Sunday, May 25, 2008 | By Alex Eisenberg

The Disconnecting Hips of Pitcher Tim Lincecum

Pitching Mechanics - Hip/Torso/Shoulder Separation

To piggyback off my article from a couple weeks ago in regards to the balance points of Tim Lincecum and Brett Sinkbeil in which I talk about the benefits of drifting through the balance point as a way to increase velocity and add a little sneakiness to one’s fastball, I wrote a second piece for Baseball Digest Daily, which talks about another way to generate velocity: the hip/torso/shoulder separation of a pitcher at foot plant. Here is an excerpt from that article:

Tim Lincecum Pitching Mechanics

"The oval is an indicator of the separation between Lincecum’s torso and hips at foot plant. Lincecum’s hips are facing toward home plate, while his torso is almost pointed toward third base.

If a pitcher has sufficient separation between their hips and torso as they step into foot plant, the separation acts as a sort of spring for the torso as the hips uncoil the upper body forward, bringing the arm along with it.

Continuing with the spring as an example, think about what happens when you twist just the top half of a spring, leaving the bottom as is; you feel the tension created as you twist the top half of the spring and once you let go, the spring immediately returns to its original position with force.

The same concept applies with the hip/torso separation."

Click the link below for the full article:

Pitching Mechanics - The Disconnecting Hips of Pitcher Tim Lincecum

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