The Biomechanics of Pitching

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To many, baseball is known as America’s pastime. They find it enjoyable to watch two teams strategize against each other in order to win each individual game. Many factors combine together to affect the outcome of the game. Usually the team with the most quality hits, fewest errors, and best pitching wins. One of the most important of these factors is decent pitching. If the pitcher is struggling it’s easier for the other team to get on base and score.
Pitching a ball both fast and accurate is more difficult than it may seem. These factors all depend on how the pitcher controls his body, or how well his mechanics all come together. This is a big reason why people started looking into, and studying, Biomechanics. Biomechanics is the study of the human body and how it moves. Biomechanists take advancements in engineering and mechanics and apply them to see what effects they have on the body and how they can improve production.
When pitching, the pitcher needs to understand the different ways to use their body and learn about all of the different ways to throw the ball. Most people choose which way to throw based on how comfortable it is to them, but injury risk is also a huge factor. Biomechanics show people the best way to throw to achieve the highest success and avoid injuries.
Many pitching experts have separated pitching into phases. Not all of them agree on exactly how many steps there are, but the consensus is six core phases. It is important for pitchers to learn and properly perform each phase to cut down the risk of injuring your arm. The six phases are as follows:
The Windup: The Windup is generally used when there are no runners on base. For this reason some biomechanists believe it shouldn’t be included in the list ...

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...momentum towards home).
Pitching puts a large amount of stress on the pitcher’s body, especially the elbow and arm. The reason for this is that the act of pitching contains so many unnatural body movements. The body is not made to make the jerky movements that are involved in pitching. Some of the forces that affect the body during pitching include gravitational force and the resistance of the ball. Even though the ball is small and you wouldn’t think the resistance force is very high, you would be surprised at how large of a difference it makes and how much it actually affects your body.
So as a recap the six phases of pitching are:
• The Windup
• The Stride
• Arm Cocking
• Arm Acceleration
• Arm Deceleration
• The Follow Through
Just remember these steps, and with a little bit of practice you could be a good pitcher in no time.

Works Cited

sciencebuddies.org

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