you're going to make a very convincing fake.
And this is the move because you're spinning arms or glove side.
This is the move that you're actually going to pick runners off with. All right.
So that's going to do it on this video about the spin move,
which, again, is one of the two critical pickoff moves to second base.
So, again, the spin move is the one where you turn and make the sharp throw.
This one has its specific use cases, but don't discount faking to second base.
It's one of the best things you can do because there's no risk of overthrow
and it'll usually do the job of getting the runner back.
You're not going to get anyone out doing a fake.
But it's a really critical piece of your toolbox.
You know, it's a tool in your tool kit to make sure you have as a pitcher.
All right. So thanks again for watching.
I'm Coach Dan Blewett and I'll see you here in the next video.