Feeling better

Hi everyone,

I've been feeling a bit better with the throwing.  It finally feels like things are getting back on par with where I used to be.  I'm beginning to believe that mechanics are actually a pretty big part of my problem with velocity.

Kyle Boddy (www.drivelinebaseball.com) posted a video last week about Ubaldo Jimenez and how such a small tweak can make such a huge difference.  Jimenez, it ends up, is breaking his hand from his glove VERY early in the windup which causes him to stutter just a bit on his back leg. Basically, they were trying to fix a mechanics issue and he ends up a bit wobbly. This caused a dramatic decrease in his velocity.  From what I can see, I'd also argue that this will eventually cause him to be more up in the zone as well.  As he tries to aim his pitches, which pitchers tend to start doing when they miss, he'll lose even more velocity and movement.

The other thing that he mentioned was the unathletic delivery to the mound. While it's always been odd, as Kyle points out, it's now looking almost forced.  I often feel the same way with pitching nowadays. I used to be able to throw as loose as anything and now it feels very forced.  Some days are easier than others of course and I do expect this to get better over time.

I'm guessing that this is mostly up in my head and I just need to relax and throw.  One thing I've been doing more of is driving harder with my back leg.  I'm doing the sock throwing (on a downward plane) with weights on my legs hoping to increase my hip flexor muscles. Of course, I've also been incredibly diligent with squats, leg plyo work, and walking lunges.  This seems to help not only with pitching, but with hitting too.

So, it's time to get out of my head and trust my body to remember what it's supposed to do. At least somewhat.

Here's the link to Kyle's excellent writeup:
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/ubaldo-jimenez-and-his-missing-96-mph-heater-a-mechanical-look/