Drive Mechanics

[javasource]

Stride & Drive Orientation – Part 2

Hopefully, you’ve arrived at this post with an open mind... and all you care about is putting your DD or student in positions that allow her to maximize her potential; safely and efficiently. If so, let us take a moment to put YOU in a couple of positions…

The following assumes you are right-handed. If not, ‘flip’ the following instructions…

Exercise 1 – Stride Orientation

1. Stand, feet side-by-side (comfortably spaced), with the right side of your body 6-12 inches from a wall… facing forward. This is also a handy thing to perform in front of a full-length mirror.
2. While keeping your right foot pointed straight ahead, take a decent sized step forward with your left foot; at a 45-degree (inward) orientation/angle on plant.
3. If it helps you keep your right foot pointing forward, feel free to raise the heel up so you’re on the ‘ball of your right foot’.
4. Once you’ve landed… hold your position and look at your hips. You should see that, naturally, your hips responded to the angle of your stride foot. They won’t be at exactly the same angle as your foot… as we are all designed a little different. The wall will serve as a reference to this angle…
5. To drive the point home, after checking out your hip orientation, square them up (forward) while in this position. In doing so, you’ll feel a stretch in your right hamstring and glutes… And you’ll also have a reference as to how much your hips opened… which was about 45-degrees.

Exercise 2 – Drive Orientation

1. Repeat Step 1 from above.
2. While keeping your left foot pointed straight ahead, rotate your right (drive) foot outward 45 degrees. Take a decent sized step forward with your left foot; keeping the left foot pointed straight ahead on plant.
3. If it helps you take a decent step forward, feel free to raise the heel up so you’re on the ‘ball of your right foot’… but be sure to keep the right at a 45-degree angle and left foot at no angle – or straight ahead.
4. Once you’ve landed… hold your position and look at your hips. You should see that, naturally, your hips responded to the angle of your drive foot… Check angle with the wall to your right.
5. Square up the hips… once again… feeling this ‘stretch’. Depending on your flexibility – squaring up will be a resisted feeling… as it’s not natural… hence the reason our hips open.

Exercise 3 – Stride & Drive Orientation

By now… some of you may have just had an epiphany… but do the exercise anyway.

1. Repeat Step 1 from above.
2. With feet side by side, rotate your right foot outward 45-degrees. Take a decent sized step forward with your left foot AND land at a 45-degree angle with the left foot, too. Both feet should be angled (to the right) 45-degrees.
3. Again, feel free to raise up on the ball of the right foot, if it helps you take a larger step.
4. Now… look at your hips… Holy smokes… that’s not a 45-degree hip angle!!!
5. Reference the wall, you should be pretty close to ‘fully’ open… and definitely a lot further than you were in Exercise 2 or 3. Try them all again, and compare if you don’t believe me.

Hopefully, that epiphany has set in… If not… you’re either one-legged, a mutant, or just generally disagreeable… (not that any of those things are bad attributes... I'm keeping it positive this New Year!)

Drive foot turn-out ADDS to the stride angle… and if you really want to put it to the test… try Exercise 2 with the right foot rotated outward 90-degrees with no stride foot angle. Now… let us have a peak at Ueno and Monica… one more time… but through a ‘different pair of lenses’…

This introduces a subject that has led to a couple heated debates on DFP… drive foot turn-out. Drive foot turn-out is completely natural and NOT a negative thing. Every decent sprinter in the world does it… many pitchers do it, and if your DD doesn’t do it… your limiting the amount she can engage the largest muscles in her leg… and they’d like to help her drive forcefully off the plate…so let them! If you still don’t believe it… well… you might be getting in your own way... and hers.

All this said… I often limit drive foot turn-out. Turning the drive foot out much more than 45-degrees (I prefer only what is necessary) is counter-productive… similar to stretching a muscle too far… you’ll negate the directional force if you take it too far… and put the quads at a disadvantage.

So… if I’ve said/say that your DD is opening too much… and that it appears her stride orientation is fine… you need to realize that the additive effect of her drive turn-out and stride orientation… are creating a hip/torso angle that allows her to open beyond 90-degrees.

Couple this with the last main post… Stride Angle… and you’ll see how easy it is… and unbelievably prevalent… that younger/inexperienced pitchers open too much. You might have just checked the stride foot… now you know better… Check the stride angle (across the body adds to the angle, to the left for RHP subtracts)… check the stride foot orientation, and then check the drive foot orientation (as it PUSHES off the rubber).

Lastly, should your goal be 90? IMO, no. I like 70ish… because I know the effect that the upper torso and arm momentum have on adding to the torso angle. Setting 90 with the feet… results in 90+ overhead…

Pitching is never as simple as one thing… it’s a bunch… added up… and with every pitcher - they are never the same.

End Part 2

Next up... "Differences"... I think...

 

[javasource]

This way there is only 90 degrees of wrist/hand rotation required to get the ball facing third after it passes 12 o'clock.....trying to minimize extra movements plus the knuckles to the catcher seems to help keep the backswing parallel with the powerline.

Great post and great tip. Thanks, Rick!

 

[Doug Romrell]

Just when I thought the info flow couldn't get any better, we get this stride and drive essay. In a word, .... FANTASTIC!

No more angled duct tape on the floor.

 

[corlay]

No more angled duct tape on the floor.

I still see benefit for beginning pitchers.
Giving them a reference to shoot for in the early stages seems like it will help the process along.
Like training wheels on a bike, eventually you remove them.

What's differennt is that you don't need to go all OCD about the plant and/or drive foot angles, as long as it's withing the accepted range.
So put the tape on the floor as a "suggestion" and only correct if the deviation becomes too great?

Although I can envision a PC fixating temproarily upon a more specific angle when trying to correct something else in the DD mechanics that these angles do influence.

 

[MountieSB]

I would also like a copy of the summary of Java's posts on this thread. Fantastic stuff!

This isn't a summary - it's the whole enchilada.

Drive Mechanics by JavaSource

 

[MountieSB]

Here is BoardMember's I/R in the Classroom

 

[Ken B]

You see, it is pitchers - like these two - that challenge what you think you know. As a PC/student, they challenge your beliefs and rattle your confidence. Years ago – before I tried my hand at being a PC – I made a list of everything I wanted to teach… and how I thought it should be taught. Through trial and lots of error, very few - if any - of those beliefs are ones that I hold today… and stride orientation is no exception. I started out as a staunch 45-degree advocate, moved to more open, back to 45, and then to less than 45 (closer to 30)… only to FINALLY realize that there is no magic angle. Rather than make a girl hit a mark - I let her 'do her own thing' and then make adjustments to manipulate it based on the results.. and finding a good opening (cringe) position often involves more than just stride foot orientation.

***Gasp!!!***

Great stuff--thanks!

 

[Doug Romrell]

I still see benefit for beginning pitchers.
Giving them a reference to shoot for in the early stages seems like it will help the process along.
Like training wheels on a bike, eventually you remove them.

What's differennt is that you don't need to go all OCD about the plant and/or drive foot angles, as long as it's withing the accepted range.
So put the tape on the floor as a "suggestion" and only correct if the deviation becomes too great?

Although I can envision a PC fixating temproarily upon a more specific angle when trying to correct something else in the DD mechanics that these angles do influence.

For me, the discontinuing the tape has more to do with focusing elsewhere. That is, if the hips aren't opening enough, I don't think the focus should be on change the stride foot angle, but rather a focus on the actual drive and stride, like a focus on kicking the foot and popping the hips open, letting the foot angle be what it will be. If the hips do get open enough, I think it's pretty hard to get greater than 45-degrees. That's just me.

 

[CoachScott]

Thanks Mountie. I was going to create these. You saved me some work and time! NICE!!!!!

 

[JUAN GONZALEZ]

Run Better, Pitch Better

The Power Line (The Goal)

Teaching student athletes to run is often one of the most overlooked fundamentals in softball. Every year, I find myself dedicating a good portion of the pre-season working on this fundamental with teams; and every pitcher I work with spends a good deal of time developing this skill, too.

In pitching, the power-line is often a reference to an imaginary line extending from the pitchers drive toe, to their target. In running, The Power Line is referred to as a postural line that runs from head to foot (the ankle). It is best summarized as an imaginary straight - but angled - line starting at your ankle and running up your knee, hip, shoulders, and head. This illustration sums it up really well…

As you can see, the body angle forms The Power Line. Notice that ALL the joints (ankle, knee, hip, shoulder) of the body are nearly in-line. The other areas noted in the illustration are the following:

A) High Knee Drive – The best way to enable your hips to move through a full range of motion is to have substantial knee drive; getting your thighs perpendicular to the torso should be a focus.

B) Shin Angle – The forward lower leg should be at, or near the same angle as The Power Line, NOT perpendicular to the ground. The more upright the angle of the shin, the more the ground will absorb your energy… this will slow you down. Many people that teach running limit it to bringing the knee high; it’s also important to encourage a high range of motion of the leg below the knee.

C) Ankle Dorsi-Flexion – By keeping your toes pointing towards your shins as your knee comes up, the Achilles tendon and calf muscles become engaged; helping you transfer energy form your hips and thighs to your feet and into the ground.

Teaching proper running mechanics to your DD, will undoubtedly make her a better softball player. How will it help her with pitching? Take a look at these high-level pitchers… and the positions they reach at the beginning of each pitch they throw…

Good drive mechanics will result in a pitcher reaching this diagonal, straight-line position. Some call it a lean, or simply a rock forward – but this is not enough. Forming this Power Line position is the result of an immediate transfer of energy from stride leg to drive leg, just like we do when running (properly). Simply teaching a backward/forward rocking motion or lean often results in these first two positions (which are not correct); the last one is correct:

I’m horribly satisfied with my stick figures… as they would make a great bumper sticker…

If this becomes a thread that generates a lot of interest, I’ll continue with some drills and further insights on how to help your DD explode off the plate AND down the baselines. If not, I hope this helps you and your DD become a better pitcher and runner! ~JS

Great post!! I have a question Rick does the push come from the front leg or the back leg?