Well I am in a pretty safe position to change my mechanics, I won’t pitch too much this year hopefully, I really don’t think I’m ready but if I work on velocity and control next year will be a lot better.
The problem addressed in my previous post that I don’t want to bring back becuase this is a whole different topic, was that I thought personally I needed to work on my momentum towards the plate. Roger also commented on puling my chest towards the glove but I don’t think that will be too hard to fix. Here is what I think could really help me to gain some velocity and better my mechanics.
Mentally I’m having trouble letting my body fall towards the plate while I lift my leg. I know my legs are strong enough to handle some of the force they will recieve when I fall foward faster. When I pitch, I feel that I am getting some good momentum towards home plate becuase I feel myself pushing off while I’m in the air and gaining that momentum to aid in my throwing power. The problem is that even though I’m getting good momentum in the long run, that is exately the problem, it takes a long time. I’m almost doing a 2 step kick and drive. Instead of falling towards the plate when I start my leg lift and driving with the force of my body and the force of my leg, I’m almost going up and halfway down then driving instead of starting my drive towards the plate earlier.
This is the real question to if this will help solve some of my problems. What I plan on doing is to shorten up my leg kick’s height. Instead of going all the way up, I am going to start it at that same point where I normally bring it down, the same exact spot where I start my hip drive. This way I can’t waste any of that time with the leg kick going up higher. So instead of raising the kick high, then lowering it halfway then starting my momentum, I will bring it up only to where I start my momentum with the higher kick, start falling then and then throw the pitch. I think this should help solve some of my timing issues. I also don’t expect this to be a permanent change. I will start with a smaller leg kick, maby almost a slide-step. This way I can focus on the momentum then gradually add in my normal leg kick but hopefully then I will have trained my body to start the momentum at the begining of the knee raise because that is what i forced myself to do when I use the lower knee raise.
I’m hoping that made sense and if someone can tell me if this is going to mess me up. I know the issues with the slidestep but this won’t be permanent and not quite a slidestep either. Maby Roger if you read this I’m sure you can give me the proper answer. Anyone else too.
Here is the link for the video if anyone hasn’t seen it, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuWI9rv_7_E