Video Reveals A Common Pitching Mechanical Fault That Reduces Velocity

This video reveals a common fault in many high school and college pitchers that reduces velocity and adds stress the arm.

In order for pitchers to maximize their pitching velocity and reduce stress to their arms, they must do two things during the off-season to recognize and fix mechanical problems.

They must first get an expert opinion of their pitching mechanics from a video analysis. Without a complete in-depth analysis of their mechanics they may miss common faults that reduce pitching velocity and may add stress to the throwing arm.

The analysis should point out the common pitching faults. The analysis should also be able to point out faults that may be caused by a lack of functional strength and flexibility. Many times it is simply the pitcher’s lack of hip and glute strength or flexibility issues that prevent the pitcher from being able to not only develop power but to be able to use his body under control so that he is able to efficiently transfer forces from the lower body to the arm as late as possible.

Here is a video of 18 year old college freshman pitcher that shows a common fault that may be reducing his  velocity by at least 5 mph.

His father brought him to us just last week from Michigan to help get him back on track so he more prepared for next spring.

The pitcher is 6’3″ 180 lbs. A perfect size for a pitcher. I always like tall and lanky…even skinny.

He had taken years of lessons from a former big league veteran pitcher who did a good job of teaching him how to get his head and chest out over his landing knee at ball release.

However, he forgot to teach him how to get started moving explosively away from the rubber. Or how to use the back leg and hip to develop explosive weight shift so that his body is moving toward the plate before hand break.

And because he was not able to use his back leg, hip and glutes properly he was not able to complete back leg drive…which would have created much more energy to transfer upon landing to his trunk and then finally to his arm.

And by not focusing on the beginning this pitcher created a very bad habit that is costing him at least 5 mph…maybe more.

This is another fault I see frequently. One of over 25 I have identified over the past nine months doing video analysis and one-on-one instruction.

Can you recognize this major fault?

We call it a collapsing back leg. But do you know the cause? Because if you do not know the cause you will not find the solution. In this case we did a functional strength and flexibility test and found that this pitcher lacked hip and glute strength.

So how do you fix it?  The pitcher must do several exercises that focus on using just one leg at a time such as one-legged squats, one-legged medicine ball touchdowns, skater lunges, wheel lunges and lots of core exercises using a medicine ball.  Working in the weight room does not solve this problem because weight training does not teach the body how to move correctly. It only works on strength.

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/