Sophomore pitcher appreciate comments

Pitching Mechanics
#1

Hi guys, I’ve posted some shots of my son in the last two years and appreciate the feedback. We’ve worked on some great comments from position of the feet in the stretch to the “momentum” aspect of the delivery which he didn’t have any before.

Here are some late shots from a few weeks ago. One thing I’ll say is we’ve incorporated another slight change to this. I’ve read Dusty D’s reviews on here and thought process and reviewed the slow motion clips of a lot of MLB players, including Dusty’s 15 year old son. One of the things that has helped is the tip Dusty gave on putting my hand under the front armpit and then slightly pushing the backhip to give my kid the feel of the front hip leading more. Additionally, I had him slightly tilt the shoulders a little. This seemed to result in a better transfer of the weight and to keep his top half from getting out to far ahead. These shots are pre tilt. I know you don’t really want to keep your weight back…but the slight tilt seems to have connected him more from these shots where his top may have been creeping forward with his front hip a little too much

any thoughts appreciated

Apologize for the lack of light…it’s the best we could do here

There is a back, backside and angled view

Front Angled view

Back view

Backside view

#2

his mechanics look pretty solid to me… i think he can still throw a bit harder… he needs to be more agressive in his delivery, once the arm is in the high cocked position he needs to be more agressive from there and it will add mph… but overall pretty good how fast does he throw?

#3

it looks to me like he falls forwards a little bit at the end. Maybe a longer stride and aggressively firming up the landing leg would help him throw harder and with better control, so he’s not falling forwards on his follow through. Other than that it looks solid.

My estimate for his velocity would be 79-83 mph…how close am I?

#4

i think he can definitely get more tilt in the shoulders and angle in the body before he begins to move down the mound. it will give his body a chance to establish more leverage as he throws the ball. but it looks pretty good. try doing the chair drills also to get the feel of traveling down the hill with the shoulders behing the midline. that works good too.

keep up the good work.

#5

@Lanky

I’ve really worked with him to try to increase his stride length. One of the things I have to do is just measure where he’s at right now. I’d prefer him to be in the 90% area from investigation and reading about the typical stride lengths that work.

I hadn’t noticed the front leg giving in a bit too much before and I’ll look at that. I’ve read the debates on here about whether youshould stiffen that leg to help finish or still have flex remaining.

JJ (Junior Joe) has always had decent control. But, he’s only incorporated the momentum for a year now, and it certainly helped increase velocity a little.

With respect to velocity…I have zero clue as to how hard he’s throwing. Have a glove radar but the thing keeps popping off my glove anymore and I havn’t used it. All I know is I’m getting wimpy, because as you can see from the lousy shots…it’s sorta not as light as I’d prefer where he works out.

I’m getting nervous catching anymore with respect to picking up the ball early. He’s noticably faster than last year from what I could tell

I’m thoroughly impressed by many of the posters on here that are throwing in the 80’s in high school.

#6

@Dusty

Sorry for the darkness in the pic’s. After reviewing these shots and pitctures from a few weeks ago, I was noticing that the dip in his shoulders if anything may have been forward after knee apex or near apex. I’ve also noticed sometimes he tends to throw with the back foot coming off the ground. From reading suggestions from DM and Roger, it could be rushing the top half a tad too much…

Then I came across the shots of your boy and started looking at some slow pic’s of ML pitchers and it was noticable to me that many have a slight tilt in the shoulders (front shoulder slightly higher in air than back)…so we tried it the other day and I put my hand under his armpit and slightly pushed his back hip to get him the feel of moving out his hips more in front of the upper body…again this was after these pictures on here

Where is the line between keeping your top half back a little and not rushing vs. not having enough momentum into landing? Still trying to figure that one out.

Now I had to catch and had to use all my concentration in doing that so I couldnt’ really look at his windup, but, he said he did the tilt, and felt he had more transfer into foot plant and felt more connected. He was coming up short though on several change ups into the ground in front of the plate…not sure why

anyway…what is the chair drill again? Is it the back leg on the chair where you pivot and turn and throw…do you keep it on the chair or have it come off and around?

thanx

#7

@Dusty

Sorry for the darkness in the pic’s. After reviewing these shots and pitctures from a few weeks ago, I was noticing that the dip in his shoulders if anything may have been forward after knee apex or near apex. I’ve also noticed sometimes he tends to throw with the back foot coming off the ground. From reading suggestions from DM and Roger, it could be rushing the top half a tad too much…

Then I came across the shots of your boy and started looking at some slow pic’s of ML pitchers and it was noticable to me that many have a slight tilt in the shoulders (front shoulder slightly higher in air than back)…so we tried it the other day and I put my hand under his armpit and slightly pushed his back hip to get him the feel of moving out his hips more in front of the upper body…again this was after these pictures on here

Where is the line between keeping your top half back a little and not rushing vs. not having enough momentum into landing? Still trying to figure that one out.

Now I had to catch and had to use all my concentration in doing that so I couldnt’ really look at his windup, but, he said he did the tilt, and felt he had more transfer into foot plant and felt more connected. He was coming up short though on several change ups into the ground in front of the plate…not sure why

anyway…what is the chair drill again? Is it the back leg on the chair where you pivot and turn and throw…do you keep it on the chair or have it come off and around?

thanx

#8

well, after releasing the ball, keep stretching your hand toward the catcher’s glove. Stretch forward, snap it off, complete your pitch. Complete your pitch means " slap the knee, get parallel to the ground.
Follow through, stretch forward, complete the pitch. Then step over and down with the follow leg.

#9

When I said “get vertical”, I meant " get horizontal", to the gound.

#10

updated mechanics with a little tilt added to waist and shoulders to help stay back a little

backside