What's up Dan Blewett here today let's talk about is it okay if your pitcher
throws sidearm so I'm kind of talking to you parents and coaches because I get
this question a lot I've gotten a lot in the past that hey my son kind of like
slings the ball he's kind of like a little bit more sidearm than his peers
it looks a little bit off to me is it okay typically the answer is no
typically the reason that most pitchers throw somewhat side arm at a young age
is because the mechanics are kind of off so we'll go over that today but before
we do make sure you check out there's links in my description below I have to
pitching books so I highly recommend you check them out if you're here to learn
more about the game I also have online courses and lots of other stuff so
definitely check out the description here in YouTube there's a little like
triangle thing that'll open it up and it's got all the different stuff that
are resources here for you on the web okay so in today's video let's talk
about why do some players throw a sidearm naturally now number one I want
you to remember that there are no absolutes and my goal is a pitching
instructor who's always defined the best arm slot for any given player so I'm
gonna have one kid that throws fuel from down here and another kid that throws
fuel from up here and I'm not gonna try to make either one of them into the
other everyone's different and arm slots can be very unique and they can be very
effective one way for one kid and not for someone else so don't assume that
something's broken until you kind of do a little more digging which again is why
you're here so number two sidearm is not the norm however so even though Chris
Sale and Max Scherzer they're not side armer I mean Chris Sale is closer
they're lower arm slot guys they're both like low three-quarters that's
completely fine those are two of the best pitchers on planet earth right so
we can't say that the sidearm is not effective or that it's not good but most
pitchers end up being in this three-quarter or just standard overhand
arm slots somewhere around here like 10 o'clock if
you're righty or well I guess it depends on the clock but then 2 o'clock if
you're a lefty something like that so no one gets way over top because it's not
anatomically just very functional this way because you have a bone that's or
does it collide with your shoulder here and down here it just isn't seem to be a
natural either so somewhere in the middle is where we tend to fall
now when you deviate and you're getting a little bit more sidearm this is
typically what happens so a key component of good pitching mechanics is
leading with your hip which means you make this angle here and then starting
uphill as you go down the mound because the mound is sloped we have to resist
that by going uphill so that we can land level if we land level or slightly above
level we're in good shape and then we can use our glove and our front side so
this sort of catapult us over as our front leg starts to stiffen and brace so
those two actions having a uphill start a level or high front side and then
using the front side to pull us over it naturally gets my arm up I'm not trying
to do this right now this is where it's going so as I pitch as I go through boom
this becomes a reciprocal action here to here because I use my front side well my
arm comes up a little bit higher over top so what happens is when pitchers
have a glove side that kind of falls down like this or they just sort of leak
down the mound like that which is very common at younger ages the only thing
that can happen then if you land down here is do this because I land with low
shoulders I can't pull my front side because it's down here it's already done
I've already used it up if it's up here I can go foam and use all these big
muscles in my left side to get my arm up if my arm is already down here it's like
I've already used it so you've already gone half way through the cycle so now
I'm here I'm ready to throw I'm not gonna do this play I'm head-butting the
plate so from here my body is gonna find a way and the way does the job is though
it is rotates at the hips so basically sidearm is usually younger
ages it's a symptom of that the other thing that's a big problem is that even
if you have a highest front side if you fly open a lot then the arm tends to
come out down here because again anytime you either have a low frontside or you
have hips that have opened up too soon which if you look at my shirt logo if my
chest is any amount forward it means I've opened up too soon before my foot
hits so if I'm landing here I've wasted some of my hips and now my arms got to
go kind of around the ball to kind of just find its place in the chain if I've
done a good job and I've stayed close with my chest facing more like the
shortstop now my arm can go wherever it wants to go and that's typically gonna
be up over top okay so to recap here sidearm especially for younger pitchers
and this could be anywhere from high school and on down because if you're in
college you've already usually ironed out a lot of these problems from high
school and down I've see this I see this at all ages from 17 all the way down
when they don't start weld on the mound they don't have a good hip angle and
they don't go uphill typically they're gonna have a lower arm slot because it's
all their body wants to do again when they land with a low shoulder or they'll
and when they rotate it open this is the way they can generate power the best
it's just not the most efficient way to generate power in general even guys like
Chris Sale who have a lower arm slot they're still landing closed and then
boom their body just chooses to do it that way there's a lot of pitchers they
land low or they land open and then their body is forced to go that way
and then when you correct that their arm angle usually jumps a hole o'clock
o'clock number so they go from 9 o'clock to ten o'clock or 10:00 to 11:00 or they
just kind of normalize that's my experience over the many thousand
lessons and it's just again the body trying to be efficient with the transfer
of power when we transfer power uphill and then we go downhill the arm is going
to come up over top a little bit higher and it's gonna figure out where it wants
to be and that's gonna be fine I've almost never said hey try to try to
throw a little higher or try to throw a little lower in very rare circumstances
I'll do a little bit of that when we're just trying to feel for something but
usually it's a mechanical thing that decides where the arm ends up going
in space okay so hopefully this video helped and it was a little bit long but
I think this is a really interesting topic in pitching because the whole body
is a big chain it's a big unit it's a big organization and when one thing
early in the delivery happens it's gonna affect what happens later and that's
typically what happens with the arm slot the arm slot is just sort of along for
the ride it's like the last little thing that happens and so usually things
earlier in the delivery or would effect where a pitcher's arm slot ultimately
ends up okay thanks for watching I hope you enjoyed this video don't forget
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