Problems with open your hips to early

In a Gym start from the power position with you back foot on a line. Spread the lift leg out to a point which is where you land with that foot on the same line toe pointing forward slightly. You could use a towel in this drill. Have a player kneel infront on the line with his glove held forward at knee hight. You willcome forward and hit the gys glove with the towel and rotate you hips through. Your lift foot will rotate to point at HP. Your rear leg will lift high and rotate to a squared up feilding position, head down and do not try to stand up too soon. Accentuate the move. Be deliberate and repeat over and over.
Very important to keep feet in alignment on the line and hips steady untill rotating forward. Throwind elbow and clove elbow start at parallel position like a scarecrow and do not wrap throwing sholder back . Straight line front to back.

Here is how we used to work on this problem.

1- Spread out on the bottom half of the mound with your stride foot already down. Face home plate with your front hip and front shoulder. Allow your back foot to lift as you throw, but just rotate your hips and shoulders and throw. This is actually exaggerating staying closed.

2- Once you get the feel of step 1… Go to the rubber (stretch position) and stride straight towards the plate without leg lift (slide step). Concentrate on staying closed (exaggerate this). You should be striding closed (front hip towards plate) and rotating hips right into landing… Keep front hip closed and shoulder pointed at target as long as possible (exaggerate). Do not over throw while getting the feel of this!

3- Once you get the feel of step 2… Out of the stretch position use leg lift, but bring lift foot back down before striding towards the plate. Basically doing step 2 after the leg lift. Concentrate on front hip and front shoulder. Exaggerate staying closed. Get the feel of keeping hip and shoulders closed.

4- After step 3… Go to full windup… Come out of leg lift concentrating on staying closed. If you are closed coming out of leg lift, you should be able to stay closed in your stride.

5- All of the exaggeration in above steps should now keep you closed enough so the you’re your hips should rotate right into landing with your front shoulder staying closed just a millisecond longer. Put together this will look very quick but very smooth and it should definitely increase velocity as well as control.

6- Once you get the feel of this… Go to stretch position… see the target… close your eyes… concentrate on your body especially hips, shoulders and arm… and deliver (throw). Sometimes the eyes become our worst enemy, our eyes allow us the ability to adjust to mistakes… The perfect pitching delivery should not have any adjustments, it should repeat the same time after time. With your eyes shut, you will easily feel your delivery, anything else (even a slight change) will feel uncomfortable.

7- Try to find a real good pitching coach/instructor to watch you… video yourself, if you can’t find one.

Sometimes the problem is more related to the shoulder than the hips. Opening the front shoulder too soon is a very common problem in young pitchers. Results include; arm drag, lack of velocity, control problems, lots of effort, and potential serious injury.

Others might disagree, but I believe the hips and mid section are the most important things for most pitchers. At release point your belly button should be pointed exactly at the target! This is only true if your belly button is located in the center of your belly!

There are those who over rotate, but in stop action, in every single case (I think) the belly button will be pointed directly at the target when the ball is released!

I hope this helps a bit. Others might (probably will) have other opinions.

Good luck

Bobble,

I posted this and then noticed you had posted some very good advice.

Which I agree with. It's fun trying to help young players. Good luck Brad.

Yours as well thanks. You went into a little more detail and it all helps. We usually started inside to use the marked lines as a visual aide. Rear foot instep stradling the line and front foot landing on or slightly to the glove side in the stretch.

Great advice PG and Bobble, I could not have put it better.

quote:

Ok well I was just wondering i'm having problems keeping my hips closed for a long enought time to reach I guess maximum velocity. So I was wondering if anybody has any drills they could tell me about that would help me learn how to stay closed long enough to be able to throw harder.

I believe that some of this may be due to a lack of flexibility (it is for me).

You might want to try things like maximizing how much you rotate your hips and shoulders while swinging a golf club.

You should also pay attention to making sure that your hips are leading your shoulders. You can practice this by taking a golf (or baseball) backswing and then making sure you are unwinding from the bottom up (hips rotate before shoulders).

Thanks everybody for all the advice hopefully now i can get this stuff right and make myself better.

Now I have a question on the opposite end of the spectrum....

Video of two of my pitchers show them landing with their front foot "closed"...that is, RH pitcher's lead food lands pointing to a position behind a RH batter (ie., at 1:00 on a clock)....

What is the result? Loss of control? Loss of velocity? No real negatives? Is it better to land with foot closed than too far open which would result in flying open? Any input is greatly appreciated.

quote:

Video of two of my pitchers show them landing with their front foot "closed"...that is, RH pitcher's lead food lands pointing to a position behind a RH batter (ie., at 1:00 on a clock). What is the result? Loss of control? Loss of velocity? No real negatives? Is it better to land with foot closed than too far open which would result in flying open? Any input is greatly appreciated.

Landing too closed can cause a variety of problems...

1. Missing inside (RHP to RHB).
2. Loss of velocity (due to limited hip rotation).
3. Problems in back of shoulder (due to shortened deceleration path of pitching arm).

quote:

Originally posted by TCB1:
Now I have a question on the opposite end of the spectrum....

Video of two of my pitchers show them landing with their front foot "closed"...that is, RH pitcher's lead food lands pointing to a position behind a RH batter (ie., at 1:00 on a clock)....

What is the result? Loss of control? Loss of velocity? No real negatives? Is it better to land with foot closed than too far open which would result in flying open? Any input is greatly appreciated.

totally dependent on angle of the foot. If the toe is pointed right at the target probably less of an ill effect. if the foot is at 1:00 oclock and the toe is closed off [toe not pointing at the target but 3rd baseb side for a righty] than there could be a problem. There is room for variances here. It is NOT either all one or the other. Some may land a little more closed but point the toe directly at the target which may mean nothing. Some may be closed in their landing and also have the foot [toe] closed which would indicate more of a potential problem.

Hey PGStaff and Bobble both points are well taken.

Very good points.