6 keys to Improving Lower Half Mechanics

Well it has been far too long since I have sent out the Mound Visit newsletter!

Since the last time we talked, there have been numerous changes to Pitching Coach "U" as a company.

We now have multiple employees, have added an additional consulting business for schools and facilities - Pearl Player Development, and so much more.

Along with myself (Jared), you will hear from some of our other employees in the newsletter!

We look forward to continuing to serve you in your coaching and playing development.

Without further ado, let's dive into today's newsletter.

Back in early May we purchased the Axioforce pitching force plates.

They have been a game changer for our player development.

Today I want to talk about 6 metrics (of many) we look at when evaluating our pitchers.

1. Back Leg Peak De-Weighting

This is the moment a pitcher is producing the LEAST amount of force into the ground.

This occurs shortly after peak leg lift, as the pitchers lead leg starts to descend back towards the ground.

We are looking for pitchers to be producing around 50% of their body weight at this point.

The reason this is important is because it creates a larger opportunity for players to maximize the stretch-shortening-cycle and to create more potential energy down the mound.

This is likely more important for narrow archetypes, as they rely more on elasticity.

But even wider archetypes could benefit from this to a degree.

We like to use water bags to help work on this with a drill like the rhythm de-weighting:

What you want to feel is your "guts" flowing up towards your throwing shoulder. Create a rhythm and flow to get as light as you can into leg lift in order to set up the "drop" into your load and stride.

2. Back Leg Peak Y

This is the moment you are "pushing" off the rubber towards home with the most amount of force.

Now, we usually don't want to think about pushing off the rubber as this can lead to poor rotation of the lower half and getting to the front side too early, but the metric is force pushing away from the rubber.

There are many ways to train this in your drill work.

Step back variations, drop steps, momentum based drills like shuffle throws, walking wind ups, etc. can all help with this.

3. YZ Transfer Back

We talked about what y force is, but we haven't talked about what z force is. Z force is force put straight down into the ground.

What YZ transfer is measuring is how long it takes to get from peak z to peak y force on the back leg.

Ideally these are happening close to the same time.

If there is a substantial time difference between peak z and y, that means the pitcher has more of a drop and drive type delivery.

Timing them at the same time would display adequate drift before apply downward force.

If they are stacked well, but z force is relatively low and y force is good, it could mean the player is drifting too much before dropping into their load.

4. Lead Leg Peak Y

This is the moment a pitcher is producing peak force in the lead leg, sending energy back towards the rubber.

Ideally we are getting close to 100% of the players body weight in force.

5. Lead Leg Clawback

Clawback is how long it takes lead leg peak y to transfer back to the 0 line (0 force).

This is essentially how well a player blocks and transfers energy up the chain.

6. Peak Y Transfer

This is how long it takes a player to get from peak y on the back leg to peak y on the lead leg.

The faster the better.

Final Thoughts

We covered a lot of metrics today and there are several others we could dive into.

One thing to note is the smoothness of the graphs. Two players could have similar raw metrics, but the rate they produce the force (RFD) could be much different.

While raw force is important, the timing in which events happen and how fast players transition from one to the next is also important.

P.S. We are hosting a pitching camp for 10 high school pitchers November 7-8 in Phoenix, Arizona where we will analyze this exact information.

Each player will leave at the end of the weekend with a clear understanding of what they need to improve in their mechanics and more importantly HOW to do it.

Interested in learning more about our 2 day pitcher masterclass? Click here.

Talk soon,

Jared Gaynor