Mini McLoven pitching

[mcloven]

From last night:
http://youtu.be/_Yw7gwLm9fQ



He's 12, just entering 7th grade.

Been working hard on adding a good change-up, which explains some of the sweat (though this vid is a FB)...
[Also been working on hip/shoulder separation and deceleration.]

[songtitle]

He looks good. Real good.

[CircleChange11]

From last night:
http://youtu.be/_Yw7gwLm9fQ



He's 12, just entering 7th grade.

Been working hard on adding a good change-up, which explains some of the sweat (though this vid is a FB)...
[Also been working on hip/shoulder separation and deceleration.]

Hot damn, he's getting after it.

He certainly gets "toward the catcher" more than most pitchers his age ... which is good.

I cannot tell because of the speed of the film, but I'd like to see ....

1. Where is his head in relation to his front knee at release point?
2. Where is his rear shoulder in relation to his belly button nearing release point?

In other words, I'm wanting to see if he's getting his "nose over knee" (putting his nose in the catcher's mitt), and whether he is getting good hip-shoulder separation. So, we want to see his belly button facing the catcher, but his shoulder still facing 3B or LF.

Everything at real speed appears good ... very good actually. Usually at this age you have to tell pitchers "don't be afraid to fart/grunt" to try and get them to actually attempt to throw hard and not be so damn smooth. You almost have to give them a pep talk and let them know the batter is trying to hit the ball off the wall and not just tap it to short, so the pitcher better be trying to throw something with some 'stank' on it.

I like that he is mechanically sound without looking like a robot.

I like the stride length and the short amount of time it take to get there. His front foot action reminds me of Felix Hernandez (and not just because he threw a perfect game the other day), the way he "swings it out" and lands toe open ... that's the direction we're heading with my son in regards to front leg.

I keep watching the video to see if I can pick up on more stuff (in real time), what does he do with his pitching hand? Does he tuck it behind his head? When he's "chesting" the catcher (chest facing the catcher), is his pitching arm forming a serious acute angle or is it closer to 90? I can;t tell from the video.

The speed of his motion is going to make a change-up even more effective.

[jbooth]

From last night:
http://youtu.be/_Yw7gwLm9fQ



He's 12, just entering 7th grade.

Been working hard on adding a good change-up, which explains some of the sweat (though this vid is a FB)...
[Also been working on hip/shoulder separation and deceleration.]

I think it has a lot of good stuff, but he moves his head around too much. Nolan Ryan (and others) stress keeping the head under control and directing it in a straight line toward the plate from balance point to foot landing. His head moves down, in, up and out.

[songtitle]

but he moves his head around too much.

Does it become disconnected from his upper body, or bobble or something?

[Dirtberry]

McLoven,

Very nice, he does many things that will save his elbow and shoulder from injuries.
He pitches from directly over the top with his Humerus staying in line with his shoulders, this eliminates shoulder pathologies. He looks a lot like Lincecum. Hopefully he is learning all pronated pitches, from his over the top orientation he will be able to perform these types of pitches much better than others who do not, even run towards glove arm side pronated pitches, this will give his elbow good health.
I normally comment only on these aspects. I went over the video frame by frame and with the poor frame rate you used we can only see a few frames and even they are streaky and undefined, better to attain at least 240 frames a second for these proposes. Many of the newer cameras are capable of this and growing.

I’m concerned about his recovery position when the ball is contacted! He is extremely exposed to line drives back at him because of his very long stride that does not add anything that is necessary and perturbs his ability to rotate the body. When pitchers bend radically at the lower back and not stay tall and rotate, when the ball is contacted their backside leg becomes anchored back and pops up while balancing on one leg with all the weight on one leg, this not only makes him susceptible to hard hit balls back at him it puts him in a poor defensive position just after contact. He would be better off in the classic athletic drop step position when contact is made.

Good luck in the future.

dirtberry

[Roothog66]

About as good a hip/shoulder separation as you will see in a 12yo.

[Dirtberry]

Roothog66,

“About as good a hip/shoulder separation as you will see in a 12yo.”

It’s to bad that this Hip/Shoulder separation is lost in all traditional leg lifters when the shoulders catch back up to the hips during the Humeral/forearm transition phase and long before the acceleration phase starts. This is why little rotation is used with long striders and what is used has the shoulder and hips traveling together in the same plane.

[songtitle]

This is why little rotation is used with long striders and what is used has the shoulder and hips traveling together in the same plane.

That's not possible for a long-strider.... until foot plant.

[Dirtberry]

Songtitle,

First have you ever witnessed high speed video of the traditional pitching motion?
I expect a county song here!
Second, is the ball making forwards progress at the time of foot plant?
I expect a dance here!

Lets move this side issue over to a new thread and have an honest discussion?

[LAball]

Mini mCannon

[songtitle]

Songtitle,

First have you ever witnessed high speed video of the traditional pitching motion?

Tell me about this new high speed video that you speak of. I hear they have invented this new thing called the Internet also.

[mcloven]

Thanks for all the feedback. While looking at head movement and follow through position videos and articles, I found this and thought it was an interesting article with examples of "violent" pitching/head movement and non-traditional finishing/fielding positions:
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/ar...rticleid=17799