I should probably stop reading the newspapers, because the things I read sometimes just drive me crazy. Here’s the latest.

I was reading about a local high school team and an overview of its season. As part of the story the coach talked about how his star pitcher had pitched all but one inning in the 26 games they had played so far. The team’s record was 7-19 at the time of the article.

That’s crazy to me on several levels. One I’ve talked about before — the risk of overuse/repetitive injuries. It has to take a toll on your body, as more and more studies are showing.

But even if you discount that part of it, it doesn’t make sense for other reasons. Not the least of which is lack of a backup plan. If your star pitcher has pitched all but one inning, and then she gets hurt for whatever reason, what do you do then? What if an unscrupulous coach decides that the path to winning Regionals or a conference championship is to take that pitcher out of the game? The season is basically over for them. What if she twists an ankle or jams a finger? What do they do then? 

Then there’s your basic fatigue. It’s gruelling mentally as well as physically to pitch that many games  in such a short period of time. While this pitcher will likely rise to the challenge (as she has in the past), she could certainly come in fresher and better-prepared with a little rest now and then. She could come in even more ready to play.

Winning is great, that’s for sure. But their record is already 7-19. Are you telling me there isn’t anybody else in that school who could’ve pitched in some of those 19 losses?

It just doesn’t make sense. Splitting off some of that pitching time would be better for everyone — the pitcher, the team, and even the coach. The sooner coaches learn that the better off everyone will be.

One of the most common cues for learning the drop ball (either peel or rollover) is that you need to get up and over the pitch. One of the ways of doing that is shortening the stride so you can lean out over it.

NOTE: If you are one of those people who believes that all pitchers can be taught to throw all pitches from the same position, go ahead and skip this article. It’s only going to make you mad. My experience is that most pitchers need a little help to get the ball to move the way it should, i.e. they need to vary from their core mechanics, not just spin the ball a different way. If the pitchers you know don’t do that, awesome! But not everyone can do that. I’ve found that leaning over the drop ball, for example, definitely helps.

Ok, for the rest of you, as I mentioned shortening the stride is a well-accepted technique for getting that forward lean. Not a bend at the waist, but a lean out over the front with the head, shoulders and chest. The question is, how much shorter should the stride be? I’ve seen pitchers who would leap out hard on their fastball, then barely step off to get over their drops. That’s way too short, and way too obvious.

The target I like to use is to have the toes land where the heel was. In other words, you land roughly one length of your foot shorter. It’s not obvious to the hitter, yet it can have a big effect on the pitcher’s success.

Indoors, I use my trusty garden kneeling pad to mark the distance. Outdoors, and especially in a game, there’s an easier way to do it. Have pitcher throw her normal fastball, but keep her stride foot in place after she throws. Then pivot on the heel and draw a line. That’s the goal line for the drop. It’s simple and not very obvious to the hitter. But it does give the pitcher a visual to shoot for.

One thing about the shorter stride to keep in mind: the pitcher still needs to drive out hard. She’s not landing her whole body short, just her foot. The effect then becomes akin to stumbling, i.e. the upper body continues out forward while the foot stops short. If she just lets up on her stride she’ll remain vertical, and thus there’s no reason to land short. She will also lose speed. But if she drives out hard she not only gets into position, she maintains speed. Or in some cases might even throw faster (due to working harder to spin the ball).

If you have a pitcher who’s having trouble getting the drop to work, try having her draw the line. It can make a real difference.

Here’s a phenomenon I’ve seen more than a few times since I started teaching lessons. Sometimes it takes longer for a pitcher to re-learn a pitch that has gone away than it did to learn the pitch originally.

Last year I had a couple of pitchers suddenly lose their curveballs. For no apparent reason they couldn’t couldn’t get the spin, couldn’t get the movement, couldn’t throw the pitch. We went back over all the steps, lesson after lesson, breaking it down. But the result was still the same — very little improvement. It probably took four times as long to get it back as it did to acquire it originally.

Tonight the same thing happened with a pitcher and her changeup. I first taught it to her during a tryout for my team, actually. It took her about five minutes to pick up the basics then. Tonight I was giving her a tune-up and she just couldn’t get it for the longest time. I tried all my usual tricks but they just didn’t seem to work. She finally did get it back, but it was a struggle.

I’m not sure why that happens. Perhaps when it’s new a pitcher is more open to change. But when it goes away, it goes away because the mechanics have deteriorated over time. At that point the “wrong” mechanics have become more ingrained (since she’s been using them) and thus they are tougher to overcome. Even moreso if she’s been successful in spite of the pitch not working at its optimum level, i.e. a changeup that’s too fast or a curveball that is angling in the right direction but not really breaking.

Whatever the reason, it’s probably a good indication of how important it is to be pristine in your practicing or games, lest you take yourself out of a pitch. ‘Cause once you lose the feel, it can be a long, tough road back.

Had an interesting one last night. One of my students mentioned that her HS coach (freshman level) wants her to use a different grip than the four-seam grip I’ve had her using. He (I think it’s a he) wants her to grip the ball along the runs instead. When I asked her why he wants her to do it to see if she’d been given an explanation she wasn’t sure at first. But then she remembered he’d said it would cause the ball to tail in or out.

All well and good. If you do it right that will work. But getting the ball to move away from the plate has not been the goal so far. Getting it to go where she intends it to go has been the challenge.

You see, although she is in high school she is just now learning to pitch. She’d taken lessons from someone or other a couple of years ago, but had to stop because it was hurting her wrist. (Too much emphasis on a forced wrist snap is my guess.) In any case, she has been taking lessons sporadically for the last three months or so. Most of that time was spent getting her to learn to throw the ball straight rather than having it go way out to the right every time. It was a battle, but she has finally gotten to the point where she can throw it for a strike consistently, and actually pitched a complete game not long ago.

My priority at this point is for her to develop speed to go along with it. It’s not that we haven’t emphasized that or worked toward it, but so far she hasn’t really gotten to the point mentally where she can just let go and throw. She’s still somewhat tentative. It’s getting better, but she can certainly drive her body harder and faster.

So the bottom line is, we’re still working on some fundamental issues. Encouraging her to change her grip to one that is less reliable in its result is only going to set her back, get her frustrated, and discourage her.

What her coach isn’t taking into account by showing this grip he probably heard in a clinic or saw on the Internet is her development level. It’s very important for an inexperienced pitcher to build confidence through success. As she becomes more confident she will go harder and become even more successful. And that means keeping it simple. New pitchers don’t need a lot of variables — like a ball that randomly tails off sometimes. They need to know where the ball is going when they throw it. The two-seam grip is much more appropriate for pitchers who already have good control, not those who are hoping for it.

By the way, this particular girl has a natural drop to her basic fastball. That’s probably more worth pursuing than in and out movement anyway.

Last night one of my students had one of those breakthroughs that make coaching so rewarding. Before I get into the breakthrough, allow me to give you a little background.

Rae Ann is a lefty who has been with me for a few years. Up until this year, I had her throwing a peel drop and a “cut under” curve among other pitches. The drop was ok, although it would often tend to come in a little low. She had good movement on it, though. But she really struggled to get the proper spin on the curve. She just couldn’t quite seem to get the hang of getting her arm into the proper position to get under it.

About halfway through the off-season I suggested we try throwing a curve where the hand comes over the ball instead of under. From what I saw, it seemed like that would work a little better. So we tried it. I told her flat out I didn’t have as much experience with this version, so we’d be learning together. My daughter Stefanie threw that curve when she was pitching, but I never paid much attention to the technique since I was just a bucket dad back then.

The first thing that happened is we wound up switching Rae Ann to a rollover drop. The first time she tried the curve she wound up throwing an awesome drop. It had great movement, very sharp, and came in more at the knees. She’s been throwing that ever since. But we still couldn’t quite get the sideways spin on the curve. We couldn’t really even get a drop curve spin. She pretty much came right over the top of the ball no matter what we tried.

Then last night I had an idea. We slowed down her motion, and I told her to imagine she had four foot long fingernails. Take those fingernails and trace an arc on the ground as she throws. The idea was to help her get around the ball rather than over it.

At first it had a minor effect. But as I let her work through it while I talked to her dad Matt, suddenly it came together. We got both proper spin and movement on the pitch. The cue of tracing the arc had helped her understand and visualize what she needed to do. I tried telling her before to come around the ball, but she didn’t feel it and it never helped. Having something visual, however, did seem to work.

So there you go. As a coach you’re constantly challenged to communicate techniques, ideas and other things to your players. You can’t just settle for what’s worked before. With a little persistence, and a little imagination, there’s always a way. You just have to find it. Expecting players to just “snap to” to what you’re saying is a bad way to go. Work with what they can understand and you’ll see the results.

As I have mentioned before, one of the ongoing challenges of coaching is finding new ways to say the same thing. It goes back to Einstein’s definition of insanity — doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

In the area of coaching, you will have a way of explaining something that works. Then all of a sudden it doesn’t for one student. No matter how many times you repeat the same phrase, it doesn’t seem to do any good. Insanity. So you have to find another way to obtain the results you want.

Recently I had one of those discoveries while working with a couple of kids on their rollover drops. I teach both the peel and rollover, depending on the student and which I think will work best for her. I used to teach the rollover exclusively. Now I teach more peel by far. But I still do both.

In any case, the rollover drop wasn’t quite working the way it should. It was starting too low and not breaking enough. I tried my usual explanations of what to do, but they didn’t help. Then I suggested using the wrist less and the forearm more. Suddenly it was like a lightbulb came on. By emphasizing the forearm, the hand came up higher, starting the ball around the hip, and the spin rate was greater, resulting in a flat pitch with a sharp downward break.

I don’t know if it will work for every pitcher. But it did for these two. I’ll keep using that cue — at least until someone else requires me to invent a new one.