Little League Pitching Analysis

Little League Pitching Analysis

Hello this is Brent Pourciau at topvelocity.net I’m gonna do a pitching analysis her of Jake, pair him with some little league footage here of Tim Lincecum. Let’s take Jake into his leg lift and Tim into his. Not bad, Jake’s in a similar position as Tim here, lifted his leg close, his hip’s off, pulling his leg back while he was leading with his hips a little bit, he’s even looking over his glove side shoulder, so very similar. Looks good.

Take Tim here into the load, as that lift leg comes down he starts to move forward with it, he build a lot of flexion on the drive leg and as he’s moving forward, that knee is following the front hip. You can see that force vector moving with that front hip, he’s still closed here in the load where that ankle to knee force vector is still in line, he’s ready to launch, so we’ll take Jake there as his lift leg comes down his knee’s following it, he’s building some flexion here, let’s see, just before launch, about right here, not  a bad position, very similar to Tim’s. Let’s see if Jake can move into some triple extension, I know it’s a little harder for your age group, Tim almost gets triple extension before he lands, as he opens that front hip before his front foot lands he does get his hips all the way through, he lands right here and gets triple extension about the next frame and he’s still closed so he’s doing a really good job. Kind of tilting over his butt here, he lands next frame, gets his hip all the way through by finishing that triple extension, just after front foot and still stays closed to build some torque.

Let’s see if Jake can do that. That force vector’s in line, he starts to extend the knee, he puts down before he gets full extension, he lands here, it’s almost through, the problem is when he pushes through here the shoulder’s right there with it, he heads pulling out too, make sure you keep your eyes on that target. Just before that front foot lands you wanna try to get that triple extension but if  not we still gotta get that hip to open up just before that shoulder, and I have to say Jake, that’s not bad. If you look at Tim here, when he lands, he’s pretty much all the way through, when you and, you are pretty much the same, except his arm is a little more closed off than yours. If we had the angle from the other side we could still see his glove side shoulder, we can’t see yours.

Jake, at your leg lift, see how well you’re leading with your hip and starting to build some speed forward and build flexion, your first movements though are kind of down, let’s move a little bit more forward as we move down. Get a little bit more momentum in your forward delivery so that when your front foot starts to break your front hip we’re a little bit farther off, so if we can just get some speed from the leg lift to the load position here you’ll have a little more speed to really move to triple extension so when you land, you’ll create more hip to shoulder separation because those hips will open up faster and then delay your shoulders more. So just get a little quicker at the beginning of the delivery and trying to get triple extension at front foot strike and let’s see if that closes and separates your shoulders a bit more because look where you right here, that’s where I’d like to see you when your back leg is all the way extended and you’ve completely landed. Then we get more hip to shoulder separation and your arm will get more external rotation because you can see that now your arms ready to go you don’t really have your elbow getting through. When that shoulder really takes off and multiplies the force of the hip movement which came at front foot strike, when those shoulders really explode through, we keep the arm relaxed, we should get some good external rotation like Tim gets. See how his arm is straight back here, you need to get you’re a lot more externally rotated because that’s where you’re gonna get a lot of velocity. There’s a case study that proves that harder throwers have more external rotation and more forward trunk tilt, see how Tim is fully externally rotated and his chest is pushing out over his toes and you’re still standing up and you’re barely getting any external rotation. That tells me that when your landing, you’re not building enough torque, your hips and shoulders are just going together, watch your back hip and back shoulder, see how they move in synch with each other and you’re just not going to build enough force or speed with your shoulder movement to pull your arm back like a catapult. Tim does it really well, his hip movement goes first, the hips and the back leg triple extend and the hips push through and this is just sitting g back here waiting and then it goes. We don’t see that with you Jake, you land and then your hip and shoulder go together and release the ball so you’re not using the force multiplier which would be the shoulder; you’re not multiplying the force of your hip speed into your shoulder speed because you haven’t separated your hips from shoulders. They’re moving in synch so therefore they’re moving together and not multiplying the force of each other, so we need to get you to separate when the front foot lands to make sure the hips are moving and not the shoulder and then once the hips are through then the shoulder goes. That’s really gonna be the key for you and it’s something that’s not easy to learn but you’re at a great age to really get better at it, understand it and eventually apply it into your delivery. So that’s why you really need to get the 3X pitching velocity program because the beginner’s guide goes through the basics of this and gives you some great beginner drills and training to begin to really understand the 3X approach, to develop pa little more power and speed though your stride through the triple extension and then really convert that to hip to shoulder separation so that you can put yourself in a high velocity category so then you can see that it’s very possible for someone for your age. There is Tim Lincecum when he is 8 or 9 who has almost very similar mechanics to what he has today and you can see that he’s a high velocity pitcher, even at that age.

So, I would recommend you get on the program and just start again at it and you’re gonna put yourself in a great position because you’re gonna be a lot more way ahead of the game by the time you get to high school. Appreciate you sending the video and I hope this helps.