Building The Right Body

This week, we asked one of our strength training experts to talk about physical weaknesses we see in new pitchers. We think this is an incredible article from, Jesse Hutchins, Certified Instructor in New Hampshire. Let’s get right to it.

Like all movement, the fastpitch pitching motion lives and dies on the foundation in which it is performed.

If the foundation, or in this case the body, has a weakness or asymmetry, the risk of injury while pitching dramatically increases. Furthermore, it is almost a guarantee that the said weakness will lead to each movement pattern, beginning to end, being a compensatory one. Compensatory movement patterns are inefficient ones. With this said, there are physical signs we can recognize.

Often times, when an athlete comes in for an introductory lesson with me, the first thing I look at is how they stand – their posture, which way they naturally lean, etc. What I notice most often are hyper extended knees. When these same athletes perform an arm circle during their warm up, they will hyperextend their elbow, as well. When these athletes are identified, there are two principles I stick to: never have these athletes stretch and to keep an extremely close watch when coaching these athletes so they do not lock out their joints. Basically, you have to teach these athletes how to not be too loose. Both of these principles are important for the pitcher’s success.

Another “warning sign” I often take note of is underdeveloped glutes. Not coincidently, the hyper extended knees mentioned above, and undeveloped glutes often go together. The reason is a topic for another post. Weak glutes will always equal limited power off the mound and unhealthy knee joints. When there is an absence of strength in the gluteus muscles, the body will look elsewhere for the movement. Unfortunately, this often means stress on the ACL and over recruitment of the adductor, or groin muscles. In order to combat this issue, I will often insert a glute strengthening/activation exercise into the lesson, as well as send the girl home with a couple of exercises and a band necessary to perform them. Additionally, once these athletes are identified, I will start their remaining lessons with a few exercises to activate, or “wake up” the glutes with the idea that they will turn to these muscles for strength before compensating, as long as they know how.

The last, and possibly most common, sign I watch for is poor posture and over exaggerated curvatures of the spine. Given how much and how long we sit and stand in one place nowadays, proper posture is hard to find. A rounded thoracic spine, or upper back, and a lordotic lumbar spine, or hyper extended lower back, will throw the most important mechanisms of an arm circle out of alignment. When there is an absence of proper alignment and flexibility of the upper back, we turn to the lumbar spine to compensate. Unfortunately, this part of our spine is not meant for rotation, hence the multiple L5 vertebrae fractures we have seen in softball pitchers. Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, this means the shoulder blade is not moving with the humerus or the clavicle correctly, all but ensuring shoulder pain and prolonged injury. In order to help these issues, I do two things: teach and encourage proper posture during the entire pitching motion, and maintain a 3:1 pull to push upper body exercise ratio when writing strength programs. Additionally, when push exercises are performed, I will have the athlete perform the eccentric, or stretch, portion of the exercise only. For example, during a bicep curl, the portion of the exercise where the weight is being lowered towards the ground is eccentric.

Though these are not the only signs, they are the most common ones that hold the most risk. It is important when coaching, that we do our best to recognize when an issue in form is a physical compensation due to lack of strength, and when the issue is truly a mechanical pitching mistake. As we say so often with Tincher Pitching: “treat the cause, not the symptom”.
About the author: Jesse Hutchins is a Certified Instructor with Tincher Pitching. She was a pitcher in college and earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Exercise Science. Jesse obtained the Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist certification from the National Strength and Conditioning Association, furthering her passion for athletic preparation and keeping athletes injury-free. She holds a Level 1 Sports Performance Coach certification through USA Weightlifting, as well. Jesse now owns a private facility, Hutchins Pitching & Performance, located in Seabrook, NH where she offers pitching and hitting instruction, as well as team and individual strength and conditioning.