Is Your Pre-motion Hurting Your Pitch? The Finale!

Today I’m bringing you the fourth and final part of my windmill pitching pre-motion series. So far in parts 1-3, we’ve talked about improper loading, load foot rotation, and detrimental backswings. Now your load is terrific, your load foot is solid, and your backswing is under control or nonexistent. Is there anything else you can do in your pre-motion that may be detrimental to your pitch? Unfortunately, yes. The Fastpitch Power instructors advocate generally minimalistic pre-motions, and we believe that a lot of excess “noise” in your pre-motion can hurt you immediately and in the long run. Read on to find out why.

Two Types of Detrimental Pre-motion Movement

Assuming the mechanics of the aforementioned parts of the pre-motion are sound, the detrimental pre-motion movements I see typically fall under one of two categories (sometimes both): they are too fast or too dramatic. Both of these scenarios have the potential to negatively affect each pitch on an individual level, meaning if you addressed these issues you’d probably see improvement right away. Additionally, they increase your chance of injury, doing so for no good reason because pronounced pre-motion movement is completely superfluous to the pitch. Let’s look at each scenario and discuss the areas of concern.

Your Pre-motion is Too Fast

A critical part of a successful windmill pitch is acceleration. That means in order to throw your hardest, you must build up speed from the beginning of your pitch to the end, with your pitching arm reaching peak velocity as it travels through the throw zone and releases the ball. I’ve even seen my students achieve immediate small increases in pitch velocity by forcing them to slow down the beginnings of their pitches and focus on the acceleration, compared to trying to maintain consistent top velocity throughout the entire motion.

Many pitchers feel the need to start out their pitches with a ton of energy, and as a result their pre-motions become too fast. When the pre-motion is too fast, the pitch (and the pitcher) can be affected in a number of ways:

• The vast majority of the time, the pitcher, especially if she is a young pitcher, lacks the physical strength to increase or even maintain the velocity of her pre-motion throughout the rest of the pitching motion. The result is typically deceleration, which is the last thing you want to happen as you deliver a pitch. If your arm and your body are slowing down, I guarantee your ball is slowing down.
• Often, the pre-motion is so fast that it is physically impossible to accelerate. The pitcher simply starts the pitch going as fast as she can.
• A pitcher, especially a young pitcher, will get tired much sooner with an excessively fast pre-motion. A 98-degree summer day on which you may be asked to pitch more than once can feel a lot different with a fast pre-motion than with a calm one. Especially knowing that the calmer pre-motion can produce at least the same but likely better pitch results, wouldn’t you rather save your energy on that hot day?
• If you have any flaws in your pre-motion, such as an overly dramatic backswing or a turn in your load foot, they will become more pronounced if your body is moving faster because of momentum. Think about trying to keep your backswing under control. What would make that easier: gently moving your arm back to it’s stopping point, or rocketing it behind you at 50+ mph and trying to stop it?
• The faster pre-motion movements, which often result in more pronounced movements as stated in the point above, put greater stress on the body and thus increase the chance of injury. Windmill pitching is an explosive movement, and you can’t really do anything about that. But you don’t need your pre-motion to be explosive too. Keep it calm and save your energy for the actual pitch.

Your Pre-motion is too Dramatic

Maybe the speed of your pre-motion is pretty calm, and the acceleration into your pitch is pretty good. Maybe you don’t even have a backswing. But what does your load look like? Are you bending way over at the waist, or squatting low in your load?

Photo credit: http://www.2008.nbcolympics.com/athletes/athlete=114/bio/index.html

Monica Abbott is a fantastic pitcher and her pre-motion, which is certainly dramatic, has become kind of famous. Before you use that as a defense, consider this: are you as strong as Monica Abbott? I certainly won’t deny that it’s possible to have success with a dramatic pre-motion, but I strongly believe that a simpler pre-motion is safer, more efficient, and more accessible, whether you’re a fully grown woman with Monica Abbott’s level of strength, or an 11-year-old developing as a pitcher. Here’s why:

• IT’S EASIER. And I DEFINITELY don’t mean it’s the easy way out. A simpler pre-motion, in which you get your weight solidly into your load food without bending much at the waist and only slightly at the knees, is much easier and just as effective if not MORE effective than a dramatic pre-motion. If you’re a developing pitcher, especially if your core strength isn’t optimal (which is true of the vast majority of developing pitchers), it is going to be much more difficult for you to get up tall into your reach posture from a bent or squatting position than from a simple load position, in which you’re already at least 3/4 of the way tall. And you don’t gain any sort of advantage from a deeper load. You can put 100% of your weight on your load foot without bending over at all, and bending from there doesn’t put 120% of your weight on your load foot; you top out at 100% no matter what. So there’s no reason to make it harder for yourself to deliver a pitch. It just doesn’t make sense.
• A simple pre-motion is easier no matter who you are, but if you’re a young developing pitcher it’s probably critical. It’s very likely that you’ll find it impossible to regain your good posture from a deep bend while pushing off the rubber if you are below a certain level of core and leg development. You cannot allow your pre-motion to ruin your posture and mechanics for the rest of the pitch.
• It puts way more stress on your back. Bending over and quickly standing up puts stress on your back every time you throw a pitch. That stress adds up over time. There’s no need for it, so eliminate it!
• The same thing I said about becoming tired sooner with a fast pre-motion applies to this. Why make extra work for yourself, especially on a hot summer day?

Drills for Improving the Pre-motion

So you’ve heard me out and you want to know what you can do about it. The first thing you need to do is remember and really understand this fact: the ONLY part of your pre-motion that is of any importance is your load. As long as you load 100% of your weight onto your load foot in preparation for pushing off the rubber, everything else you do in your pre-motion is superfluous. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do anything else; you should absolutely develop a series of movements that leads to a solid load and a comfortable overall rhythm. What it does mean is that any dramatic movement should be cut out.

If you’d like to break the habit of a dramatic pre-motion, do this: stand on the rubber on one foot (your load foot). Sink slightly down into it, as if you’re preparing to hop over a small puddle that’s right in front of you. Pitch right from this position. Do it over and over until you’re comfortable with it and realize that the important part of the pitch really happens after the push-off. Once you’re comfortable pitching with no pre-motion, add a nice, small, calm one and see what happens.

Thanks for sticking with me for my month long pre-motion series. Next week I’ll be starting a different topic. If there is a topic you’d like to see covered, feel free to leave a note in the comments, or email us via the contact page.