Velocity and mechanics

Not bad! First, I'm not a pitching instructor. Having said that, the first thing that jumped out at me (and you can see if from the still shots) is that he needs to lead with his hip. I would suggest he work the Hershiser drill. If you look at the latest video clip, he is "leaning" toward the plate and, if he were doing the Hershiser drill at that time, would hit the wall with his shoulder versus his hip. To me, that suggests that he is not "staying back". He seems to throw with decent intent but I would also suggest he "get moving" down the hill. Finally, he will gain some velocity with maturation. Legs and core are great but he should aim to add some weight, as well. He looks good with a bright future.

Thanks for the quick feedback. I've had a couple of others tell me basically the same thing. That he seems to float down the mound instead of leading with his lower half and staying back.

I will definitely look into that Hershiser drill.

Thanks!

I agree 100% with BB13. He is drifting forward as soon as his front leg comes up. He should try to keep his shoulders back as long as possible and lead with his hips. By doing this, he will be able to use the momentum of his upper body and back leg to throw. I'm not a pitching coach either, but that is what I see.

He looks pretty good like a few others mentioned he needs to stay back some. You have lots of video on him and I looked through it and see similar things he is leaking forward with his upper body. I noticed he lands on his heal more often than not and should be more flat to get leverage sooner. My son was almost in the exact place as yours at the same time almost the same numbers and frankly it just takes time for some taller kids to develop. A drill that Tom House does is have a the pitcher get up against a fence and get up on his post leg and then lean against the fence leading with his hip. A pitching coach my son worked with would put his hand on his hip and have him drive against it with his hips. This teaches them to lead with the hips more and stay back with the upper body. If he has an instructor who can work with him on staying back more and getting more leverage in his delivery there is a good 3-5MPH left in him IMO. Be patient as this may take some time however.

Get that boy in the gym! 2 days a week is not going to cut it. He should be in there nearly every day right now and working on building body as he has at least two months to the season. Get a S&C coach who work with him. Cleans, Deadlifts, front squats, and core work.

My freshmen son is home right now and we were talking about what he would do different if he could go back and he said he would get in the gym earlier than he did and work harder at it. He has put on 25lbs of muscle this fall and the results are incredible.

Good Luck he is going to be fine, but you are correct to focus on velocity development right now.

FL2013Dad,

Yep, I agree with a lot of what's been said. Most of his lack of velocity is from his hips. The Tom House drill mentioned by BOF is a great one to get the idea and the feel for how the hip should work in the delivery. I've used this drill on many younger players (as well as my son) to get them in the habit of leading with their hip. And here's how I tell them to do this Tom House drill. . .

Stand sideways next to a fence or any wall as though the throw goes to the wall (nearest foot to the wall about 6 inches away)with the hand kind of in a set position. When the pitch is started the leg is raised high with a little turn away from the wall (or fence), then as you start the stride towards the wall or fence to throw you reach with your butt cheek part of the hip to touch the wall or fence without the shoulders or arm touching the wall (or fence).

You can probably help your son yourself with this exercise as once you see what it looks like, you should be able to easily see it when he throws off the mound. This leading with the hip along with a good stride, which by the way you son seems to have a good stride, is what produces good leverage. Just look at MLB pitchers and you'll see they all do this. Note too that part of this is getting some turn to the hips during the leg lift that helps get the shoulder nearest the plate turned away from the plate (to some extent) to add more leverage. I feel if he can get this technique down to a point where he doesn't have to think about it, you'll probably see a substantial increase in velocity with no more effort than he throws at now.

I worked some with my son on this and he incorporated this into in motion when pitching and as a Freshman in HS he was throwing 82-84 f(6'0 160lbs) and in his Senior year he was throwing 90 - 93 (6'2" 185lbs).
I never saw it so much as "floating down the mound", but more like falling towards the plate from the back leg. ;-)

FL2013Dad, here is a picture I took of Tim Hudson that it think emphasises what "staying back" is. Hope this helps.

. . . and here is a series of pitchers which I think shows it very well too.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_IxM7L7EkI

T - great video. Thanks!

Truman,

You are just rocking on the HSSBBW scene with your arrival!

A belated welcome and best of luck to your boy this year.

quote:

Originally posted by BOF:
Truman,

You are just rocking on the HSSBBW scene with your arrival!

A belated welcome and best of luck to your boy this year.

Thanks for the welcome. On March 28th I hope to see your boy play???

Thanks all! Truman - That's a great link to the Giant pitchers. Every single one of them show their number to the plate and lead with their butt.

Going to share that with my son and have him start working on that.

Thanks again.

quote:

Originally posted by BB13:
Not bad! First, I'm not a pitching instructor. Having said that, the first thing that jumped out at me (and you can see if from the still shots) is that he needs to lead with his hip. I would suggest he work the Hershiser drill. If you look at the latest video clip, he is "leaning" toward the plate and, if he were doing the Hershiser drill at that time, would hit the wall with his shoulder versus his hip. To me, that suggests that he is not "staying back". He seems to throw with decent intent but I would also suggest he "get moving" down the hill. Finally, he will gain some velocity with maturation. Legs and core are great but he should aim to add some weight, as well. He looks good with a bright future.

Does anyone have a link to details/video on this "Hershiser drill"?

quote:

Originally posted by Tx-Husker:

Does anyone have a link to details/video on this "Hershiser drill"?

Here's Tom House giving insturciton on the drill:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL3wZvA_MBk


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...thM4&feature=related

Excellent! Thanks.