Orientation of the Body

Body Orientation Examples

Everyone’s body is oriented either to the right or left. This has nothing to do with being righty or lefty. There are some righty’s who are oriented to the right and some righty’s who are oriented to the left, and vice versa for lefties.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Softball pitching is a turning, rotational movement just as much as baseball pitching and hitting are. It looks like softball pitching is more straight because of how the body is rotating, but it is an extremely rotational movement. Think of it this way - you have to rotate to go straight.

Guess what makes you turn? not the hips, not the feet, not the shoulders - the xiphoid.

*The xiphoid is the ball of cartilage at the bottom of the sternum, which is the bone in the middle of your ribcage. The xiphoid is where your body weight sits and is the center of rotation of your body. Wherever the xiphoid moves the body will go, and the hips, feet and shoulders will move in reaction to the xiphoid moving.

You CAN also think about the shoulders in this case. Some people don’t understand the xiphoid thing and aren’t very aware of that part of the body so they have to think of body parts they are more aware of like their shoulders in this case.

Everyone’s body prefers to turn one way or another. That’s why basketball, soccer, football, etc players do better on one side of the field than the other - because they are able to turn better in one direction. This can also help you with base running. The players who will be able to turn the bases more efficiently are the ones oriented to the left - because you are technically turning left the whole time on the bases.

HOW THIS APPLIES TO PITCHING

It’s very simple. You want to start yourself on the mound turned slightly in the opposite direction of the way your body likes to turn. This creates space for you to turn and rotate your body in the direction it will naturally turn.

1. Righty oriented to the right (Or lefty oriented to the left just opposite)

   -Set up on the mound so that your back foot/stride foot is angled about 45 degrees to the left, and your hips are facing slightly to the left.

   -As your start your back swing or load (no back swing) your body should square up on it’s own (shoulders and hips will be square in the back of the back swing.

   -Once your start to take off and move forward, let your right shoulder turn backwards. This should be the first movement that leads your take off. If you reach your glove side forward or push off the mound before you turn your right shoulder backwards, you will not be able to turn and rotate your body properly.

2. Righty Oriented to the left (Or lefty oriented to the right just opposite)

   -Set up on the mound square.

   -As you backswing or load (no backswing) turn your body so that you are facing to the right. Your shoulders, hips, and right foot should be angled about 45 degrees to the right in the back of the back swing or load.

   *DO NOT let your arm twist back behind you if you have a backswing. Even though your body is turned to the right in the back of the back swing, the arm should still be straight back (ball hand and shoulders should be in line with the plate)

   How do I know which way I am oriented???

   We can usually tell when we watch someone run which way they are oriented because one foot will turn out more, and on that same side the shoulder will turn back more that the other shoulder and chest will face mostly to one side. The easiest way to tell, is to just try both sets of instructions above and see which one feels better to you. I know this seems like an odd thing, but it is so important and has fixed so many of my pitchers who were off balance or leaning one way every time they pitched.