Spin Rate and Efficiency: Developing College & High School Athletes
The game of baseball once thought to be a simple and old school sport is now being thrust into the current age of sports science and technology. Watching a major league baseball game is now full of terms and statistics many baseball purists may find unfamiliar. Some of these new ideas and metrics include terms such as spin rate, spin efficiency, launch angle, and exit velocity. In this article I mainly want to focus on the benefits of quantifying the development of spin rate/efficiency of high school and college age pitchers. The game is constantly changing, as modern day coaches and athletes we must adapt to these new concepts.
Axis & Efficiency: Relation to Arm Action
Spin rate and efficiency can have a direct correlation with the efficiency of the arm path. As discussed in earlier articles, I want to bring attention again to the golf ball analogy. Think of the hand as the driver head connecting with the ball. The better the back swing the more direct the contact with the ball the straighter and more true the ball flight. The same principles apply to pitching. By developing a cleaner arm pattern through the whole pitching delivery we can create a more consistent release with an efficient spin axis.
When discussing arm action I like to use the new and growing picture of the arm spiraling method or the elbow spiral (See Picture Below). This is a counter intuitive model brought over to America from Japanese training methods. In America we are often taught incorrect bio-mechanical movements as a norm in our youth and high school programs. Throughout amateur baseball there is a false idea of what a efficient arm action looks like. Common youth training drills such as the “L” drill and the “T” drill can be detrimental to a pitcher’s long term career and create extremely inefficient habits.
Many of the bad habits we commonly see in the majority of our college and high school players can be traced back to their early stages of development. This may be one reason we see arm injuries occurring at an all time high. Many American pitchers have a tendency to supinate at delivery otherwise known as “pushing the ball.” This is essentially when the arm casts out and around instead of spiraling behind the head and straight toward the plate. What we are trying to achieve is an efficient pronating motion throughout the throw. This keeps the wrist mechanically behind the ball, creating a truer spin axis resulting in a higher spin rate.
Currently I serve as a pitching development and data analyst for Liberty University Baseball. Our main goal is to test various theories and training methods as they relate to spin rate, spin axis, ball flight and velocity. Much of our work is done through Rapsodo, a baseball development camera and software which measures velocity, spin rate, spin axis, and vertical/horizontal break. Along with these methods and theories we are using with the Division I athletes, I am also attempting to use similar methods to train lower level youth and high school level athletes. I truly believe you can train using high level methods despite having low level technology.
