If there’s an inefficiency in the delivery, you can usually pin it back to some subset of bad rotation. Something either isn’t turning when it should (e.g. pushing), or it’s turning when it shouldn’t (e.g. spinning). Of all the style involved in a throw, rotation is the one thing that
I chose the word leverage for this section specifically because I believe it captures at its core what pitchers are trying to do between leg lift and foot plant. We’re not quite dealing with fulcrums and levers. Humans are omnidirectional movers; there is one “lever” that controls the throw. But
Inertia, by definition, is the tendency for an object to resist changes to its current state of motion. A body at rest will stay in rest. A body in motion will stay in motion, unless acted upon by an external force. When we throw a baseball, we don’t have an
It was my junior year of college when I had a profound experience that impacts my coaching style today. The year, up until then, had largely been a disappointment for myself. The winter prior, I experienced and had success using new training tools. Of those included weighted baseballs. I decided
The other day, I was working with a college pitcher. When I approached this young man, you could tell by his body language he was frustrated. He had thrown a bullpen yesterday. His feedback from the bullpen had been underwhelming. The three things he had been working on primarily in
The date was March 8, 1965. After careful consideration, the United States finally decided to make a manpower commitment to the growing escalation in Vietnam. Over the past decade, tensions between the North and South Vietnam – as distinguished by the demilitarized “17th Parallel” zone – had grown into guerrilla warfare.
Several summers ago, I was a young Boy Scout. I was probably around 14 years old. Every summer, our troop would go on a week long trip to summer camp. As part of camp, we would sign up to take specific merit badges. Some were required for the rank of
The other day, I was having a conversation with one of my good coaching friends. We met back when we were still players and have continued to keep in touch beyond our playing careers. During the conversation, he brought up a similar problem two of his better pitchers were experiencing.
This past week, I was working with a pitcher. It was the end of our second week working together. We were finishing up his throwing session getting some mound work in. His throwing intensity was pretty low – considering this was the second week he had picked up a baseball
The other day, I had a pitcher come in for an evaluation. Whenever kids come in for a pitching evaluation, I want to take a lot of time and observe what they do on the mound. I want to see the delivery, ball flight, and transfer of energy. I want