Wanted to share one of my favorite pitchers and ask for a breakdown of leg adduction ie. what the right leg does after it leaves the rubber.
One video is a side view of her warming up at UCLA. 2nd video is her from behind catcher from what appears her HS days.
While we have discussed hip snap/ hip torque/ leg adduction on multiple threads I really want your input on every muscle you think is being used to adduct her legs together so powerfully. We have heard knee to knee, laces to catcher, etc. but what muscles are being used to make that happen in your opinion. I used to believe it was hip torque as many of you know but now in the camp of the hip snap to a 45 is an effect of leg adduction and have posted about that over the last year or so.
But I am still struggling with how to get the legs to adduct. Squeezing the glutes is one option but is that the answer? Rachel seems to really kick into a figure 4 or donkey kick (I think both are the same but could be wrong). Is it a strong kick so that you are going hard calve to calve by kicking? Not sure I am explaining this well or not.
Anyway, I want to revisit this further as I have been seeing some extremely fast pitchers of late that look really similar to Rachel so using her as an example. Thanks for the future discussion on this topic and hope it might help someone else as well.
So, what is the leg doing and what muscles are being used to kick, pull, etc. etc. ?
One video is a side view of her warming up at UCLA. 2nd video is her from behind catcher from what appears her HS days.
While we have discussed hip snap/ hip torque/ leg adduction on multiple threads I really want your input on every muscle you think is being used to adduct her legs together so powerfully. We have heard knee to knee, laces to catcher, etc. but what muscles are being used to make that happen in your opinion. I used to believe it was hip torque as many of you know but now in the camp of the hip snap to a 45 is an effect of leg adduction and have posted about that over the last year or so.
But I am still struggling with how to get the legs to adduct. Squeezing the glutes is one option but is that the answer? Rachel seems to really kick into a figure 4 or donkey kick (I think both are the same but could be wrong). Is it a strong kick so that you are going hard calve to calve by kicking? Not sure I am explaining this well or not.
Anyway, I want to revisit this further as I have been seeing some extremely fast pitchers of late that look really similar to Rachel so using her as an example. Thanks for the future discussion on this topic and hope it might help someone else as well.
So, what is the leg doing and what muscles are being used to kick, pull, etc. etc. ?
Last edited: