You see it all the time at practices and even at games. One of the first things teams will do is split into two lines of partners facing each other.

Then one side throws the ball, followed by the other side throwing it back. Both lines are doing it badly.

I see the same thing before pitching lessons. Sometimes it’s so bad I can’t stand it anymore, at which point I will stop the student and tell her “Let’s work on your overhand throwing first.” It’s just that bad.

It’s also frustrating, because no matter where it’s happening, I can’t believe coaches aren’t taking the time to correct this clearly terrible throwing motion. I guess they don’t think it’s that important, as long as the ball isn’t getting thrown away too much.

Spoiler alert: it is.

An oft-quoted statistic is that 80% of all errors in baseball as well as fastpitch softball are throwing errors. I believe it.

It’s far more common to see a ball thrown away than booted in the dirt or dropped. And the consequences of a poorly thrown ball are also often more devastating to your team’s chances of winning.

Think of it this way: If an infielder boots a ground ball, or an outfielder fumbles an easy fly ball, the batter gets on base instead of being out. One base.

But if that same fielder throws the ball past the person receiving it, there’s a much higher likelihood that that batter (and anyone else who is on base for that matter) will advance two or more bases, depending on how bad the throw was and where it ended up. Runners now have either scored or moved that much closer toward scoring.

So from that perspective it becomes obvious that working on throwing instead of just using throw as a warm-up before you get to the “real” stuff in practice can have a pretty high payoff. i mean, you don’t have to be Mike White to understand that cutting out 80% of your errors gives you a much better chance of winning more ballgames.

Now we come down to how to improve throwing. Start with the basics.

I personally am a big fan of Austin Wasserman’s High Level Throwing program. If you can get to a clinic of his I highly recommend it; if you can’t, his online program is really good too.

There are other good throwing programs out there as well that will take you step-by-step through the mechanics. If you want to start with some free advice, check out this old blog post of mine that walks you through a progression as well.

(One adjustment I would add to those instructions is that when you pull the hands apart, do it by using the scapulae to pull the elbows rather than pulling the ball or hand back. I didn’t specify in the old post but it works much better.)

Once you have an idea of how to teach throwing, here’s the thing you need to do: make a commitment to helping all your players improve their throwing skills. This is not a “do it once to cover that base” type of thing.

You really need to work on it purposefully at every practice to ensure ALL your players can execute the skill under pressure, when it matters most. Early on, that may mean throwing your overall practice plan out the window and spending an hour or more on it until your entire team can throw the ball 60 without throwing the ball away (or dropping it; might as well work on receiving skills too).

Some key things to look for are:

• Can they transfer the ball after a catch to put themselves in a good starting position?
• Are they making an arm circle/turning the ball away from them to start or are they pulling the ball back like a bow and arrow?
• Are they using their bodies in a hips-shoulders-throw pattern or is all the energy concentrated in their arms?
• Is the throwing hand elbow above or below the shoulder when they are going into the actual throw?
• Is the glove arm doing anything or does it look like they’re holding a loaf of bread?
• Are they letting the arm whip at the end or are they pushing/guiding the ball toward the target?
• Does the motion look comfortable and natural to them (everyone will throw a little different so don’t try to create clones) or does it look forced and tight?
• Again, can they throw accurately from 60 feet away, which is the distance between bases?

Once they are starting to look like they know how to throw without pressure, start adding pressure into the mix. One of my favorite drills was the One Minute Drill.

It’s pretty simple. Start the ball with one set of partners and, while you’re standing there with a stopwatch, tell the team all they have to do is complete 100% successful throws and catches for one minute. There’s no minimum number of throws to achieve, they just have to keep going.

When you’re ready, say “go” and they start throwing. You as the coach can call out 15 second intervals to add a little extra pressure, especially if they make it to the “15 seconds left” mark.

It sounds like you should only have to do it once, but be prepared to spend a fair amount of practice on it, especially the first time you do it. Again, you may end up having to skip major sections of your practice plan, even at the high school or college level.

But it will be worth it. Because once your team knows you take throwing seriously, they will take throwing seriously, and you will see the improvements in their warmups, in their fielding drills, and ultimately in the game.

Make great throwing a priority, and more importantly a habit, and you’ll be amazed at how much better your team plays – and how much better they get at avoiding shooting themselves in the foot at critical times.

It’ll save you a whole lot of heartache too.