3D MECHANICS
DIGITAL COACH
Reach you maximal potential with the use of real-time feedback in your daily training to improve your body mechanics. With the PITCHPERFECT app you always have your digital coach by your side.
Learn more about the content of the feedback you receive during training. With the detailed information of your mechanics you can fully optimize your sequencing of body rotations to ensure consistent and fast throwing.
SEQUENTIAL ROTATIONS
In the perfect pitch the individiual parts of the body rotate in a sequential order. To throw fast and consistent you need to rotate each body part fast and optimize the timing between all the segments.
TIMING OF THE BODY
GOOD TIMING
Optimal timing is critical in pitching at all levels. A good timing of your upper and lower body means that your are using the full potential of your body to throw fast. The energy is distributed through the body to ensure reliable and consistent pitching.
A good timing is also called ‘connection’. To prevent injuries it is important to connect the different parts of the body. With a good connection between upper and lower body, the forces are distributed equally over your body and therefore your shoulder and elbow are protected against sudden overload.
In pitching you need a sequential rotation. Which means the trunk follows the hip. If you perform a pitch correctly, the sequential order will reflect in a positive timing. From scientific studies we know that optimal timing between the hips and trunk is usualy between 5 – 50 ms for baseball pitching.
TOO EARLY
A negative timing means that the trunk rotates earlier than the hips. You are rotating your upper body to early.
TOO LATE
The trunk follows to slow after the hips rotate. Try to open your hips later and follow with more explosivity after landing your front leg.
STORIES
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HIP ROTATION SPEED
GOOD ROTATION SPEED
The maximal hip rotation speed of elite pitchers is usually between 600-900 °/s. The big muscles in your legs can create a lot of energy. This energy is tranferred to the upper body by moving forward and rotating the hips. The hip rotation is not as fast as the trunk but contains a lot of energy and therefore is very important to throw fast and consistant. Remember when reaching a high rotation velocity also to try to perform consistent to ensure optimal pitching performance.
A much higher rotation velocity might not be very efficient. For the optimal efficiency also check your timing!
MEDIUM ROTATION SPEED
A medium rotation speed, between 400-600 °/s, usually shows a lack of use of the lower body in the delivery. Lower rotation of the hips than normal at the start of the bullpen could happen usually because the lower body is not activated enough before starting a session. Try extending your warmup. If you see your hip rotation drop during the bullpenn session, probably the legs are fatigued.
You can also have a medium hip rotation speed when the windup phase of the pitch is not explosive enough. Not enough energy is created with the lower body to set-up the trunk for high rotation velocities. This could be improved by training explosiveness of the lower body. You could also slightly adjust the wind-up phase to create more space to accelerate up to high velocities.
Overall lack in stability of the legs could also lead to not rotating enough from the stance leg or towards the landing leg. When that happens you might have the explosiveness but not the stability to put your energy into the pitch.
LOW ROTATION SPEED
Slow rotation of the hips means that almost no energy is put into the system and makes consistent and fast throwing impossible. If you throw close to your maximum throwing velocity while you have a low hip rotation speed, you might overuse your arm and have an increased risk to get a shoulder injury during pitching.
A very low rotation velocity of the hips doesn’t usually happen when you are pitching on a mound. However, make sure to measure your flatgrounds and other throwing exercises to make sure you are always practicing with the right technique.
TRUNK ROTATION SPEED
GOOD ROTATION SPEED
Rotation velocity of the trunk for pitchers is usually around 1200 °/s. For players in highschool, the average rotation velocity is usually around 1000 °/s.
Optimal rotation velocity of the trunk differs between players depending on body type. Use the direct feedback to learn a consistant delivery pattern.
If you have a much higher rotation velocity, you might not use your body optimally. Try to optimizing your timing.
MEDIUM ROTATION SPEED
A medium rotation speed of the trunk could be caused by an overall lack of explosivity and technique. Try stying closed with your arm for a longer period to make rotation of the trunk easier to achieve.
LOW ROTATION SPEED
Try working on your overall explosivity and arm path.