Short YouTube coaching clip by Alex Swenson (former Division I college coach and pitching coach) presenting three immediate pitching improvements: 1) do more "shadow bullpens" (full-speed mechanics without throwing to save the arm), 2) avoid over-focusing on mechanics in-game — compete freely, and 3) prioritize throwing the fastball and breaking ball for strikes, aiming mid/middle rather than extreme edges.
Chapters
Hey, let's improve your pitching right away. This is coming from a former Division 1 college coach and pitching coach. And the first one is do more shadow bullpens. What are shadow bullpens? They're bullpens, but without you actually throwing the baseball to save your arm. Obviously, we can't throw bullpens every day. Wouldn't it be healthy for our arm? But you can go, hey, full speed throughout your motion and your mechanics. Now, when you go to your arm action or when you would actually throw the baseball, take it nice and easy, but get out over your front leg if you. And again, the beautiful thing is you can do this anywhere, all right? So do that more. Number two is don't be so focused on your mechanics during the game. Let it loose, all right? And compete your butt off. You're thinking about mechanics, you're going to be stiff, you're going to be nibbling around the corners. And that gets into number three is make sure you're throwing your fastball and your breaking ball over for a strike. And, hey, think middle way, middle end. Don't be so black on the outside or black on the inside. Three things improve your pitching right now.