I got a great question about pitching mechanics on the website the other day and it reads,
“I’m coaching at a high school in Mississippi.
I have a pitcher who is a sophomore and he throws mid-80s already.
But I have noticed on his pitching mechanics that he is dragging his back leg or foot,
like you would tell a pitcher to do if you wanted to slow his changeup down.
I’ve worked with him on chair drills and trying to get his heel to sky, trying to prevent
him from dragging his back leg or foot.
He has gotten a little bit better on dragging his back leg and foot and getting his heel
to sky, but he is still for the most part dragging his leg, foot, toe after he pushes
off the rubber.
Is there anything else I can work on with him to help correct his problem?
Because I know he has to be losing some velocity.
Thanks for your help.
Love the website.
Great stuff.”
That’s a great question coach.
Thanks for joining the newsletter and asking it.
I think your answer lies not in where you found the problem, which is out here at the
end of the delivery, but a lot earlier in the delivery.
I made a video a few weeks ago called The Most Important Part of the Pitching Delivery
and to summarize that video, I just say that the most important part of the pitching delivery
is the beginning because everything that happens later is an effect to what you do in the beginning.
For your question specifically about how to get this back leg to not drag around or to
get it up more, more up and over heel to sky, two things have to happen.
Your player may be lacking in one or in both of those areas.
The first one is the amount of energy and speed that he creates going down the mount
in linear fashion, his linear energy.
He may not be getting enough linear energy.
The second thing is going to be pitching against that front leg.
You leveraging that linear energy that he created and bracing it against that front
leg, pitching it against it.
Now if he does those two things correctly or any pitcher does those two things correctly,
that leg is going to have no choice but to come up and over that front leg.
So it’s going to be an effect to good energy with this leg and then pitching against that
front leg.
A great example of this is a pole vaulter.
A pole vaulter is going to run as fast as they can and then stick that pole onto the
ground.
And where are they going to go?
That energy is going to stop.
They’re going to leverage it, stop it and that the energy travels up the pole and shoots
them over the high bar, right?
Same idea goes here.
If he’s creating enough linear energy and pitches against that front leg, everything
else is going to work around that.
He’s going to brace up on his front leg and then his hip/shoulder separation is going
to unload and everything is like up and over that front leg.
So my suggestion to work on this, he’s going to need to get a video, slow motion video
from the side.
So if he’s pitching this way, you would have your camera there.
Get it on slow motion and watch him.
OK?
See how much energy he’s creating coming on it now, how much leg drive he has.
Then also pay attention to his front leg.
Is he collapsing on his front knee and continue after he lands?
Does he continue to go forward with his front knee?
Watch the front knee specifically and see how far after he lands does he go forward.
The best pitchers are going to brace up against that front leg.
A lot of the high velocity pitchers are straight at release point or slightly bent.
OK?
But the more bent you are or the more that you continue to move forward, the more energy
you’re going to lead and the less you’re going to have to come up and around.
I call that “walking through,” when a guy kind of just falls through with his front
leg and continues moving with his front knee.
It’s kind of like walking through and that back leg kind of just drags through.
Also on the leg drive, the linear energy that you’re trying to watch to see if he’s
creating, you can see how much he’s creating by his drag line.
So the back foot actually does want to drag a little bit because it’s going to be playing
catch-up, right?
So it’s going to drag a little bit before it braces up against that front leg and then
comes up and over.
So it’s OK if you see a drag on it, from the pitcher’s toe for a little bit.
Six or eight inches is OK on the drag line.
All right?
But after that, once that energy hits that front leg and the hip to shoulder separation,
the rotational energy unwinds.
That’s when you want to see that leg to start to come up and around.
So don’t worry about this so much.
Go focus on the end of the delivery.
Focus more on his linear energy, his leg drive and how he’s using his front leg to pitch
against and the leg will come up and over as an effect.
All right?
Great job noticing.
The problem though, you just got a little further back in the delivery where you’re
trying to solve it.
So hope that helps.
Check out my pitching program if you haven’t already.
It breaks down the mechanics in full, plus a ton of other great information.
So check that out if you get a chance.