Did you know?

• Did you know…the wrist contributes 21% to the velocity of the pitch?
• Did you know…the muscles in the fingers that control the spin of the ball insert on the elbow?  Making them stronger helps not only in the war against elbow pain but can help your ball movement.
• Did you know…rotation to square the body to the plate occurs in segments:  the pelvis, lower trunk, upper trunk and shoulder girdle. The shoulder girdle brings the arm which of course positions the ball for acceleration to the plate.  Velocity comes from not only how fast these segments are rotating, but how-well separated and sequenced they are.
• Did you know… when researchers examined the shoulders of MLB pitchers, a high significantly high percentage had atrophy of the infraspinatus (one of the external rotators of the rotator cuff)? This muscle is involved in deceleration of the shoulder musculature.
• Did you know…the elbow must begin straightening before the shoulder begins medial rotation during the acceleration phase of the pitching motion?  The straightening of the elbow reduces the moment of inertia around the shoulder and allows for a faster medial rotation.
• Did you know…running distance adapts a pitcher’s physiology incorrectly and can reduce his explosiveness.
• Did you know…the pitchers who throw in the 90’s have a great degree of hip/trunk flexion (trunk tilt) at ball release?  Now only are they throwing harder because more of their body weight is behind the ball…but they are also releasing closer to the plate.
• Did you know…location issues are very often caused by not being squared-up to the plate when the pitcher is in maximum external rotation?  It is at this point in the pitching motion that acceleration of the ball begins.  If he is accelerating the ball before he is squared-up to his target, he will most likely not hit his spot.
• Did you know…younger pitchers take their eyes off their target more often than not?  This one small correction can make the biggest difference in their effectiveness.