OnBaseU is dedicated to studying how baseball/softball athletes move. Our online courses teach professionals how to assess a player's movement capabilities.
Itโs difficult to do damage when you โdrift.โ Donaldsonโs swing is a great example of how lead knee extension and a firm front side promotes rotational power.
Notice how his pelvis doesnโt move towards the pitcher after his first move (first 3-4 inches of hands moving forward)?
What causes the deceleration sequence in the kinematic sequence?
Deceleration isnโt the product of consciously slowing a segment down, but โfiringโ the next segment in the chain.
A common mistake in using the ground to generate power is thrusting the hips early and the pelvis moving towards the plate. This can cause a hitting characteristic we call No Spacing.
Dr. Rose shares a drill to help hitters visualize their hips at our recent seminar in Orlando:
The ability to Pelvic Tilt isnโt just a key movement pattern in helping to maintain dynamic posture and avoid loss of space, but also maximize potential bat velocity.
If the pelvis is moving towards the plate, itโs more difficult to โpull backโ and accelerate the barrel.
A โfirm front sideโ is one of the hallmarks of elite hitters.
Players who continue to Drift towards the pitchers after their First Move (first 3-4โ of hands moving forward) reduce their lower body stability and can dramatically reduce power into the upper body.
๐ฅ: castro_bros
The pelvis rotates first to initiate the swing and create a stretch across the oblique abdominals, but watch how stable the lower body becomes the last few frames before contact.
In baseball pitching, we see wrist pronation velocities of 6000ยฐ - 7000ยฐ/second.
In fastpitch, weโve measured wrist pronation velocities of up to 11,000ยฐ/second (๐คฏ).
Shouldnโt we be assessing ๐ฅ pitchers to evaluate their capability to create - and tolerate - those speeds?
A key capability in increasing speed from the trunk to the arms is the ability to create a stretch in the lead shoulder.
This is a really good example.
Notice the distance from hands to nose increases in the forward move? No Dead Hands.
Watch Nolan Ryanโs pelvis as he lifts his stride leg.
Like most elite pitchers, his pelvis has moved closer to the plate by maximum leg lift.
If not, they have a characteristic we call Hanging Back.
Not only key for generating velo, but also deception.