Arm Swing Separation Drill With Band Resistance

Written By: Dave Shinskie

#ThirtySecondLesson

This past week I tweeted a quick drill without going too far in depth into why we do the drill and what it is for. I use this drill for pitchers and position players of all ages every day in my lessons. It works so well that I wanted to share it with all our readers in hopes that it will make your (or your son/daughter’s) delivery safer and more effective. Hope you enjoy!

HAVE ACCESS TO BANDS?✅ NEED A DRILL TO WORK ON ARM SWING?✅ HAVE 35 SECONDS?✅ @dshinbone15 takes us through today’s #ThirtySecondLesson with a great drill for throwers to work on arm swing! #BaseballRebellion pic.twitter.com/00VcxWdBIz

— Baseball Rebellion (@BRrebellion) January 23, 2018

Drill Part 1: The Arm Swing

In the video below I explain the first of three phases of the Band Separation Drill. A good arm swing starts right out of the glove. It is involved with the first initial movement of the lower half momentum. As the lower half drives toward the target, the throwing arm should be relaxed out of the glove.

The reason I use the band is to allow my brain and body to work together. Use the tension of the band to allow the body to do most of the work. You do not necessarily want to PULL the band into position.

The Flaw

The reason for a more consistent arm swing, and why we want to integrate a proper sequence of movements, is to maintain a healthy and effective delivery. We want to avoid teaching cues like show the ball to center fielder and point the glove to the target because these cues make the player’s hands break away from each other which leads to unhealthy and uneffective timing flaws. For example, pitchers that have these tend to have their head/trunk very forward too early in the delivery.

The photos above are of Carter Capps pitching for the Marlins before he was traded to the San Diego Padres. Capps received Tommy John Surgery in March of 2015 and needed surgery for Thoracic Outlet Syndrome this offseason. They hope he will be back for 2108 spring training but he is a huge question mark for a return to full health. Capps was one of the most promising young pitchers of the game at one point but poor mechanics have hurt him. WHY? You can see above that he points his glove right to the target and tries to hide the ball on his backside. There is no arm swing involved with this delivery. He also does a crazy leap forward off of the mound, which puts him in a very bad spot at foot strike. His elbow is above his shoulder with his upper body forward over his belt. This type of delivery is bad because he never allows his posture to change to continue his shoulders to rotate properly toward the target. The next part of the drill goes into how proper posture change leads to an efficient position at front foot strike.