Should We Really Be Teaching Pitchers To "Get On Top"?

"Get on top."

This is one of the most common cues heard from coaches. The problem with this one is the majority of pitchers don't have an over-the-top arm-slot and asking them to "get on top" of the baseball only causes problems.

Take Nolan Ryan, for instance. His release point was from a 3/4 slot and releasing the baseball from the side of his hand allowed him to stay upright with his head over his center-of-gravity (around the belly button). Asking him to "get on top" would have encouraged him to leave his natural arm-slot and sacrifice his posture.

Anytime a pitcher leaves his natural arm-path and arm-slot he runs a higher risk of injury and, less importantly, will lose velocity and natural movement. Biomechanists tell us that each individual has a biomechanical signature that includes the natural path of the arm, and allowing a pitcher to pitch without altering it is the safest way to go.

Somewhere along the line a popular rumor started in baseball that warned of the dangers of throwing sidearm. I can remember hearing people tell me as a kid that throwing sidearm is "dangerous" and had to do the (unfortunately still popular) "showing the baseball to 2nd base" drill over and over again.

The thing is, that arm path, and slot, is artificial for most baseball players and an artificial arm path, and slot, is counterproductive and can often lead to injury.

A look at a few other healthy pitchers reveals the same thing. Here we see three slightly different arm-slots, but none of them are over-the-top and none of them release the baseball "on top" of it. (Another potentially interesting observation is that all four examples are releasing fastballs).

When a pitcher hears a coach instructing him to "get on top" it often ends up looking like the following image of Francisco Liriano. His dramatic change of posture, head leaning glove side, occurs because he is trying to get his hand on top of the baseball. While pitching like this can still be effective, it can often - and did - lead to injury. Liriano spent the '07 season recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Comments

[Jeff (Corsairkid)]

This was a good article. It is all about the NATURAL arm slot...not the forced over-the-top delivery.

[expressbaseball]

Great article Steven. In 12 years of coaching I have never heard of arm slot, but the pictures are worth a thousand words. I too, have been one of those coaches promoting over the top delivery but no more. I know that I will see improvements in accuracy by my young pitchers by promoting natural arm slot. Thanks so much for the info!

[Chris]

As a Dutch 'little league' player, people have always told me to go over the top. But all these posts about natural arm slot do kinda make me doubt if I shouldn't go 3/4, as I do when I play second base.

In fact, the first baseman complains about it because when I tightly grip the ball while making a double play for instance, it seems to have quite a lot of movement.

[Seffapotamus]

Good article. Yesterday after a bullpen, my new varsity coach, watching me pitch for the first time, told me that he is going to try getting me away from how "over the top" I am. Good to know :)

[Roy]

theres a difference in what the coach means. When a coach tells a player to get over the top its often because the players elbow gets below the ball pushing it which causes strain on the elbow. Getting on top of the ball means simply keeping the elbow up. The coach is preventing lazyness which you will often see in the later innings of a game when a pitcher will drop down sidearm or get their arm lower than their normal arm slot. I am a collegiate pitcher and have to be reminded to keep on top of the ball once in a while, especially on curveballs otherwise the sharp break isnt there.

[Steven Ellis]

Very nice comments all around. Thanks to all for contributing to the discussion.

Steven

[Joe Lopez]

As a former pitcher and a current pitching coach I don't like a straight over the top arm slot but I do believe in getting your hand on top of the ball at release. Otherwise, you end up slinging the ball which creates backspin and keeps the ball up in the zone. Unless you throw 90 + that is not a good thing.