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Lower Half Pitching Mechanics: Block – Simplified (Part 4 of 4)

Use your legs. Use your lower half. Sounds great but, “what the heck does it mean”? Coaches often cue this as if it’s one single thing. In reality, a proper use of the lower half has 4 different but connected and sequential components. In Part 4 of this 4 part series on lower half pitching mechanics, we’ll take a closer look and break down what I refer to as the Block.

Continue reading “Lower Half Pitching Mechanics: Block — Simplified (Part 4 of 4)”

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Lower Half Pitching Mechanics: Drive / Rotate – Simplified (Part 3 of 4)

Use your legs. Use your lower half. Sounds great but, “what the heck does it mean”? Coaches often cue this as if it’s one single thing. In reality, a proper use of the lower half has 4 different but connected and sequential components. In Part 3 of this 4 part series on lower half pitching mechanics, we’ll take a closer look and break down what I refer to as the Drive / Rotate phase.

    • Part 1 – Drift
    • Part 2 – Load
    • Part 3 – Drive / Rotate
    • Part 4 – Block

Continue reading “Lower Half Pitching Mechanics: Drive / Rotate — Simplified (Part 3 of 4)”

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Lower Half Pitching Mechanics: The Drift – Simplified (Part 1 of 4)

lower half pitching

Use your legs. Use your lower half. Sounds great but, “what the heck does it mean”? Coaches often cue this as if it’s one single thing. In reality, a proper use of the lower half has 4 different but connected and sequential components. In this 4 part series on lower half pitching mechanics, we’ll take a closer look and break down what I consider to be the 4 big plyers we need on the road to an efficient lower half:

Let’s kick off Part 1 of this series with component #1 – Drift. Continue reading “Lower Half Pitching Mechanics: The Drift — Simplified (Part 1 of 4)”

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5 Lower Half Pitching Issues Preventing a Consistent Release Point

Lower Half Pitching

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”

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4 Simple Ways to Maintain Lower Half Power In-Season

Lower Top 1

The reality is that during the season many pitchers may have difficulty getting to the gym more than 1-2 x’s per week. So here at RPP, we recommend supplementing your in-season training with some strength / mobility work that can be done at home or at the field. These exercises are designed to maintain your strength and mobility without creating any residual soreness that could effect on-field performance. It’s not as efficient as coming into the gym and getting your reps done but it’s better than not doing anything at all… much better. Continue reading “4 Simple Ways to Maintain Lower Half Power In-Season”

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Improving Speed and Power from the Stretch

The back leg is the initial power source in pitching and when pitching from the stretch, the ability to load and the unload the back leg gives a pitcher the greater advantage with runners on.

Faster more elastic athletes can stretch their tendons quickly and better harness energy while loading without requiring high levels of strength. But for more “strength-based” athletes who like to load slower in order to maximize power mostly from their muscles contracting, the stretch can be a nemesis, especially you have runners on base. So, training to get more elastic can go a long way in putting another essential tool such as getting quicker in the stretch into their toolbox, which brings us to the concept of Reactive Strength and how you test it. Continue reading “Improving Speed and Power from the Stretch”

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How to Create a More Powerful Lower Half in Pitching

lower half pitching

I’m sitting here in my office analyzing pitching video and thinking to myself “are folks understanding what I’m talking about when I tell them they’re not using their lower half pitching mechanics efficiently?” It prompted me to write this quick tutorial as to how lower half rotation unfolds, helping to initiate the power that ultimately gets transferred through the core and into the arm.  As we go through this, we will also review what type exercise might be helpful. Continue reading “How to Create a More Powerful Lower Half in Pitching”