Learn How Enhancing Stride Power Increases Velocity

Learn how enhancing stride power increases velocity

Pitching Analysis Transcript

This is Brent Pourciau at topvelocittop.net, going to do a pitching analysis, here of Ryan and pair him with Chapman. We got Ryan here on flat ground, which is tough, when we’re comparing ourselves to these power pitchers, it’s best to put yourself in a similar environment, put yourself on the mound because things are different when we’re on flat ground. We don’t have that momentum of moving downhill, so we have less power moving into our front foot, we tend to be more elevated in front foot because of the incline, it does change the mechanics of things. We work on flat ground at the beginning of the 3x program, but we eventually start to do a lot of mound work – it’s really where our mechanics need to be honed, our motor co-ordination needs to be programed. So, I prefer you guys to use the mound when you send in your videos, it will help me and the analysis, will help you as well when you’re trying to go through your best mechanics for an analysis. That’s another thing with Ryan here in this video, he’s just is kind of going through the motions and it really doesn’t help. If you’re going to do a video of yourself, you really need to put yourself at game speed. It really doesn’t help you at all by going through the motions, you can just do that in the mirror if you’re trying to pick and work on things. In an analysis we are trying to see where you are with the efficiency and effectiveness of your mechanics and how well you hold up to the 3X mechanics, its best to always be going at game speed. I’ll do the best I can with this and I’m sure you’ll learn a lot, so here we go.

Power Pitching Analysis

Let’s take Chapman and his leg lift, Ryan and his leg lift. Ryan’s swinging the leg back, these talented hard throwers don’t swing their leg back, they lift straight up and then start their momentum shift forward, that creates a reaction in that lift leg and that reaction is a closing off to that forward linear movement. Just be aware of that, we‘re in a totally different position here, the lift legs in the same position, but look where the momentum, where the weight is. We can obviously see with chapman, head, front hip, knee, all inside the drive leg foot, he’s already started to take that momentum to the target. We can see here with Ryan, it’s just swinging the leg back, head’s still balanced over the drive leg, front hip is out but force vector’s vertical – definitely more of your traditional balanced position here than with Chapman. Chapman is in more of a dynamic and explosive position to really start to build some speed which is what we’re really trying to do here, we only have our stride to build as much speed and power as we can and then we got to convert that to torque. If we take too long to get going, like a sprinter to take too long to get to his top speed, then that’s gonna affect our end result, so let’s see how Ryan recovers here. When you swing your leg back, you’ve started your first move as a rotational first move so now that reaction is going to be for it to swing forward and what takes off here is the lift leg. I can deal with the lift leg getting out early, as long as you stay closed, as long as you line up your force vector and move into a good load position without opening up. Well, see if you can get into that linear position, meaning this force vector in line with that front hip before you open up and that’s not the case. Here your front foot is opening up so that technically is your load position.

Take Chapman here, look at the difference in the lift leg, see how it comes up then he starts moving forward and that pulls the lift leg back so that by the time the lift leg starts to break the front hip look how far off the mound he is at this position. And just as it breaks through, feet still closed, look at the force vector. This is key, this is what separates hard throwers, initially, from low velocity pitchers. Look at this force vector here, see how it’s angled to that front hip and that front hip is heading towards the target, that’s where we wanna be. You can see here with Ryan, he’s very vertical, if you move into extension from here, you start building power from here, you’re gonna go vertical, you’re gonna stall out, you’re gonna open up and basically get everything out of timing and you’re not gonna build a lot of power. As we cans see here with Chapman, before he’s opened up and before his lift leg is way out in front, he’s already linear so now he’s ready to extend, in the next frame you can see he starts to extend. You’re not gonna move into extension until you’re in this position, period. A lot of guys that watch this, get this, but it’s not easy to do. We can’t even focus on these two main components here, lift and load, until we have mastered the motor coordination around triple extension hip to shoulder separation, that’s the next components we’re moving into there now. If we perfect getting faster from lift and load, developing more speed, but yet we don’t then know how to convert that into triple extension and then at front foot hip to shoulder separation it’s a total train wreck.  We learn these after we’ve developed the foundation of the program for pitching which is really triple extension hip to shoulder separation. We can see this big difference in these movements, this is dynamic, this is explosive, this is linear, this is vertical, this is balanced, slow paced, definitely not in the power pitching category.

We can see here Ryan’s gonna open the front foot, sawing up the arm at the same time because the body is not lined up to build power so the front foot has gotta open up, goes okay, I’m about to put down so I gotta throw. So here you put down, you do get  little ankle kick through and the reason you’re doing that is because when you open the front foot, your trip hip rotation starts to rotate the back foot so the back knee’s going down and the front foot is staying strong and you’re really just rolling up on the front foot here. You need to read my article on foot sync and pitching velocity, it talks of the importance of how these two feet work together to create hip rotation and linear power. We can see here that there’s no drive, you’re just falling, internally rotating – you’re getting good separation, so you’re showing you have the potential to allow your hips to open before your shoulders which puts you way above the norm. There’s not a lot of guys who have the motor coordination to allow that to happen, seeing your arm go this early, most guys would start throwing early but you allow your leg to get fully extended, hips open and your shoulders till closed. But there’s a big difference between the two, so let’s watch Chapman do the same.

Notice how he moves into full extension and at front foot strike, his hips completely open and he’s a good six inches off the rubber, we have that optimal shoulder to hip separation. Your foot lands here, boom, and then the next frame your hips open, you’re not as closed off as Chapman is, your throwing arm is coming around just a bit, Chapman has about ten degrees more hip to shoulder separation than you do. The difference between someone who can just fall to front foot and internally rotate to hip to shoulder separation is the power to torque, it’s like a car. A car’s engine is designed to convert the linear power of the piston movement up and down, to the rotational movement of the drive shaft. That movement, if it’s going two miles an hour to two hundred miles per hour is the exact same movement, but one of those scenarios is producing tons more speed. The two hundred mile and hour speed and movement of the pistons is a lot faster and more powerful than the two mile an hour movement, basic common sense.  Apply that to those two scenarios here and it should open your eyes. You’re moving like the two mile an hour car and this is the two hundred mile an hour car. You don’t have the stride power, the linear power coiling up more torque here, therefore creating more speed, the launch of the shoulders, the external rotation to internal rotation of the arm and into the velocity of the ball.

So let’s see how you finish. This will tell us who will finish in the more high velocity category, even where we’ve got similar mechanics. We have shorter stride because you didn’t implement triple extension before front foot strike. You’re still on the rubber where you started, we can see that initially, but let’s see how you finish which will tell us how well the stride power converted to torque. Chapman’s shoulders commit, arm fully externally rotates, Ryan’s arm takes off before the shoulders really get out, or the torso gets out, so you’ve got external rotation a good foot in front of your face, Chapman has it about three inches behind the face. He moves into rotation with forward trunk tilt, you move into internal rotation completely standing up, so we can see high velocity category, low velocity category. But you’re able to implement some decent hip shoulder separation even with very poor stride power. I’m sure if you went at game speed these would be a little more similar but you need also to get to your top velocity, you have to now take the mechanics that you have and enhance them. The beginning of the enhancement comes here, getting the force vector in line early, getting fully extended here like Chapman before the front foot even lands and converting that into the hip to shoulder separation.  We can see that you never got your force vector linear, you never triple extend before you land, those two main components there with your ability to generate this much hip to shoulder separation, is going to enhance your power, striving through that power, converting linear to torque.

You’re a perfect candidate for the 3X velocity program because it constantly focuses on that and it’s going to help you enhance those components. Its also gonna train you through the strength and conditioning program to be more explosive like these elite pitchers. It’s easier for you to build this kind of power that Chapman’s building through triple extension into foot strike. You got all the great drills to help you continue to develop that motor coordination around that lower half. You’re gonna finish all that after that component here the way you finish standing up straight and that late external rotation, once you correct all that, you enhance that linear power and you convert it well. All that’s gonna finish in this high velocity category just like Chapman here.  So I hope this paints a picture for you, shows you why you’re on a good track here, a good path here, but ultimately you do need a program like the 3X triple velocity program that’s going to take you to the Promised Land. It’s going to push you onto an elite category, a high velocity category which is hard to find. So if I was you, I’d ultimately take advantage of this and if you have any questions then please let me know.