What's up baseball players in today's video, I'm going to teach you how
to do the wind up in baseball.
Obviously this is a foundational movement for pitching and it's one
that can often be misunderstood.
It can be made really complicated or really simple.
So in today, I'm going to teach you the method that I've been teaching for a
long time that I used when I was still pitching, that I think is just going
to be the best balance for everyone.
So if you use the windup or you're not comfortable with the windup, then this
video is going to help because I think everyone can do the windup successfully,
whether you choose to only pitch from the stretch or use the windup is probably
just a personal preference, but since everyone's should learn it and try it,
this video is going to be a big help.
All right.
So if you're new to my channel, I'm coach Dan Blewett.
I'm a former pro pitcher.
I have books on pitching online courses, obviously this YouTube channel.
So thanks for being here and stick around.
Cause this video is going to be really quick.
Okay, so number one, your hands should be at your chest.
This is obvious.
This is a really simple step, but having your hands really high or really
low is typically just going to make things a little harder, and it's going
to force you to have more movement.
If you want to have your hands at your belt buckle, that's fine.
They're just going to come up to your chest probably at some point.
Anyway, so the general safe place to keep your hands.
Is going to be in your mid section somewhere.
Again, it doesn't have to be nitpicky.
It doesn't, you have to be high or really, really low, as long
as it's somewhere in your center.
That's totally fine.
The next thing it should be about shoulder width.
So this works, if you're a little bit closer to that works,
what I really don't like is.
Players standing with their feet together.
This is a very unathletic position.
You never do anything in sports with your feet close together.
So shoulder width is the easiest way to start, and I'm going to show
you why in a second, the next thing.
Okay.
Your feet should be about half on and half off the rubber.
So there's no sense in standing for back here.
There's no sense in it.
Since in standing straight in the middle of the rubber, I really think
the center of your foot should cut through the front edge of the rubber.
Now, when your feet are shoulder with the part, the next step in the windup is
that your left foot, if you're a righty or your right foot, if you're a lefty.
I was going to take this small angled step forward.
So this is the big departure that most pitchers have gotten away with, or a way
from in the last, like 10 years back in the day, there was a big step, right?
Or there was a big step and this just makes things more complicated because
now you can see my weight shifts back and now I've got to shift it forward again.
Or my weight shifts over here and my head moves and now I've got
to shifted back to the center.
So rather than a shift weight, and then shifted back.
What makes the most sense?
And this is why having your feet shorter with is easiest is I can
just take this rocker step here.
So I'm stepping forward at about a 45 degree angle.
And if you look at me, my head hasn't moved and my center of
gravity really hasn't changed.
So for young players who are struggling to throw strikes and most
young players, that's a big hurdle is trying to throw more strikes.
This is going to keep them more targeted, right?
So just like if you're firing a Nerf gun that your buddies, you wouldn't
want to be, have your heads flailing.
You wouldn't want to be moving all over the place.
You know, you're going to be most stable.
If you're shooting a Nerf gun, if your head's not moving, right.
It's the same thing with pitching.
If you're trying to be accurate, keep your head in your center
of mass, relatively stable.
So again, shoulder width, I'm going to take my 45 degree angled step and you
can again, see my head and my center of gravity hasn't really changed.
And then after that, My right foot.
And again, I'm a righty is going to turn on the inside edge of the rubber.
Obviously, if you're a really young guy, you don't want to step on top
of the rubber because it's slick.
And especially if you have plastic cleats in the future metal cleats, this
is not a good service to grip off of.
So you want to dig your cleats in to the dirt right in front of the
rubber, or obviously I'm on turf.
So now I'm here and then my leg kick is going to happen after that.
And I'm not going to go in depth into all the rest of the pitching delivery.
Cause we get down a rabbit hole, but basically what you want
from your leg kick is this.
Once you've gotten to here, your leg kicks should always come at least to
about 90 degrees with your upper body.
So when I'm working with young kids, I say, Hey, what's your favorite boat?
What's your favorite type of breakfast cereal for me, it was send mottos trunch.
If you could balance a bowl of cereal in your knee, then it's high enough.
If it's down here.
It would slide off.
And if it's way up here, it's going to slide back towards you.
So with leg kicks, I just think there's a minimum height, which again, is cereal
bowl, height, anything above that is fine.
And I think a lot of pitchers myself included, tend to feel like we get
more power when we have a higher Lake kick and that might be true,
but also the bigger your Lake kid gets, the harder it is to control.
And then again, you start to get a little bit less repeatable.
If you have this huge leg kick.
It's hard to repeat that every single time.
And now suddenly your arm slot suffers and your release point suffers
because it's tough to do the exact same big wacky, like kick every time.
So once you get to here, there's one last, really important thing to note.
So when you get to this leg, kick, your hands are going to start to
be tied to them with the rhythm.
This is why, again, your hands at your center makes the most sense.
If your hands are way up here, they're going to have to come back down.
If your hands are really low, they're going to come up, which is okay, but
just know that your hands are going to start to move with your lower half.
And that's part.
Of the rhythm and timing that's important in pitching.
So if they start low, that's fine.
Just know they're going to come up.
And then as your hand starts to break, your hands are going
to go with your leg once again.
Okay.
So that's the long and the short of it, the wind up doesn't have to be complex.
You don't need all this extra movement, but learning the windup in baseball
is important for young players, because some coaches will insist
that you do it, others won't, and you should just try different things
and figure out what's right for you.
All right.
So thanks for watching again.
I'm coach Dan Blewett.
If you want to learn more about what I do, you can check out the links
in the YouTube description below.
I have my online courses, my pitching books, and lots of other stuff, my blog.
So you can follow me also check me out on the web, on social
media at, at coach Dan Blewett.
All right.
Thanks for watching.
I'll see you in the next video.