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Help for Pitchers Who Are Banging Their Elbows Into Their Hips
It’s more common than you might think: pitchers, especially those who are trying to keep their pitching arms in close to their bodies (as they should) suddenly start feeling slight to intense pain as they go into release. Once it catches their attention, they realize their elbows are hitting their hips. HARD.
Well-meaning coaches, other pitcher parents, and even some random people will tell them to solve the issue they should clear their hip out of the way or bend out more so their arm totally misses their body as they go into release. While yes, that will solve the immediate issue, it will also create less-than-ideal mechanics that will ultimately limit most pitchers’ ability to compete at a high level.
That’s because compression of the upper arm against the ribcage and light brush contact of the forearm are both essential to stabilizing the shoulder complex to prevent a more serious injury, transfer more energy into the ball to improve speed, and sure consistency of release to improve pitch accuracy/command.
By now you may be asking if that’s the case, why is my pitcher/daughter getting giant bruises on her elbow area and/or hip area while other pitchers are not? The simple answer is because those who are not raising those ugly bruises are making contact differently than those who are.
The bruises are coming from the position the arm and hip are in going into release.
When the bruises are happening, the elbow are is making direct contact with the pelvis (hip bone), crashing into it in a bone-on-bone manner. When they’re not happening, the pitcher is making contact with with the soft tissue (muscle) on the forearm just below the elbow into the muscle (soft tissue) on the side of the hip, interrupting the acceleration of the arm enough to transfer the energy without stopping it completely.
So what causes the elbow to slam into the hip instead of passing by it? I find that typically there are two causes, which can happen either independently or in the worst cases at the same time. Correct those and the problem usually goes away,
Cause #1: Staying Too Open
Every pitcher needs to open her shoulders and hips (externally rotate) to some extent to create an aligned, powerful arm circle. The shoulder in particular is important because when you are facing straight ahead, the arm can only come back so far before it has to deviate off-line.
This deviation stresses the shoulder, leading to injury, and takes the arm out of its ideal movement around the shoulder, affecting both speed and accuracy. Opening the shoulders makes in possible for the arm to move around at incredible speed while using the shoulder the way it’s designed to be used.
The problem occurs when the hips and shoulders don’t come back forward to an area around 35-50 degrees going into delivery. The body then starts blocking the arm, and the pitcher either has to then go around it or slam her elbow into her hip.
Think about where your elbow is when you are just standing normally. It sits squarely on your hips. If it does that while you’re standing still, what makes you think it won’t do that when you’re aggressively trying to throw a pitch.
The cure for this is to move into that 35-50 degree angled range we mentioned earlier. When you are in this position, even standing, your elbow is clear of your hip while allowing your forearm to still make light brush contact with the side of your hip as it passes the hip.
To learn that, have the pitcher do a ton of easy walk-ins, where she starts out facing the plate, then takes an easy step with her throwing-side foot before going into the pitching motion. She should do this slowly, with no leg drive at all, and focus on moving her body open with good external rotation of the shoulders and then back into a roughly 45 degree position.
On the field you can throw a regular ball from a short distance. But at home, have her look into a mirror as she does the movements without a ball, paying attention to how her body is moving and coming back to the finish position.
Ideally, her hips will move a little ahead of her shoulders as she comes down the back side. Once she can do it without a ball, have her throw a rolled up pair of socks or a lightweight foam ball into the mirror, again paying attention to how her body is moving.
You get all the benefits of brush contact while maintaining solid posture (no contorting to move the hips out of the way or throw the shoulders too far off) so the pitcher can pitch pain-free.
Cause #2: Keeping an Arch in Your Back
The second major cause of banging the elbow into the hip in a way that causes injury is having your back arched backwards going into release. This can happen even if you are getting to the 35-50 degree position we talked about above.
At the top of the circle, it is desirable for a pitcher to have her back arched back at least 15 degrees toward first if the pitcher is right-handed or toward third if the pitcher is left-handed. It’s a movement that helps load the muscles in the back so they can help accelerate the arm on the way down. It also helps getting proper external rotation and keeping the arm on-path.
After the peak of the circle, however, the arch should come out and the pitcher should be in some level of flexion by the time she is going into release. In other words, she will be slightly bent toward third if right-handed or toward first if left-handed.
If the arch doesn’t come out, however, it pulls the pitching elbow backwards instead of letting it flow freely through its natural path. When that occurs the pitcher will either bang her elbow into the side or even back of her hip.
She may also try to compensate for this bad position by trying to move her elbow away from that area, causing her to throw low and very inside, which will make pitching even more difficult than it already is.
To solve this issue, the pitcher needs to learn how to come out of the arch as her arm comes down the circle. One way to do that is to have her practice throwing a pair of rolled up socks into a mirror, watching herself to see what position her body is in when overhead and then when releasing the socks.
She should see herself arching at the top then flexing in at the bottom. You can even put a piece of tape on the mirror to help her see it. Have her start slowly, then build her speed until she can execute it without thinking.
Another way to address this issue is a drill I got from Rick Pauly of PaulyGirl Fastpitch called the Bow-Flex-Bow. For this one you will need a piece of Theraband that is at least as long as the pitcher’s arm.
Have her grab both ends of the Theraband and stand at a 45 degree angle, as if getting ready to do a pitching drill. She then takes the Therabad up and into a pitching motion, with both hands moving forward toward the “plate” before starting to separate overhead.
When she is at the top of the circle her back will need to arch to get the Theraband behind her head. As she comes down, make sure she bows back in to come to the finish so instead of arching/flexing back she is now flexing forward.
Baby and Bathwater
No question that banging your elbow into your hip is not only unpleasant but counter-productive for achieving both speed and accuracy. But totally avoiding any contact between the body and the arm isn’t the way to go either.
The issues listed here aren’t the only reason it can happen but they are the two most common. By making the corrections to achieve proper upper arm compression and light brush contact you can stop the pain while improving performance.
See Your Way Clear to Better Pitching Mechanics
Photo by Dhyamis Kleber on Pexels.com
When I have a young student who is having difficulty making the transition from close-up drills to full-distance (or nearly full distance) pitching, I will often tell her to close her eyes and picture that she is still throwing into the screen, net, tarp, backstop or whatever else we were just using. By taking the distraction of how far away the plate is she is then able to focus on the only end she can control – the end she is on.
It is amazing how often that works. Which is why, by the way, I am always amused at coaches who yell at catchers to “give her a bigger target” when the pitcher is having control trouble. I want to yell back “the catcher isn’t the problem; right now your pitcher couldn’t hit an archery target.”
But there is another side to this story. A pitcher’s eyes can be an important contributor to improving her mechanics if she learns how to use them correctly. That doesn’t mean staring down the target with a laser-like focus, however.
To the contrary, it often means doing the opposite, i.e., looking away from where she’s throwing to help her see what she can’t feel right now. Many of us our visual learners, and being able to see what we’re trying to do can help us get there faster and more effectively.
Here’s a good example. Many pitchers are taught that they should turn the ball toward second base at the top of the circle and have the hand on top of the ball as they come down the back side of the circle. That’s just flat-out wrong as you will see if you watch videos of what elite-level pitchers do.
But after months or years of drilling from the “T” position (both arms outstretched completely from the shoulders) with their hands facing down it can be a tough habit to break. They may be trying to keep the hand under the ball at 3:00 and pull it down into release, but they are unaware that they are first turning it over to start the motion.
Here’s where the eyes come in. From the “W” position (arms again outstretched, but this time with the hands shoulder-high and the elbows bent below to form a sort of W) have her turn her head back and watch her hand as she begins the throw. That way she can see immediately whether her hand turns over so she can learn to stop doing it.
Placing the focus of her vision on her hand also places the focus of her mind on staying palm-up, which helps shorten that learning curve. Once she starts down that way she is likely to stay that way into release, or at least close to it. If necessary she can always watch her hand all the way down.
If you do it from a short distance into a net or fence (instead of throwing to a catcher) you take out any concerns about accuracy which again lets her concentrate on the movement. Of course, if she gets the movement right her accuracy will improve anyway so it’s a win-win.
Another way to use the eyes in a creative way is with pitchers who are having trouble going straight down the power line. They launch out and end up either way to the right or way to the left, neither of which is conducive to great pitching.
If you’re using a pitching mat that already has a line in it, or you’ve drawn a power line in the dirt outdoors, have your pitcher look at the line instead of at the catcher.
Like this one, only without the worn-out spot.
Remember that one of the big reasons for going down the power line is so the pitcher can throw the ball where she is supposed to instead of going all over the place. By using her eyes to go down the line you just might find that her accuracy improves even though she’s not looking at the target at all.
This is much the same principle you’re supposed to use in bowling, incidentally. Great bowlers don’t look at the pins. They look at those little arrows on the lanes and try to throw the ball there. (I can hear some of you already saying “Oh, THAT’S what those arrows are for.”)
They know if they get the ball in just the right place on the arrows, the far end (where the pins are) will take care of itself. So it is with pitchers and the power line.
Mirrors (or any reflective surface such as a window) can also be very helpful in correcting pitching issues. Do you have a pitcher who struggles to maintain good left-right posture at release (i.e., she leans out to her throwing-hand side)?
Put a vertical line on a mirror with masking or painter’s tape, have the pitcher line her center up with it, and then have her throw a rolled up pair of socks or a Nerf ball into the mirror. As she gets to release, she should see whether she is vertical or leaning out to the side. A few dozen repetitions should have her feeling when she has good posture and when she is leaning.
The mirror is also a great way to see if her hips are remaining stacked up under her shoulders or if she is clearing space to the side or making a “monkey butt” move. If the hips aren’t stacked up under the shoulders and turned in 45 degrees or so to the plate it’s difficult if not impossible to get a brush trigger.
By checking her hip position in the mirror, the pitcher can make sure she has the optimal posture to deliver the ball with the greatest velocity and accuracy.
These are just a few examples. The key takeaway is that the pitcher’s eyes don’t have to be locked on to the catcher’s glove or some other target to be effective.
If she is having trouble learning a move, apply visual learning principles and have her use her eyes to see what she needs to do and whether she’s actually doing it. It can make all the difference in the world.
And if you’ve had a pitcher use her eyes to watch a part of the pitch to make a correction please be sure to share what you did in the comments below so the rest of us can learn.
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 