Are You Getting the Most Out of Your Motion?

When I attempt to simplify a pitcher’s wind-up I receive a glare so strong I feel as if I have offended her being itself.

Pre-motions (we call them “take-aways”) can be very personal. Most pitchers consider their way a “signature.” However, when command wanes, it’s coincidentally one of the first things she thinks to change since it’s the most controllable part of her motion. She thinks, “maybe if I pull one arm back instead of both it will help me.” “I need power so I’ll lean over more.” She unwittingly adds complexity to her motion, misdiagnosing the cause of poor accuracy, thus contributing more to superstitions than to good fundamentals. If you know anything about softball and baseball, you know that once a pitcher thinks luck is on her side, she’ll do anything to keep it.

What she doesn’t know is that beginning her pitch with a simple take-away will minimize mistakes later in the motion, leading to good command. Any diversion from the simplest movement is a diversion from accuracy and power.

The more efficient a pitching motion is, the faster it will be.

"Mechanical efficiency is a measure of the effectiveness with which a mechanical system performs. It is usually the ratio of the power delivered by a mechanical system to the power supplied to it." - Encyclopedia Britannica

The power a pitcher’s body generates (momentum) is proportional to the power she transfers to the ball. Any mechanical inefficiency will weaken her output (pitch speed). Any movement her body makes in excess of linear force towards the catchers glove will slow the ball.

Here are a few more ways to eliminate complexity in a pitchers motion.

The most prevalent example of a mechanical inefficiency is an arm circle that does not stay online to the target. Unfortunately, this forces the pitcher correct her mistake mid-motion so the arm and the ball slow down to do so. Here is one way to correct an off-line arm circle by Rita Gilman.

The second most common mistake is a stride that either crosses the power line inside or steps more than an inch outside. She will either throw the ball where she strides, too far inside/outside, or she’ll manage to correct her mistake mid-motion, costing precious speed. 

The least-understood extraneous moment I see is an over-rotation of the hips and shoulders. The pitcher should open her hips and shoulders only as much as is necessary in order keep her arm circle online and create torque. Any more than that takes extra time. Closing the hips, what I call the "banana" from 90 degrees (totally open) takes much longer than does 45 degrees. We try to teach them to keep their open hips to 45 degrees, no more.

How can a pitcher correct mechanical inefficiencies to gain speed?

Mainly, she needs to repeat the correct motion thousands of times. She needs to repeat it both in slow-motion and at full effort, each time being intentional about her efforts. As we say, she must pay ATTENTION to her INTENTION. In other words, repetition builds neural pathways in her brain that makes movements mindless to duplicate. Sounds a lot like…practice!