Training For the Fastest Movement in All of Sports

Training For The Fastest Movement in All of Sports

Reproduced with permission from Line Drives, the monthly newsletter from Baseball Fit, LLC.

In 1985, renowned orthopedic surgeon Dr. Arthur Pappas conducted some interesting research on 15 professional pitchers. Over the course of 147 pitches, he examined with high speed cinematography what he called the three main phases of the pitching delivery: cocking, acceleration, and follow through.

He reported the following data:

  1. The Cocking Phase takes 1,500 ms(1.5 sec) and consumes 80% of the pitching cycle.
  2. The Acceleration Phase lasts for 50 ms (1/20 sec) and consumes 2% of the pitching cycle.
  3. The Follow Through Phase takes 350 ms (.4 sec) and consumes 18% of the pitching cycle.

Adding these times together, the average pitching delivery of a MLB pitcher takes about 2 seconds.

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