Pitching Drill: Stride and Drives

Hey There Friend!

This week I'm sharing one of my favorite drills for teaching safe, efficient and powerful lower body mechanics.

"Stride and Drives" isolate the lower body and helps pitchers understand what happens from the waist down throughout the pitch.

The video above shows the following things in action:

• Weight STARTS on the FRONT foot (drive foot)

  • Front foot starts in the middle of the pitching rubber so it's lined up with the middle of home plate
  • Back foot can be OFF the rubber ("start back" method shown in the video) or ON the rubber if using the "step back" method
  • If you'd like to understand the difference between "start back" vs "step back," check out THIS VIDEO for more information

• Weight SHIFTS to the BACK foot (stride foot)

  • Think of this like pulling back a bow to shoot an arrow or the move back when starting your swing when hitting
  • This movement back should help generate rhythm and explosiveness FORWARD when done correctly

• LOAD the legs and hips

  • When starting into the stride the weight should be on the balls of both feet and there should be flex/bend at the hips and knees

• STRIDE

  • Should be aggressive but balanced
  • The length of the stride when doing this drill should be close to the pitcher's normal stride distance
  • As the stride foot/leg reaches OUT, the drive foot/leg should move forward
  • The KEY to getting the DRIVE foot/leg to move FORWARD with the the STRIDE foot/leg is to RELEASE the weight from the drive foot by ROLLING OVER THE TOES and dragging LIGHTLY AS the stride is happening!
  • The stride foot should work to get up and down FAST and land FLAT

• DRIVE

  • Once the stride leg is SET, it needs to stay strong or FIRM as the back leg continues to move forward
  • Close the gap between the knees
  • A great cue to use is to think about DRIVING the back KNEE towards the catcher's glove

If you or your pitcher is working to learn or correct lower body mechanics, try using this drill DAILY for a few correct reps.

Once the reps are done correctly broken into separate pieces, try putting all the pieces together (like shown in the first clip in the video by the pitcher in the pink shirt)!

Doing 20-30 reps correctly each day (no more than 5-minutes) for a few weeks will help create correct movement patterns more quickly than going out and working for an hour a couple times a week!

Be patient with the process as it takes time to create habits that will stick. I promise you that if you commit to investing time daily in putting in the correct reps with this drill, the results WILL come in time!

As always, let me know if you have any questions my friend! You can email me HERE anytime!

Have a great weekend and I'll be in touch again next week!

All My BEST,

Myndie