Plant Mechanics

[WillyT812]

We've got Board Members' Whip Mechanics (IR) and JavaSource's Drive Mechanics stickys. What we need is a sticky on Plant Mechanics. Too many videos posted by parents of young girls having poor whip mechanics and drive mechanics yet their plant mechanics are just as bad. Usually someone with throw out an occasional "she needs front side resistance" and nothing more. Plant mechanics is the art of collecting drive energy and moving it through the shoulder-arm-wrist-finger-ball. More than half of these "look at my daughter" videos show the girls' bodies absorbing plant energy versus stiffening (resistance) and transferring that collected energy to the shoulder/arm.

I've mentioned in a few threads the need to understand the double whip, that proper drive mechanics whip the shoulder/arm by converting linear momentum to rotational...this will turbo charge the arm whip. Anyone not catching the "wave" is just muscling a whip with their arm if they've mastered the arm whip. There is a trifecta going on that has to be mastered. Drive mechanics/Stop mechanics/Arm Whip mechanics all depend on each other for the most efficient delivery of collected energy into a ball.

For the masters of the gif we should start up by giving good examples plant mechanics to reference the bucket dads and moms who visit this forum looking for advice. Go!

 

[WillyT812]

You can really see how Finch stiffens up for the plant which allows her to transfer energy.

 

[WillyT812]

Here's another great example of stiffening for a split second in order to transfer collected drive energy.

 

[WillyT812]

Sara Pauly front side resistance (stiffening) is exceptional.

 

[WillyT812]

One thing to note when looking at these videos, especially Finch and Ueno, they do bleed off or absorb the drive energy by bending over or in Finch's case hoping upwards-- but they do it after they've stiffened/firmed-up/resisted through the release phase. Sarah pretty much stops dead in the above clip with a slight movement forward after release but it's not much. Abbott and Ueno have their plant foot almost facing the catcher at plant which is acceptable but do know that this makes it harder to stiffen (or resist) because the front leg can collapse easier. The "45" degree plant will assist in firming up the front side but I notice a lot of young pitchers will absorbing the drive or linear energy early by collapsing at the waist through release negating a firm leg. It's called front side resistance, not front leg resistance. The upper and lower body needs to needs to resist forward momentum for just a split second, convert some of it to rotational momentum to assist the arm whip. Bleeding off the residual energy after release is a stylistic thing, this is why you'll see a variety of methods to accomplish it. But all the accomplished pitchers are firmed up at release.

 

[WillyT812]

Here's a worthwhile analysis of Jenny Finch by Coach White, front side resistance is discussed in depth.