Is there something wrong with the way I throw?

[StuyHitmenZero]

Recently I've been looking at the pitching mechanics or Major Leaguers, and even at the way my friends throw. The one thing I notice is that most players (and my friends) eventually arrive at this position:



...where their elbow is bent (or "cocked") before they release the ball.

So I've been looking at videos of myself, and I finally recognize what I thought was very unorthodox when I first saw my videos: it seems as if I never arrive at that elbow position. Instead my arm is pretty much straight right until I begin to release the ball.

*I have a video that sort of shows it here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=b_UHLJlYFGc
(if at all necessary I can upload another video that shows it better)

Basically there are two things I don't do:
1. I don't point my glove at my target.
2. I don't "cock" my elbow.

I've been throwing like this probably since I started playing baseball 3 years ago. It's very comfortable for me and I haven't had any arm problems yet (other than fatigue, which happens to everyone).
I've tried pointing my glove, but I find that I actually lose control.
As for the elbow-cocking...I never really picked up on it, mainly because I haven't had any serious problems hitting my spots (or cut-off men, if I'm playing the outfield), and my coaches haven't mentioned it to me.

In fact, the ace of my team throws with the same arm action as I (this video:http://youtube.com/watch?v=KdUz-FwcyAs from 4:02 to 4:20), and just yesterday I saw Vicente Padilla pitch for the Rangers on ESPN. As far as I can tell, he doesn't point his glove or cock his throwing arm.

So really, is there anything seriously wrong with the way I throw? Or is it just something aesthetic with no real side-effects?

*FYI: I've corrected some things since I recorded this 4 months ago:
-I pause longer before I raise my right leg
-I land on the balls of my right foot instead of the heel. My coach said that it helps with my balance.
-I now land with my body facing the plate, instead of my left side.

Thank You.

[Chris O'Leary]

[StuyHitmenZero]

^^^
whoops, my bad. I didn't mean for that arm action to be so extreme. I've just notice that most players when they throw have at least a slight bend in their elbow before they release the ball (more specifically, right before their front leg touches the floor), while i don't.

[Roger]

Well, I think you do have a bend in your arm but maybe it doesn't happen at the same point in time or for the same duration as other pitchers. You have to have a bend in the arm to initiate forward acceleration of the arm or else you throw entirely with the shoulder. Pitchers who extend their throwing arm straight back will have sort of a "2-step" arm action. The arm extends back and then it bends and rotates such that the elbow tucks down before forward acceleration is initiated. But I don't really see you doing this.

What I do see is a lack of hip and shoulder separation. Your shoulders rotate very quickly after your hips and before your hips have rotated fully. This means you aren't fully using your body. It also causes you to spin out of your delivery prematurely which shortens your stride and pulls your release point back. And it also probably effects your velocity. Try extending the glove arm out front more to give yourself the timing to keep the shoulders closed longer. And get those hips moving toward the target sooner. This should lengthen the stride and give you the timing needed to delay shoulder rotation until the hips have fully rotated and it will get your release point closer to home plate.

[StuyHitmenZero]

[Roger]

Try to stop your video clip right when your front foot plants. What I would expect to see is that the hips will have rotated (at least partly) but the shoulders are still closed. In your case, however, your shoulders have already rotated as well. This means you're not getting th emost out of your body to maximize your velocity and reduce stress on the arm. The trick is to figure out why your shoulders are rotating early. I think your front arm action is rather abbreviated and doesn't give the rest of your body the time it needs to do things properly and that leads to the shoulders rotating early.

Does this help?

As for the "2-step" arm action, your comments sound like you've interpretted what I said as something that is good to do and that's NOT what I meant. The throwing arm needs to be bent when the shoulders rotate to allow the upper arm (ie. humerus) to go into external rotation. If that arm is complete straight, then it must be bent and the elbow lowered to be in the position to start external rotation. This represents and extra, unnecessary and undesirable motion that can affect timing.

By the way, what I've called the "2-step arm action" is not a well-known term. I just made it up to describe the motion I've seen with young pitchers who extend the arm straight back.

[coachxj]

Your problem is that you have virtually no arm action as defined by developing external rotation of the shoulder. It appears that your action rotation is at best 120°. High-level throws approach 180°. A big part of your problem is you're doing exactly what Chris O'Leary advocates, using your body to throw the baseball. Contrary to popular belief you have to learn how to throw with your arm first before the body can do its thing.

The pitcher on your team that I think you are referring to develops almost 180° of external rotation of the shoulder which results in his ability to whip the ball as opposed to what you are doing which is pushing the ball.

This is not an easy thing to correct as evidenced by the fact that you been doing it this way for over three years. My suggestion is you start off pretending you're catcher throwing somebody out at second base i.e. making snap throws.

I would also suggest that you make throws emulating Bartolo Colon ( short arming by tucking the ball behind her ear) and then rotating the crap out of the the hips and upper body to throw the ball.

[Chris O'Leary]

[coachxj]

..... who fancies himself as a great pitching theorist but has little or no practical application experience.

[P'fessa]

Can you imagine how much better the jungle folks would be throwing spears in order to eat, if they knew as much as us.

[StuyHitmenZero]

...interesting debate, to say the least.

As I expected there are vastly different perspectives on this. I'll keep them in mind when I have practices this coming week.

Besides, only I can change myself, eh?

[Roger]