Baseball Pitching Tips: How to Develop a Powerful Release

It’s all boiled down to this. Releasing a pitch properly is crucial to firing in the strike zone.

Once you have taken your stride, you’re now getting close to the point of release. Make sure your upper body and your lower body work together. There’s a rotation of the hips and chest that occurs as the stride foot lands and you start facing home plate. The arm will continue to accelerate towards home plate as you release the ball off your fingers. Make sure that you have momentum going towards home plate.

You want that same release point on every pitch. Plant your back foot horizontally against the pitching rubber and drive your front foot forward. As you drive forward, your back foot should push off the rubber, giving you some extra force behind your throw. The back heel should be up over the toe. As you are ready to release the ball, your eyes should be level and on the target.

A repeatable, athletic delivery will get you in the proper position to release the ball to the target. If you keep your eyes on the target, accelerate with your arm to create momentum and develop a consistent release point, you can throw more strikes and get more outs.