Breaking the Hands

Many young pitchers break their hands improperly. Although when and where a pitcher breaks his hands may not seem real important at first, the break affects arm mechanics and is a root problem with many pitchers. I have been to clinics where pitchers are taught to break during their knee lift – "breaking an egg with the knee" is the mental image they teach. This should be avoided. The breaking of the hands should occur after the pitcher’s weight begins moving toward home plate.

A more serious problem, in my opinion, involves where the hands break. Pitchers should break their hands directly in front of their bodies, preferably up around the letters. Many young pitchers like to break their hands behind them (RH pitchers breaking by their right hip). This can create the following problems:

• First, the throwing arm will often stop after the break to allow the lead arm time to catch up, ruining a smooth, continuous circle action with the ball after the break.

• Second, the lead arm does not get to the bridge position soon enough, and often arcs out away from the body instead of moving directly toward the target. (The bridge here is a line between the elbows when both are lifted, pointing toward the plate.) This arcing of the arm and the time it takes to bridge can throw the lead shoulder open way too early. When the shoulder opens before the lead foot is planted, velocity is reduced and arms can be injured.