High Pitching Velocity and Foot Sync

The reason synchronizing the feet before front foot strike is important is because it helps trigger hip rotation. The opening of the front foot will start the rotation of the hips during the stride. If the front foot opens early during the stride then hip rotation will start early. This will limit power production while also slowing hip rotation after front foot strike.

This is why it is important to trigger hip rotation just before front foot strike. Opening the hips just before front foot strike will promote more explosive hip rotation because the hip is forced to open faster due to the short amount of time it has to open before landing. It is also critical to understand that the front foot triggers the hip rotation but the back foot is what is driving the power of the hip rotation. This is why the feet must work together to create explosive hip rotation just before front foot strike.

Notice the animated clips here of Trevor Bauer and Aroldis Chapman. It is a close up of their feet moving together during the pitching delivery. What you see is the drive leg foot kicking the ankle through to complete triple extension just as the front foot is opening for landing. This synchronization of the feet is critical for power production, a good stride length and ultimately explosive hip rotation.

How to Synchronize the Feet During the Pitching Delivery?

The key to synchronizing the feet during the stride is in the “Load” position. This is the position where the pitcher is set up for launch, the clip here of Trevor Bauer starts in this position. The force vector (ankle to knee) is in a linear position and the lift leg is following the lead of the front hip. Most pitchers who open up the front foot early or who do not have a good drive leg ankle kick have a poor “Load.” The poor “Load” is mainly the result of a late linear force vector. The earlier the pitcher can line up the force vector into a linear position, the faster the pitcher is moving through the stride and the more distance the pitcher is covering in the stride. All that is left to do at this point is to throw open the front foot as you also fire the drive leg foot to extend just before front foot strike. Here is an animated clip of  Trevor Bauer moving from this “Load” position into front foot strike perfectly. Notice how his feet movements come before his hip rotation at front foot strike. There is several drills in the 3X pre and in-season program to train the motor coordination around these components.

It is important to note that if  Trevor Bauer  would have not aligned his force vector so linear early in his stride or lead so effectively with his front hip then he would have opened his front foot early and reduced his power production and explosive hip rotation that occurs just at front foot strike. This would seriously reduce his pitching velocity while also putting more work and stress on his arm.

Every coach knows that speed is the most dominate factor in sport. Coaches recruit fast athletes and design their offenses and defenses with that speed in mind. If these afore mentioned assumptions are correct, then, why are strength coaches training these same athletes to become slow and un-explosive.Training an athlete to become faster is not relegated to speed work on the field. You don’t take a highly recruited, gifted and genetically superior athlete into the weight room and do nothing to improve his speed and
explosive capabilities. Whether it is intentional or unintentional, strength coaches around the country are training their athletes in the weight room to become slower.

This is not an attack on training philosophy. It is an attack on the lack of common sense in the strength field. No matter what your training philosophy – Power lifting, Body-building, Olympic lifting or High intensity training, you can improve your program with a little common sense.

CST (Common Sense Training)

Rule #1
Train for strength not endurance. Remember your training for strength not a triathlon. Don’t spend an extreme amount of time in a hypertrophy phase or endurance training. Train at five reps and
below at eighty percent and above. Do this as soon as possible in your training cycle. You have to be strong to run fast, so why train above six reps? Your goal is to get strong – to run fast, not to lift long – to run slow and long.

Rule #2
Train explosively. Olympic lifts train the athlete to explode and use maximum possible force. Athletes will develop a high rate of force, a key point in sports training. Athletes who implement these lifts in their lifting program will train fast twitch muscle fibers, the fibers employed to give you speed, explosiveness and power. In essence performing an Olympic lift is performing a fast, explosive weighted jump. Sprinting in essence is a series of fast, explosive bounds. These lifts will directly help an athlete run faster Implement lifts such as: power clean, hang clean, power snatch, hang snatch, split jerk and jerk from the rack. The amount of weight does not matter as much as bar speed.

Rule #3
Train your VMO. Training the vastus medialis will help decrease ground contact time which is crucial to increase speed. Incorporate exercises such as: chain back squat, chain front squat, walking lunge and split squat into your program.

Rule #4
You need hamstring and low back strength. Because the back squat is one of the test for lower body strength in most programs, strength coaches sometimes over look the hamstrings and lower back. The hamstrings are connected to the glutes and back extensors. This is through the sarco-tuberal and dorso-sacral ligaments All lower body workouts should involve exercises for both the hip extension function and the knee flexor function Knee flexion exercises: leg curls and glute/ham raise. Hip extension exercises: Romanian deadlift, goodmorning reverse hyper and back extensions.

There are coaches with superior educations and impressive resumes who either over think while writing their cycle or under think while writing their cycle. When all else fails just use some common sense..