Learn How Important Stride Speed is to Pitching Velocity

Pitching Velocity Mechanics

Pitching Velocity Mechanics Transcript

Hello this is Brent Pourciau at topvelocity.net and I’m doing a pitching analysis here of Zack, gonna pair him up with Chapman. Take Zack into his leg lift here, Chapman into his leg lift, we can see here Chapman’s already a little inside his drive leg, already initiated his momentum to his front foot, I’m stopping them both at the point where their lift leg is starting to come back down, so they’re both in the same position in their delivery, we can see that Chapman has initiated his momentum earlier. That’s going to take effect more at the end, that’s what I feel is best, the earlier you can get your momentum going in your delivery the better chance you’re going to have of accelerating to your peak speed through your stride.  Zack could benefit from it as well, as you lift, start leading more with your butt, get your weight, your knee inside your drive leg foot before your lift leg starts to come down. Besides that, you’re looking good, your closing off, everything’s closed off, your lift legs closed off, you could probably just benefit from some more weight inside your drive leg as we can see here with Chapman, look at his knee, his knee is inside his drive leg foot.

The Importance of Accelerating Pitching Momentum

Okay, so let’s take Chapman into the load, we can see that he takes that momentum with a good forward progress there as he moves into his load position which is right here, his front leg is still completely closed off and we can see his knee and his foot, that force vector’s in line, we get that ankle to knee in line with his front hip, shoulders still closed. We can take Zack into that same position just before front foot strike, I’d say that’s right there, he’s already opening his front foot. His force vector’s already in line but he doesn’t have a lot of flexion. Look at the flexion that chapman has, that’s going to help him to achieve more explosive power, more triple extension. You could benefit from more flexion in the drive leg in the load position while keeping your front leg closed off and you’re starting a little bit early with your arms. You’re arms are breaking from the glove, they’re not initiating the throw or really getting into position, or the cocked position, for the throw at this point yet. When I see this it tells me that you aren’t going to triple extend or hit a full stride because if you’re already starting to get into position, throw the ball in this position, then it tells me that you’re gonna land pretty soon without achieving triple extension. Let’s take Chapman through triple extension so that we can now see that that back leg is driving, this is when power is beginning, or when it’s really taking it’s full force and we can see that he gets that triple extension and that front foot is still in the air. Now, see that this arm has now moved perfectly into the cocked position, so now he’s down, triple extended, hips to the target and that arm is cocked and ready.

Let’s take Zack, see if he does what I thought he does. He puts his foot down and we’re still dug in on the rubber. We can even see that with Chapman, he’s a good foot off the rubber, Zack is still dug in, no triple extension. Because he’s still dug in and his arm is cocked and ready, it means that when your leg fully extends and your hips open to the target, it’s gonna happen at a slower speed than if you achieve that before front foot strike and therefore were gonna generate less core torque. Watch this belt buckle, now it’s open about here and where’s his arm? Zack’s trying to rotate it. Pair these up, look at the lower half, Chapman, triple extension in the back leg, good stable flexion in the front leg, hips and belt buckle open to the target. Look at the torque; we can see the stretching of the uniform, the shoulders still closed. With Zack here, he has already initiated his throw, his chest is to his target and he’s already externally rotated. He generated very poor hip to shoulder separation, the national pitching association says that ninety per cent of velocity comes from your ability to separate your hips from shoulders, so you’ve put yourself in a low velocity category because of this. I believe the key to that is achieving triple extension before front foot strike. We can see that as Zack finishes, he’s gonna finish more upright, as opposed to Chapman, when he takes his chest out, externally rotates, he’s out now over his front leg and he finishes and he finishes with that flat back, forward trunk tilt in a front leg extension. These are two big components of high velocity pitchers that front leg extension and good forward trunk tilt at ball release and notice that release is above the head. Guys that aren’t able to get this forward trunk tilt because they have poor momentum, poor hip to shoulder separation, they have to finish out in front of their face and that’s harder on the arm.

So, these components not only help you generate higher velocities, but they’re also better for your arm. Like said, all this could be fixed in the beginning of your delivery, like a sprinter, the first few steps of a sprinter are critical, they are everything to his speed, same with a pitcher, your first few components are critical to how you are going to finish your pitches which are going to tell you if you are in a high or low velocity category. We can see an upright trunk, flexed front leg, finishing out in front of the face, that is a low velocity category. Extension in the front leg, forward trunk tilt and released above the head, that’s a high velocity category.

The 3X pitching program is built around this, this is my approach to pitching, I really believe in the lower half and how important it is to initiate the lower half effectively and ultimately before the upper half – it should drive the upper half. So, triple extension is the key, the foundation of my program, I believe that that is how you are going to reach your velocity goals. If you want to learn more, you can contact me or check out the topvelocity.net homepage there’s tons of information there as well. I hope this helps and I appreciate you sending your video.