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About John Madden
Expertise
I will try to answer any and all instructional baseball questions to the best of my ability. Questions regarding pitching, hitting, catching, fielding, baserunning, the mental side of the game, strength and conditioning, nutrition, throwing programs, getting college baseball scholarships, playing professional baseball, etc. Please no fan questions only player development and player improvement questions.

Experience
Played from little league baseball to Triple A professional baseball. Instructor, coach, and motivator!

Organizations
You Go Pro Baseball

Publications
You Go Pro Baseball

Education/Credentials
Poinciana High School Baseball Seminole Community College Baseball Auburn University Baseball San Diego Padres Baseball New York Mets Baseball

You are here: Experts > Recreation/Outdoors > Sports/Recreation for Kids > Baseball Instruction > Practice

Baseball Instruction - Practice

Expert: John Madden - 9/10/2009

Question
John,

My 12 yr. old son has been playing for 3 yrs. He has a very strong arm and has been successful pitching. However, when playing short stop his throwing is fairly erratic. For instance, he struggles making consistently good throws from short to first. Two drills that he and I have practiced, are as follows: I have him field ground balls at short and he throws them into a temp. screen placed at first. Second, we place a bucket of balls out in front of him at short, he gets behind the balls and runs a few steps up, picks up a ball and throws it to me at first. If he just stands there and makes the throw he is accurate, when he moves his feet, that's where the accuracy trails off. Do you have any ideas regarding drills that could develop him.

McGee

Answer
There could be a few reasons that your son's throws are off mark from short to first. The first thing that pops into my head is that he starts to come upright while he is making the throw. This is not hard to fix if it is the problem and it is a very common problem even in older players. You just have to remind him to stay down after he fields the baseball. His movement should be towards first base while keeping the waist bent (chest down) during the shuffle and throw. You can see on tv that the short stops stay very low when they throw the baseball to first (almost as if they were side arm). They are really not throwing too much side arm, they are just staying compact and keeping the chest down. Once you stand upright, you have a tendency to get underneath the baseball and sometimes throw it away. I would practice staying short and compact and even putting some of those stretchy bands around his ankles to work out his hips just incase it is the footwork that is causing the problem (my other thought). Stick with the first suggestion and see if that works. If not just come back and we will go from there.

<a href="http://www.yougoprobaseball.com">John Madden - You Go Pro Baseball</a>

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