{"id":1054,"date":"2024-03-20T17:00:30","date_gmt":"2024-03-20T17:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepitchingmechanicllc.com\/?page_id=1054"},"modified":"2025-10-27T16:39:44","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T16:39:44","slug":"tall-and-fall-or-drop-and-drive-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/thepitchingmechanicllc.com\/?page_id=1054","title":{"rendered":"Tall and Fall or Drop and Drive?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Tall and Fall or Drop and Drive?
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https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/full\/10.1177\/23259671231173691\u00a0 <- click here for link to article\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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What Are They?<\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Tall and fall (TF) (pictures A and C) was something I remember hearing when I was starting travel ball back 25 years ago, and it was a common cue for new pitchers.\u00a0 The concept is simple, get going linearly down the mound and let gravity pull you into your throw. The key mechanic through this paper is the pelvis higher than the knee when they land on their stride foot. But does this strategy still hold up today, especially when talking about injury?<\/p>

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Drop and drive (DD) (pictures B and D) is the newer style, and largely has roots over in Japan and Korea.\u00a0 This doesn’t mean it’s\u00a0 not well used, but comparatively in the MLB it is considerably less.\u00a0 DD is characterized by the pelvis at or below the level of the knee when the stride foot makes contact with the ground.\u00a0 Does this style lend itself to similar injury rates, or are they different?<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Tall and Fall vs. Drop and Drive For Injury<\/strong><\/p>

During the 2019 MLB season, analysis for TF and DD styles was performed with 412 (62.4%) of pitchers using TF, and 248 (37.6%) of pitchers using DD.\u00a0 These pitchers were statistically the same for most metrics including: age, weight, BMI, and fastball velocity.\u00a0 Only height was statistically different with TF being slightly taller (190 +\/- 5 cm) to DD (189 +\/- 5.75 cm) .\u00a0 And to be fair, that is really not that much of a difference.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

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But, how did the injury rate stack up? Of those 660 pitchers, 150 had an upper extremity injury.\u00a0 112 TF and 38 DD.\u00a0 But that is 27% of TF and only 15% of DD that sustained an injury.\u00a0 For the big Tommy John surgery, 12 total pitchers had to undergo\u00a0 surgery.\u00a0 10 of those 12 used the TF style.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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This appears to be a timely article with several high profile pitchers already out in this young MLB season with UCL injuries.\u00a0 But this article is one piece of the puzzle when preventing arm injuries.\u00a0 Through research we also know a less horizontal arm release, appropriate volume and intensity with training, and waiting till growth plates close to start weighted ball training are all helpful in lowering UCL injury.\u00a0 But, this isn’t all roses.\u00a0 TF style tends to load more stress into the elbow, but DD loads more stress into the shoulder.\u00a0 So at the end of the day, intelligent training is paramount to decreasing injury rates.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>

DD carries a lower risk for UCL strain as it mitigates forces on the elbow, but increases force in the shoulder.\u00a0 This compared to TF style is still superior as it relates to the elbow.<\/p>

As always, please feel free to reach out to me if you need help or have questions.\u00a0 The longer I do this, the more I see antiquated ideas and techniques used by well meaning coaches, but unfortunately they put players at risk from a young age due to lack of knowledge in the anatomical and biomechanical arenas.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Dr. Klaus<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tall and Fall or Drop and Drive? https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/full\/10.1177\/23259671231173691\u00a0 <- click here for link to article\u00a0 What Are They? Tall and fall (TF) (pictures A and C) was something I remember hearing when I was starting travel ball back 25 years ago, and it was a common cue for new pitchers.\u00a0 The concept is simple, get …<\/p>\n

Tall and Fall or Drop and Drive?<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"no-sidebar","site-content-layout":"page-builder","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1054","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepitchingmechanicllc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepitchingmechanicllc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepitchingmechanicllc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepitchingmechanicllc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepitchingmechanicllc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1054"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/thepitchingmechanicllc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1824,"href":"https:\/\/thepitchingmechanicllc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1054\/revisions\/1824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepitchingmechanicllc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}