Expert: Rick Bundy - 4/16/2010

Question
QUESTION: My Grandson is 13 and is a catcher. He has played AAU baseball for the past couple of years and middle school baseball.  All of a sudden last weekend he can't seem to throw the baseball back to the pitcher. It either falls 2 steps in front of the pitcher or goes over his head.  My Grandson is so distraught that he doesn't want to play in his middle school game tomorrow.  How can we help him overcome this.  He is really a very good player/athelete
 Thank you for any assistance, Nancy

ANSWER: Nancy:  Thank you for your question.

It sounds like he may have gone away from his throwing mechanics.  It happens sometimes.

He should recheck if he is stepping on line with his front foot, straight back at his target, in this case the pitcher.  He should also check his arm motion, to be sure he is getting over the top.

It is hard to say without seeing him throw; but if he wasn't having problems before, it is more than likely that he has inadvertently changed what he was doing.

On my website, www.theoleballgame.com, there are two pages on throwing.  One is Throwing Rookie and the other is Throwing Advanced.  Both can be reached through links on the Baseball Instruction section of the nav bar.

It sounds like it is starting to bother him mentally.  If he just breaks his thoughts down to tell himself to step/throw, it may help him work through it.  Since he has been successful in the past, he should trust his skills and turn it loose.

I hope that will help some!  Please let me know how it is going for him.

You can contact me through my website, either the contact form or the ask a baseball question page.  You can also recontact me here at All Experts.

Yours in baseball,

Rick



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: He tried to play in his opening game today and still could not throw the ball to the pitcher, it fell in the ground about 6 feet in front of my grandson (the catcher) I can't tell you how distraught he is.  Someone told me that they think he has something called "yips" is this possible and if so what is your advice that we should do to help him.  It breaks my heart to see him struggling when he is such and exceptional athelete and has dreams of playing in the pro's  (Yankee's, of course) I appreciate your advice.    Nancy  (Grandmother)

Answer
Nancy:  "Yips" is a possibility.  I have never had a player in that situation, so I have no direct experience in dealing with it, but have had numerous players with mental blocks created by an event(s) in their past, which were affecting their game in the present.

If you Google Search: Yips Baseball, there is quite a bit of information on the topic.

Baseball Confidence.com-cb articles is one of the first to show up on the page.  It is written by a Sports Psychologist.

There is a lot of information in the article, and he does offer some free information; you have to sign up and provide your email.  It is in the section under the heading Special To College Baseball, the link is www.BaseballConfidence.com/cb.html.

One of the things he feels may cause "yips" is a traumatic event in the players past, and he explains some of that theory.

The articles are numerous under that search, hopefully you can locate some information that will feel right to you.  

I know how disturbing it can be to watch your grandson go through a situation like this.  As a coach, over the past 36 years, while there have been no specific instances of "yips, there have been numerous situations where players struggled with mental game pressures or incidents from their playing past which locked them up physically.  

Discovering what that incident(s) might have been is the first step to building a positive program, whereby they are able to reduce and eventually unlock those pressures.

Please let me know how things are going.  If his problem isn't mechanical, the correction may take some time; but is well worth doing.  

Hang in there!  As you will read, there are many that have gone through what he is going through, and made successful changes and moved forward.  

Yours in baseball,

Rick