Muscle Memory

I threw again today. I got out to about 150 feet, not trying to really push it yet. I felt really good, could have definitely gone more. What I really want to talk about is what I tried when I was throwing at shorter distances. I threw an easy flat ground session from about 60 feet. I made sure I took a long, maybe too long stride on every throw. Over exaggerating things is a good way to change muscle memory habits. A pitcher’s mechanics is one of the most difficult things to change because of the amount of times they have done it. So when trying to teach your body something new, you have two options. The first is repeating the same thing over and over again until your body is comfortable with the new motion. This takes an incredible amount of time, which I don’t really have. The second option, the one I am using, is to over exaggerate what you are trying to change. I’m trying to use a longer stride in my delivery, so when I throw now, I take an extra long stride.

This method will work for changing other things in your mechanics as well. Let’s say you normally throw over the top, but you now want to drop your arm angle. An easy way to do this is to drop the angle even more than you wanted to. This way when go up to where you wanted to be, it will feel almost natural. That is what I am hoping for my stride. What I will say about this approach is that you need to take it easy when throwing. If you drastically change something about your delivery, it will affect your arm in some way. If you focus on what you are trying to change, and you just throw easy, you should be fine.

Mechanics

So I have decided that I will never be able to generate the velocity that I want without first changing my mechanics. I have been watching videos of major league pitchers and comparing their mechanics to my own. At certain points, it was pretty clear to see that my mechanics did not match the pro’s. Now I’m not talking about leg kicks and arm angles, but about weight shifts, strides, and release points. Take a look at this video of Tim Lincecum. Try to pause it right when his front foot lands, and then again at release point.

Talk about someone who gets everything from their lower body. For a 5’11, 170 pound pitcher, he has to generate all of his power from his legs. And he does, considering he throws about 97mph. I’m not saying you should try and copy everything that Tim Lincecum does, because I think that would be impossible, but there are a few things about him that I think we should try to emulate. The drive he gets to home plate is incredible. The weight shift from the back leg to the front is perfect, but during that process, the amount of torque in his body almost looks painful. It looks like his arm is forced to move that fast.

The thing I am trying to work on now is my stride. I think sometimes I get lazy and I don’t stride as far as I should. A longer stride does two things for you. The first is that it generates more power from you lower body. The second is that it gives you a lower center of gravity which gives you more control and more consistency. I just started to work on this today and I could already feel the difference in my legs. My hamstring was almost sore after my short throwing session. Also, I felt more in control and it felt much easier to repeat my delivery. So more on this to come after I throw a few more times.