Coaching Pitchers

Rating:
Summary: Fundamentaly sound pitching instruction!
Review: Coaching Pitchers is well written, easy to read and understand, and provides a wealth of how to teach your pitchers the proper fundamentals of pitching. This book is well worth the price and needs to be read by EVERY youth coach. The techniques, drills and suggestions are well documented with illustrations and diagrams.If you only buy one book this year, get this one!

Rating:
Summary: Basically sound but at times idiosyncratic and pedantic
Review: I am afraid I have many reservations about this book when it comes to pitching mechanics. Many of the ideas in this book have been refuted by more scientific studies by the likes of Tom House (e.g. the glove arm driving down). His ideas on mechanics are also excessively interventionalist based on purely idiosyncratic and personal dogma not bourne out to be of significance by more recent research.

Worth a read but not recommneded as a first choice amongst book on this subject.

Rating:
Summary: Include this in your pitching library
Review: McFarland has created a single source reference for aspiring pitchers. Much of what is in the book is part and parcel of years of baseball acumen. There is game situation, training, defensive, and mechanical advice in this book. At the very end there is motivational tips for getting the most from your pitchers. This book would have benefited from clear pictures of the motions of the pitchers and of the throwing motions on the various pitches. The drawings are vague enough to invite too many interpretations and the complex motion of pitching is difficult to describe verbally. I do not agree with the prior reviewer that House has totally eclipsed the valuable information found here.

I especially valued the advice about pitch selection based on a hitter's weaknesses. McFarland describes more than 20 batting habits that can be exploited by the pitcher. Additionally he diagrams where the pitcher should locate defensively on throws from the outfield or after pick off throws. All very helpful for the young pitcher.

Rating:
Summary: Very Helpful
Review: Nicely layed out and a great guide for developing young pitchers from 8 year-olds through high school.

Rating:
Summary: The most ingenious book ever devised for coaches/pitchers.
Review: Spanky MacFarland has devised an excellent book for secondary level coaches and players. While this book emphasizes techniques and drills directed more toward older players (teenagers or older), it also provides the most mechanically sound, descriptive, and understandable information I have yet to see for this subject. Excellent sketches show proper techniques and motions to eliminate the ambiguity of text-only documentation. I advise any upper-level coach or player to purchase this book.

Rating:
Summary: This is the best instruction for coaches that I've found
Review: This book covers the fundementals in a way that makes them clearly understood. Coaches will not only be able to instruct young pitchers in the proper fundementals, but will be able to easily and quickly recognize good and bad pitching form. It's well worth the money.

Rating:
Summary: As good a book on pitching as there is
Review: This is as good an introduction to the art of pitching as there is. Simple but not simplistic with excellent illustrations. I recommend it highly.