I'm happy to see that my articles on Hughes pitching mechanics have at least one or two interested bystanders were willing to put some time in, do some research and post their opinions.
Specifically this comment by the Phantom
The video of Hughes in high school is skipping and repeating frames. The video of him at KC was a 66 MPH curveball.
Therefore, the first video is unreliable. You can say the same for the second as well. Why compare a fastball to a curveball?
How many mechanics geniuses does it take to figure out what's wrong with Hughes?
Hughes' problem is his "intent" with the lower body. Specifically, pelvic loading.
http://i25.tinypic.com/2ynmc20.gif
On the left he is "floating" his femur up into leg lift. Look at how "dead" and limp his lower leg is.
On the right he has a much more aggressive leg lift. Look at the pelvis tilt upward. You know that feeling when you have to urinate really bad and try to hold it in? Well that's what Hughes is feeling on the right. He is engaging more of his hip flexors and goin muscles.
On the left, he feels like he had just let it all out and his groin region is very relaxed.
Again, about the one on the right. This upward pelvic tilt gets Hughes into his "sit" quicker and smoother. He doesn't wait for gravity to get him into the sit as he does on the left.
I think it's instructive to take the points that the Phantom attempts to make one by one.
The video of Hughes in high school is skipping and repeating frames.
The intent of my posting the clip of Hughes high school clip is to establish a mechanics reference point. Hughes was drafted because of what they saw in these high school clips. How many times have we heard the tale of the prospect who was drafted throwing 95 and two with three years later is a pitcher throwing 88? My point being that most often the clips of the player throwing before he's drafted our most representative of his abilities to throw with maximum velocity.
A second reason for posting a high school video clip addresses the issue of pitch control/location. For example I have video clips of Tim Lincecum, front view (you from behind home plate) at four points in his pitching career; high school, junior college, college, and major-league; there is virtually no discernible difference in timing and sequencing of his body from high school to major-league.
My point being that once movement becomes ingrained, especially ballistic movement such as throwing a baseball, any changes to that movement pattern can have significant effects in the result. Therefore I find it very important to have a good idea of what the player "looks" like early in his career. I'm not doing a frame by frame side-by-side comparison with this clip, I'm simply relying upon my experience and understanding of how the body throws to evaluate what Hughes is doing with his body to throw the baseball.
Whether the clip is missing frames and not does not compromise the point that I was trying to make.
I tried to point out in Part 3, obtaining good video information is almost impossible for the "amateur" (yours truly). And even if you can obtain good video, good video being views such as from the third-base side or home plate, that video is only at 30 frames per second. And attempting to differentiate the difference between what the players doing throwing 91 and what the players doing throwing 95 is tenuous at best with 30 frames per second video. This is where experience and understanding of how the body throws becomes very important because it is your knowledge and experience of how the body throws that allows you to fill in the missing blanks (frames).
And as I said I'm not doing a synchronized side-by-side comparison of video clips where missing frames do become a problem. I'm simply trying to establish a visual reference of what his delivery look like in high school versus what he looks like today at the major-league level.
The video of him at KC was a 66 MPH curveball.
My bad. I thank the Phantom for taking the time to research this clip and pointing out an error on my part where I mistakenly identified a clip of a curveball as a fastball. What I should've said was that even though this is a curveball it is representative of how a fastball can go from 95 to 91 mph, my problem was I could not find a clip from the behind home plate view of Hughes throwing his fastball. And based upon my piecing together what I see from Hughes's delivery, the curveball clip mechanics are representative of why Hughes has lost velocity off his fastball. If nothing else they demonstrate that someone with a 95 mph fastball should have better than a 66 mph curveball i.e. the mechanics of his curveball demonstrate how a pitcher can lose velocity.
How many mechanics geniuses does it take to figure out what's wrong with Hughes?
Only one, the key words here being “mechanics geniuses”. To date I haven't seen any thing close to a “mechanics geniuses”. What I have seen is a number of “amateur mechanics geniuses wannabes” attempting to promote themselves as “mechanics geniuses”.
Hughes' problem is his "intent" with the lower body. Specifically, pelvic loading.
This is the introductory slide from a Pelvic Loading PowerPoint presentation that I helped Brent Strom put together for his presentation at the ABCA:
I believe that I am the first person to describe the importance of and use the terms “intent” AND "pelvic loading" with respect to someone throwing a baseball, my point being that if anyone should know the effect of pelvic loading on throwing the baseball it should be me.
That being said:
On the left he is "floating" his femur up into leg lift. Look at how "dead" and limp his lower leg is.
This is what I call the classic “using your body to throw the baseball witch hunt”. Exactly how does pelvic loading relate to throwing the baseball? Or more specifically EXACTLY how does
……"floating" his femur up into leg lift. Look at how "dead" and limp his lower leg is.
make a difference between a 95 mph and a 91 mph fastball? My answer is it may or may not depending upon what happens LATER in the delivery. And for the mechanical genius wannabes it is critical to understand that momentum transfer can be lost instantaneously i.e. you can't see it.
On the right he has a much more aggressive leg lift. Look at the pelvis tilt upward. You know that feeling when you have to urinate really bad and try to hold it in? Well that's what Hughes is feeling on the right. He is engaging more of his hip flexors and goin muscles.
On the left, he feels like he had just let it all out and his groin region is very relaxed.
Again, about the one on the right. This upward pelvic tilt gets Hughes into his "sit" quicker and smoother. He doesn't wait for gravity to get him into the sit as he does on the left.
I do not believe it is possible to understand what the Hughes is or is not doing with his muscles from the video information provided. There are an infinite number of ways to generate any voluntary movement action. And it's been demonstrated time and time again through actually measuring electrical activity of muscles that what appears to be the exact same movement can be achieved with very different muscular actions (muscle sequencing and activation patterns).
As I said previously I really don't see any difference in intent to throw the baseball between what Hughes is doing today versus what he did in high school versus what he did in the minor leagues. In fact I see even greater intent to finish his throw today at the major-league level simply because I believe he's trying to make up for some mechanical inefficiencies I've tried to describe i.e. he's trying to muscle the ball to home plate.
Again I thank the Phantom for taking the time and interest to comment and I hope this little exercise helps others gain a better appreciation for how difficult it is to become a “mechanics genius”.