Archive for category Mechanics
How High-Speed Pitching Video Can Alter an Athlete’s Training Program: External/Internal Rotation
It’s no secret that Driveline Baseball is a pioneering force when it comes to high-speed video and its application to training pitchers and analyzing pitching mechanics here in the Pacific Northwest, but an underappreciated consequence of analyzing our pitchers using video that shoots at seven times the rate of the competitors’ video analysis systems are the training-related modifications to their workout programs.
External Rotation – Two Factors That Matter
Pitchers who have more Maximum External Rotation (MER) during the end of the arm cocking phase and the beginning of the ball acceleration phase of the pitching delivery will tend to have more laxity in static external rotation and a tighter posterior capsule when stretching the shoulder into internal rotation (IR). This isn’t anything new, of course – for years, trainers have been telling their baseball athletes to stretch their shoulder into IR using the sleeper stretch or a variant of that stretch.
Sleeper Stretch
However, the absolute value of MER is only one factor that we pick out using high-speed video (tough to tell on standard video due to motion blur). The other factor is the rate of external rotation during the pitching delivery. If a pitcher has a more internally rotated humerus at stride foot contact (SFC) compared to a pitcher with a less internally rotated humerus, all things being equal (primarily shoulder and hip rotation angular velocities), the pitcher with the more internally rotated humerus at SFC will experience a higher rate of the forearm entering maximum external rotation (rMER). Pitchers with this mechanical marker are often described in research papers as having more stress on the bones (Werner et al) and ligaments (Fleisig et al) of the pitching arm. This mechanical “flaw” is generally described as the Inverted Wor Inverted L by various gurus out there. While the discussion of the Inverted W / Inverted L is a series of blog posts I have planned in the future, let’s stay focused on how this would affect a client of ours. While we might suggest mechanical changes that lower the amount of rMER without compromising the amount of MER the pitcher gets to (since higher rates of MER are positively correlated with ball velocity – Fleisig et al), we can address the muscular issues this flaw may cause in the trainer’s room.
Corrective Exercise for the Pitcher with High rMER
The sleeper stretch above is a great posterior capsule stretch that we might use for pitchers with higher-than-normal rMER, but isometrically working the external rotators at the specific degree of IR can be very helpful. Isometric strength training is fairly controversial in the exercise science community, but most will agree that isometric training works within a small range of motion where the training is being used (some say as high as 15-30 degrees). Consider this: When the pitcher releases the baseball, the humerus is very close to its maximum internal rotation angular velocity – after which it rapidly decelerates, putting a lot of stress on the decelerators of the shoulder. By putting an athlete in a position where he releases the baseball (another marker you can generally only see with high-speed video) and having him isometrically work his external rotators (not internal – he’s already getting a lot of work by throwing baseballs), he can strengthen the muscles responsible for safe deceleration where it’s most important!
How to do this: Imagine the sleeper stretch above. Have an assistant place their hand on the distal wrist of the pitcher and position the forearm and hand where the pitcher approximately releases the baseball in relation to his shoulder. Instead of pushing down to stretch out the posterior capsule into IR, have the athlete press against you into ER for 5-15 seconds for multiple reps. Give him a rest and repeat this every so often. Try it on his glove arm – I bet you see a major difference in perceived strength!
Appropriate Exercises to Pair
Pair passive ER strengthening techniques like backwards medicine ball throws with this for maximum benefit:
As well as shoulder perturbations and/or manual therapy as necessary. High-speed video can help in multiple ways – while it’s incredibly useful for mechanical analysis and review, don’t forget it has a huge place in the weight room and trainer’s office for strength and durability.
Bad Swing Coaching – Pushing Hands to the Ball / Extension Through the Ball
While perusing some YouTube videos of pro hitters to show my clients, I came across some more bad instruction (there’s plenty of it) – this time on hitting. I made a comparison video side-by-side of a common myth in hitting – that you can aid the swing by pushing or extending the hands through the point of contact in the baseball swing. This is just not true and not what happens with elite hitters, and furthermore, a complete violation of how you would efficiently use the kinetic chain in the body. Efficient kinetic chain use utilizes ground reaction forces (GRFs) to generate and transfer power from proximal to distal, largest body parts to smallest.
Attempting to engage the comparatively small muscles of the forearms will be counterproductive, as the bat barrel is completely ballistic at the point of contact (something Dr. Alan Nathan proved many years ago).
If your coach believes in this, you should find someone else who has actually read a text or two on kinesiology and understands the high-level swing.
Pitching Mechanics Myths: Chin to Target, Release Ball Closer to the Plate
While I’m working on my book – Fastball Training - there are a few blog posts I feel like I need to make because of myths that are constantly perpetuated about pitching mechanics that are pretty ridiculous and also easily disproved. Since I sublease space from North Seattle Batting Cages and the high school and Little League season is rapidly approaching, I get to hear a lot of outstanding “advice” from coaches who don’t understand the first thing about throwing mechanics. At this point in my career, I just find it humorous, when before it would actually bother me.
Anyway, here are two fun myths that I get to hear on a regular basis:
Take the Chin to the Target
This is a common mechanical cue that I think was first widely perpetuated by Tom House and the National Pitching Association. The NPA has come a long way with regards to different training philosophies (they still lag very far behind when it comes to weight training, but they do have weighted baseball programs now – which aren’t free, like ours is) and I’m not sure if they still believe in this, so I’m not blaming them for it. The point is that it’s still a widespread mechanical cue that coaches tell their clients all the time. Let’s get one thing straight: This might be the single best cue if you wanted to reduce fastball velocity in an athlete.
The idea that you should lead with the chin to the target to improve command and control of your pitches is ridiculous, just like most “simple” cues are. It’s a really tempting thing to want simple solutions to the complex machine that is the baseball pitcher, but if it was easy, we’d all be throwing 90+. Attempting to reduce the pitching delivery into stages of cues and checkpoints has done more to ruin youth pitchers than anything else in the last 10 years (except for maybe telling kids that throwing a baseball is an unnatural motion and will damage their arm).
When you consciously think about taking the chin to the target, you are killing rotational velocity around the pelvis and the shoulders. Research shows (and common sense verifies) that rotational velocity around the largest body parts are chiefly responsible for ball release velocity. The concept of squaring the shoulders up and reducing the effective distance the shoulders can rotate is a horrible cue.
If you’re a coach that teaches kids this, please stop. Furthermore, if you expect 12 year olds to throw 80% strikes, you’re the one that has problems – not the kid. Expecting very fine motor control over a pre-pubescent body is ignorant.
Release the Ball Closer to Plate
OK, this one is definitely an NPA teaching – and concretely speaking, it works. It should be obvious that the closer you release the ball to the plate, the less distance it will travel, and therefore the same speed fastball will look “faster.” Trackman released some “effective velocities” of pitchers they monitored in MLB games and named the concept “extension.” However, this is a huge problem. “Extension” implies that the pitcher is “reaching” out or somehow moving his pitching arm closer to home plate while the shoulders are squared up to the target, and research shows that a pitching upper arm that is translated closer to home plate with respect to the trunk (shoulder horizontal abduction) is negatively correlated with fastball velocity. (source: Sherwood, Hinrichs, Yamaguchi, 1997)
The towel drill is often used to teach “extension” and “reaching” to the target. NPA apologists tell me that this is not how it’s supposed to be used, but the NPA definitely taught this method years ago, and it lingers today. (Keep in mind that I passed the NPA Pitching Mechanics course and that I think they do some good work, lest you think I am completely assassinating their character.)
The Yankees’ David Robertson is a good example of above-average “extension.” He has an average fastball speed around 93 MPH, but he has an “extension” of 7 feet, making his effective ball velocity 95 MPH. But what does Robertson look like when he releases the ball?
Does that look like Robertson is “reaching” to you? If it does, it’s because the trunk is forwardly flexing after ball release. What’s actually happening is that Robertson’s release point is closer to the plate because he has a long stride and he is not squared up to the plate. Robertson has rotated his upper trunk to position his pitching arm shoulder closer to home plate, and these factors in combination are what cause the “extension” everyone wants.
Summary
Teaching effective and efficient mechanics is not easy. Trying to reduce it to a set of cues or checkpoints ignores the fact that the two rotational engines in the body will feel “chaotic” in the right delivery, and it’s not about controlling the chaos, but rather using the chaos effectively to produce the best fastball velocity the body can get.
Don’t teach kids to square up, reach to the plate, and do towel drills. Research dating back to 1997 shows that it’s futile to do so.
How to Use the Glove Side in Pitching
There have been millions of words (literally) written about the glove side as it pertains to pitching mechanics. I’m not going to add much to that, as I think a simple video and an animated image can say a lot more about how you can use the front side effectively in rotational sports.
Rotational sports are all basically the same when it comes to generating power and speed-strength. High velocities of the distal body part in question (foot for kicking, hands for throwing/swinging) all require effective sequencing of the body’s muscles and limbs (what we call “mechanics”). When you show baseball players examples of pitchers with elite velocities (Tim Lincecum, Roger Clemens, Aroldis Chapman, etc), it’s a good teaching tool for sport-specific uses. However, oftentimes people can get overloaded or get conflicting advice when seeing athletes in the same sport as them. Like the people at the Titleist Performance Institute, I’ve found that generic examples of rotational velocity can help a person understand the simple mechanics of producing high rates of pelvic and shoulder rotational velocity without confusing them with specific details of their sport.
Growing up, I loved tennis. As a baseball player, it came naturally to me, since it’s a rotational sport that requires solid hand-eye coordination and uses the dominant hand in a forehand manner. Unsurprisingly, I had solid first serve speeds (about 100 MPH, which is good for a teenager but nothing special) combined with a terrible backhand. My favorite player growing up was Michael Chang, even though we had wildly different games – he was incredibly fast with a quick forehand and jumping two-hand backhand, and I was pretty slow with a powerful forehand and a laughably bad one-handed backhand.
At any rate, after recently reviewing some video of Chang (source), I realized that he is a perfect example of how rotational athletes use the front side (non-dominant shoulder/arm) to create high rotational velocities. His extremely quick forehand – while below-average in power on the ATP tour – was deceptive due to how “short” his mechanics were to the ball and how long he kept the front side closed, while still using it to create leverage for the dominant hand.
All of this is evident in this quick shot of his forehand:
See how he creates leverage using the front side? Sure, his lower body mechanics are nearly perfect, but those will go to waste unless the front side is adequately “disconnected” from the back side. The front side pulls the back side around in an effective sequencing of body parts to produce an extremely quick, short, and powerful forehand volley.
Think about how this applies to baseball pitchers. I’ll let you do the theorizing.
You are currently browsing the archives for the Mechanics category.
Find Us on the Web!
Location
Kyle’s Hardball Times Articles- Chris Sale and his faulty elbow May 14, 2012
- Ubaldo Jimenez: A quick mechanics review May 7, 2012
- Ubaldo Jimenez and his missing 96 mph heater: A mechanical look May 4, 2012
- Scouting Mark Appel: the possible first pick overall in 2012 April 11, 2012
- The 39-year-old who won’t give up on his dream February 21, 2012
