I'll never forget that game 7. Gibson had a 1-hitter through 6 and 2/3 IP. Then a little hole in the dam and the Tigers got back to back singles, and then Northrup hit a routine flyball that should have ended the inning but perennial Gold Glover Curt Flood misplayed it into a triple. Another basehit and it was 3 to 0. And that was basically the ball game. Flood had a very bad 6th inning all-around as he was picked off to end the Cardinals' bottom of the 6th. That play followed a Lou Brock pick off earlier in the inning. What could have been a big inning for STL basically became a 3 up, 3 down inning.

and the first thing that stuck out at me was the absolutely flawless mechanics that today's pitchers would do well to study.

Here it is:



Note how his hips are already through, but yet the arm is still all the way back in the power position. He's driving "down the hill" and he is letting his lower half do all the work, and the arm is just there to guide. This is going to help with both accuracy and velocity, as your lower half is so much stronger than your upper half. The emphasis today (looking at you, Driveline) is to focus on arm and shoulder strength, and that is certainly important because you can only go as fast as you can stop (your arm will eventually break down if it isn't strong enough to withstand the reps). However, what that has led to, IMO (again, glancing in your general direction, Driveline) is a bunch of guys trying to "muscle up" and throw the ball with extreme force, relying heavily on their arms, with the lower half flying open and leading to a lot of glove side run. There has been an emphasis on "pulling the glove" at delivery as a way to emphasize this, and IMO that's going to lead to flying open (again) and over throwing; Jack Bauer (not the guy from 24, but a freshman at Mississippi State) did an interview the other day and everything was perfect about his mechanics until he mentioned that about the glove. He doesn't pull as hard as I've seen (that's what she said), but the fact that he even mentions it is troubling; your upper front side has NOTHING to do with throwing hard. The kid throws 103 +, so obviously he's talented, but my concern is that with the focus on upper front side "pulling" he is going to be vulnerable to trying to overthrow at times and that can lead to elbow/shoulder/kinetic chain issues.

Two guys who threw huge numbers of innings yet never had arm trouble.

Tim Lincecum, but he didn't "drop and drive" like Seaver, he basically launched himself from the rubber. Edit to add--his "delay" to let his core stretch and legs get out there and arm stay back was to drop the ball down to his butt cheek as he was striding/launching. Look at the torque he could generate from the picture below; dude was about 5-8, 145 pounds and he could touch 97 before he hurt his hip (likely from launching from the rubber, but maybe not. If he had been a reliever, he would have lasted a lot longer; just not big enough to handle the reps, but for a 5 year period of time, he was unbelievable).

I've been surprised and impressed how the mechanics of throwing the football have changed since I first learned to throw a football.

It's always been about the torque in the lower half, but the changes in how to create the torque (and the subtle changes to footwork and positioning to create it) along with how to more quietly unleash the torque (off hand placement not pulling through but staying tight near the helmet, along with not getting flat as a requirement which elongates everything. Getting flat/perpendicular was beat into my head and others, when I was a kid. We spent 90% of our time on creating a repeatable whip motion. I crapped out early on and found other positions).

I know you know this, but watching Purdy's mechanics is amazing. Hearing Tom Brady and Drew Brees talk about the evolution in how they learned to throw (those dudes are my age and learned the same way I did as kids, but spent their entire NFL career relearning and doing it better).

NFL throwing mechanics have come a long long long way the past 15-20 years. Every young kid learning to throw should do a deep dive into Purdy's pre draft work and post draft evolution. It's pretty awesome to watch, and intuitively, makes a shit load of sense.

Same with hitting. Buddy of mine compares it to spinning a top; they tighter you spin it, the longer and quicker it will go. Key is getting a good core stretch.

I've recently implemented it into swinging a golf club and it feels like a cheat code with half the effort leading to higher velocity and distance.

edit to add: the way we try and help teach this now for qb's and pitchers alike is a single leg RDL with a kettle bell; basically, we want guys to get the hip hinge to be able to work on moving forward without losing ground backwards. You can implement medicine ball/core work as well, but again the focus has to be on gaining that stretch back WITHOUT stepping back. You should feel like a rubber band, gaining tension and torque easily on the way back while staying tight, and then when you release you should not "push" or thrust forward, which would cause you to lose energy, but rather stay tight and "crack the whip."