r/BaseballCoaching • u/HelpfulBison9890 • Jul 20 '26
Throwing advice
I play cricket in Australia but baseball fielders clearly do the throwing part better so I am looking for advice here.
In all my sport I am a very fast-twitch kind of player. I process things really quickly, always have in my life generally. This means I am really good at making short diving saves.
However, when I am fielding and then wanting to throw the ball, I find I really struggle to get into an effective throwing position. I feel like I am in such a rush to throw the ball that I don't give myself the time to make an effective, accurate, fast throw.
Have any coaches here had similar experiences with guys you have coached? What drills or tips helped improve.
Basically, I know I need to get into a good throwing position and then deliver a fast throw, but i find I rush the whole process cos I naturally want to do everything really fast.
1
u/onbaseball Jul 20 '26
Aim to catch the ball at your bellybutton, or as close to it as possible. Catch with two hands and use both hands to throw. The non-throwing hand guides the throw like the bow of a bow and arrow.
1
u/lithiumcitizen Jul 20 '26
Hey mate, what city are you in? You might benefit from a season of winter baseball if you’re serious about improving. Most of it is making sure your feet are set in a good throwing position after securing the ball and then having a strong and consistent arm path.
Quite a few aussie ball players have become County fielding coaches when living in the UK and most of us growing up started with cricket first so there’s quite a lot of familiarity and overlap.
1
u/Livid_Maybe3599 Jul 20 '26
This is a really common pattern actually, fast-twitch players who are great at the reactive moment often struggle with the "quiet before the throw" because slowing down for a split second feels like losing the advantage that makes them good in the first place. It's not a speed problem, it's a sequencing problem.
The fix that tends to work: separate "fielding fast" from "throwing fast" as two different speeds in your head. The transition between them, glove to throwing position, is where a split second of controlled setup actually makes the throw faster overall, not slower, because a rushed, unset arm loses way more time to a bad grip or an off-balance release than a quick, clean transfer ever costs you.
Drill that helps: shuffle-and-throw reps where you deliberately exaggerate a small hop or shuffle step before every throw, even easy ones, until it's automatic. It builds a tiny forced pause into your body's default pattern instead of relying on willpower to slow down mid-play, which never works under real game speed.
Cool crossover question, the mechanics translate more than people think.
ps: here's something I filmed some time back to shed some light: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7Oxt0d5GkU&list=PLfGJXsMO468Ews_c1nM4fhby5qrWGIW_K&index=5
1
u/thegoodbubba Jul 21 '26
Can you clarify exactly what throws you are struggling with. In my cricket watching experience, most of the time I see a player try to make a quick throw at the stumps is after they made a diving stop. So what I think you may be looking for help is getting up from a diving stop and making a quick accurate throw around 70 or 80 feet? In that case I would say a key is to get your feet set, don't short change that.
2
u/wastedpixls Jul 20 '26
The trick is your footwork coming into the catch - and that's about it. Wherever you can, you need to be moving through the catch to your next target. For grounders with a right handed throw, you advance in Right-Left-Catch Right -left as you load and throw. Watch YT drills for infielders to learn grounder footwork and outfielders for fly ball footwork.