{"id":645,"date":"2023-02-18T12:41:45","date_gmt":"2023-02-18T12:41:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepitchingmechanicllc.com\/?page_id=645"},"modified":"2023-03-31T17:52:11","modified_gmt":"2023-03-31T17:52:11","slug":"shoulder-centralization","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/thepitchingmechanicllc.com\/?page_id=645","title":{"rendered":"Shoulder centralization"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Shoulder Centralization - are you inline? <\/h2>\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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“Relationship between throwing mechanics and elbow valgus in professional baseball pitchers” – 2002<\/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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Have you ever shot a firearm with iron sights?\u00a0 If you have, you know that the rear and front sight have to be lined up for the shot to go in the right direction.\u00a0 If the sights are offline, the outcome you want, hitting the target, does not happen.\u00a0 This is similar to shoulder centralization in relation to shoulder health in pitching.\u00a0<\/p>

As our arm travels through its path to early cocking\/stride foot contact position, we want to optimize getting our arm into an abducted, horizontal abducted, and externally rotated position that also has good scap load (shoulder blade squeezed toward our spine).\u00a0 This process is sometimes aided with coaches cueing to pull or drive your elbow back as you come out of your hand break.\u00a0 While well intentioned, this cue often leads to decentralization of the shoulder and increased anterior shoulder joint stress.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

The easy way to think about this is to place your arm in the 90\/90 position and see if you are inline from your shoulder to your elbow.\u00a0 When some resistance is placed to challenge the rotator cuff and posterior shoulder, this will exacerbate the problem if you have one.\u00a0 See pics below for what can happen and what is correct.\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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Wrong Centralization<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\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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Correct Centralization<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\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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Through the pitching motion, shoulder centralization is important, but will not be perfectly maintained.\u00a0 Note how my elbow nearly gets in front of my nose in the wrong photo, but is maintained in the correct, this is most closely mimicked in the max external phase of the pitch.\u00a0 This also leads to the correct transfer of energy through the shoulder and elbow to the ball.\u00a0 When out of centralization, typically the elbow tries to make up the deficit and you will see a “tricep push” kind of throw. Below is a collegiate pitcher I had after a surgery and helping him get back to the mound.\u00a0 Look at the red line through the shoulder and notice on day 1 how much further his elbow was from his shoulder at max layback. His body was trying to protect by pushing the ball with the triceps, but this was placing a higher amount of stress on the elbow, and velocity was poor.\u00a0 On the last day, he was more centralized, has increased layback, and velocity was nearing speeds close to preinjury levels.\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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Day 1 - Poor Centralization<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\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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Last Day - Improved Centralization<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\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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The article listed at the start helps us better understand that elbow valgus stress (bad) is better controlled with centralized elbow to shoulder, and higher level of stress happens with the “triceps push” position.\u00a0 This stress is also called valgus extension overload, and to minimize this deficit I wanted to give you 2 drills to help improve your scap load and centralization.\u00a0 See below for tutorial video, and these are easily incorporated for warm up or workouts.\u00a0 And as always, feel free to contact me or schedule a zoom call for 1 on 1 coaching.<\/p>

Dr. David Klaus, DPT, ATC\/L<\/p>

The Pitching Mechanic<\/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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