Timing pitcher's stride

I've never cared for the idea of attaching hip motion to handbreak, but that may be because I screw around with handbreak too much to make it a useful cue.

Bumgarner does.  He may not go quite as far as most down the mound but he does.  Kershaw does not at all.  But if you look at the vast majority of mlb pitchers they do.  I understand that in theory you could glide that foot right down the slope and get just as much speed, just as long a stride and do just fine.  And I use the word theory cause most hs pitchers will  cut their stride short and slow their core when they do this.  Clearly I understand with a kershaw it is more than theory it is reality.

root - our experiences are a bit different, in that BFS Jr. struggled in a few areas...I worked with him, and had others work with him to fix them...one area was at foot plant, his plant foot knee would favor (somewhat give) towards 3B (he is a LHP - good size), he also had a problem with his arm action, and at the high cock phase was typically outside of 90 degrees.  Just telling him to firm up the front side so his knee would stable, or just verbally telling him to correct his arm action was not effective.  We wound up doing drills that made him feel what it was like to activate, and rotate his back hip around his front leg...when he finally was able to consistently do this, his front side firmed up where he was very stable right through ball release, AND since his back hip rotating, a side effect was that it helped his arm get into internal rotation much more free and easy, and much shorter...without it being taught his arm action improved greatly.  From a velocity standpoint he added velocity, and appears when watching it live, and in video to be with much less effort. 

 

 

Text book perfect positioning at foot strike. I can definitely see how that late, explosive hip rotation could actually aid some pitchers reach the position I see above. I definitely don't teach it out of my pitchers (and most do it). I just don't teach them to do it for the purposes of the move itself. I think what I resist is the notion that holding the hips closed until late in the motion adds anything to the desired tension that is the rsult of good hip/shoulder separation. I believe the tension is 100% a result of the separation itself and not a product of the method by which it is attained. As an analogy, if I pul a rubberband back 6 inches and let it fly, I won't get any extra elasticity or energy from tension if I pull it back quickly and let go compared to slowly pulling it back. The energy gained isn't from pulling it back, but rather from it having been pulled back.

 

By the way, we all work very hard to get our pitchers where your kid is at foot strike.

Thanks Roothog - I think the one thing we can all agree on is that there is no cut & dry way of getting there, and "there" may be different from pitcher to pitcher.

 

Been a fun dialogue. 

The next time I'm tempted to think:

 

"Pitchers' dads are so lucky; they don't have to help their sons focus on 1,000 different small things the way we dads of hitters do," ...

 

I'll go back and re-read this thread.

 

It's mind boggling -- y'all even have your own highly evolved and specific language.

 

I understand a good 50% of all this

 

But ignorant or not, I WILL say this:

 

Jr. looks GOOD!

Had to resurrect this one briefly to attach a chart.  Grantes this is only information for a hand full of flamethrowers.  Still hoping root finds his study.  Notice the most disadvantaged from a size standpoint (linciculm) makes up for it with the fastest time from forward momentum to front foot strike.  Also he has a good stride length.   Could this speed down the hill be the key to his ability to make up for his size?  While I don't consider this chart definitive evidence I would say it bolsters my theory at least.  Note that leg lift to forward momentum varies widely.  Even stride length is a bit inconsistent.   But the one area the fastest throwers seem to have in common is speed from forward momentum to ffs. Hopefully I attached this correctly!