Factors that affect pitching mechanics

1What every pitcher really wants to do is get the ball across the plate with movement and velocity. Everything else is secondary, except for one important fact: You will throw not one pitch but dozens in each game, hundreds in each week, and many, many thousands in a lifetime - whether your pitching career ends at 17 or 37. (An amateur player might easily throw upwards of 12-20,000 game pitches through the end of high school, a pro will throw another 80-100,000  - not counting warm-ups and light days.)

2To get the ball to move at 85 mph (say) that's the speed your hand has to move at the release point ... for each of those thousands of pitches! That works out to 125 feet per second. Your forearm alone can rotate only about 3 feet. The elbow is not designed for the energy transfer of accelerating while carrying an extra 5 ounces from 0 to 85 mph in 2/100ths of a second and then stopping even quicker. Therefore, you have to count on the rest of your body to help out. That's what we call pitching mechanics.

3To transfer ballistic power (speed x distance) to that throwing hand at the release point, the idea is to use every muscle group in sequence from the ground up (or from big to small). The triggering sequence is knee... hip... trunk... shoulder... elbow... wrist...finger tips. There are variations for full wind up and pitching from the stretch. And follow-through after release is also part of the sequence. But the objective is always the same - to transfer power and energy from each muscle group to the next at the optimum instant so that the momentum of the baseball is maintained. The idea is to impart the most starting acceleration to the next link in the chain. That's why it's sometimes called kinetic chaining.

4 Because you're trying to transfer energy, anything that slows, stops, or counteracts the build-up of power is wrong and should be eliminated from the pitching motion. For instance:

• Stop with one leg up at the balance point and you've lost kinetic energy.
• Take the ball from the glove too soon (early hand break) and you're going to have to slow down at the top of the arc.
• Fail to pinch the shoulder blades just before the arm propels forward and you've lost important  power transfer from your delts to pecs.
• Fall foward too soon or open your hips too soon and you're giving up more power.
• Try to land in a good fielding position and you may lose momentum (and ball speed) before the release point.
• Shorten the body's follow-through after release, and you put more deceleration strain on the arm itself rather than letting the larger muscles and joints of the lower body absorb the impact.

 

5 As if that's not enough to worry about, there are the matters of nuero-muscular efficiency, core strength, and postural integrity. All of which basically means you need to progress through the kinetic sequence with the least possible wasted motion, the most control over your body possible, and be in the best possible physical condition while doing it. Having the endurance to maintain command is crucial (see point 1) and it's why pitchers have to be the best athletes on the team.

6The best way to get to the optimum end point (the release of the baseball) is to start from there and work backwards. That's what the most innovative instructors are doing now in their elite training programs and it's becoming more important for all pitchers. It's called backward chaining or backshaping and it makes sense but it takes more work off-season because it can't be re-learned in-season.

These insights, while relatively new, are only the beginning of a current revolution in pitching instruction. Please review additional new and revised pages for more insights.