Landing of Lead Leg

A common problem with young pitchers is the mechanics of their lead leg. When striding toward home plate, some pitchers come down on a completely stiff leg, with their knee locked. This creates a whipping motion in their delivery and will generally create arm problems at some point. In fact, a few major league pitchers having this problem had their careers cut short after a couple of years because their arms went bad.

Another problem, perhaps more common, occurs when pitchers fail to stiffen the lead leg after it comes down. This greatly reduces the velocity on the pitch.

When the stride foot lands, the knee needs to be bent. As the pitcher’s weight comes forward, the lead leg must stiffen up, providing resistance to the pitcher’s weight and thus producing more velocity on the pitch (the same principle holds true when hitting).