Important: Opinions from Pitchers and Coaches

focus on the basics. good smooth delivery and follow through

 

First of all, be prepared. This goes all the way back to learning how to pitch... and I mean pitch, not throw hard. When a kid learns to pitch at an early age (8-10) he will be so much more successful when it really counts in high school and beyond. Very few dads know the finer points of pitching. Find someone that does and let him teach your son.
Go with your best stuff. No matter what has happened, or what is going to happen, make the batter beat you at your best instead of giving in and throwing something that you're not 100% confident in.
Speaking of confidence, that is the key to it all. A college coach told my son this past summer that he looked 10 feet tall on the mound... all 6' 160 lbs of him! He truely believes that he can get any batter out at any time. No matter what has happened, good or bad, a pitcher's attitude should tell everyone at the park that he is in control... just give him the damn ball.

 

all the above are great answers and advice.
i think alot of it is if the parents of that player has let him fail in the past. the kids who have taking risk, sometimes falling short and sometimes succeeding seem to have their mess in a pile. those who their parents have sheltered them, never let them fail, always making excuses for them seem to have trouble with tough situations. just my two cents
oopbanana:

 

This is Dbacks Jr.

First, i totally agree with the stepping off the mound and taking deep breaths! Very big help in tough situations! I also agree with looking at the catchers mit and nothing else.

One thing that helps with focusing on the mit, or what i call "tunnel vision" is to look off at something small off in the distance (foul pole, light pole, tree, etc.) before u take the rubber, this helps makes everything around you go blurry. My favorite movie of all time is For Love of The Game, mainly because of the "clear the mechanism" parts of the movie. I've got to the point now where i can literally block out not only the vision of things around me, but the sounds as well.

I used to have a problem of letting the errors in the field get to me. You have to understand that it is out of a pitchers control. If you make a good pitch and get a ground ball, and the fielder boots it, realize that you did your job. Trust that if u make that same pitch and get another ground ball, your fielder will make the play on the next one! You just have to have faith as a pitcher!

Confidence is key ... whether its the top of the 1st, 2 outs, 0-2 on the hitter ... or bottom of the 9th bases loaded, 0 outs and a 5-4 ballgame, you have to have the same mentality and same confidence in yourself. Never let a hitter know that you are scared or worried! Do this by keeping the same level of emotion throughout the game! If you get a strike out, don't get over excited and act like you've never done it before, just turn around, get the ball back, and stare into the next guy. If you give up a homerun, keep your head up, have the same face on as if you just struck the guy out! Don't let the guy on deck think that he has any edge over you! You're a great pitcher, so believe it! ... everyone gives up a bomb sometime!

One thing that takes focus off of a pitchers game, is thinking too much of what he's doing wrong. Practice is designed to correct things. When you are in the game, just pitch! Many pitchers tend to try and think about their entire delivery and break it down after every pitch. 99% of the time, if you throw a ball, it's because you had 1 flaw in your mechanics. Like i said, when you practice, thats when u say "ok, i just threw a ball and it tailed off the plate too much arm side ... so i probably dropped my elbow and opened up" ... so you make the correction then and there. That way, when you get in the game, u dont have to think about it, u just take a step off, take a deep breath, and u know ur mistake and how to correct it.

My final thought for now, is that u need to keep your own tempo throughout the game.. dont let events or situations in the game change your tempo or get you out of your game. The ball is in YOUR HANDS before every play ... make sure everyone knows that by playing at your pace!