Breaking the Hands Early, I dont think so

Pitching Mechanics
#1
  1. Break The Hands Early
    If you are interested in going a little farther down this road, then another thing you can do is break your hands early.

I disagree with this. Breaking your hands early makes everything slow down, makes your arm lag. If you break your hands after you start to descend down the mound, you will speed up your arm, achieving more velocity. If you watch Roger Clemens who has great mechanics, frame by frame, you will see how late he breaks, and I would say hes pretty far down the road.

#2

I say this for four reasons.

First, scientific research indicates that long arm swings are correlated with a lower risk of shoulder pain.

Second, the later you break your hands the more prone you are to rushing (e.g. not having your arm ready when your shoulders start to turn).

Third, there are many successful, hard-throwing major leaguers (e.g. Freddy Garcia) who break their hands early (e.g. while their glove-side leg is still coming down from the balance point) and suffer no ill results.

Fourth, even Clemens breaks his hands before he has started to move toward the plate.

#3

[quote]
One last tidbit about not breaking the hands to early although probably should be in a different thread. just a point to ponder, THINK Nolan Ryan he did it, just an example /cat before he pounces on his prey. What do they almost always do? They gather themselves/scrunch alittle/In short they load up and stay that way until the last possible instant. Breaking the hands to early will almost automatically halt this loading/gathering by to sudden of a ungathering, among other things as well that hamper the pitchers potential.[/quote]
(Found this quote on the second sticky by Chinmusic)
Thank You Chinmusic, exactly what I am saying in better words. Breaking the hands early slows the whole arm down, sometimes making the arm stall reducing MPH like crazy.

Coachs who see their kids having extremly long arms and/or stalling while getting ready to throw should have their kids think about seperating a little bit after their front leg starts to descend forward.

#4

I believe that this is bad advice from the standpoint of injury prevention. What’s more, I’m not convinced it’s even necessary. Many pitchers who break their hands early (e.g. Freddy Garcia) are still able to achieve high velocities.

This is because most of the velocity of a pitch comes from the rotation of the hips, torso, and shoulders, not the action of the arm.

#5

We give you Nolan Ryan, you give us Freddy Garcia?! jeezluezz

#6

Forgive me if I’m wrong about this, but didn’t Freddy Garcia and the White Sox just win the World Series?

I couldn’t care less how a pitcher pitches as long as he is effective.

#7

gents i understand what many of you are saying about breaking your hands late and thus quickening up your arm, but if you want a list of guys who are pretty good that break their hands pretty early i’ll give you clemens. beckett, lincecum, sabathia, felix hernandez, joba, pedro, schilling, etc. Do they have quick arms? YES! Do they break their hands late? NO

#8

re: "First, scientific research indicates that long arm swings are correlated with a lower risk of shoulder pain. "

---------Chris, please provide an appropriate citation for the scientific research that you are referring to.

#9

I have to disagree with the players you listed at breaking early. Clemens and Lincecum do not break early. There forward momentum is started before they break their hands. I wouldn’t call that early. Same with King Felix. The guys that do break early, actually come to a pause in their hip pocket (Beckett, Sabathia) so really their still leading with their hips and still gaining momentum.

#10

It’s all about timing. The scap load needs to happen as late as possible and an early break could alter this.

#11

I’d have to agree with that. I think it also depends on what you call breaking your hands late. For me breaking the hands late is keeping the hands together very late until after the front foot has already started striding forward a la Roy Oswalt or especially Michael Main from last years draft. His video is on the Video Clips portion of the site.

To me I wouldn’t necessarilly even say that most of the guys I mentioned previously break their hands early. I would say that they are right on time. I don’t necessarily call that late. They coordinate the break of their hands with their front knee/foot movement. As the leg breaks down so do their hands as well.

As for wanting the scap load to happen as late as possible, I’ll agree with that. The guys such as Sabbathia or Beckett that pause a bit are able to allow their arms to be late and thus achieve that late scap load.

#12

[quote=“Chris O’Leary”]
Third, there are many successful, hard-throwing major leaguers (e.g. Freddy Garcia) who break their hands early (e.g. while their glove-side leg is still coming down from the balance point) and suffer no ill results.

Fourth, even Clemens breaks his hands before he has started to move toward the plate.[/quote]

I understand what you are saying, and I understand your point but what sense does it make using a professional as an example. Yes I know we are all striving to be them, but I think that some are just such genetic freaks that it’s almost worthless to use them, becuase so many pro’s have things wrong with their mechanics but their natural ability allows them to not get hurt, or throw hard. But also that’s not to say that some don’t have genetics and just good mechanics. I and everyone else really doesn’t know which ones are gifted and which ones have mastered their mechanics, but sometimes I feel it’s so hard to make an argument using pitchers that are in the majors. I know it’s almost an only option but I just feel it’s odd.

#13

breaking of hands late as long as you reach high cocked position and seperation?

#14

Another point, and one everybody should note: with a runner on base, if a pitcher breaks his hands before stepping off the rubber to throw to the base he’s going to get a balk called on him. This happened in the fourth game of the ALDS this year, when a Detroit pitcher did just that, and the plate umpire immediately called him for a balk and that forced in a run…one of the six the Yankees scored in the top of the eighth inning.