Correcting Your Drive Through With Core Training
If we were to self-appoint “Best Articles/Videos” of 2013, I would nominate this week’s video as the best of my contributions this year. I don’t think I’ve done a better job to date of explaining strength training principles in a way that softball athletes and coaches can understand and apply. In this week’s video I explain and demonstrate how to correct your pitching mechanics through core training.
Hello Joe,
I’m a fellow Springfield Grad, currently an Assistant at the University of Delaware. I would first like to say thank you for sharing your knowledge and that I enjoy watching your videos on a regular! I understand this post is specific to correcting pitching mechanics through the use of core training; however, I work with a lot of field athletes in addition to softball players. Therefore, would you suggest performing this specific exercise with both the inside knee up and outside knee up in all phases? If not, what are your thoughts for only the inside knee up? Just curious.
Thank you in advance!
– Mel
Hey Melissa!
I’ve asked Gray and Lee about this…Long story short..you can do both. I use Tall Kneeling, Half Kneeling (both ways) and mostly standing..don’t often get to split/lunge.
Short story long is that in the half kneeling position you are looking to challenge the stability of the extended hip as the torso rotates over it as during gait and athletic movements. This has obvious programming implications for return to play and injury prevention strategies. Chop and Lift over the extended hip.
Thank you so much for your comments!
Great stuff. I have a question about the resistance band “twists”……i noticed that you were not rotating at the midsection. Seemed like you were just using the deltoids and lats. Granted, I have not tried this excersize yet so I may answer my own question when I do this but….would it be more beneficial to rotate at the midsection thus involving more of the obliques and lower back muscles? Again, really appreciate the knowledge and time you put into the videos. They are very informative and helpful.
Ben
Hey Ben.. Give the exercise a try..You are correct that the upper body muscles attach to/assist with rotation of the trunk, and you will absolutely feel your abdominals working in this exercise, however the task-goal of this exercise is to separate (control) upper body movement from the lower body. If you emphasize twisting through the lower abdominal region you will bring the lower body with it. We want separation.
Try it out..you’ll be surprised how much it kills your abs. Thanks for the comments!
Joe