Everyone knows a pitcher is supposed to throw strikes. If they didn’t, games would last even longer than they already do. Go to any youth baseball game and you’ll hear volunteer coaches, sitting on their ball buckets, begging their pitchers to “throw more strikes.”
I don’t blame the coaches—that’s often the one thing they truly understand. If the umpire calls it a strike, or if the hitter swings, then it must have been a good pitch. And if it’s a strike, the pitcher must have done it correctly… right? Not exactly.
The truth is, pitching has three key objectives that every coach and pitcher should focus on throughout a season:
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Throw hard – primarily the pitcher’s responsibility.
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Repeat the delivery (body control) – a critical but often overlooked objective.
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Throw strikes – the shared objective of both pitcher and coach.
Objective 1: Throw Hard
This goal usually doesn’t appear until pitchers reach age 11 or 12—or when their current velocity isn’t enough to get outs. Many parents come to me saying, “My son throws strikes, but he gets hit because he doesn’t throw hard enough.”
Velocity matters. It separates pitchers who can dominate from those who struggle, but it’s not the only piece of the puzzle.
Objective 2: Repeat the Delivery (Body Control)
This is the toughest objective for coaches to monitor. Why? Because as soon as a pitcher releases the ball, our eyes naturally shift to the hitter. Coaches often miss the small details of the pitcher’s movement:
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How the front foot lands.
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Where the back foot finishes.
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How the body follows through.
These details reveal cause and effect. Where the body goes after release is a direct result of how the delivery began—and it often determines where the ball ends up.
Objective 3: Throw Strikes
This one seems obvious. Anyone can tell if a pitch is a strike—the catcher barely moves his mitt, the umpire calls it, the batter swings and misses, or the ball is put in play.
But here’s the problem: when pitchers don’t throw strikes, most coaches just yell, “Throw more strikes!” without ever explaining how. That’s like a teacher telling a class, “Be smarter!” without teaching the fundamentals of reasoning and logic.
Pitchers often think they’re doing things correctly as long as the result is a strike—but the process matters just as much as the outcome.
Velocity vs. Command vs. Control
There are two dominant schools of thought in pitching:
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Throw hard.
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Have command.
But not enough people acknowledge the third piece: body control.
Throwing hard doesn’t guarantee strikes. Throwing strikes doesn’t guarantee proper mechanics or enough velocity to compete. Repeating the delivery—maintaining balance, timing, and rhythm—connects everything.
My Rule of Thumb
If the body has to over-rotate when the front foot lands, something went wrong:
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The arm was too slow getting into position (ball hand out of glove to hand at foot strike).
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The body got forward too soon (handbrake to front foot landing).
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Or it’s a combination of both.
The body should be used to finish after the ball is released—not to drag the arm through. A proper finish looks more like someone swinging a sledgehammer into a tire or chopping wood with an axe. Downward, powerful, and complete.
When the arm lags behind and the body has to compensate, it not only hurts performance—it fuels the very arm injuries pitch counts and rest rules are trying to prevent.
A Better Way Forward
Next time you watch your son—or any young pitcher—pay attention to where he finishes after release. Compare how he throws on flat ground versus on the mound. Listen to what coaches and parents are shouting.
Instead of just yelling, “Throw strikes,” the advice should be more useful:
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“Faster arm out of the glove.”
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“Stay back and give yourself more time.”
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“Balance your arm speed with your stride.”
That’s how pitchers learn to connect all three objectives—throw hard, repeat the delivery, and throw strikes—without sacrificing health.