What's up baseball players? I'm Coach Dan Blewett. In today's
video, we're going to go over what is a Balk in baseball, wha
are all the balk rules that yo need to know. And at the very
end, I'm going to give you a to of tips on pretty much how to
eliminate most of these box from your game
Alright, right, so if you're new here, I'm coach Dan, I'm a
former pro pitcher. So I've got a lot of experience on the mound
obviously and everyone has balked no matter how long you played
still happens in the major leagues. But here's the thin
with today's video, I'm gonna put timestamps in the
description below. So you ca jump around to the different
rules and stick around to th end because I'm going to give
you a flow, basically wha you're supposed to do pre pitch
how you should set up that' gonna make it a lot easier t
rarely if ever balk because once you get the hang of most of this
stuff box are pretty rare an they're pretty easy to avoid. So
I'll give you those tips toward the end. And last don't forget
subscribe the channel, check out my two pitching books, which
you'll find in the description along with other pitching
resources. Okay, first thing t get this out of the way, what i
a balk? What's the definition o a walk? a balk is intentionally
or unintentionally deceiving the runner. That's like the kind o
like generic definition everyone holds. But basically what yo
really need to know is that balking is either screwing up
pickoff move, it's flinching when you've come set, it'
coming set improperly. Those are the main different things, the
main different ways that you'r going to balk, I'm going to g
over all of them in this video But don't think of balking s
much as deceiving the runner because that's just a vague
term, it doesn't have much value as a definition. Think o
balking is as excess movement flinches, screwing up pickoff
moves, and stuff like that once you've already come set, because
this is all going to come around the set position for pitcher
and what happens after you'v come set. And some of the thing
that happen before you come set Those are all the balk rule
come into play. Alright, s let's get to it. Number on
first balk rule. So once you'v come into your set position, an
you've stopped, and I've go other videos that cover this, i
you're not familiar with the stretch position, once you've
come set, the only thing you ca move is your head and your eyes
So if you twist your knee, i you move your shoulders, if yo
just lay easily turn, all thos things are going to constitute
balk. Alright, the second bal rule, you can't start you
delivery and then stop it an that could look like a couple
different things it could be an I just stopped or say I wen
through my delivery and I wa about to pitch and then I sa
the batter stepped out or started my delivery and someon
yelled, you know pick the firs pick different he's going he'
going to get nervous and I stop You start your delivery and the
you stop it's going to be balk. Alright, so the next balk
rule is you can't fake the firs base without stepping off th
runner so this applies to both righties and lefties. If you'r
a lefty obviously you'll hav this hang move to first base
And as a righty you're going t have this quick move to firs
base. When you're throwing the first base on a pickoff move
you can't fake so I can't d this pickoff move and not thro
it I have to throw it. Now i you step off the rubber
essentially that makes it not pickoff move anymore
Essentially now you're just regular fielder and you're of
the rubber you can do whateve you want or any base you want
But when you're doing th traditional like specified, pic
off the first base with you righty or lefty without steppin
off, which is this, you have t throw to first base. Alright
rule number four here. And thi is going to be a balk if yo
pick off to an unoccupied base So if I have runners on firs
and second, and I lift my le and I throat a third base, an
they're not running there they're not stealing there,
just throw to an unoccupie base, that's gonna be a balk
say anything if I have a runne on first, and I do a pickof
move to second, and there wasn' anybody there, that's gonna be
balk. Now, if someone i stealing to that base. So sa
runner takes off. And somehow realized it really late and
decided to do a spin move to can't and the runner was going
that's not going to be a ball It's only if the base is trul
unoccupied, or no one's runnin there, or no one was occupyin
that base. The other common are where this would this woul
happen would be if you'd run i on second. And you did th
pickoff move, which is calle the inside move, which might b
a runner, he kind of takes of and he's halfway. Now you ca
throw to any base you wan because there's a runner wh
might go to the next base. Bu the again, the balk rule here i
that you can't pick to a purel unoccupied base. Alright, th
next ball rule is that you hav to come stop when you're in th
stress position. So what thi means is, after I get my son an
I come set, there has to be discernible pause to m
delivery, then I can pitch th plate. There's no set time.
lot of times you hear is like one second like you have to com
set for one second. That's no really a rule. You just have i
have to have a discernible stop And that's going to be th
umpires discretion. This rul gets called a lot. This is
pretty common one you'll see i youth baseball a ton or pitcher
is getting a rhythm and the just want to get the ball an
throw and they're not reall coming to that Stop positio
where a runner knows that he' set. And that's why it's a balk
So on this one, you just need t get in the habit. Now this i
going to look different fo everybody because some som
pitchers, sometimes they'll hav really elaborate things wher
they're getting comfortable they can keep moving
as long as eventually they have a stop. So we can look a lot of
different ways. But there has to be a discernible pause to the
delivery before they make their pitch. Alright, the next
baseball balk rule is you can't do a quick pitch. And what this
means is this doesn't mean what I just talked about, which was
coming to set and stopping. Sometimes you hear that as a
quick pitch, only quick pitch, you know, if you don't come set
in time, or if you don't have that big stop, what quick
pitching means is, I'm on the rubber. And I'm setting, I'm
ready to deliver my pitch. And the batter's just now getting in
the box, and he's not ready, and then I deliver it. So even if
time was called and or if time was in, and I'm ready, I can't
just be so ready to just like pump it in there, I have to sort
of wait for the tempo of the game to be at it's kind of like
there's a pace to baseball, right. So you just have to make
sure the hitter is set and ready to go. So this one again, is not
the pause and go This one is you can't just be ready and just
trying to ambush the pitcher and throwing a pitch in there or
ambushed the batter and thrown in there before he's ready.
That's what a quick pitch is. All right, next one. And this
one is common with younger pitchers who are still learning
the the balk rules here. But once you've come set, in
addition to not being able to move your body and again only
moving your head, you can't separate your hands a second
time. So this is there's two applications for this number
one, when you get your sign, you can't have your hands together,
then separate them, then bring them together again. So when I'm
teaching computers, how to use the stretch position, you need
to keep your hands separated at all times, until the only time
when they come set and they come together. And this is when
they're separate. And they can't move again, until I start to go
the plate so you can't come set. Move your hands that can't be
part of your delivery. So again, you could have your stretch
position and have a lot of wacky movement in it. And that's okay,
getting settled, what you can't do is have this kind of
movement, or a bunch of taps, something like that, as part of
your delivery, once your hands are separated, which they should
be early. Once they come set, they once they come together,
they've got to then stay together the entire time until
you then deliver the ball. That's a common balk rule that
can be tough to understand. Alright, this next balk rule is
you can't drop the ball once you've come set. And this one's
kind of unfortunate, it's not something you would
intentionally do. But you do see it happen once in a while.
Sometimes in the big leagues. Sometimes in youth baseball, a
lot of times pitchers are just rolling the ball around and
you're actively getting your grip as you come up. And
sometimes you'll just lose your grip. And that's a balk.
Alright, this next balk rule is from the rulebooks. I don't
really exactly know what this looks like in practice, but you
have to pitch facing the batter. So I suppose what this rule is,
and I asked around trying to get interpretation from different
players and some coaches that I knew, but basically you can't,
I suppose, be completely facing second base the entire time
before you deliver the ball. So at some point, you have to look
back. I mean, you can start your leg kick, but at some point,
you've got to look back towards home plate. So in the rulebook,
it says you can't throw a pitch facing away from the batter.
Again, this is one of those things that you're not really
going to have to need to know because there's no good reason
to ever do that. But it is in the rulebook as one of the balk
rules are in the 10th and final balk rule here that's really
relevant for your game because I'm going to cover four more
that are that are rules that are not super relevant is that you
have to do the proper pickoff footwork. So for example, when
I'm picking the first base, my right foot has to be the one
that moves first making that pick off as a pitcher. So if
this one goes first, and it looks like that where you saw my
left foot Bob first that's going to be a box so proper execution
of pickoff moves is a important balk rule it doesn't really fall
into any of the categories like it's not really an extra
movement I guess it technically is. But I feel like this is done
category to remember so you have to learn these pickoff moves
properly. You know as a lefty again, if this was first base,
if I'm doing my hand moved to first you know I've got to step
within this 45 degree imaginary line towards first base. So I
can't look like I'm going directly home otherwise I'm
buyers we'll call that a balk. So you know executing these
legal pickoff moves, there's another one so the second once
you know once my foot crosses the rubber, so if I lift my leg,
if my foot crosses over here, I have to go home so if you lift
your leg like this, you now have to go to the plate. So as a
lefty pitcher, that's another reason you'd want to lift your
leg straight up to avoid balking if you're going to pick off you
know there's execution of you know the inside move to second,
which I've videos of. So again, the proper footwork for pick
offs is another way you can get called for a balk. Okay, so now
let's cover four more ways you can balk in baseball that really
are very common that you probably won't encounter but
it's good just to know especially if you're young coach
or your young player and you just want to make sure you could
You've thought through all the different ways that you can
screw this rule up. So number one, and this would be the 11th
rule of the day, is that you can't go on to the rubber
without the ball. So again, I don't know why you'd ever do
that, except if you're doing basically the hidden ball trick.
And that's why I think they have this rule. So if you don't have
the ball in your possession, you can't step one of the rubber. So
pitchers are going to be out here somewhere, I don't think
that if they go on the mound without the ball. So again, if
you come up on the rubber, and the umpire figures out that
you've done this, he's going to call you for a ball because you
have to have the baseball to be essentially on the dance floor.
All right, this next balk rule, you can't unnecessarily delay
the game, this one could apply to you, but it really should
never apply to you. But if you just keep coming set, and you're
holding for like 1011 1213 1415, and empires like Hey, come on
speed, like speed it up, speed up, and you're just taking
forever. Or if you're just pacing around the mound between
pitches, you're just taking too long. That's the umpires
punishment, essentially is to say that's a balk and the
runner's advanced one base, the next balk rule is that you can't
perform any part of the pitching delivery when you're not on the
rubber. So that means you couldn't set up here and try to
dupe the runner into thinking that you're on the on the
rubber, and then do your delivery. So you couldn't be
straddling the rubber. And do your delivery that would be a
balk, you can only do your delivery and it looks like
delivery. And that's again for deceiving the runner, which is
part of the the the terminology about what a balk means. You
can't do any of your delivery, except when you're on the rubber
itself. And then the last way to balk here is actually on the
catcher the catcher has to have at least one foot in the
catcher's box and definitely check your local league rules
because this might change depending on the level that
you're at. You also might might not have a catcher's box drawn
at all. But when there is a catcher's box drawn, and when
umpires are on top of this rule, basically, the catcher has to be
in the box. And that is especially important for an
intentional walk. So when you intentionally walk someone, the
catcher has to you know, give the sign, he has to say
indicators box until you've delivered the pitch until you've
like delivered it. And then he can jump out and catch it. So
that's important. If the catcher you know, screws that rule up
and he's trying to stand out there and no man's land to catch
your intentional walk, then the umpire is going to call you for
a ball, and you're going to be pretty angry your catcher too.
Okay, so we've gone through all the balk rules, what we need to
do now is go over the things that you should do as a coach,
you know, to teach your players or as a pitcher yourself to
avoid these walks, and it's really not that hard. Number one
is having the right flow before pitches. So you're off the
mound, once you get onto the mound, and the hitter is getting
ready to get in the box, the first thing you're going to do
is straddle the rubber.
Now when the hitter gets in the box, you're gonna put your rear
foot so I'm a righty, so I'm just gonna talk in right handed
terms and put this foot on the rubber, then I'm going to widen
up so I get my sign. And that's gonna allow me to come set all
in one motion. And avoid the start, you know, the, the two
hands thing, it's going to avoid any issues of like having too
much movement. Basically, I'm just going to get comfortable
coming in all up into my stretch position in one fell swoop. So
the only time my hands come together, the only time this
left foot sets down, is in the same exact position every time
and that's gonna eliminate again, all those little
uncomfortable I want to move or my hands are in the wrong spot.
Or again, extra movement makes it more likely that you'll balk.
So that's number one is having the right pre pitch flow. And
then the second thing is having a good mental pre pitch
checklist, which is I know where the runners are, I know my
duties as a pitcher. I know what's going to happen if they
yell he's going I know which place I'm going to throw the
ball if I get a comeback or if I get a bunt. That's not gonna
impact me, but it made me balking. But having an idea of
everything that could possibly happen before I deliver my pitch
is going to make me less susceptible. If someone yells
Yeah, he's running. He's running. He's running step off
stuff. Stop, step off stuff off. That's gonna make me less
nervous to go. Oh, no, I don't I wasn't ready for that scenario.
I wasn't prepared. When you hear things that you're not prepared
to hear. When people in your fielders yell at you. That's a
good time that pitchers they'll have that like, you know that
jittery? Oh no, they flinch. And they balk. That's probably the
most common block besides that not coming set one or they you
don't stop and pause long enough. The other big balk is
when things go on on the base pads, runners are doing
unexpected things. And pitchers are not mentally prepared to
handle it. And so they go, Oh, I don't know what to do. And then
they end up flinching. And that's a balk. It could happen
with a runner on third where they're looking at him It could
happen on on second. It could happen because your coach or
your infielders or your catcher yell at you as a pitcher, and
that startles you and then you balk. Those are the biggest
things you need to understand is the mental checklist being ready
for all different scenarios and being comfortable and relaxed
and saying even if you hear something yelled at you the
number one thing Here's what you need to step off first, once you
step off, you can do anything. That's the big lesson as a young
pitcher is, if you hear something or you're not
comfortable, step off, and then you can assess and fix it. But
you can't, you know flinch, and you have to be mentally ready to
let all those yells and potential weird things that
happen. Just flow through your mind and not impact the pitch
you're about to throw. Okay. So hopefully today's video was
helpful. I know it was long. There's a lot of balk rules, but
it's really not that complicated of a thing, especially if you're
from another country. If you're just learning baseball, the balk
rules can seem really confusing, but the end of the day, once you
come set, the only thing you can move is your head. You can't
flinch so you have to be mentally ready to not flinch.
And once your hands come set, you need to have a pause, and
you can't separate them again, those are the biggest things.
It's really not that hard to not balk. But again, these rules are
something that you need to go over over and over when you're a
kid and I know that's why there's a lot of great umpires
who when kids balk when they're young, they'll go out and
explain the rule and help them understand so they don't
continue to do it. And that's a good thing about growing the
game and I'm pyres helping young players improve as well. So
thanks for watching. Be sure to check out the description below
where you'll find more videos I put pickoff videos and other
stuff. It's relevant to this video in the description. You
also find my books, my online courses all that good stuff.
Thanks again for watching and I'll see in the next video.