By Dr. Nick Whittaker PT, DPT, CSCS
The purpose of this post is to take a further dive into the “wind-up” portion of the pitching motion. Although it is the simplest of the 6 phases, yielding the lowest muscle activity and risk for injury, this portion can make or break the rest of the delivery.
The wind-up can be defined as the portion between when both feet are statically grounded and facing home plate to when the lead leg hits maximum knee height at the balance point with the pitcher’s shoulders in line with home plate and second base.
According to Gary Calabrese from his article “Pitching Mechanics Revisited,” “The wind-up sets the timing pattern and tone for the remainder of the pitching motion.” He also states that this portion typically takes between 0.5 and 1.3 seconds.
It’s important to note there are countless ways to achieve the movement into a proper balance point, whether it comes from the wind-up, the stretch, high leg kick, low leg kick, fast, slow, or raising the arms overhead Greg Maddux style.
It simply does not matter, as long as the pitcher finds themselves sideways to home plate in some sort of balance point, with their hands at approximately chest height, and a stable center of gravity (COG) that isn’t displaced too far forward or back.
There are several factors that can contribute to faulty wind-up mechanics. These include:
unsteady balance at maximum lead knee height secondary to poor lower extremity strength and trunk control
premature forward movement towards home plate prior to reaching the balance point
posterior tilting of COG
hand placement greater than shoulder height
Calabrese states that, “If the COG is positioned too far posteriorly or anteriorly the body segment sequence timing and transfer of torque in the kinetic chain will be transferred to the upper extremity thus predisposing the shoulder and elbow to injury.”
It’s under this premise that makes it so crucial for pitchers to train dynamic single leg exercises. These exercises should load the posterior chain for both building strength and balance. Excellent exercises for this position include single leg (SL) bridge on box, SL RDL, SL squat to box, and SL box step downs.
Additional exercises to train static balance without a targeted strength focus include single leg stance while performing various upper extremity and/or trunk movements. Some excellent options for this include SL wall ball throws of any variety, SL slam balls, SL plyometrics such as squat jumps, broad jumps, box jumps, or skater hops, SL Paloff press, chops, or anti-rotational movements, and performing various upper extremity band exercises in single leg.
The big take away from this post should ultimately be the importance of training strength and balance in single leg positions. This is done in order to create good stability at the balance point, which will lay a strong foundation for the subsequent phases and lead to a successful pitching motion.
[1] Calabrese GJ. Pitching mechanics, revisited. Int J Sports Phys Ther. 2013 Oct;8(5):652-60. PMID: 24175144; PMCID: PMC3811736.