Understand the movement
Pitching starts with understanding the individual athlete. Every pitcher has a unique body, movement profile, and mechanical approach.
My approach is to understand how each pitcher moves, identify what makes them effective, and use both observation and technology to help develop their delivery. The goal is not to make every pitcher look the same, but to help each athlete maximize what they do best.
1. The Athlete — Anatomy & Structure
Understanding an individual athlete starts with evaluating the physical characteristics and movement capacities that shape their delivery. Factors such as height, limb length, strength, mobility, range of motion, and stage of physical development can all influence how a pitcher generates and organizes movement.
Key areas to evaluate include:
• Strength and force production: How the athlete generates and applies force
• Mobility and range of motion: Available movement through key areas of the body
• Body structure: How height, limb length, and body proportions influence movement
• Physical development: How strength, mobility, and overall athleticism evolve over time
Common assessment tools include:
• Force plates: Assess strength, balance, and force-production characteristics
• Movement and mobility assessments: Evaluate range of motion and movement quality
• Motion capture systems: Analyze body positions and movement patterns
• High-speed video: Provides detailed evaluation of movement
• Physical performance testing: Measures strength, power, speed, and overall athletic ability
Professional and high-performance baseball environments increasingly integrate motion capture, force plates, video, and physical testing to better understand how athletes move and produce force.
Key Point:
There is no single ideal body type or mechanical model for pitching. Understanding an athlete’s individual physical profile provides essential context for how they move, perform, and develop.
2. The Delivery — Mechanics & Movement
Pitching is a high speed sequence of movements involving the coordinated transfer of force and energy throughout the body. Evaluating how a pitcher moves can provide context around velocity, command, pitch characteristics, repeatability, and areas for development.
Key areas that can be evaluated include:
• Lower half movement: How the pitcher uses the ground and lower half to create force and move down the mound
• Sequencing: How the lower half, hips, trunk, and arm work together to transfer energy through the delivery
• Timing and coordination: How consistently the different parts of the body work together throughout the delivery
• Arm action: How the throwing arm works within the overall delivery and how it affects the timing of the pitch
• Release consistency: How consistently the pitcher gets to and repeats their release position
Tools commonly used include:
• KinaTrax / motion capture: 3D biomechanical data and movement sequencing
• Force plates: Ground reaction forces and mound interaction
• TrackMan: Velocity, release characteristics, spin, movement, and ball flight
• Rapsodo: Pitch characteristics, spin rate, spin axis, and ball movement
• Edgertronic: Ultra high speed video for arm action, release, and ball behavior
High performance pitching environments commonly combine motion capture, force plates, high speed cameras, and ball tracking technology to connect what the pitcher is doing physically with what the baseball is doing after release.
Key Point:
Technology helps connect movement to outcome. The goal is not to make every pitcher move the same way. It is to understand the individual pitcher, how they organize their delivery, and how those movement patterns influence performance.
3. Pitch design
Pitch design is the process of understanding how a pitcher creates and shapes each pitch. Velocity, movement, spin, release, and pitch shape can all help determine how a pitch performs.
Key areas that can be evaluated include:
• Velocity: How hard the pitch is thrown
• Movement: Horizontal and vertical movement
• Spin: Spin rate, spin axis, and spin efficiency
• Release: Release height, side, extension, and consistency
• Pitch shape: How the pitch moves and how it separates from the pitcher’s other pitches
Tools commonly used include:
• TrackMan: Velocity, movement, spin, release characteristics, and ball flight
• Rapsodo: Pitch movement, spin, and pitch characteristics
• Edgertronic: High speed video to evaluate grip and release
TrackMan has become an important part of baseball scouting and recruiting. The data provides an objective way to compare pitchers and identify traits that may translate to higher levels of play.
Scouts and coaches can use the information to evaluate what a pitcher does well, identify areas for development, and better understand how their pitches may play at the next level.
Key Point:
Pitch design is about understanding what the pitcher creates and why it works. Technology provides the data, while scouting and coaching help put that information into context.