If you ask a pro pitcher what happened on a specific pitch that didn’t go well, he’ll often respond, “Well, I tried to start it on the inner half…” Most young pitchers, when asked, have no idea how they locate their curveball or slider. Your initial heading, your starting point, the point on the opposite river bank you focused on reaching, would not be where you ended up. If you swim exactly toward point B, from point A, would you make it precisely where you intended? The answer is no: the current would take you with it, so that you would end up on the other side but down-river a bit. Your goal is to swim straight across a flowing river. For lack of a simpler term, I’ve been calling it pitch vectoring, which stems from a high school physics lesson. As a pitcher, one of the most important concepts I learned, and now teach, is how to command my “moving” pitches. The deviation from a tunnel, for a pitcher who repeats his delivery well, will then only come from deviations in starting location, or focal point (used interchangeably). To make them take the same tunnel, then a pitcher would need to pair pitches based on where they start, not where they end. If a pitcher repeats his delivery, then the flight of each pitch, to each location, is essentially predetermined by physics. Part 2: How Pitchers Create Tunneling: Focal Point = Tunnel Whether he chooses to do this, however, is another story, as this concept hinges on pitch selection. And, to shed light which is explained in the next section. A pitcher who repeats his delivery sets the stage for all pitches to tunnel provided they use the same starting point, the same initial trajectory. Having the proper conditioning to prevent fatigue is also a factor.įrom a mechanical perspective, we have a distinction without a difference – “repeating the delivery” is all that is required to physically create tunneling. The following are well-controlled by pro pitchers, and, loosely controlled by amateurs. Repeating ones delivery means that all of the following variables are held constant between pitches. Coaches have always emphasized to pitchers: Practice repeating your delivery! If you want to throw more strikes, learn to repeat your delivery! The main thing a pitcher can control is the repeatability of delivery, which in turn directly affects release point. If it is unclear to you whether pitch tunneling is a physical concept worthy of its own term, let me assure you that it is not. Rather, they simply need to practice pitching with a focus on doing the exact same thing with their body on every single pitch. Pitchers don’t need to practice throwing pitches through small hoops 20ish feet from the plate. Again, if you repeat your delivery very well, tunneling will happen on its own if you pair pitches with the same starting points. And for a pitcher who repeats his delivery exceptionally well, like Jon Lester does, the pitches he throws will look very similar for as long as possible. If a pitcher can’t control his body well enough to precisely repeat his delivery, then his pitch tunneling ability suffers – the hand will be in a noticeably different position at the release of every pitch. The goal is that two pitches, thrown back-to-back, would fly through the same narrow tunnel, basically making them appear to be the same pitch. Part 1: Pitch Tunneling Is Not a Mechanical Concept: A Distinction Without a DifferenceĪt Baseball Prospectus, Jeff Long, Jonathan Judge and Harry Pavlidis have identified the “tunnel point” as 23.8 feet before home plate. There also seems to be some confusion about the idea itself – is it mechanical, in which pitchers should change their deliveries to improve tunneling? Or, is it simply a matter of pitch sequencing? And, if tunneling is only a sequencing concept, are, and should, pitchers be using it? Let’s find answers to these three questions. If pitches thrown back to back travel down this same “tunnel” long enough, a hitter won’t be able to tell them apart until it’s too late. The idea is that two different pitches fly down the same trajectory long enough to look nearly identical through the point when a hitter must decide whether, or not, to swing. The concept of pitch tunneling is gaining popularity. Jon Lester is able to repeat his delivery exceptionally well.
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