2015 just started pitching again after about a 3 years hiatus due to elbow issues. This is the first year that he’s felt confident that the elbow is ready for pitching again. His injury did not require surgery, but I’m still a little apprehensive. But the kid just loves taking to hill, so I'm trying make sure he can do it safely.
I have been told by people I trust, that part of his initial elbow problem was caused by his natural tendency to “fly open”. Now he’s working with a pitching coach (who I trust completely) to clean up this problem before I allow him to pitch in games this summer.
I didn’t played baseball beyond LL, and this “flying open” concept is a little mysterious to me. One thing I can see is that his lead foot lands at about a 30 degree angle toward his non-throwing arm side (pointed behind a left handed batter). He is working hard to change that to at least 0 degrees (pointing straight at the catcher), but is really struggling making that adjustment.
My question for the pitching experts: Will changing his landing foot position help fix the flying open? Or not even directly related?
After viewing countless pitching videos, I can only find one MLB pitcher who has a similar landing foot position to my son’s. This video of Brian Wilson shows it pretty clearly.
I read an AP article that said Wilson had TJ in college but he threw for a bunch of years before his 2012 elbow injury, so I’m not going to presume anything about his injuries (or anyone else’s).
Thank you.