The Hip Slide To Pitching Velocity

by Brent Pourciau · February 12, 2009

Hip Slide Pitching The biggest problem I find in young pitchers is that they have poor separation in their hips to shoulders. There are many articles on this site covering the pitching component “Separation.” It is so important because having separation from your back hip to back shoulder before the shoulders rotate to the plate, is critical for velocity and the health of your arm. What “Separation” does is it builds core torque. It puts more torque in the big muscle groups of the core, instead of mainly in the small muscle groups of the shoulder.

The Key to Separation is the Hip Slide

Most coaches do not coach “Separation” because it is a challenge. The only way to coach this component and to perform this component correctly you must focus on the “Hip Slide.” What I mean by “Hip Slide” is that your hips should be seen as a slide or car and when you first lift your leg to start your delivery, the slide must start down the mound. Everything else on your body must stay back while the slide is heading down the hill. Therefore the faster you can get your slide down the hill while holding everything else back, the faster your velocity. It is also just as important to velocity if the slide comes to a complete stop at front foot strike. The hips slide must stop, so the momentum it generated, is transferred up the core, into the shoulders, into the arm and finally the ball. The reason you must focus on the hips to develop “Separation,” is because if the hips move faster than the shoulders, you will create good “Separation” naturally.

Pitching Hips Accelerating your slide down the hill as fast as possible and slamming the hips into your front leg to completely stop its momentum is your best opportunity to generate your potential top velocity. It is also just as important the distance the slide covers before it is stopped by the front foot strike. This distance is called your stride. A good stride is at least your body length. A good stride means that you had more time to generate momentum before front foot strike.

When your slide is building momentum down the mound while you are holding everything else back, which is called “Loading,” this will increase your stride length. The best way to perform this is by loading hard on your back side until your back ankle to back knee is pointing towards your front hip. Once your back leg lines up into a good linear position, then you must triple extend your back leg to add that last push to your slide which will build more momentum and increase your stride power. Read my article “Lift for Show, Load for Doe” to learn more about the “Load.”

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Comments

patrick

thanks Brett for the analysis. I am now working on pushing off the mound harder and have also started lifting my front leg up higher. When I lift my leg higher I feel like it is easier to push off the rubber and to lead with my hip. My stride length has increased by about 5 inches when I do it right and my front leg also starts to straighten also. After I get that into muscle memory I will work on scalp loading also. The analysis has really helped so thanks again.
http://www.topvelocity.net Brent Pourciau

Here is your analysis.

http://topvelocity.net/forum/mechanics-and-analys…
patrick

It is public now
patrick

this is a better one i think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rogLbUaprf8

I am working very hard right now to get better and I plan on getting your ace pitcher handbook to get at an advantage and be able to make varsity this year for high school.
- http://www.topvelocity.net Brent Pourciau
  
  The video is set to private. Make it public and I will do and analysis for you.
patrick

heres the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuOMJFDVVac
http://www.topvelocity.net Brent Pourciau

Timing is everything in baseball. Good hip to shoulder separation means when your front foot lands your back hip is open to the target and your back shoulder is closed. If you separate to early but still land with good hip to shoulder separation this shouldn't cause problems. I just believe it is very unlikely that you can do this. If you have footage of this please send it to me and I will do an analysis.
patrick

I think I understand the hip/shoulder seperation but what hapens when it is done too early?
Jon Paul Anatra

This article is great and i really love how you have the slow motion video of the pitcher. It really gives you a good understanding of what to do when your reading the article.

Filed Under Pitching Articles
Tagged: coach, deliveries, doe, faster, foot strike, generations, harding, health, hip slide, hips, least your body, legs, load, momentum, muscle groups, muscles, performance, pitch, pitcher, pitchers, pitches, pitching, Separation, shoulders, slams, slide down, stride, timing, torque, transfer, Velocity

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The Hip Slide To Pitching Velocity