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.