I'll give you a little background on me. I promise this won't take long and there is a point to all of this. No, I won't break out the baby pictures or the family vacation videos. I grew up in Southern California, playing my high school baseball near Anaheim Stadium, got hurt my freshman year in college, hung up the cleats, went on to get a finance degree from Cal State Fullerton, got married, had four great kids, moved to Oregon....and the rest is history. Along the way, I worked for a few companies including a couple of large banks and corporations. Bank of America, Norwest Mortgage, Chicago Title. I learned a lot of great things from these companies. Managing people....customer service...etc. I climbed the corporate ladder. Not because I knew someone. Mostly because I have high integrity, got the job done and worked hard and smart. One thing I learned from these companies and certainly from my parents early on, was that you can't be deceptive to your customers, your peers, and not to your employer. You might be successful being deceptive to those folks for a short period of time....but it catches up to you....and fast. But I love deception.......as an instructor. So, how does deception come into the equation here? Well, we are now talking sports....more specifically pitching in baseball. Deception has a tremendous amount of value for a pitcher. A pitcher has to be deceptive....and no I'm not talking about the integrity and honesty part......the on field competition part. A deceptive pitcher off the field won't last long either. On the field it's a different story. What is deception anyway? I think about deception for a pitcher to be an asset. If the hitter sees something that is not there, or is different than what it looks like, then the pitcher has the advantage. We all know the only two things the hitter has control over is when he swings and his timing mechanism. Yes, there are some hitters that will try to deceive the pitcher....set up a pitcher to throw a certain pitch...but that's not that common, especially at the lower levels of baseball. The pitcher's job is to mess up the hitters timing. How can he do that? Well, throwing off speed pitches of course is one way. A great change-up is still one of the best pitches in all of baseball. The pitcher can also do it through later movement of the fastball, later movement of the curve, and certainly later movement of the change. Why is late movement so important? Obviously, the later the movement, the harder it is for the hitter to react. Most of us have been told to see the ball hit the bat since we were t-ballers. Have any of you actually seen the ball hit the bat? I bet not. What actually happens is that we lose site of the ball at some point when we swing. We put the bat where we think the ball is going to be. If the ball isn't there, then we get that poorly struck ball.....a pitchers dream. How does a pitcher get that later movement? It's pretty complicated, but I'll simplify it here for you. The later I release the baseball in my delivery, the later the movement. If my mechanics won't allow me to release the ball later in my delivery, then I'll get a loopy curve and a straight fastball. Not a good recipe for success as a pitcher. Another aspect of deception is visual. The closer I release the ball to home plate, the less reaction time the hitter has to swing. Just think about the difference for hitters at the full sized diamond and the little league field. Now some folks say height has a lot to do with a later release point....I would agree to a certain extent. I've seen very tall pitchers release the ball at 5 to 6 feet off the rubber, and I've seen young 5-foot pitchers release the ball close to 7 feet off the rubber. No kidding. Let's put it this way, a tall pitcher has the "opportunity" to release the ball closer to the hitter than the shorter pitcher. Bottom line, if you don't have the strength and the flexibility so your mechanics can work efficiently, you body be explosive, then deception is probably the least of your worries. Wow. I've covered a lot today. I hope you got the message. Overall, focus on improving your body to be a better, more athletic, more explosive, and more durable pitcher....and you had better learn a good change-up! The season is coming up fast. So you'd best get going on your training if you are not training yet. Train like a champion today! Bill Mooney P.S. Sorry about the personal history lesson. Hope I didn't put you to sleep. Look for the release of our newest DVD...it's going to be about developing power and plyometrics....something every baseball player needs to incorporate into their regiment.