Modern Pitcher Development Methods

with Elliott Cribby,
University of Washington Associate Head Coach and Recruiting Coordinator;
former Purdue University Pitching Coach;
former Seattle University Associate Head Coach and Recruiting Coordinator

Whether you are a high school coach trying to build a successful program, or a college coach trying to better connect with today's generation of student-athletes, Elliott Cribby's approach to handling day to day operations can be a game changer. From the use of technology to communicate with your players, or just the overall understanding of what motivates and impacts their lives today, the willingness to change how you relate to different situations can set you apart from your competition.

Building a better pitching staff mentally, emotionally, and physically will give you a chance to win baseball games. If you can't pitch, you can't win... PERIOD!

Coaching This Generation

Coach Cribby explains what motivates and cultivates today's athletes. Understanding the importance of their mindset, such as their relationship to their parents, their attention span, and their use of technology can build a more cohesive player/coach bond.

Coach Cribby further explores the need to coach in a new "normal." Gone are traditional methods of reaching players through yelling and punishment, and instead a calm, caring, and encouraging approach and willingness to take feedback and incorporate it into the team dynamic are expected. Be creative in relating to your players by reaching them on a personal level as often as you can!

Effective Practice Plans

Cribby shares excellent advice on how to keep players engaged for efficient and effective practices. By keeping practices up-tempo, challenging, and fun you will reap the benefits of a more game-ready roster. Structure is key in planning and executing effective practices, and Coach Cribby values core concepts for pitching workouts, such as:

• Concentrated warm-ups, including active movements, resistance band work, and eventually measured long toss.
• Charted and structured flat ground work to reduce stress on pitchers' arms while still working game-like with catchers, signs, and location/pitch variants primarily out of the stretch.
• Recovery activities to ensure arm health, like med balls, resistance band work, and forearm development.
• Dynamic core workouts, including ab circuits, sprints, and weight training.

In addition to the physical focus of practices, coaches must maximize time and repetitions to ensure the team and pitching staff are game ready. Coaches must make time for offensive, defensive, and pitching work throughout the week and incorporate how most athletes play multiple positions and roles within the team. Coach Cribby describes how to get the most of out your practices by working on multiple facets of the game during each drill.

Developing a Bulletproof Pitching Arsenal

It's important to focus on both the mental and physical aspects of pitching as you develop your staff on a day-to-day basis. Forcing your athletes to perform in uncomfortable situations in practices will set them up to succeed during games.

While training to increase velocity is an important aspect of developing your staff, Coach Cribby discusses the keys to throwing strikes. Without command of the fastball, it cannot be fully effective. For a high school or college pitcher to be most effective they must:

• Locate a fastball, preferably with sinking movement.
• Develop an effective change-up, which can be the most challenging pitch to hit because of hitter recognition challenges.
• Refine a third pitch, breaking ball, to become an effective starter at the competitive level, or master the fastball and change up in order to be an effective reliever.

Cribby teaches pitchers to be aggressive in throwing with "intent" at all times. By focusing on all pitches as power pitches, athletes can generate greater velocity on fastballs, arm/hand speed on off-speed pitches, and greater spin rate on breaking balls. Cribby's drill series includes the Power Pitch drill, Pulldowns utilizing the U target, and dynamic acceleration/deceleration drills.

By training the mental, emotional and physical aspects of today's athletes, you can build a pitching staff that will compete at any level. Coach Cribby's focus on structure and player relationships will teach you how to build a competitive, game ready staff.

46 minutes. 2021.