19 Y.O. Mechanics, Comments Please (VIDEO)

#1

Hey Everybody, first post here, I’m a D2 college pitcher, will be a sophomore next year at DSU. I’ve been pitching for a while and have constantly told my arm angle will hurt my elbow eventually and it still hasn’t so I don’t think that it’s too big of a problem. Recently I’ve been told to “stay back” and I don’t quite understand that so if someone could help with that, that’d be amazing. Any other ideas to improve velocity would be great.

I’m 6’5", about 215 lbs. I haven’t been clocked since my sophomore year in high school when I clocked 81 at fastest, I figure I’m mid to high 80’s consistently and maybe hit 90 when we were in AZ for spring break.

I throw:
a 2 seam fastball that tails about 6 inches.
a 4 seam fastball that tails about an inch, I want it to go straight for velocity purposes only.
a curve/slider, it’s the speed of a curve but with my arm angle about a 3/7 breaking ball. (my best pitch)
a circle change with a lowered pinky so it looks more like a fastball coming from the hand.
a knuckleball.
a splitty in progress, learned this year from a guy at college and it’s working pretty well, only have thrown it a handful of times in games though, seems pretty effective.

Thanks in advance, Cody.

#2

my arm slot is almost identical to yours except mine is maybe half an inch higher - no arm problems

not much to say on mechs but i thought id throw that in there :slight_smile:

#3

I don’t really see any issues with your arm angle/slot.

Why were you told to stay back? What did you interpret that instruction to mean?

#4

I think it was something with the Tall and Fall theory to pitching where before I even come to a balance point my front shoulder is already leaning forward and i’m not using my full leg push to accelerate off the mound where gravity is doing most of it. I can’t really tell if I’m doing that though, even with video of myself compared to other people…

#5

Ok. Keeping your upper half back so that it doesn’t get out front too far and/or too soon is something I agree with because failing to do so makes it difficult to transfer energy up through the body efficiently and that robs velocity and can put more stress on the arm. Now, keeping your total body back, pausing at the top, hitting the balance point, etc. are teaches that I disagree with. That’s why I asked what it was you thought your coach was really telling you.

It’s tough to tell from the camera angle in your video whether your upper half is really getting out front but, assuming that is the case, my suggestion is to focus on leading with your front hip through the early part of the stride and keeping your head and shoulders slightly behind the front hip into foot plant. This will set up a load in the trunk to aid trunk flexion and that can help with velocity.

#6

you have a pause in your arm action -velocity

and your hips are not being used efficiently -velocity

thats about 6+ mph there waiting to be discovered

#7

u are big as hell. haha yeah you look like u have kind of a lazy delivery

#8

so you guys think i need to be more explosive off the mound? i tend not to get that worked up when i throw because i don’t try to blow many pitches by people.

so work on 1 fluid motion with my arm, open my hips while keeping my shoulders closed, and be more explosive off the mound. Anything else you guys think i should work on?

I head back to college in Sept and should get another video of myself once winter hits and I’ll repost to see if I’ve improved much.

Thanks a lot guys!

#9

Two minor suggestions. First, I’m hoping that your glove doesn’t finish behind your body on / right after release. Second, I’d recommend using your glove arm as more of a distraction. Roger Clemens does a good job of this.

In terms of the rest of the mechanics, I’m awful at judging mechanics from a behind the pitcher view. good luck!

#10

When someone says stay back they probably mean that your body is getting ahead of your arm.In other words your arm is dragging behind you.