Pitching Mechanics (BIG TIME HELP NEEDED!) videos included

#1

Heyy I’m new to this site so let me just introduce my self my name is Rudy I am in a major need of help mechanically… My control is all over the place, frustration is killing me on the mound, and honestly I dunno what to do… I pitch about 4 times a week with a days rest in between (3 times with professional instruction winter training program and once with high school team) the season/tryouts is in about 4 weeks and im freakin out right now… my coaches are all telling me my arm slot is all over the place, im not keeping my weight back, and that im not following through or stepping right… its a real mechanical mess and the frustration on the mound is unbearable… it dominates my mind and i just have this mental block that I jus can’t throw strikes… my throwing as been incredibly erratic as of late even while warming up…my velocity is pretty good its always been good but the control has just left me… if anyone can please help me as soon as possible i would REALLY appreciate it…

side view from the stretch

front/side view from stretch live throwing to hitters

front side view from stretch live through to hitters part 2

#2

The camera angle in all of those videos isn’t the best for analyzing mechanics. Straight on (from front or behind) and side views are best. So take this with a grain of salt…

It appears that you stride to the closed side of the target and you plant with your foot turned to the open side of the target. I think this can certainly lead to inconsistency. It can affect your balance and posture and that can affect your arm slot and release point.

The first thing you might try to do to fix this is to move to the left side of the rubber. That way, if you stride to the closed side, you won’t have as big of a corner to turn to get squared up to the target. But it that doesn’t do the trick, then you need to get yourself to stride straight to the target. Either way, you want to plant with the foot pointed at the target or slightly to the closed side of the target.

You also appear to plant significantly on your heel. Sometimes, landing harshly on your heel creates a jarring that can affect your accuracy. Your coach telling you to keep your weight back only contributes to this. Get your hips going sooner and faster and you’ll be able to get out over the front foot more and land less on the heel and more flat-footed or on the ball of your foot.

In one of the videos, it looks like your coach is demonstrating the arm slot he wants and it looks like a pretty high slot. Understand that your mechanics (e.g. balance and posture) affect your arm slot. If you’re trying to have the arm slot he’s telling you, you need to adjust your mechanics to achieve it. And then you still might not achieve it. (Personally, I don’t worry about arm slot unless a pitcher has a truly problematic one.)

#3

A few of things…

  1. You really lean forward toward 3B. I would consider trying to stay a little more upright.

  2. You seem to land on your GS heel. I would try to land a little more flat-footed.

  3. A Roger pointed out, you stride closed, but you end up with your toe pointed to the 1B side of Home Plate (which is kind of weird). That suggests that there is something strange going on with your lower body (but it’s hard to say for sure with these clips). Most high level pitchers stride more directly toward the target and end up pointing their GS toe either at the target or to the 3B side of home.

#4

One more thing…

Not only does your front foot open up but so does your front knee. That tells me that your center of gravity is moving in that direction even though you strode to the closed side. The knee will normally align itself in the direction your center of gravity is moving as that puts it in the strongest position to support your weight.

So, what I think is happening is that your lower body strides to the closed side and then, in an attempt to get back on-line with the target, your upper body bends at the waist toward the open side. This is a late posture change that will mess up your release point. Fixing the stride issue using one of the 2 techniques I described above should help.

#5

You might be thinking about mechanics too much.

#6

I saw this too in looking again at the first clip. You almost immediately point your toe at the target. What you want to do is stride sideways to the target and point your toe at the target just before your GS foot lands. That will help to keep your hips closed.

#7

But if he’s still striding to the closed side, changing the direction of the foot will only put more stress on the hip, knee and ankle when his upper body tries to get back online with the target. He’s got a late posture change issue, I believe.

#8

I can’t thank you guys enough… but what im still worried about is that foot for some reason i just find it hard to point the GS foot directly at the target… and Roger how is it that i should get my hips start sooner or faster in order to land flat footed? Because to be honest with you I always did feel like i land a bit too much on my heel which makes the ball sail most of the time… And i did try adjusting that by leading with my hip which also caused me to put most of my weight on the front knee and my coaches really didn’t like that… once again thank you guys I’ll actually be throwing a session tommorrow and i’ll definitely work on these things :smiley:

#9

If you don’t fix the stride and posture issue, you probably won’t be able to fix the foot/knee issue. If I’m correct (which I might not be due to the camera angle), you are striding to the 3B side of home plate and then your upper body is trying to get back online with and square up to the target. And it is doing so by bending at the waist to the glove side. This create a posture change and shifts your weight to the glove side. You plant with the foot and knee pointing to the glove side to support your weight going in that direction. Your foot and knee will continue to do that as long as your weight is being shifted in that direction. (Note that I can’t actually see if you’re bending at the waist - the camera angle doesn’t allow me to see that. I’m basing this assumption on the position of your foot and knee.)

When you’re in the stretch and using the slide step, you don’t have much knee lift and you get your stride foot out very fast. You lead with the front leg. So I don’t think you can really get the hips going sooner because to do so requires leading with the front hip. Now, when you’re not using the slide step, you ldon’t start the hips forward until the knee reaches the apex ofyour knee lift. You do, as your coach says, keep your weight back. unfortunately, that is not what the top pitchers do. The top pitchers are well on their way forward when their knee peaks. In your case, start by trying to push the hips sideways toward home plate while the knee is still on the way up. You need to maintain the same knee lift and that will feel like you’re going to fall down. But what will happen is your front leg will learn to be faster getting out to foot plant. Also, your torso will get out over the front leg more and, hopefully, you’ll lessen the landing on the heel.

Getting the hips going sooner/faster means you’ll be moving faster at foot plant. That means the front leg will have to work harder to firm up and stop your forward movement. So you might need to strengthen the legs. This is one of the reasons pitchers need strong legs. It takes more work to be more explosive.

Remember that these kinds of adjustments to your mechanics will take lots of practice to master. Don’t expect overnight success. Stick ith it and give it a chance (assuming your coach allows it).

#10

i dont know if anyone else will agree with me, but to me it seems like you must have a pitching coach or just a regular coach or someone breaking down to you what mechanics are supposed to look like and you are trying to do them step by step while you are pitching you dont really look as fluid as you could if you would just go out and pitch. work on mechanics during time that isnt throwing live to hitters. develop muscle memory on the side and then hopefully when you go to pitch it will come more naturally and it wont seem so step by step

#11

I’d rather have a coach get me to “feel” how it should feel for me to throw well rather than how it should “look”. The step by step approach might best be done in a “reverse progression”. Search for that term and there are several posts about it.

elplatanero2094.
On a mechanical note, your arm action is fragmented. The hand goes back and stalls there for a moment, then you throw. You need to eliminate the pause. Trial and error with video feedback, paying attention to the position of when the ball breaks from the glove may pay off.

#12

[quote=“dm59”]

elplatanero2094.
On a mechanical note, your arm action is fragmented. The hand goes back and stalls there for a moment, then you throw. You need to eliminate the pause. Trial and error with video feedback, paying attention to the position of when the ball breaks from the glove may pay off.[/quote]

i guess it didnt come out right but that was what i was trying to say. it looks to step by step there are pauses inbetween different points in your motion try to eliminate them and move smoothly