Winter Bullpens

Pitching Mechanics
#1

This video is 6 pitches from two bullpens on 1-6-08 and 1-10-08.

The first (gray shirt) is 4SF, CH, 2SF and it was the end of the bullpen of about 40 pitches.

The second (purple shirt) is FB, CH, FB and it was 3 pitches from the beginning/middle/end of the bullpen of about 60 pitches.

I noticed some differences between the first and the second (the first is obviously better), mainly that I am releasing the ball higher and farther from the plate in the second, but I’m not too worried about it. I was tired for the second bullpen.

I’m working on stepping a tad bit more open so I can have a more stable base and hopefully achieve more h/s separation.

I couldn’t really get any other camera angles.

Now… take your shots.

I am going to make this youtube video private after awhile. If anyone still wants to see the video, just befriend me on youtube and ask and you might receive.

#2

you seem to land on your heel, which nolan ryan and randy johnson were always against | some would say the posture during leg lift is a problem…i don’t know much about that | and in my estimation, you’re short-arming it…

weird thumb, too.

#3

[quote=“ltdan”]you seem to land on your heel, which nolan ryan and randy johnson were always against | some would say the posture during leg lift is a problem…i don’t know much about that | and in my estimation, you’re short-arming it…

weird thumb, too.[/quote]

Yes, during leg lift my posture is poor. I have very tight hips suffice it to say. I’m working on that.

That’s my mom’s thumb it signifies a good pitch but ‘the thumb’ doesn’t always appear even if the pitch is good. :roll:

#4

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this is good, but the heel landing is what is not allowing you to use your hips like you want.

#5

Looks pretty good Spencer. Of course, I do have a few recomendations but they’re small optimizations as opposed to major changes.

First, it’s hard to tell but it looks like your drag line ends to the throwing arm side of the center of the rubber. Assuming I’m seeing this correctly, determine how far from the centerline of the rubber it ends and move your starting positiong the other way by that same distance to get your dragline to end on the centerline of the rubber. I would do this before trying to change your stride to open up more. It may be all you need.

Second, it looks like you could use a little more momentum from your lower half. I say this based on both overall appearance to my eye as well as your drag line appearing to be a bit short. The NPA now recommends getting your drag line to end two of your show sizes in front of the rubber. Doing so means you generated some good momentum and your stride will be longer without “reaching”.

Finally, and again it’s hard to tell from the video, but it looks like you don’t stride as far when you throw your change-up which means you’re not generating the same momentum. Batters will eventually be able to detect this difference.

#6

Landing on the heel isn’t itself a problem but it is usually an indication of a lack of momentum which is a problem. I think that coincides with my comment above about the lack of momentum

#7

i would recommend getting some bend in your knees and concentrate on being athletic. it doesn’t look to me like you are really trying to throw the baseball hard. eat some jalepenos and get some fire and smoke coming out of your backside. just finished a 2 day coaches clininc and the cardinals crosschecker talked about what he looks for in a pitcher and the first thing he said was he is looking for athletes. a mule never won the kentucky derby and you need to show me you’re a race horse if you want to play. emphasized a radical tilt of the shoulders to throw also. the pitching coach for the university of nebraska said the exact same thing. you need to get movement, momentum and leverage into your delivery.

also said that throwing your long toss after you throw your bullpen is increasing velocity.

#8

Interesting…

I’m going to work on proper posture (more athletic stance and ‘balance phase’) to start with from the beginning and more momentum. I’d been working on the momentum for awhile but I guess I need a swift kick in the pants (and some jalapeños).

EDIT: I already stride further than I am tall so with more momentum, wouldn’t I stride even further or would I land in the same place and have more energy to transfer to the ball? The latter seems better to me.

I think I’ll take the jalapeño advice literally heh I’ll save some jalapeños from the cafeteria for my next bullpen and shove them in my mouth right before I start… see what happens.

#9

make sure you have some water handy seniore

#10

Water actually makes pepper ‘burns’ worse.

Any thoughts on my previous comments?

#11

Looking good, Spencer.

Ditto Roger’s question/suggestion about your dragline. Just check it out on each different mound that you throw from to establish your best starting point on the rubber.

I disagree with the automatic advice about landing on your heel. Randy Johnson had a problem in the early '90s associated with landing on his heel but his mechanics at the time were causing him to spin off violently toward 3B right after footstrike. House and Nolan Ryan worked with him on that stuff (and he learned so much from their help that he started whipping the Ranger’s a$$es pretty regularly thereafter as a “thank you”).

The general numbers among elite pitchers are: Heel-strikers = ~50%, toe-strikers = ~25 %, flat-foot strikers = ~25%. House/NPA believe that how your stride foot lands is a non-teach as long as there are no clear mechanical problems from it.

It doesn’t look to me like you have any problem getting your momentum directed toward homeplate.

#12

"Yes, during leg lift my posture is poor. I have very tight hips suffice it to say. I’m working on that."

What are you doing to work on it? Do you guys do step behinds? Might help posture wise, square up what looks to me like timing issues to me and my untrained ignorant eye…also could get you to open them tight hips, I don’t care about heel landing but I do think you slightly throw across your body…I think just a little better knee lift/posture and you open up, get a little better seperation…perhaps a jink more pop. Has your coach ever said anything to you about bending at the waist at knee lift…good/bad…he don’t care?

#13

[quote=“jdfromfla”]"Yes, during leg lift my posture is poor. I have
very tight hips suffice it to say. I’m working on that."

What are you doing to work on it? Do you guys do step behinds? Might
help posture wise, square up what looks to me like timing issues to me
and my untrained ignorant eye…also could get you to open them tight
hips, I don’t care about heel landing but I do think you slightly throw
across your body…I think just a little better knee lift/posture and
you open up, get a little better seperation…perhaps a jink more pop.
Has your coach ever said anything to you about bending at the waist at
knee lift…good/bad…he don’t care?[/quote]

To work on my posture, I am stretching my hips/hams/quads and I do step
behinds but I do not think they are helping too much since it looks
like the postural issue is right at the beginning. I am going to try
over-emphasizing the proper ‘free-throw’ posture going through the
balance phase. It looks like I have pretty good posture throughout the
motion but maybe I’m off track because of the beginning.

Roger/Flippin, the fact that I actually have a straight dragline is
amazing considering last year I had one of those curly 2-parters :wink:

#14

that will help you with your fastball but i didnt really seam to see anyone mention your change (of course i just scanned through the reply’s). when you throw your change you slow your delivery down alot. check out the first 2 pitches of video. big difference in momentum which will give away your pitch to a batter.

#15

Wow that really is different

Edit: then again, on a second look, it doesn’t seem too different.

#16

I think maybe my arm action looks slower because my arm is more pronated going through the motion. I’ll look into it though.