Most Important Concepts of Pitching

  1. SHIFTING THE BODY WEIGHT

Shifting the Body Weight

If you are just starting to train with me, the part of the body you will hear me talk about the most is the xiphoid. The xiphoid is the secret to speed, getting the body to move efficiently, AND having the most effective movement pitches. The xiphoid is the the little ball of cartilage at the bottom of the sternum in the lower part of the chest. The sternum is the bone that goes down the middle of the ribcage in the front. The reason this part of the body is so important is this is where the body weight sits. If you stand up straight and you move your xiphoid forward, you will start to fall forward. If you move your xiphoid backwards, you will start to go backwards. The most athletic people have great natural awareness of this area of the body. If you watch someone take off in a run, the first thing a fast runner will do is move their xiphoid out in front of them to accelerate faster. You’ll also see them keep the xiphoid out in front of their feet as they sprint. A slow runner will run more straight up, lifting the knees, with most of their body weight on top of or behind their feet. Likewise, with a lot of pitchers who are not throwing in the 60’s, you’ll see that at the back of their backswing or their load if they have no backswing, the xiphoid is still behind the foot.

There is a common misconception that pushing into the ground creates ground force. When we push we go away from the ground. We need to go toward the ground and work with gravity. Gravity is the strongest physical force and you cannot ignore it or fight it. When we move our body weight forward and down, gravity will pull us forward. Unfortunately, most pitchers are taught to push off first, causing us to fight gravity and move slow. Pushing your feet into the ground while your body weight is still on top of your feet makes you go up, not forward, which will make you feel stuck.

Instructions:

  1. Whatever our backswing or load is, we need to get all of our weight back onto the back foot at some point so that we can transfer weight properly. This means we should see the hips get over the back foot almost all the way. If you look at most elite pitchers, their back heel gets flat, which is what I recommend, or you can start on the balls of the feet in a slightly more seated position (see take off types on timing and take off page).

  2. Apply ground force by going to the ground. As you start to move your weight forward to take off, let your body go to the ground. Let your lower chest (xiphoid), hips and knees collapse forward. You have to make your body heavy and become dead weight. Don’t stop feeling like you’re dead weight until you start feeling yourself moving forward. If you are struggling with this, try the COLLAPSE THE LEGS drill on the legs page.

  3. This is incredibly simple, but a pitcher with poor body awareness can still struggle with even the most simple things. Keep in mind the chest, hips, and knees will collapse and move downward in order to get the body weight out in front of the drag foot. The other issue I will see when we talk about moving the xiphoid is that the pitcher will try to move their head instead of their xiphoid. If you are struggling with this, you can try to exercise below to help you work on your awareness of the xiphoid.

  4. THE KNEES NEED TO MOVE TOGETHER AND SHOULD NEVER SEPARATE IN THE BACKSWING OR LOAD BEFORE TAKE OFF. If you see that the drag leg knee is moving forward while the stride leg knee is going backwards or not moving, you are not shifting your body weight. the knees need to always move together.

2. FINDING THE BALANCE POINT

The Balance Point

The First point of our pitch we need to hit is the balance point. The balance point is the ball of the foot. When you move - when you run, shuffle, pitch, etc - you move on the balls of the feet, not the toes. One of the biggest problems a pitcher may have is blowing past the balance point to try to get onto the toes and push or reach forward. the problem with pushing or reaching forward is that you stiffen up the body and prevent it from rotating. Pitching is a rotational movement, not a straight movement. When we aren’t moving efficiently, it is always a rotational issue.

  1. Balance Point for take off check list:

    1. At the back of your back swing or load if you have no backswing, you should have weight in both balls of the feet. If you have a backswing we should look like we are in a running position at this point and the hips should sink down a bit.

    2. At the point where the knees are together as we are taking off, you should still be on the ball of the foot on your drag foot, the xiphoid should be in front of your drag foot toe, and the ball hand should still be behind your hips.

    3. The xiphoid is where your body weight sits and is the center of rotation of the body. We want to get the body weight out in front of the foot because then we can use gravity to help us move forward. As you know, gravity pulls down. The body “collapses” down and forward before we take off. When we let the body collapse, the hips, knees, and chest will all move down to get out in front of the feet. See the collapse drill on the legs page for help with this.

      *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.

      *The ball of the foot is the widest part of the foot behind the toes.

      *There is an instructional video on the balance point and collapsing the legs/body in the “Legs” section of pitching training.

3. Body Orientation

Body Orientation

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.

4. UP LEG / DOWN LEG

Up Leg / Down Leg

The body is asymmetrical. Our organs are asymmetrical, our face is asymmetrical, and our body works asymmetrical between being righty or lefty, oriented right or left (as we learned above), and now having an up leg and down leg. (You have an up arm and down arm as well, but I don’t feel it’s necessary to address unless someone has been taught specific glove arm movement that is working against what their up arm/down arm wants to do).

When we talk about an up leg or down leg pitcher, we are referring to the drag leg. A down leg pitcher’s drag leg is their down leg, and an up leg pitcher’s up leg is their up leg. Being up leg or down leg has nothing to do with if you’re righty or lefty. There is no advantage - it’s not about which one is better. It is about knowing how to work with what you are. You cannot change what you are.

Your down leg likes to buckle. This leg is good at squatting down. It is not good at standing up once it’s squatted down. The is also the leg that you typically have worse balance on. The down leg likes to be behind the up leg. If you stand on your down leg and stick your up leg out in front of you, you will balance better. Most fitness “experts” are extremely mistaken when they say one side is weaker than the other. This is not true! It’s not your weaker leg - it’s your down leg.

Your up leg likes to hold you up and be straight. This is usually the leg you put down the stairs first. Your up leg is good at standing you up from a seated position and it is typically the leg you balance better on. The up leg likes to be in front of the down leg. If you stand on your up leg and stick your down leg back behind you, you will balance better.

Which one are you?

You can try the up leg down leg tests on the LEGS page, or you might be able to tell based on what I described above, but you should try both sets of instructions below on up leg/down leg take off and see what feels best just to be sure.

DOWN LEG INSTRUCTIONS

The main difference in being an up leg or down leg is in the take off. A down leg pitcher will squat as they back swing or load if they have no backswing - Meaning the hips will sit down more. Think about feeling like you’re sitting back in a chair, just not all the way. Down leg pitchers can start on the balls of the feet instead of flat footed if they like, but I do recommend getting your weight back on your heel (back foot/stride leg) regardless if you are up leg or down leg to get more momentum. If you watch ELITE pitchers, almost all of them do this.

UP LEG INSTRUCTIONS

  1. While ball is still in the glove in front of you, your legs should be straight with all your weight back on your stride leg/back leg.

  2. Bend over (Hinge - Hips back, chest down) while your ball is still in your glove. As you start to bend over/hinge, your arm should naturally start to drop into the back swing or load.

    *It’s very important that you hinge slightly before you backswing or load. DO NOT backswing or load before or during your hinge. Again, think hinge while the ball is still in the glove.

  3. Up leg pitchers want to think about swinging their stride leg (think long, heavy stride leg) instead of lifting or reaching the stride leg. There is a drill on the legs page for this.

    *You can also rock back into your hinge, where you would start standing with your weight on your front foot/drag foot, then rock back onto your back leg/stride leg as you hinge/bend over.