quote:Originally posted by I'm Junior's Dad: Here's what I mean though. A bit of a lunge but a fast transfer.
Junior's Dad,
The lunge you see in your son's throw comes from the fact that his body is trying to create enough time for the arms to load without any right-foot (or lower-body) movement whatsoever. What you are also seeing is a product of his weight being completely on the back side and fighting to go forward. Again, this is because there is no right foot movement to create a balance point before the forward movement of the throw.
He has a pretty quick release at around .76 seconds. However, the velocity lost from not using his lower body in the throw offsets those time gains, as his throw is a good but not great HS throw at around 2.23 (video quality makes it a little tough to see actual glove impact at 2B).
His throw could be a lot faster in both velocity and time if he stays out front with the exchange, makes the exchange while he is coming up out of his crouch, gets his right foot underneath his center of gravity and loads his arms as he strides forward to allow the back hip to drive the throw rather than his upper-body.
Right now, he uses a classic, "rock-and-fire" method. There are a few reasons why this is something he will want to change as soon as possible. For one, he is putting all of the energy in the throw on his arm (I would be willing to guess that your son had some arm, inside elbow, front shoulder pain last season---and if he didn't, he will eventually as his body gets stronger and generates even more force on the arm).
Secondly, there is a good chance that on pitches to his right, he will start to see balls tail high and to the right because his body won't be able to regain proper direction in the throw. He'll always be fighting to get his momentum working in the same direction of his throw. This will cause the elbow of his throwing arm to drop below the shoulder as the forearm lays back. Since there is no hip drive in the throw, the upper-body rotation will be all that initiates the movement toward the target until the point where his arm is forced to push the ball to second base. This can cause the arm slot to drop and create tailing actions on the ball, and also forces over throws.
Very often people believe that less is more when it comes to mechanics. That simpler is always better. The simple fact is that a high-level throw is not simple. There are a lot of moving parts and simply eliminating one of those parts (footwork) doesn't shorten the throw, it weakens the efficiency of it.
Hope this helps and please feel free to PM me if you have any questions about this post.