There are 3 specific areas of the elbow region where pitching can cause pain. The posterior or back side of the elbow, where the ulna bone can collide with the humerus bone. The anterior or front crease of the elbow when you bend it. The brachialis tendon can pull away from the ulna bone causing pain. The medial or inside of the elbow where the UCL (Tommy John) ligament is located. Pronation can help alleviate stress in all these areas, but only if it is timed properly, and done powerfully.
The pronator teres muscle arises form the humerus bone, or upper arm bone, and inserts into the radius bone of the forearm. It practically overlays the ulnar collateral ligament. When you powerfully activate that muscle it "pronates" and turns the palm and faces the thumb down and absorbs the valgus stress on the elbow that is associated with forearm flyout. It does not redistribute that valgus force. It merely fights against it, IF you actively and powerfully pronate. Otherwise you simply have passive pronation which is only a centripetal reaction from the curved path the arm is taking and provides no UCL protection at all. You must learn to time powerful pronation so that at release you feel the ball "pop" out of your hand. You should feel as though you produced a "pronation snap" that added extra power to the release.
My son's palm (10yo) is facing third base after release. I think I will let continue, it sounds like a good thing. Thank you for the video it was very informative.
Take the ball out of your glove with the palm facing up. this will lead to instant external rotation. You will not have late forearm turnover. You will not have reverse forearm bounce that destroys UCL's, and you will be supinated so you can powerfully pronate the release of the baseball.
Is there such a thing as too early pronation. My son has rounded shoulders and it looks like he’s throwing a change up, pronating too early. I guess I could check the rotation if the ball. I feel this is costing him velocity and accuracy. Any advice
Timing of pronation is essential to differentiating the differences of the fastball, sinker and screwball/change up releases. Also important is the grip on the ball. To pronate a pure fastball release, you should delay your pronation until the very last split second so as to feel a "snap" instantly after release, and the palm turns over very quickly with the elbow feeling like it "popped" upward. The sinker release is very close with a different grip, but the timing of the pronation is started ever so slightly sooner. Your sinker should have closer to a horizontal spin with a near vertical spin axis and be only 2 to 4 mph slower than your fastball. The pronation "snap" will not be quite as pronounced as the release of the fastball because pronation started slightly sooner. But it should still be willfully powerful. The release of the screwball/changeup is done with much earlier pronation that creates a spin axis that is tilted forward pointing more toward the batter with a spin in reverse of a slider spin. A screwball/changeup should be a reverse slider. The feeling will be that the pronation was markedly earlier than the other 2 pitches with very little pronation "snap" felt.
This is driving me crazy! My 14yr lefty is pronating while he is releasing his 4seam fastball . The ball spin rotates like a screwball and kills his velocity and accuracy. Why is he doing this. I feel so bad for him because he really wants it and looked horrible his last outing. He does have rolling shoulders we are working on as well. There could be a correlation. Thanks
He is beginning the pronation of his release a fraction of a second too soon, whereby at release his index and middle fingers are "inside" of the ball. Correct? That may be due to where on the ball he is gripping it. And how far apart are his index and middle finger? If his fingers are too far apart, most of his releases will actually look like a split fingered pitch. And those pitches have a tendency to rotate like a slow screwball. So, first things first, how far apart are his fingers?
More nonsense from you guys: 5:34 Delayed pronation is harder on your elbow? Where is the evidence to support this nutty notion? Over-pronation is the problem, which is reduced by supinating then pronating in a smooth transition. Go back to sleep. Then start over.
@@nofurtherwest3474 He doesn't know anything about 3rd class leverage of the humerus, which converts shoulder (fulcrum) to arm speed due to leverage. This is simple physics applied to human anatomy. The forearm simply moves forward largely due to momentum.
@@drbonesshow1 Thanks that's kinda what I've been thinking. I'm trying to distill a healthy and natural arm motion down to the basics as I have a 9 yr old who pitches. But I think his form is causing some pain so I've been analyzing this. I think for kids, they should just focus on getting down a natural arm motion before worrying about all the other stuff. The joints are designed to move in certain ways; it's only when we stray from that that injury comes. A lot of players do a motion that causes too much stress on the elbow (which I did as a kid) but it seems actually leading with the elbow and keeping it bent more than 90 degrees is more natural. Been trying it out myself and it feels good.
@@nofurtherwest3474 Yes, the neutral wrist is the natural falling forward of the forearm. It is not a wrist action, but instead the starting point for the 6 wrist/forearm actions. Forcing the arm to pronate is not natural, but taught by people who don't know any better. When you use the neutral wrist to throw a fastball the wrist naturally pronates after you release the ball - however, this is due to rotational angular momentum not forced just physics. The hand rotates about its center of mass (COM). Weighted in front of the hand by the ball the hand naturally turns about the COM in the direction of pronation: counter-clockwise for the righty and clockwise for the lefty. How simple yes, but simple-minded no.
