Peeling back the curtain a bit we are being afforded a glimpse into the future of pitching.  It is being provided by a team of biomechanics researchers.  What they’ve found has strong implications downstream.  However, it’s only a small part of a much bigger picture.

First of all, baseball is sorely lagging in the biomechanical study field.  Golf is many years ahead.  That provides a bit of a roadmap as to what the future holds. On this front Golf and Baseball are on parallel tracks albeit with different starting points.  Biomechanics in golf was started by equipment manufacturers trying to get a leg up in the competitive market.  Titanium had replaced Persimmon as the Driver head material.  Each new model had to be theoretically longer than the one before.  So one avenue that opened was to put sensors on top professionals to measure such things as pelvis rotation speed, upper torso speed, and ground reaction force.  It didn’t take long for the PhDs to get involved.  Today the biomechanics study of golf has expanded in scope and breadth.  Although the PhDs in the business say that the study is in its early stages it makes what is happening in baseball look absolutely nebulous.  A large part of that goes to who is providing seed money for the work.  Unlike Golf, the baseball equipment industry hasn’t funded biomechanical studies.  That leaves MLB itself, the teams, or the individual players to do so.  In other words, there’s no one that will pick up the ball and run with it on a large scale.

But, there is some work being done.  A team of four researchers equipped a mound with sensors.  Using a sample of eighteen former competitive pitchers they were able to establish a statistically strong correlation between velocity and one element of the motion; ground reaction force of the forward, or stride leg during arm-cocking and arm acceleration phases.  The force exerted by the drive leg was inconsequential.  That may be surprising.  But,  to those involved in golf biomechanics it was no surprise at all.  The swing and the pitching motion are very related.  What counts is acceleration and deceleration of body areas during the move.  Think of cracking a towel or a whip.  The wrist moves before the beginning of the whip then stops as the wave works down the whip until it cracks at the end with maximum velocity.  This all has to be sequential in order to be effective.

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