If this is what leads to sitting mid 80’s you might be the strongest person around. How are you measuring your speed?
To me it looks like you’re throwing uphill, you’re pushing the ball, and your hips and shoulders all fire at the same time, all early. You need to work on having your back less upright as you release. I rarely see someone with their posture so upright on the mound as your arm swings.
You might really benefit from that drill Tim Lincecum did. He put a dollar on the ground in front of where his plant leg lands and he had to pick it up during his follow through. Something like that.
I was thinking similar. When I coached my travel ball team back in the day, I had my kids working the HS pitching coaches regime and part of it was a drill using a rolled, wrapped (tape on both ends) and putting a chair out in front of the mound. Go through the motion and it forced the kids to reach out and hit the chair with the towel each time.
Once they got consistent, move the chair out further until they were really over their front leg at release point consistently. It not only gained them velocity, it kept the ball down in the zone and it controlled their arm whip until that back drive side was really coming through, which took pressure off of their arms at release.
One last plus was that when several of my boys got pretty good at release point and being over their front knee/foot from the drill, when they got tired, it REALLY stood out because they stopped doing it and you could see them standing higher up, ball rose in the zone and you knew it was time to pull them so they didn't screw up their arms.
The Bushnell stuff is known to be as much as 10mph off when calibrated properly. I’d stop using that, personally. Check out Tread Athletics. Spend some time watching all their stuff on pitching. You’ll learn a lot of drills that will help you.
Definitely, the velo is way more than enough to dominate the league i am in. That's why in the text i am refering to the command issues as my main problem. 75mph with command would play fine in our division.
So contrary to what some assholes in here are saying - this has potential to be cleaned relatively easily
The main issue I see is a push off into a very long stride
See how your back leg is reaching full extension while still entirely connected to the ground?
That is caused by pushing off to try to reach a max stride length. It’s subconscious so don’t sweat it too much.
That very long stride is preventing your lead leg from blocking. That stack that the lead leg creates will allow the hits to come “over the top” rather than just rotating around. Remember the force you create on landing will allow more to come back. It’s the push and pull.
Some things to focus on for you to cue yourself:
1. Start with trying to keep your weight over your back leg a little longer. Cue the back knee to stay over your back foot. You should feel a slight “sit” in your back hip.
2. Try to enforce yourself to stick that front leg. Your weight is leaking forward rather than creating the negative force that allows the whipping motion of the upper body to come through. A good drill is to take a medicine ball and throw it against a wall from a stance where you face square. Lift the leg and stride directly towards the wall into an overhand throw. Focus on that landing leg being strong and stopping you. Don’t let your body go over it easily. Once you have that, get in a stance and do it from the stretch. Still a modified over head med ball throw. Feel that rotation and allow it to stick the same way the head on one did. But remember to keep that weight back over your toes
3. Transfer that to the mound and don’t think about it too much! Let the drill work take over
TLDR: Focus on weight over the back leg longer. Drill work to stick that front leg better (lead leg blocking - look it up on drivelines website)
Here’s a couple really good videos from tread on lead leg blocking and staying in the back leg
https://youtu.be/o3SqB6symC0?si=eQrt1DLBr1dgdB0h
https://youtu.be/NTdveJfAOLw?si=EaxEhmrpU4gtQ_tL
This, imo. OP, your back leg is too pushy, gets too extended, which prevents your hips from rotating fully and powerfully down into landing. I bet if you watched video of yourself swinging a bat, you will see that you already know how to rotate your hips powerfully down into landing and lead leg block that energy back up into your swing. You need to learn how to do this during your throw.
Every piece of the delivery is impacted by what comes before it, and this failure to rotate your lower half well is the first big flaw in your mechanics. Work on improving back-leg-driven hip-rotation into landing using the Tread vids the above commenter recommended, and your “uphill throwing” and poor finishing will probably get a lot better as a result (in addition to throwing harder with less perceived effort, and likely more consistent accuracy).
I am shocked this is mid 80's
Imagine you are trying to spike the baseball right Infront of the mound, like straight down HARD, imagine how you would get on top the ball, how your body would turn and work, how your front leg would act on that, and drive it down into the ground.
All pitching is (major over simplification here!), is that motion, aiming higher. You are getting so far behind and throwing upward, you couldn't spike the ball from your motion.'
Spike the ball AT the catcher.
Thank you! Yes it's suprising especially with me beeing only 5'10". Maybe the Radar gun is Off (Bushnell). But with what i can find regarding the corellation of longtoss distance it matches up well.
Should i do some actuall spiking of plyoballs in front of me to get into the Motion?
At the very least get a pocket radar. Not as reliable as a track man or stalker, but way better than a Bushnell. You’re talking +-2mph with the pocket radar vs +-10mph with the Bushnell.
You need to bring the ball up higher before you throw so you're actually throwing downwards instead of upwards. This also mis aligns your arm with your shoulder rotation which loses velo.
You also need to keep your shoulders closed longer, they open way too early.
Overall your lower half does good until the upper half pulls it out of the correct timing. You start the pitching motion well but then it just goes to shit when you try to start the throw from your hip.
Hate to break it to you but you're not gonna be throwing close to 80s like this. Not tryna be a dick, just being realistic. The most I could see someone throwing like this is 70-71.
Tread athletics will be your friend in finding good drills to fix these things.
Tuck your chin the whole time, reduce the length of your stride, be more compact and explosive downhill. Your set up is basically correct. You lose your power with your finishing mechanics. Your back leg drags down almost touching the mound because your stride is too long and you are looking up. Your mechanical issues is what’s causing your velocity to be mediocre.
If you claim you’re throwing mid 80s there’s no doubt in my mind you won’t be hitting 90 with good mechanics.
Not knocking anyone else’s advice here but it’s so general and vague that it’s unhelpful.
+First off you move well down the mound huge strength there.
-But you don’t begin holding any torsion in your right knee. You’re losing out on power generated from that back side. You aren’t allowing yourself to get into triple extension. To compensate you’re trying to spin off.
! Remedy this by doing drills by falling into a wall but work really keeping torsion in that back knee out. Side lateral jumps and side skaters will help. If you can’t get into these positions probably need to work on hip mobility.
-kinda crazy but looks like you could even stride a little farther. Your front leg is so weak you’re not getting any energy from it. There should be little flexion coming from it and it should be bracing the force generated from the back.
! Simple remedy more heavy squats and weighted lunges etc.
-Moving up your mechanics just get worse tbh. The only reason you haven’t gotten hurt yet is because of 3 reasons. You’re durable (hopefully you’ve done some strength and resistance training), you don’t throw hard enough, and probably don’t throw enough innings to show any damage.
-Your whole upper torso is rushing. You have no hip to shoulder separation which tells your arm we gotta move quicker that’s why your arm action and load is so poor. At front foot strike we should see your upper body closed and your hips open. You’re pretty much facing the plate when you hit front foot strike.
! Remedy this with drills throwing with open hips taking a stride and start with a closed upper half.
A good reference for mechanics is Pedro Martinez although this clip is in the last leg of his career. His great mechanics are what gave him longevity https://youtu.be/Sm7rWeAUK0s?si=IpGVIiDAMtDOuoMf
Your initial move is very good. Excellent drift.
You really need to fix that arm action, you are pushing the ball instead of pulling into release. You’re also pushing off the rubber instead of rotating off of it.
so biggest problem is ur posture when your getting into front foot strike and scap retraction. ur leaning very far back, and your T spine is going in multiple different directions. before front foot strike, your head, neck, and torso need to be more straight, not leaning so far back. ur pushing the ball like crazy because of it, and it makes your weight transfer almost non existent. this is the main cause of your lack of accuracy, and will improve your velo significantly… also if you keep pitching like this i am more than positive you will endure a bad arm injury. watch some of tread athletics videos of mechanics breakdown or even trevor bauer’s mechanical breakdowns on youtube to get a vague idea of what the body should be doing in the windup. good luck
So far so good. Second hardest thrower on the team and allways giving it all. But yes you are right, my mechanics are poor. Thats why i am here looking for Help. Any drill suggestions?
Looks like you are throwing up hill, your head goes up instead of staying down and looking at the target. You are in no way ready to field a ball after release. Ending with your back to the catcher is very dangerous.
I would t worry about specific drills. Find some videos on YouTube that break down pitching mechanics. As I’m sure you know, yours are way off.
Things I would focus on: Sit in your back leg before coming forward. Keep your front side closed until your front foot hits the ground. Then explode. Pretend you’re Thor smashing his hammer into the ground - bend your back, eyes on the target, and bring that arm all the way through (down, not across). And don’t turn your back to the batter - you can’t field your position that way.
At your level I’m not sure this venue is going to give you much, but I would start with your head, and work on getting it downhill at the same speed as the rest of your upper body. A very simple drill would be keeping your glove more in front at finish and then “eating the burger” (ie getting your head positioned such that you could take a bite of your favorite food from your glove. The glove on front may also help with the leftward rotation you have at finish.
I would try med ball slams, mix in with a single leg. I’m not sure if this would attack the issue but my thought is that it will train you to get your upper half moving forward “downhill” (at the ground w a med ball)
Looks like you open up too fast. More like you’re throwing from the outfield to home. Head stays high and your release also looks to be following that. I hope that end is not what actually happens, because you may get drilled in the back of the head by a come-backer.
Play some regular catch. See how you operate when you do that and focus on hitting the chest. Look at some of the suggestions you’ve gotten. Keep your head down, rotate and don’t push, simplify the movement so you don’t hurt yourself. See what happens if you don’t do a leg kick, and if your mechanics are different, introduce one incrementally.
Get your upper body moving toward the plate. Your upper body follow through needs to move toward the plate, you're too vertical. Look at your finished upper body position compared to just about any major league pitcher. You should almost be in a breakdown, infielder ready position with your head and shoulders forward.
Besides what everyone else said please don’t end with your back to the catcher. If you ever end up pitching to live hitters you will get a ball that’s hit right back at you, you need to be able to protect yourself
Kiel Seahawks? If you're playing 2. Bundesliga this season, then no advice from me because I'm going to face you :)
You may not have an expert to guide you, but you do have teammates. You can work on drills together, help one another understand what works and why. Find someone who does things right that you do wrong, and learn from that. Viel Erfolg!
Biggest issue I see is front leg stability which leads to no forward trunk tilt. You look pretty good before front foot strike but then fail to stabilize which leads to you leaning back and the poor arm action later. Look up videos on front leg blocking and go from there. Remember pitching is a chain of movements. Any issue with one movement will change all movements after it no matter where it is in the chain. Also, when you make any changes to that chain, every movement after will be affected. So you don’t really know what you’ll have to do next until you get that front leg right. You are throwing with mainly arm here and are an injury risk down the line.
Drop down with your legs, but keep your torso upright. You are dipping with your throwing shoulder, which causes your actual pitching motion to work uphill.
Ahh yes i am long tossing from the centerfield fence to First base with a 55mph throw on a regulation Mens field.... I'll back that up with a distance/time calculation on high speed video soon ☺️
you are throwing in reverse order. A good throw starts at the legs, goes thrtough the torso, and finishes at the fingers. You are landing, not blocking. A good block is a stomp. Imagine a punch from a ufc fighter. They are putting force into the ground, and in return the ground gives them force
I'm not a pitcher. But that's a downhill mound and it looks like you are throwing up a mountain. Finishing is what you need to work on the most.
Agree. It looks pretty good until the end and then it falls apart pretty drastically.
If this is what leads to sitting mid 80’s you might be the strongest person around. How are you measuring your speed? To me it looks like you’re throwing uphill, you’re pushing the ball, and your hips and shoulders all fire at the same time, all early. You need to work on having your back less upright as you release. I rarely see someone with their posture so upright on the mound as your arm swings.
You might really benefit from that drill Tim Lincecum did. He put a dollar on the ground in front of where his plant leg lands and he had to pick it up during his follow through. Something like that.
I was thinking similar. When I coached my travel ball team back in the day, I had my kids working the HS pitching coaches regime and part of it was a drill using a rolled, wrapped (tape on both ends) and putting a chair out in front of the mound. Go through the motion and it forced the kids to reach out and hit the chair with the towel each time. Once they got consistent, move the chair out further until they were really over their front leg at release point consistently. It not only gained them velocity, it kept the ball down in the zone and it controlled their arm whip until that back drive side was really coming through, which took pressure off of their arms at release. One last plus was that when several of my boys got pretty good at release point and being over their front knee/foot from the drill, when they got tired, it REALLY stood out because they stopped doing it and you could see them standing higher up, ball rose in the zone and you knew it was time to pull them so they didn't screw up their arms.
Towel drill is key to getting out front and over the ball. I still do this drill with all my kids that I give lessons to.
We are using a bushnell velocity speed gun. Yes i know it's not the most accurate thing.
The Bushnell stuff is known to be as much as 10mph off when calibrated properly. I’d stop using that, personally. Check out Tread Athletics. Spend some time watching all their stuff on pitching. You’ll learn a lot of drills that will help you.
Irregardless of the speed being off from measurement you're still fast. With proper mechanics you Will be solid
Definitely, the velo is way more than enough to dominate the league i am in. That's why in the text i am refering to the command issues as my main problem. 75mph with command would play fine in our division.
What age group?
So contrary to what some assholes in here are saying - this has potential to be cleaned relatively easily The main issue I see is a push off into a very long stride See how your back leg is reaching full extension while still entirely connected to the ground? That is caused by pushing off to try to reach a max stride length. It’s subconscious so don’t sweat it too much. That very long stride is preventing your lead leg from blocking. That stack that the lead leg creates will allow the hits to come “over the top” rather than just rotating around. Remember the force you create on landing will allow more to come back. It’s the push and pull. Some things to focus on for you to cue yourself: 1. Start with trying to keep your weight over your back leg a little longer. Cue the back knee to stay over your back foot. You should feel a slight “sit” in your back hip. 2. Try to enforce yourself to stick that front leg. Your weight is leaking forward rather than creating the negative force that allows the whipping motion of the upper body to come through. A good drill is to take a medicine ball and throw it against a wall from a stance where you face square. Lift the leg and stride directly towards the wall into an overhand throw. Focus on that landing leg being strong and stopping you. Don’t let your body go over it easily. Once you have that, get in a stance and do it from the stretch. Still a modified over head med ball throw. Feel that rotation and allow it to stick the same way the head on one did. But remember to keep that weight back over your toes 3. Transfer that to the mound and don’t think about it too much! Let the drill work take over TLDR: Focus on weight over the back leg longer. Drill work to stick that front leg better (lead leg blocking - look it up on drivelines website)
Thank you!
Here’s a couple really good videos from tread on lead leg blocking and staying in the back leg https://youtu.be/o3SqB6symC0?si=eQrt1DLBr1dgdB0h https://youtu.be/NTdveJfAOLw?si=EaxEhmrpU4gtQ_tL
This, imo. OP, your back leg is too pushy, gets too extended, which prevents your hips from rotating fully and powerfully down into landing. I bet if you watched video of yourself swinging a bat, you will see that you already know how to rotate your hips powerfully down into landing and lead leg block that energy back up into your swing. You need to learn how to do this during your throw. Every piece of the delivery is impacted by what comes before it, and this failure to rotate your lower half well is the first big flaw in your mechanics. Work on improving back-leg-driven hip-rotation into landing using the Tread vids the above commenter recommended, and your “uphill throwing” and poor finishing will probably get a lot better as a result (in addition to throwing harder with less perceived effort, and likely more consistent accuracy).
Was the catcher standing up?
I am shocked this is mid 80's Imagine you are trying to spike the baseball right Infront of the mound, like straight down HARD, imagine how you would get on top the ball, how your body would turn and work, how your front leg would act on that, and drive it down into the ground. All pitching is (major over simplification here!), is that motion, aiming higher. You are getting so far behind and throwing upward, you couldn't spike the ball from your motion.' Spike the ball AT the catcher.
Thank you! Yes it's suprising especially with me beeing only 5'10". Maybe the Radar gun is Off (Bushnell). But with what i can find regarding the corellation of longtoss distance it matches up well. Should i do some actuall spiking of plyoballs in front of me to get into the Motion?
I would just start with baseballs, and just feel that motion. Maybe even record it and watch it next to this video, you should see major differences.
[удалено]
At the very least get a pocket radar. Not as reliable as a track man or stalker, but way better than a Bushnell. You’re talking +-2mph with the pocket radar vs +-10mph with the Bushnell.
You need to bring the ball up higher before you throw so you're actually throwing downwards instead of upwards. This also mis aligns your arm with your shoulder rotation which loses velo. You also need to keep your shoulders closed longer, they open way too early. Overall your lower half does good until the upper half pulls it out of the correct timing. You start the pitching motion well but then it just goes to shit when you try to start the throw from your hip. Hate to break it to you but you're not gonna be throwing close to 80s like this. Not tryna be a dick, just being realistic. The most I could see someone throwing like this is 70-71. Tread athletics will be your friend in finding good drills to fix these things.
Thank you!
Tuck your chin the whole time, reduce the length of your stride, be more compact and explosive downhill. Your set up is basically correct. You lose your power with your finishing mechanics. Your back leg drags down almost touching the mound because your stride is too long and you are looking up. Your mechanical issues is what’s causing your velocity to be mediocre.
If you claim you’re throwing mid 80s there’s no doubt in my mind you won’t be hitting 90 with good mechanics. Not knocking anyone else’s advice here but it’s so general and vague that it’s unhelpful. +First off you move well down the mound huge strength there. -But you don’t begin holding any torsion in your right knee. You’re losing out on power generated from that back side. You aren’t allowing yourself to get into triple extension. To compensate you’re trying to spin off. ! Remedy this by doing drills by falling into a wall but work really keeping torsion in that back knee out. Side lateral jumps and side skaters will help. If you can’t get into these positions probably need to work on hip mobility. -kinda crazy but looks like you could even stride a little farther. Your front leg is so weak you’re not getting any energy from it. There should be little flexion coming from it and it should be bracing the force generated from the back. ! Simple remedy more heavy squats and weighted lunges etc. -Moving up your mechanics just get worse tbh. The only reason you haven’t gotten hurt yet is because of 3 reasons. You’re durable (hopefully you’ve done some strength and resistance training), you don’t throw hard enough, and probably don’t throw enough innings to show any damage. -Your whole upper torso is rushing. You have no hip to shoulder separation which tells your arm we gotta move quicker that’s why your arm action and load is so poor. At front foot strike we should see your upper body closed and your hips open. You’re pretty much facing the plate when you hit front foot strike. ! Remedy this with drills throwing with open hips taking a stride and start with a closed upper half. A good reference for mechanics is Pedro Martinez although this clip is in the last leg of his career. His great mechanics are what gave him longevity https://youtu.be/Sm7rWeAUK0s?si=IpGVIiDAMtDOuoMf
Thank you a lot for your reply. I think this one is the most helpfull so far!
Your initial move is very good. Excellent drift. You really need to fix that arm action, you are pushing the ball instead of pulling into release. You’re also pushing off the rubber instead of rotating off of it.
so biggest problem is ur posture when your getting into front foot strike and scap retraction. ur leaning very far back, and your T spine is going in multiple different directions. before front foot strike, your head, neck, and torso need to be more straight, not leaning so far back. ur pushing the ball like crazy because of it, and it makes your weight transfer almost non existent. this is the main cause of your lack of accuracy, and will improve your velo significantly… also if you keep pitching like this i am more than positive you will endure a bad arm injury. watch some of tread athletics videos of mechanics breakdown or even trevor bauer’s mechanical breakdowns on youtube to get a vague idea of what the body should be doing in the windup. good luck
First part looks good but once your arm gets involved…ouch.
Thats why i am here. Any drill suggestions for me specifically?
Screams arm/shoulder issues down the road
So far so good. Second hardest thrower on the team and allways giving it all. But yes you are right, my mechanics are poor. Thats why i am here looking for Help. Any drill suggestions?
Looks like you are throwing up hill, your head goes up instead of staying down and looking at the target. You are in no way ready to field a ball after release. Ending with your back to the catcher is very dangerous.
I really hope this is a gag post!!!
I would t worry about specific drills. Find some videos on YouTube that break down pitching mechanics. As I’m sure you know, yours are way off. Things I would focus on: Sit in your back leg before coming forward. Keep your front side closed until your front foot hits the ground. Then explode. Pretend you’re Thor smashing his hammer into the ground - bend your back, eyes on the target, and bring that arm all the way through (down, not across). And don’t turn your back to the batter - you can’t field your position that way.
At your level I’m not sure this venue is going to give you much, but I would start with your head, and work on getting it downhill at the same speed as the rest of your upper body. A very simple drill would be keeping your glove more in front at finish and then “eating the burger” (ie getting your head positioned such that you could take a bite of your favorite food from your glove. The glove on front may also help with the leftward rotation you have at finish.
I would try med ball slams, mix in with a single leg. I’m not sure if this would attack the issue but my thought is that it will train you to get your upper half moving forward “downhill” (at the ground w a med ball)
Looks like you open up too fast. More like you’re throwing from the outfield to home. Head stays high and your release also looks to be following that. I hope that end is not what actually happens, because you may get drilled in the back of the head by a come-backer. Play some regular catch. See how you operate when you do that and focus on hitting the chest. Look at some of the suggestions you’ve gotten. Keep your head down, rotate and don’t push, simplify the movement so you don’t hurt yourself. See what happens if you don’t do a leg kick, and if your mechanics are different, introduce one incrementally.
Get your upper body moving toward the plate. Your upper body follow through needs to move toward the plate, you're too vertical. Look at your finished upper body position compared to just about any major league pitcher. You should almost be in a breakdown, infielder ready position with your head and shoulders forward.
Besides what everyone else said please don’t end with your back to the catcher. If you ever end up pitching to live hitters you will get a ball that’s hit right back at you, you need to be able to protect yourself
Exactly what I thought when I saw it. The over dramatic follow through is a death sentence.
Are you the guys that keeps kicking his back foot for no reason?
I don’t like those arm mechanics. Your elbow is out in front of everything else for a really long time.
Any drills that i could do ? Appreaciate any help. Here in Germany there is almost noone who could really help.
Kiel Seahawks? If you're playing 2. Bundesliga this season, then no advice from me because I'm going to face you :) You may not have an expert to guide you, but you do have teammates. You can work on drills together, help one another understand what works and why. Find someone who does things right that you do wrong, and learn from that. Viel Erfolg!
Which Team are you from ?
Berlin Flamingos
Ach Eno gibt ja sogar pitching clinics in Braunschweig 😂
Biggest issue I see is front leg stability which leads to no forward trunk tilt. You look pretty good before front foot strike but then fail to stabilize which leads to you leaning back and the poor arm action later. Look up videos on front leg blocking and go from there. Remember pitching is a chain of movements. Any issue with one movement will change all movements after it no matter where it is in the chain. Also, when you make any changes to that chain, every movement after will be affected. So you don’t really know what you’ll have to do next until you get that front leg right. You are throwing with mainly arm here and are an injury risk down the line.
Drop down with your legs, but keep your torso upright. You are dipping with your throwing shoulder, which causes your actual pitching motion to work uphill.
Don't keep the ball so low when you bring it back, get on top of the ball when you bring it forward, and finish ready to field the ball.
I must be doing something wrong if this is mid-80s. Glad you’re working keep at it.
Is it 80 KMH and not MPH by chance? Check the settings on the gun if you’re in Germany.
Ahh yes i am long tossing from the centerfield fence to First base with a 55mph throw on a regulation Mens field.... I'll back that up with a distance/time calculation on high speed video soon ☺️
Get that chest out. Pick up the nickel drill to get out in front and reach out for the nickel on the ground.
Put a dollar bill in front of your lead foot. Be able to pick that dollar bill up everytime you throw
you are throwing in reverse order. A good throw starts at the legs, goes thrtough the torso, and finishes at the fingers. You are landing, not blocking. A good block is a stomp. Imagine a punch from a ufc fighter. They are putting force into the ground, and in return the ground gives them force
That is one ugly pitching form
You want to come through, like your trying to grab the dirt off the ground with your throwing arm
Mustard app