We have talked in the past about hip-shoulder separation and its importance in the pitching motion. In this article, we will dive deeper into the idea of “closing the gap” after max separation has occurred. More specifically:
We will also review some potential issues and how we may address them.
Continue reading “Pitching Biomechanics: Hip Shoulder Separation, Closing the Gap”
Similar to t-spine mobility, hip IR is absolutely essential to creating a smooth deceleration path. If the hip closes too early upon foot strike, the arm can open up early, causing an early release and cutting the ball. This can be a killer for not only velocity but spin efficiency and vertical break as well. In addition, a poor decel pattern can cause the arm to “slam shut”, creating damaging forces on the shoulder and elbow. Below are several great hip exercises that every pitcher could take advantage of to get some of that IR back.
Continue reading “Hip Exercises for Pitchers, Improving Internal Rotation”
When I first started training, I like many others believed that if we just keep improving absolute strength our athletes would continue to get bigger, faster, and stronger. Fast forward to many years later, and I can tell you with a great degree of confidence (and experience) that most metrics crucial to sport such as speed, explosive ability, and change of direction can only be improved for about the first year simply by increasing absolute strength, as in getting stronger, by utilizing big compound lifts under high load. However, Continue reading “How to Create the Best Prescription for Power”
There is certainly no shortage of pitching bands and baseball band exercises for pitchers. There are actually so many that it can make your head spin. We use several baseball band exercises for pitchers as a part of our pre-throwing routine and over the years we have refined them down to what we believe to be the min / max of what you should be doing. Continue reading “What are the Best Baseball Band Exercises for Pitchers”
It’s no mystery that one of the keys to successful pitching is a consistent release point. While I do believe that the term “repeatable delivery” is a bit of a stretch, and that many times inconsistency in your arm slot can be a major cause of difficulty in repeating your delivery, I believe we need to dig a little deeper and look closer down the kinetic chain to lower half pitching issues. Continue reading “5 Lower Half Pitching Issues Preventing a Consistent Release Point”
As a driven high school baseball player with hopes and dreams of playing college baseball your attention is constantly being directed towards sculpting yourself into the quintessential 5-Tool player. The 5-tools below are skills of the game that scouts are looking for in potential prospect(s) to help give their teams the greatest opportunity to compete and ultimately win a national championship.
The intention behind this article is to hone in on the first tool…. SPEED, and answer the question “WHY?”. Why is speed such a sought-after tool for scouts and offer you 3 things YOU can do to develop this skill. Continue reading “3 Pillars for Enhancing First Step Quickness”
It’s been a crazy year for everyone, but that didn’t stop us from continuing our efforts to develop great ball players while educating the community at the same time. Here are the top received blogs of 2020. Continue reading “Best of 2020… Strength Training, Pitching and Hitting Articles”
Having observed hundreds of pitchers on our Rapsodo Pitching camera during the past several years, it’s fair to say that there are a few tendencies that most high school and collegiate pitchers exhibit. While every pitcher is different with their skillset, we generally tend to observe similar opportunities for improvement in pitch movement.
In this first of three articles… Continue reading “What are the Most Common Pitch Movement Issues… And the Fixes”
A comprehensive arm care program for pitchers should be a part of every athlete’s routine. Although most pitchers think of the warm-up when it comes to arm care, a post pitching arm care and recovery protocol is just as important. We often get asked about arm care after a throwing session. Basically, it should involve 6 exercises that can easily done in less than 25 minutes and its primary purpose is to help restore lost mobility during an outing. Here’s a quick summary: Continue reading “Post Pitching Arm Care Routine for Pitchers”
Over the past few years, we have had hundreds of baseball players, specifically pitchers come through our facility. While they come in all shapes, sizes and technical ability, they all are looking to do the same thing, how to throw a baseball harder and do so safely working with a baseball throwing program. So, while this article is about how we build throwing programs, it’s important to highlight that the body has its own language and agenda, and you cannot learn it by only learning 3 or 4 words. You certainly can’t do it by slapping together some throwing drills with long toss and pull-down days. Continue reading “How to Build a Baseball Throwing Program”
