Dragging the foot for a changeup is a "cue". If you "Bear" with me I'll EVENTUALLY explain.

Yesterday I spoke with a former Minnesota Twins pitcher (early 80's vintage). He now coaches a college pitching staff as well as a team of 13 year olds. Last year he worked extensively with Tom House (who by he way has made some significant additions/changes to his pitching theories). Anyways, I was asked him what he thought of some of the "pitching gurus" (that’s how Tom Houses name came up). In the course of the conversation I told him that my personal experiences (especially my experience with web postings) have lead me to a couple of observations (he has had similar experiences):

(1) pitching mechanics is in the same realm as religion and politics. Very emotional issue based more on faith than fact. If I could only have one wish, it would be to have all givers of pitching (and hitting) info differentiate between what they have actually experienced and seen as compared to what they have heard or read (first hand vs. second hand info).

(2) another reason that causes problems; perception vs. reality. This issue was addressed by Chip in an earlier post about how do you teach/make a pitcher (or hitter) control his body under high speed, automaticity of actions. Many, many times you can't address the problem directly (stay closed until... and then rotate....etc.). You have to find what I call "cues" or "facilitators" that achieve the desired end result even though you may be telling them to do something that technically is not correct. The problem occurs when "cues" are accepted as absolute truths. I believe that 90% of the disagreement over drop and drive, vs. pull off the rubber vs. push-pull is caused by accepting cues as absolute truths. Waiting until foot plant to explode is a cue. It helps the player from opening up too soon. The problem occurs when you try to analyze the video you just took of the pitcher and you see his hips are 30-40% open at foot plant and you tell him he is opening too soon (speaking from my own experience, the average coach, parent, player has no idea what they’re looking at when they do video, one reason being that standard video is really not fast enough, witness my little "incident" with Coach Sam……). Maybe, but probably not. Every hard throwing major league pitcher reaches maximum hip rotation speed BEFORE foot plant.

(3) doctors vs. physiologists; training for rehab vs. increased performance. Again a big confuser. Exercises like the "throwers 10" is an example of this. The throwers 10 is essentially a rehab program. (observation and question: to throw a baseball 90 MPH requires 50 or more pounds of force in less than a tenth of a second. How does lifting a 3 or 5 # dumb bell (as required by the throwers 10 program) prepare the arm for this type of trauma?) Yet you have legions coaches, parents players who violently disagree if you even suggest more aggressive loads (same goes for resistance tubing, loading most players use is way too light; body adapts in 3 or less training sessions and you may be maintaining "conditioning" but you are not improving your capabilities (training). A former Cy Young award winner (has a Ph.D. in physiology/kinesiology) has a training school. School is limited to pitchers who have reached "growth plate" maturity (you have to send him an arm x-ray before he will accept you). Part of their daily regimen is throwing 4-10# steel balls and working with very heavy wrist weights. He has a number of former students in the minor leagues and one has now made the big time with the Braves. he feels he can add 10 MPH and LOTS OF MOVEMENT to anyone who is willing to make the commitment.

(4) .......no, I’ve huffed and puffed enough.

Hopefully you now see what I mean by dragging the foot as a "cue" and how this cue can be extrapolated into a "universal truth". I personally disagree with dragging the foot for throwing a change up. Throwing pitches should be like swinging a golf club (we’re talking about professional golfers). A golfer has a swing tempo (so does a hitter and pitcher). For a golfer, swing tempo is the time from "take away" to "impact". On normal swings (irons, woods) the swing tempo of professional golfers doesn’t vary by more than a couple of hundredths of a second no matter the club. You don't change your swing for every shot. You try to keep the swing mechanics the same and change the club instead (that's why sand, chipping, etc. are usually problems because you now have to make some changes to your swing). The pitchers golf club is his fingers, hand, wrist and to a much lesser degree his arm.

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