Poor Pitching Mechanics – Example of College Pitcher Throwing With Just His Arm

Many Little League, high school and college pitchers have sore arms or constantly pitch with pain. In fact, about 45% of Little League pitchers and 60% of high school pitchers pitch with arm pain.

But what is the cause?  In most cases pitching arm pain is the result of poor mechanics where the body is not producing the energy thus the arm just do more work.

This video is an example of a 6’6″ 250 lb. RH pitcher who is pitching with elbow pain.  In my opinion it is his mechanics that are the problem.

He is not using his body to produce energy and then transferring that energy off efficiently to his arm.

His arm in this case is not getting the energy until after his trunk has rotated. This is much too late which means he is throwing with basically just his arm.

Because it is mechanics that produce force and not arm strength…no amount of long toss or weight training will help pitchers improve velocity

Because of his size he is still able to hit upper 80′s and sometimes even 91 mph.  But his arm is doing all the work.  He has several mechanical faults – poor weight shift, early hip rotation, little back leg drive and even worse he has no bracing action of his front leg and hip upon landing. His front knee continues to drift forward until his trunk is facing the hitter.  That is much too late.

Without videotaping coaches must guess at what mechinical problems are creating arm pain. Videotaping can make it very clear.

Like so many other pitchers at the amatuer level, once they understand how to develop forces and then how to efficiently transfer those forces to the arm as late as possible, they will all be able to maximize their pitching velocity.

Pitchers do not need to be victims of arm pain.

Video analysis is the key to pitching improvement. And so isn’t building functionial strength and flexibility. This is what I have been focusing on in our Explosively Pitching DVD program since 2004.  We teach parents how to help their sons use their bodies to pitch instead of just their arms. And how to get specifically stronger for pitching without losing flexibility. Not only does this improve velocity but reduces the risk of arm injuries. http://www.pitching.com/products/