Guys, welcome back to D one pitching mechanics I'm coach Missoni excited to get onto video number 220 years of this video in the making so excited to get to this information. If you recall where we left off, the first video was about momentum during leg lift. Now we're going to talk about just the very beginning move from the top of our leg lifts coming down, not even our full stride, just that first move. And when I'm recruiting, when I'm running camps, even lessons and clinics, I see a lot of this done wrong. So I'm going to first show you and tell you how I see it done wrong. And then talk about how we want to do it right and then drills to get there.

What I see a lot of kids and again, it starts with the balance point, when I get myself balanced to start and I don't have any momentum going forward. Now all I have is leg power to push off. And what you see many kids do is they push off, but yet their shoulders and their weight is almost forward as they're pushing, which makes sense because without any momentum, they're simply pushing themselves forward. They don't lead with their hip, they have a short stride. There's a lot of things that can immediately go wrong when you don't have that early momentum. But as the person approaches, they're really forward, they're pushing out forward, as opposed to what we're about to talk about now.

So let's cover the key principles that we're looking for from leg lift. And our first move forward. The first piece and I'll show you from this side angle, which I think will will make the point best is, as I said in the first segment, constantly, our head must be going forward. So if you're analyzing your own video and you see at any time, your head staying where it is, or going back, you're not maximizing your velocity. Okay, we want to get away from the pitching rubber. Nothing good happens at the pitching rubber we want to get away from the pitching rubber and a guy throwing 85 from here Not nearly as hard as the guy throwing at fire from there.

It's what makes tall pitchers difficult. The ball gets on you quickly because they released closer to home. Just look up Randy Johnson who's no fun to hit at 611. So our first move from here as our lead comes down is we're going forward while we're staying back. All right, let's explain that, again, very difficult to get. We're moving towards the catcher, but our weight is dropping back into our backside.

And there's probably five or six ways you can say it or think about it. And when you go to those video links, you'll see it as well on these pictures is from here. Now my hip gets thrust out and to show you from the beginning. I use momentum. And now I drop into the back side and that makes my hip lead. So my hip is the furthest thing forward on my delivery.

Not my shoulder, not my foot. It's my hip. Okay, my chin stays behind my hip. So my chin is back behind. My my chin is not forward of my hip back behind is crucial. Also, by doing that, I get a tremendous amount of weight loaded up on my backside, as I'm going forward, so it takes some strength, some flexibility, my shoulders get tilted.

What does that mean? That means as I drop into my backside, you drew a line on my shoulders, they're going uphill. And a great way to explain this is in a quarterback. If a quarterback is in the pocket, and no one's open deep and they dump off to the running back at five yards, they take a short step, their chin doesn't go behind their hip, their shoulders stay level and they dump a five yard pass off. Okay? When they're throwing a bomb, 6070 yards, they move into the ball as they drop back.

So they're going towards the end zone, but yet their weight is going back, chin behind hip shoulder gets tilted, because they need to heave the ball. And on these videos, I'll refer you to you'll see these pictures these pros almost as their friends What is landing they're still tremendously loaded back and actually looks like they're throwing the ball into the upper deck, but yet they're using the angle of the mound and the release point to throw the ball down. So if I could do one thing to change a pitcher, here's what I would do. I'd say make like your quarterback throwing a bomb, and then hold on to the ball and throw the ball lower. It's a tremendous drill and I do it in clinics. I have the kids dropped back to a five yard out and then I have them drop back, throw a bomb deep, and they understand how to use their momentum go forward while staying back, get hip lead shoulder tilt, and then I say throw a bomb.

But now throw that bomb low. And that's what pitching is 50 times a game 60 pitches 70 pitches, you're throwing a full body effort pitch. Most young kids pitch with balance short stride, and they don't pitch with their full body. Guys pitching should be a full body exhausting thing. It's like doing a full broad jump It's exhausting. So we need to use on our approach our backside as we're moving forward, get our hip lead, and get shoulder tilt.

So let's talk about a few drills to accomplish that. got about four good ones for you. Hopefully you get it just from hearing it and seeing the videos of the pros. But here's drills if you want to work on it. Number one, you take your front foot, and you put it behind your back your back knee. And what you're going to do is you're going to start getting your hip out like this.

So your hip is leading, you're going to actually start to fall, and then you'll catch yourself. Again, being a little bit out of control through the delivery is what we want. A little bit of added control like you saw with the chair in the first video, produces momentum produces velocity, velocity. Gravity produces velocity if we all took a shuttle to the moon, and pitched you can all throw about a third of your speed without gravity, gravity is needs to be used to our advantage. Okay, so the foot behind and hip out is a good one to work on. Next one would be what I would call I'll show you from this front angle is kind of the drew Storen thing the way the Washington Nationals pitcher pitches, he's in the stretch, he's got his front foot closed, and his first move to the plate his front hip out.

All he does is get front hip going and then his foot plays catch up, he actually uses his leg as a pendulum. The way many many big leaguers do, okay, but it's a great drill, just get like this. Start getting your front hip going, let the body finish and throw to a partner. Okay, so the drew store and hip lead is a great one. To translate that now to, to long toss or throwing through movement, you can do a shuffle. So you could actually run and kind of do a regular long toss shuffle, but now take a hop and get the back side or the front side hip to lead.

So I'll show you that again from the side angle. So here I am playing along Toss. I kind of outfielder crow hop, but then instead of just going forward, I do outfielder crow hop and then I hip lead, keep my lower foot close as I go forward. So that's another great drill and can be incorporated to all your long toss. Last one and I'll give one of my college pitchers credit for bringing this to me Listen, any ideas are great, you might email me with something that I use with my college guys or in lessons. That's tremendous.

That's how we learn from each other. And what you do is you can either start in a stretch, wind up, or even have the leg in the air and somebody a coach, a partner, pushes your back hip. So what it looks like is as you get to the here, someone pushes your back hip, which gets you to lead with your front hip as you're going forward. Okay, and even sort of like a punch. If I took a really big punch, I, I lead here and then bring myself through. So I could go through a wind up, get here, someone pushes out my front hip, and I go forward.

To recap, for those of you using your iPhones or your iPads and videotaping yourself and watching in slow motion, which I highly, highly, highly encourage, the ultimate place I'm trying to get to as a coach as your coach is where you don't need me, you get to the place where you're so smart about your mechanics that you can analyze things on your own and maybe small tweaks you need. One of the things we're looking for in the first two videos that we've covered from leg lift to this first move is that the head is constantly going forward. If you're again, using a mouse or a scroller, and at any point your head stays where it is. That's a loss of momentum and a loss of velocity. Okay, so we're going to wrap up this segment on the leg kick first move down. Hopefully it all makes sense when you go to the video links.

It'll all be backed up on those pro pitchers. please get in touch with any feedback. And we'll look forward to bringing the third video to you which is about the stride down two foot plan And again, this is the one pitching mechanics and I'm coach Maloney. Thank you.