A closer look at what "drop and drive" pitching mechanics are

Tom Seaver, at right, did it. And he's in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. Robin Roberts did it, too, and he was one heck of a major league pitcher. But they're the exception. Not the rule. And when it comes to baseball pitching mechanics, "drop and drive" -- the mechanical term used to describe their pitching motion, where their post leg collapses (bends significantly) instead of "staying tall," in the position shown above -- is not great practice.

Fortunately, modern pitching video analysis -- and the ability to slow down baseball pitchers' deliveries on high-speed video -- has given coaches visually sound keys of a quality pitching motion. Even more, it's enabled coaches and pitcher to see why drop and drive is inefficient.

"In the drop and drive, what you'll see is a pitcher gets into his posting position, and then in the next movement, his whole body lowers into the mound," says Coach Bill Thurston, head baseball coach at Amherst (Mass.) College. "This causes the pitcher to come out late toward the plate, and a loss of "force." What you want to see out of power pitchers is that once that stride leg starts lowering, the lower body really goes fast, and they land on a flexed leg. As they rotate the trunk, the front leg braces up, and then the hips and upper body come over it.

"Well, the drop-and-driver never comes over a braced front leg. The old drop-and-drive guys -- Tom Seaver and Robin Roberts -- both of those guys had huge legs, big butts and were real strong in the lower body, and they didn’t brace up with their stride leg.

"Instead, they transferred their weight using a hop. Most drop-and-drivers who are young kids (or grown men, for that matter) aren't strong enough to do the hop step at the end to keep their weight going forward with the pitch.

The drop and drive is definitely something you wouldn't want to teach. Nobody pitches that way anymore, because in the drop and drive, you don't really use your body. It doesn't allow the core muscles of your body to get up and over a braced front leg. And it creates a very unfavorable effect on the rotator cuff muscles, because the arm is going forward but the body isn't.

True power pitchers bring their back hip through and brace up, then the body comes with the arm. For this reason, the drop and drive is extremely stressful on the rotator cuff and back shoulder muscles."

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