Most low caliber throwers tend to transfer too much of their weight onto their front leg too early in the delivery and wind up not utilizing their back leg or having a pushy back leg, better known as “triple extending.” Firstly, it is not optimal to either not have most of your weight on your back leg or to transfer your weight onto your front leg too early in the delivery. Most of your weight should remain on your back leg in about an 80/20 or even 90/10 split until just prior to front foot strike (FFS), which is when you begin rotating your pelvis/hips into ffs and transferring your weight onto your front side.
Beyond this, most low caliber throwers tend to not use their back leg effectively, as they create zero to minimal tension throughout their back hip and are just extending their back leg. Thus they are extending into ffs instead of rotating into ffs. Not having a majority of your body weight on your backside before ffs poses a problem. Without sufficient weight on your backside, you will lack the ability to transfer an adequate amount of energy, making it nearly impossible to maximize your output.
Meanwhile, high caliber throwers build tension within their back hip, which is known as the “hinge.” As they go down the mound, they hold this position and continue to build tension throughout their back hip for as long as their anatomy and range of motion allows. Each thrower has a different anatomy and range of motion allowing some to build and hold tension over longer durations than others. Once the thrower has reached their end range of motion, they are unable to hold this tension any further.
To effectively use the energy they have built up to this point in the delivery, they must begin by rotating their back knee down, which will trigger the hips to rotate into FFS. Which is the optimal way to uncoil tension and send it through the kinetic chain and eventually into the ball. It is important to understand that the back leg must rotate down towards the ground and not extend. If your back leg extends, it will be difficult to rotate, and you will be unable to build tension throughout the backside, significantly reducing your output. Remember that pitching is a rotational movement with linear aspects.
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