Left alone, pitchers will apply forces to their pitches with almost as many techniques as there are pitchers. However, Newton's three laws specifically dictate how pitchers must apply forces to their pitches. Newton's Law of Inertia requires that pitchers apply forces to their pitches in straight lines from leverage through release toward home plate. Newton's Law of Acceleration requires that pitchers uniformly apply their maximum forces for the maximum time possible. Newton's Law of Reaction requires that pitchers apply greater forces toward second base.

a. Transition

Transitions begin when pitchers move baseballs backwards toward second base. During transitions, pitchers must smoothly move their baseballs in elliptical pathways backward and upward to leverage. During transitions, pitchers move their baseballs with slow, controlled, uniform velocities.

1. Training Start Position

In the training start position, pitchers stand with both feet on or in front of the pitching rubber. They hold the baseball in their gloves below their waist slightly toward their non-pitching arm side with the elbows only slightly bent. They have their weight shifted to their stride leg.

2. Vertical Pendulum

To begin transitions, pitchers remove the baseballs from their gloves and permit their forearms to swing backward like a grandfather clock's pendulum. Simultaneously, pitchers shift their body weight backward to their rear leg by slightly bending their rear legs.

3. Downward Forearm Head Pat

When their vertical forearm passes the hip of their rear leg and starts swinging upwardly, pitchers gently reverse rotate the hips and shoulders until the acromial line drawn between the tip of their shoulders point toward home plate. Pitchers swing their palm forward forearms to about forty-five degrees from vertical as though they were patting the head of a small child or a large dog. Simultaneously, they slightly lift their stride legs off the ground to counter-balance their rock-back weight shift.

4. Elbow Raise

At the downward forearm head pat position, pitchers stop the backward movement and initiate their forward movement. Pitchers start the elbow raise maneuver. In the elbow raise maneuver, pitchers continue to raise the forearm to horizontal without moving the baseball behind their body. This is a critical skill to the success of baseball pitchers. The elbow raise moves the upper arm upward under the forearm to shoulder height. Simultaneously, while holding the reverse rotation position, pitchers gently step forward.

In Chapter 19, I mentioned how pitching coaches ruined the shoulders of pitchers with their instruction to powerfully drive off pitching rubbers. I said that they did not understand the anatomy of the shoulder. The subscapularis muscle attachment to the humerus is the concern (See Chapter 13 for my discussion of the subscapularis muscle).

When pitchers move their elbows behind their acromial lines, they place their subscapularis muscle in a position of weak leverage. If they then require the subscapularis to withstand great force, such as powerfully driving off pitching rubbers, then they eventually will injure the attachment of this muscle to the head of the humerus.

Consequently, pitchers must ALWAYS make certain that they place their subscapularis muscle in a position of strong leverage. Strong subscapularis leverage occurs when pitchers keep their elbows in front of their acromial line. This is another critical skill in the Marshall force application technique.

5. Shoulder Lock Leverage

Transitions end when pitchers raise their forearms to horizontal at shoulder height. In this position, pitchers lock their upper arms (humerus) with their thorax (rib cage). Pitchers have arrived at LEVERAGE! They are in position to safely accelerate their pitches forward from leverage through release.

b. Upper Arm Acceleration

With their forearms pronated or supinated the proper amount for the desired pitch and properly aligned for the required driveline from leverage through release and their stride foot just contacting the ground, pitchers initiate the start of their forward rotation with a strong push off the pitching rubber. While they drive their body weight over their stride feet, pitchers start rotating their shoulders and horizontal upper arms. When their body weight is parallel with their stride foot, pitchers should have forwardly rotated their hips and shoulders to perpendicular to their driveline. The upper arm drive continues with the forearm remaining horizontal until pitchers have forwardly rotated beyond their stride feet.

c. Forearm Acceleration

While pitchers continue to forwardly rotate, they simultaneously drive off their stride foot and accelerate their forearms through release. Pitchers should wait to accelerate their forearms until they have reached as far forward toward home plate as possible in the desired driveline. Pitchers powerfully drive their forearms, wrists, hands and fingers through release while simultaneously powerfully driving off their stride feet towards home plate. This force-coupling summates the two parallel and oppositely directed forces to achieve the pitchers maximum release velocity.

d. Deceleration

After pitchers release their pitches, they have to safely decelerate their arms. To extend the time over which pitchers have to decelerate their arms, they continue to step toward home plate with their rear legs. Pitchers have to safely stop their pitching arms before their arms have reached the full limit of their length.
Plioanglos shoulder girdle, shoulder joint, elbow joint, forearm joint, wrist joint, hand joint and finger joint actions sequentially decelerate pitching arms to stops. The shoulder girdle has completely stopped driving forward before the shoulder joint has finished driving forward and so on. When the shoulder girdle stops, it provides the platform for shoulder joint acceleration and so on. After preceeding joint actions stop driving forward, mioanglos joint actions snap back those joints to accelerate the next joint's drive.

With sequential shoulder girdle, shoulder joint, elbow joint, forearm, wrist and hand decelerations, stops and snap backs, pitchers sequentially accelerate their shoulder joints, elbow joints, forearms, wrists, hands and fingertips to maximum release velocities. This action imitates bullwhip tips that accelerate the tips of bullwhips beyond sound barrier velocities.

e. Recovery

When pitchers stop their fingertips from moving closer toward home plate, the plioanglos joint actions change to mioanglos joint actions. The deceleration muscles recover the pitching arm back toward the body. When pitchers recover their pitching arms to positions in which they can catch baseballs, the pitching motion recovery phase ends.

To pitch equally well against right and left handed batters, pitchers need to throw pitches that move away from the center of home plate toward both the first and third base corners. Therefore, pitchers need to throw two types of four seam and two seam fastballs that move toward both corners, slider and sinker pitches that move oppositely and curve and screwball pitches that move toward both sides of home plate as well as downward. To accomplish this, pitchers require two distinctly different force application techniques.

I teach two force application techniques. My MAXLINE force application technique enables pitchers to drive pitches toward the pitching arm side of home plate (See Chapter 21). My TORQUE force application technique enables pitchers to drive pitches toward the non-pitching arm side of home plate (See Chapter 22). Pitchers learn to throw fastballs, curves, screwballs and sinkers with both the Maxline and Torque force application techniques. However, they should throw their sliders with only the Torque force application technique.

Coaching Adult Pitchers