Want to generate momentum and great direction down the
mound? “Stack ‘em”!
This is a common statement our pitchers will hear me say,
in our program we talk often about stacking the hips (hip drive, pelvic loading,
etc.). Now the first question to answer is why do we talk about it and what
does it do for you?
In an ideal delivery, the hips work separately from the
torso during the stride phase. A disconnection needs to occur for proper torso
rotation to take place. The hips have to go first, with the torso close to
follow. Some of the verbal cues [which I try not use a ton of] are,
“show the back pocket” or “drive the back hip through the front hip”. For the
record, I'm more a fan of pitchers physically learning how to move, rather
than learning how to listen [to cues]. When done correctly, the athlete should
feel either a pinch in the back hip and/or pressure on the inside part of their
lead leg.
In a recent #PitchingChat, Marcus Stroman was brought up, how his hips load before peak leg lift is achieved. I think Stroman is a great model for momentum, mainly because of the force he creates into the ground - he creates diagonal force into the ground, rather than vertical:
