I got to thinking about this subject after my son got hit in the shin while pitching yesterday.  he was throwing really aggressive and doing well, when a ball came back and hit his landing leg.  he pitched again today, but not as effective.  I posted a video of him so you can see what i mean.  mechanically, he is solid…but he isn't moving as fast and his arms kept going into defense mode after just about every throw.

I'm now looking into protective gear, even though most kids don't think it looks cool.  what do you think about pitchers needing gear?  catcher, batters, and umpires wear gear to protect themselves…why not pitchers?

i really didn't care for protective gear either…until my son got hurt.  that changes everything.  it didn't really bother me when other kids got hit either…well i cared that they were hurt, but not enough to think about pitchers wearing protective gear.  i saw one kid wearing a clear mask last year and some people called him "Hanibal Lector".  funny at the time, not so much now.  

back in the day, no one wore any protective gear…but a few injuries later and it's mandatory.  we don't question it anymore, but they did back then.

Nicolas has been "working" the 3X pitching for really only a few months.  we had tips from Brent over the last year as Brent looked at Nic's videos, but it wasn't until we bought the book that we really started to understand it.  we actually got the beginner's book about a month ago and found it an easier read.  the lights really started going on about two weeks ago when Brent worked with Nicolas on drills for separation.  Nicolas had to learn to push his front hip open using the power of his back foot after triple extension to get proper separation and speed.  Nicolas was actually cheating it and looking pretty good by just swinging his leg out and striding far…but he had to concentrate on keep his shoulders closed.  now he just has to think about pushing off quickly and relaxing his arms and upper body and the separation comes by itself without much effort.

believe it or not, Nicolas was actually moving fairly slow on this video.  he was much faster and more aggressive before the hit in the shin.   luckily, the hit didn't break any bones.  he ended up with a bruise and some soreness is about all.

some of the drills that helped were:

getting into the load position with the back leg, pause, launch and go as quickly as possible.  the back leg has to push the hips open.  if you do it fast enough, the shoulders will pretty much stay closed.

from the stretch; launch out and land in a torqued/closed position.  hold for a second, launch by pushing with he back leg and throw.

my son also does squats daily.  it's important that they learn to squat and push the butt out, because they need those muscles to pitch properly.   unless my son is very sore, he does the following exercises daily:  squats, push-ups, crunches, and short sprints (20-30 yards).  sprinting is done with an effort to develop maximum speed off the line.

 at least 2-3 times a week Nicolas works in front of a mirror or with a video camera running to make sure he looks right mechanically.   the video camera really helps a lot.  but there are many times where we think he looks good and Brent will notice another thing we need to work on.  having Brent around to analyze the video footage is a major part in the development.  Brent is getting so good at it that he is able to spot mechanical problems on the fly just by watching the pitcher live.  a good example was 2 weeks ago when Brent pointed out to me that Nic was basically throwing his front leg out to stride far and holding his shoulders back by force.  the end result was pitches thrown outside and low.  in the last game, Nic realized after a couple of pitches low and outside that he was basically faking the delivery and needed to push his hips open with his drive leg instead of throwing his front leg out.  once he made the change, he was dealing out some heat and struck out the next three batters.

it sounds like a simple thing, but pushing the hips open by driving hard with the back leg is basically the answer to many pitching problems.  for the last two years we really were just trying to hit certain positions while pitching, which isn't the answer.  you can look kool and still be a bad pitcher.  

the program works once you get strong enough to do it.