5 Ways To Harness Your Power

Have you ever noticed when a pitcher sometimes leans over forward after she releases the ball? She looks like she’s off balance. You’ll hear her instructor, ahem, yell out after every few balls, “Stand tall!”

This has to do with her stride. She is failing to harness all of the power that was created through her drive off of the mound. Harnessing her power with her stride is equally as important as gaining momentum. Strides are for resistance, balance, and accuracy. If, she wants to gain velocity, she must work on her stride.

Resistance is the opposite of momentum. A pitcher’s arm and drive-leg create momentum, propelling her towards the target. The stronger she is and the simpler her motion, the more momentum she can create. Resistance with her stride leg, on the other hand, pushes against the momentum she’s created with her drive leg. It transfers the energy to the ball. Here are 5 aspects of a good stride.

Angle of the Foot

The stride foot should land at a 45 degree angle. The angle of the stride tells your hips what to do. Upon landing a pitcher wants to be in a position that enables her to close your hips powerfully. Her toe landing on the ground initiates a sequential rotational movement from the ground up of her body. If a pitcher were to land with her toe pointing straight to the target her hips would be fully closed (like a door, facing the target). They would have nowhere to rotate. If she were to land with her toe pointing at a 90 degree angle, it would be difficult to close the hips quickly because of lack of flexibility of the knee. It also takes too long to go from completely open to completely closed. This is called “over rotation.” Instead, starting 45 degrees closed at toe touch (when your stride foot hits the ground) generates the same rotational power as 90 degrees open but takes less time.

Flexed but Firm

Flexed and firm seem like contradictory words but they aren’t! In order to land in an athletic position her knee must be flexed a little. Upon landing, it must remain flexed. In fact, it must remain the same amount flexed once it makes contact with the ground. The front leg, waist, and shoulder must remain still while the back leg and arm continue move quickly towards the target. One common mechanical mistake is flexing the knee more once it touches the ground. In this case, the stride leg incorrectly absorbs some of the momentum to the front leg instead transferring it to the ball. On the other hand, if she lands with a completely locked-out stride leg she’ll be susceptible to injury. She won’t be athletic enough to resist against a powerful forward motion, usually resulting in a bend forward at the waist.

Stride Towards the Target

Seems like a no-brainier, but players step off target for a number of reasons. Some lack body awareness, some are correcting for a poor arm circle, and some bring mechanics for different pitches into their fastballs. For a fastball, changeup, riseball, and dropball, pitchers need to stride directly towards the target. The stride foot toe must touch the “power line” but not go over it, and not more than 2 inches to the left of it. This drives all of her power forward. The ball needs to be on the power line, not her body. If she accidentally places her entire foot on the power line it is an over-rotation. You might see online with some girls pitching on the balance beam online, which we do not teach. When over-rotating, arm circle has the tendency to fly behind her back where the catcher cannot see it (offline). You have opened too much to be able close quickly as explained in the fundamental above.

Land on the Ball of your Foot

The first thing to touch the ground must be the ball of her foot, not the heel. This is important because of what it does for her knee. It keeps her knee and leg in an athletic position so that she 1) don’t hurt herself with a locked-out knee, 2) resists effectively, and 3) stays standing without falling over. Pitching is like jumping. Go ahead - try jumping and stay in athletic from your heels only. She’ll get a good laugh because it’s the most awkward thing in the world!

De-weight your Body

The stride leg takes the weight of a pitcher’s body so that she can “glide” or “leap” off the mound. This feels like jumping and, in a way, it is. When she begins her stride, if she can kick her left leg out with enough force she will gain momentum. The more momentum, the more potential for speed.

In Conclusion

To understand the concept of using a stride to help pitchers lean back during her pitch, I like to think of pitching as backwards walking. Leaning backwards to make a ball go forwards is one of those counter-intuitive aspect of underhand pitching. When she walks forward, the weight of her body transfers forward to the next step. That’s how she gets somewhere!. But in pitching, she’s trying to get the ball to go somewhere, not herself. When she strides in her pitch, her weight does not transfer to the front leg. Instead, it stays on the back leg, much like when she slides into second base. Her foot is sticking out in front of her body.

Poor resistance looks like a player is either falling forwards, or in a less-severe case, that she is simply “putting” her front foot down. It looks like the foot is coming down from the sky. To perform it correctly the stride must look like it’s sliding into a base - low and fast. The sooner a player understands this concept, the sooner she is on her way to gaining more speed, fast.