Quick Tip: Indoor “Distance” Drills

The weather has been beautiful here in Pittsburgh, and I’m hoping it will hold out for a while yet so my girls can continue practicing outdoors as much as possible! But regardless, the post-work daylight hours are getting shorter, many people struggle with changing field use permissions in the fall, and it’s going to get chilly eventually.

I work with a local tournament program that has already moved into their indoor facility for the season. Unfortunately, their pitching quarters are rather tight—just barely 43 feet with room to swing your arms. Several of their pitchers have issues with stopping their hands at release—a very common problem—and had been benefiting tremendously from the long distance work we’ve been doing outside all summer. We certainly don’t want to take steps backward in the off season. With fall and winter approaching, this is an issue that many pitchers will likely face. So what do you do?

First, take whatever distance you can get, if it’s available to you. If your indoor practice space offers 50 feet of distance, it may not be as good as 60 or 70, but you’ll still get some benefit from it. You can throw to a catcher from that distance, or use the following method from whatever distance you can manage:

Mimic the intent of the long-distance drills on a smaller scale. What is your focus when you’re doing long toss?

• Solid mechanics
• Aggression and length
• Accuracy within reason, but power over accuracy

You can do regular-distance power drills that eliminate the focus on accuracy by removing the catcher. Throw into a net or a padded wall, and see if you can gradually increase your velocity (without rushing your motion), as you might gradually increase your distance while still reaching the catcher outdoors. You can measure simply by the loudness of the sound of the ball hitting the wall, or how deep of an impression you make in the net.

NOTE: I don’t really like using radar guns in this scenario, because young pitchers tend to tighten up when they’re trying to hit a specific number. The drill environment should be pressure-free, and the focus should be posture, length, and relaxation.

Just like long toss, these drills should only be done for a small portion of the practice session (I know catcher availability is an issue for some people, but it’s really important to throw to a catcher).