It isn't.
No "load" for pitching? Anyone heard of this?
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This video around the 2:00 minute mark explains what the non-pivot leg should be doing if a kid is in the "sprinters position".
The emphasis on leg drive for lower level pitchers seems absurd to me. The arm supplies about 90% of the velocity of a pitch.
Until the arm is loose and getting a good whip, I'm not sure it makes sense to spend a lot of time on lower body mechanics.
The emphasis on leg drive for lower level pitchers seems absurd to me. The arm supplies about 90% of the velocity of a pitch.
Until the arm is loose and getting a good whip, I'm not sure it makes sense to spend a lot of time on lower body mechanics.
I see this style. My problem with this style is it doesn't use any momentum. Pitchers that throw this way are exerting a lot of energy on every pitch and get gassed quickly. Somebody said they look like a sprinter ready to race. So, imagine starting a race 80 or 90 times.
I’m not implying these are perfect but it’s a change in style traditionally done. We are still a work in progress.
That is an excellent point. If you include warmups, you are talking about 150 to 180 attempts.
The recommended number of full effort sprints at practice for runner is under 10.
I am trying to understand what you are saying here.
How exactly do you know that "pitchers that throw this way are exerting a lot of energy on every pitch and get gassed quickly." That was a pretty factual sentence.
Shouldn't a pitcher be getting to this sprinter style position prior to leg drive for every pitch? So you are saying that using momentum is a way to cheat the amount of effort a pitcher has to give on each pitch to create leg drive?
My daughter is 13yrs old, 5' and 90lbs soaking wet. She has been pitching like this for over a year now and her endurance and stamina are just fine.
- May 17, 2012
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Pitching is disrupting timing. I would add it to the repertoire.
- Aug 21, 2008
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Are these video clips similar to what you were saying Ray @sluggers ? I'm trying to picture what you were writing but, I'm more of a visual guy.
- Jun 8, 2016
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I know zero about pitching but I believe, because they are not elastic materials, muscles work better when they are stretched dynamically hence even if a pitcher gets into a sprinter's position doesn't mean that how one gets there doesn't matter. It is the same reason why hitters don't start from the launch position in their stance...
I think this is a good analogy. How you get to the launch position matters but also varies a lot by athlete, style, and “feel.” Some hitters have big loads, other have pretty minimal movements. My take on the current trend of “sprinter start” pitching is that it’s an attempt to simplify the takeoff to its essentials, a sort of punk-rock version of the pitching takeoff. But I wouldn’t describe the style as “static.” Just because the initial movements are cut off doesn’t mean that the athlete isn’t creating a lot of energy. They just are creating that energy with very little other (extraneous) pre-pitch motion. More of a bounce or pulse to start instead of a big, deep bend, lean, and push—all of which can be counterproductive if executed incorrectly.
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