Pitching is all about understanding how to use gravity to throw the ball hard and accurately. The human body is amazingly adaptive and when using the right training constraints and mental focus, we can teach our bodies to produce consistently high velocity pitches. Jayden is a good example of how using gravity can allow a pitcher to throw with consistent velocity. 

Jayden has always been a long, skinny kid and has always generated significant velocity for his age. He highlights how throwing hard pitches does not always mean throwing hard. Jayden’s mechanics appear effortless. In reality, he is moving with intent and with proper sequencing that generates bullwhip-like action with his torso and arm.

 

Jayden’s first move into his peak leg kick generates all of the lateral momentum (horizontal movement) towards home plate that he needs to throw the pitch. The way we describe generating momentum towards home plate properly is as a drift of the pelvis (hips) towards home plate. From this movement he moves his weight down the mound and loads his hamstring and glute with energy to power his pitch. This stage of the pitch, the drop stage, is about generating power in his lower half by quickly changing the height of his pelvis and resisting gravity with the one leg. One way to think of the movement is a small pistol squat with external rotation around the planted ankle, while slowly falling towards the leg that is off of the ground.

The drift and drop and drop stage of the pitch is the most important segment in the pitch. By using varied constraints in training, our athletes can develop a high feel for using gravity to generate all of the power that they need to throw hard pitches.

As Jayden goes from drive, through front foot strike and into max. external rotation. Pay attention to how his torso (chest) is positioned over his pelvis (hips). He maintains a long spine that keeps his torso tall and over his pelvis. Jayden allows for a slight lateral lean away from home plate. This allows the energy that his lower half is creating during the drift and drop stage of the pitch to be   efficiently transferred into his torso.

The most common habit that young pitchers struggle to unlearn is side-to-side or lateral leaning. While some leaning is good for producing velocity, it is not the primary way that we transfer energy from our pelvis into the baseball. Lateral lean does help our bodies get fully extended over our front leg and deliver the ball to the catcher. But that does not happen until the last stage of the sequence. Rather than using the lateral flexibility of his pine, Jayden uses the strength in his mid-section to create shoulder-hip separation.

Woah! Shoulder-hip separation, what is that?

Sounds complicated right? Don’t worry, it is actually not that complex. Imagine that you have a line going from your right hip through your pelvis and into your left hip and imagine another line that goes from your right armpit through your torso and into your left armpit. When you are standing up normally, the front of your torso and your pelvis are facing in the same direction. Now, if you were to rotate your torso to face a wall or a person next to you and did not move your pelvis, your torso and hips would face in different directions. Shoulder-hip separation is a measurement of the angle of difference between the imaginary line that is going through your pelvis and the imaginary line that is going through your torso.

The proper sequencing for pitching mechanics requires that the pelvis rotates open to home plate before the torso. Looking at the images of Jayden, we see that after his front foot strikes he rotates his hips towards home plate and uses his core muscles to resist that rotation with his torso. This prevents his torso from rotating with his pelvis. This is the stage in which he      transfers his lower-half energy into his upper-half 

Good sequencing like this is all about finding the right mental cue to get the athlete’s body to initiate the movement. Using a good cue gives the athlete a way to find the same feeling consistently and through practice they will train their bodies to move rotationally.

The last two stages in the sequence is when all of the energy Jayden stored in his midsection, from shoulder-hip separation, gets transferred into the baseball. These stages happen rapidly and require looseness and adaptability from the body. When Jayden reaches max. shoulder-hip separation, he has transferred most of his lower-half energy into his torso and it is ready to be transferred into the ball. Using his front leg as the trigger, maintaining laxity in his throwing arm, he rapidly uncorks his torso. Keeping his arm loose is essential because it allows him to use his long arms as a whip. In a whip-like     manner, Jayden extends his arm and torso towards home plate to throw a hard pitch.