The Plyo Ball Rollin-Throws are a continuation of the Pivot Pickoffs. They are also a very arm action-oriented exercise, but bring more dynamics into play and focus on improving the trunk stack, counter rotation, hip positioning in footstrike and, to some extent, the lead leg block.
Focal points
The exercise is ideal for helping players who are already bent too far forward and/or open with their upper body during footstrike. It also improves the feeling of keeping the upper body closed while the hips are already partially open.
Execution
The execution of the exercise looks very similar to a normal throw, but has one big difference - the back foot is aligned with the target during the step. This means that the hips are already very open and a large part of the hip rotation is eliminated from the throw.
Start variations
To make the exercise easier, you can start with the ball in your hand next to your head or in front of your face. This makes the arm action easier.
Later, the drill can be combined with the entire arm action and started with the hands together in front of the belly button.
Balls
The exercise is performed with the 1kg and/or 450g Plyocare ball. However, it can also be performed as a preliminary exercise when throwing with either a 9oz. Weighted Baseball or a regular baseball.
Cues
"Sit on the back leg"/"Lean backwards" - Particularly helpful for players who already shoot forwards during the drill and/or when throwing with their upper body. As the drill is a regression from normal throwing, it is easier for the player to stay "stacked" better when throwing full.
"Pull your elbow back just before landing" - This is particularly helpful if the upper body is already opening at footplant. Pulling the elbow backwards improves counter rotation.
Photo: Thomas Schönenborn | The third part of the series dealt with the rotation phase, which is partly responsible for a good lead leg block. This is the subject of the fourth and final part of the series.
The main task of the lead leg block is to stabilize the knee, transfer the reaction forces from the ground upwards and create a good rotational base for the hips. Again, absolute force is not as important as efficiently used force, especially along the x-axis (the axis from rubber to home plate).
If the stride is longer and the knee is behind the front foot, it is easier to develop forces along the x-axis than if the foot is directly under the knee and closer to the hip. In addition, a longer stride (with the correct "stacked" position, in which the upper body is shot up to footplant and the head is above the navel) puts the hips in a better position to rotate and tilt optimally.
You can recognize a good lead leg block by the fact that the knee does not bend further from foot contact, but stretches. The knee is already stable to the left and right at footplant. The angle does not have to change significantly (often hardly recognizable with the naked eye), but quickly. The faster the knee stabilizes, the more efficiently forces can be transferred. Some pitchers perform a clearly visible extension of the knee (even before footplant), while others primarily prevent further bending of the leg and an extension is barely noticeable. Both are possible. The decisive factors are the speed of extension and the timing.
Abbildung 3 Streck-Geschwindigkeit des vorderen Beins zu verschiednen Zeitpunkten. Rot: >88mph; Schwarz: <76mph; Blaue Linie: Footplant; Quelle: drivelinebaseball.com
If the hip is still closed when the foot makes contact, the lead-leg block can only take place after a delay and forces are not optimally transferred.
Experience has shown that junior players often find the lead leg block particularly difficult until they have sufficient strength and coordination.
Exercises that can improve the lead leg block are roll-ins, rocker-throws and walking wind-ups with the focus on keeping the hips behind the knee for as long as possible.
The rotation phase overlaps with the stride phase and the blocking phase. Its main component is hip rotation.
Interestingly, maximum hip rotation speed is not related to ball speed - at least for more advanced pitchers. However, the timing of the maximum rotation speed is much more important. It should be reached after the footplant but as long as possible before the highest rotation speed of the upper body.
The highest rotation speed can hardly be seen with the naked eye, even on high-speed videos. A good indication that the timing is good is if the hip remains closed for a long time, opens shortly before footplant, and is open at approx. 45 degrees at footplant. If the hip opens much earlier (an indication of inefficient hip-shoulder separation), or if it is still closed at footplant (making it difficult to perform an optimal lead-leg block), the timing can usually still be improved.
In order for the lead leg block to work well, the hips should be open approx. 45 degrees and tilted forwards in footplant. The tilt initiates the flexion of the upper body.
Hip rotation
Good exercises to improve hip rotation and timing are roll-ins and drop-step-throws.
The fourth and final part deals with the blocking phase and the lead leg block.
The first part of the series dealt with the leg lift and the hip load. Part two deals with the stride.
The striding phase overlaps with the loading and rotation phase.
It is characterized by
Stride power - the distance and speed of the stride
Alignment - the placement of the foot in contact with the ground
Sufficient rope length ensures a good angle for power transmission during the lead leg block and creates time for hip rotation and for the arm. You should always aim for a long rope length.
The length of the stride depends primarily on the flexion of the back leg and how well the player can move. This is why it is often not helpful to coach them using cues with an internal focus, such as "do a longer stride". This can quickly lead to negative effects in the sequencing. A short stride with good timing is better than a long stride with bad timing.
A better approach is to improve the pitcher's athleticism (especially mobility, coordination of lunges in all variations and stride jumps) and then improve the specific movement patterns via regression exercises such as roll-ins, step-backs and walking windups. Also, an improved lead leg block can allow an athlete to do a bigger stride.
The same applies to the stride speed. This correlates with higher ball speed, but can disrupt the timing of the sequencing if it is too fast for the player. It can also be improved through better athleticism and throwing regression.
The stride direction depends very much on the previous components of the delivery, with hip flexion in particular playing a major role. In addition, if the rear foot has too little contact with the ground and anatomical restrictions can influence the direction of the stride.
It often helps to instruct the athlete to move their head along a line to home plate instead of telling them where their foot should land. If this doesn't work either, it may be due to strength, mobility or other limitations that need to be addressed.
Good exercises that improve your stride are roll-ins and walking wind-ups.
Part 3 continues with the rotation phase and the role of the hips.
Use your legs!" - What pitcher has never heard that, what coach has never said that? I heard it a lot as a player. I just never understood exactly what it meant. I assume I'm not the only one who feels that way...
Many years later, not so long ago, I started to learn more about it and better understand what exactly it all means. In this four-part series, I would like to explain this in more detail.
The tasks of the stride or legs
Roughly summarized, the Stride
Shift the body's center of gravity to the target
Create a good basis for the pelvis to rotate quickly at the right time (rotation phase)
Stop the weight transfer to provide a stable platform for rotation and tilting of the pelvis
These tasks are completed in four phases, some of which overlap.
Part 1 - The load
The first phase is the loading phase.
It starts with the leg lift. The leg lift can be designed in many ways, which can affect other parts of the delivery. If these work optimally, there is no need to change the leg lift.
In the most general form of the leg lift, the knee is lifted upwards and slightly towards second base. The body's center of gravity is slightly in front of the rubber to support the acceleration of the stride phase. However, too much of this "lean" can lead to timing problems. If the center of gravity remains directly above the rubber or even behind the rubber, timing problems can also arise. Above all, however, it becomes very difficult to build up the necessary speed.
Leglift, Weightshift and Hip-Load
In the loading phase, the hips must also be loaded through counter-rotation and flexion. The counter-rotation happens on the way to the highest point of the leg lift.
The hip flexion starts on the way down and forwards. It supports the posture of the upper body, the overall alignment and the hip extension in the rotation phase. Correct hip flexion is supported by good and even ground contact with the entire rear foot. It is therefore important to keep the standing surface in front of the rubber firm and flat.
Step-back-throws are a very simple exercise to improve the load and transfer of the center of gravity.
You see them everywhere on baseball fields and at tournaments: Colorful, soft balls that are thrown against walls and nets. These balls are called plyo (or plyocare) balls and it's hard to imagine modern baseball without them. They can be used in many different ways, which can make it difficult to categorize and use them correctly at first.
There's also the old, widespread stigma that all balls heavier than 5 ounces (the weight of a baseball) are the devil for your throwing arm - I was taught this emphatically.
Digression: Without going beyond the scope of this article, I would like to briefly address the question: "Are heavy balls bad/dangerous?". They are no more or less dangerous than a baseball. Just as you can overload your body with a baseball, you can of course overload your body with weighted balls/plyocare balls (just as you can with sprints, bench presses, skiing, jogging, crocheting, etc...) As unromantic as it may sound, the human body was not designed for a 5 ounce ball any more than the 5 ounce ball was designed for the body. It just evolved that way.
Plyoballs are a great training tool to make the warm-up more effective and efficient. The slightly increased weight of the ball allows the arm to enter into stronger external rotation (layback) even at lower intensities and to mobilize, stabilize and activate the arm in these ranges of motion. At the same time, the exercises and the balls contribute to an improved perception of movement, making higher intensities possible more quickly.
Physical adaptations
Although it is not the main aim of the Plyocare Balls, targeted training with maximum intensity can induce physical adaptations and train sport-specific speed strength.
Technical improvements
Paired with the "constraint drills", i.e. exercises with certain restrictions on the degrees of freedom, the plyoballs can be used to improve throwing technique very effectively. The different weights of the balls create an increased perception of movement. This allows the body to find its own ideal technique within the limits set by the exercises. Good movement patterns are therefore memorized and consolidated.
Armcare
The improved arm fitness and more efficient throwing technique alone protect the arm from injury as a first step. The next step is to use the Plyocare Balls to train shock absorption and arm deceleration. Example arm care routines can be found here, here and here.
Do you find the concept of training with Plyocare Balls interesting and perhaps have already purchased a Driveline Plyocare Ball Set, but don't quite know what to do with it?
No problem, I'll try to explain it to you as simply as possible so that you can get started quickly and make progress! If you want to know more about Plyocare Balls in general, read Plyocare Balls and how they work.
Reverse throws strengthen the posterior muscle chain of the upper body. When the ball is released, the hips are parallel to the wall and the shoulder girdle is normal to the wall. This prepares the body for the "Hip to Shoulder Separation".
Adults (approx. from 14): 10x green ball, 10x black ball
One of the most complex but also most important Plyocare Ball exercises. This exercise focuses very strongly on arm action and the correct timing of upper body rotation, shoulder rotation, arm extension and forearm pronation. The most important points are:
You start with the "wrong" side to the destination
The palm of the hand points towards the ear when lunging
The upper body pulls the arm and hand
The hand remains inside the elbow and should only stretch and pronate relatively late.
Adults (approx. from 14): 10x green ball, 10x blue ball
With rollins, a linear component is added to the arm action. The step sequence is the same as for normal throwing. The big difference is that the back foot does not turn, but points continuously towards the target. This means that the hips are always open and you can increasingly feel how the armaction can help to keep the upper body closed against the open hips.
The back foot does not turn, but points towards the target
The upper body remains closed for as long as possible with the support of the arm action
Make sure that the head is above or behind the belly button when first making contact with the ground
1x blue ball, 1x red ball, 1x yellow ball, 1x gray ball
(1-2 sentences)
The Foot up Rockers allow one step more degrees of freedom. In the starting position, the legs are in the same position as with Footplant during a throw. To initiate the throw, the player first pushes the hips forwards and then backwards. As he shifts his weight and hips backwards, he also lifts his front foot a few centimeters off the ground before throwing the ball. In the rocker throw, the player must/can use almost the entire chain to transfer energy to the ball. The main focus in this drill is on sequencing and the lead leg block.
Hips initiate the movement, not the upper body
When the front foot touches down, keep the upper body closed, head above or slightly behind the navel
Front foot blocked after it touches the ground again
1x blue ball, 1x red ball, 1x yellow ball, 1x gray ball
(1-2 sentences)
The walking windups are the final step and are closest to the actual pitching delivery. The player takes a few steps into the throw. He also lifts his knee as he would for a pitch. The exercise improves the speed of the delivery and helps to learn to sequence the movement at a higher speed.
Move swiftly into the delivery
The stride should pass straight forward after the leg lift at the latest
After an extensive general and arm-specific warm-up (e.g. J-Bands, Shoulder Tube, Wrist Weight drills) and before throwing is the best time for the drills in training.
The entire series can be performed up to 3 times a week (always at least one day apart) at approx. 70% intensity. After a familiarization period of 3-4 weeks, 1-2 of these units can also be performed at approx. 90%.
On the other days, the recovery version of the exercises can be performed. These are only reverse throws and pivot pickoffs with 50-60% intensity.
Arm Recovery/Care should be performed at the end of the workout. You can find example routines for this here:
