Gaps & Spacing in the Delivery

2 days ago
7 min read

It can be easy to get lost in the weeds when it comes to looking at mechanics, most coaches and players are good at making observations about a player’s delivery but the best ones are able to filter through available information (observations) and find what’s most relevant and actionable.

One of the main ways we bring ourselves back to what matters is through what we would call movement principles. This isn’t a checklist of perfect mechanical positions as much as it’s about principles of human movement that we see expressed in the best of the best.

One of these first principles for us is the concept of creating and closing gaps. In its simplest form this is the principle that efficient movement involves the creation of space and the closure of space in order to deliver energy. This can seem very abstract at first, but it really is just a different way of labeling what good coaches have intuitively known for a while; namely that the best pitchers in the world create more with less effort. They move through cleaner sequences of movements with the proper spacing to create easier results than others.

To put it concretely, there are a number of gaps created throughout the delivery. A gap can be seen as anything that moves away from the center of the body. When everything works well, the athlete creates gaps that are the right size for their body and is able to create and close these gaps with proper timing.

Here are some examples of “gaps” in the delivery with what closure of that gap would look like:

Pelvis Dissociation from Shoulders (“Hip-Shoulder Separation”) → No Dissociation

Rib Flare/Lumbar Extension→ Spine Returns to “Neutral” by release

Lateral Pelvic Tilt towards back leg→ Pelvic Tilt Towards Front Leg (That matches needs of arm slot)

Hip Flexion/ Hinge→ Hip Extension

Gloveside Positive Disconnection→ Glove Works Back to Midline into release

Throwing Arm Horizontal Abduction→ Arm Unwinds In Line with Torso

Posterior Tilt of the Pelvis into Peak Leg Lift→ Pelvis Works Back to Anterior Tilt

Throwing arm working Outside of 90 degrees→ Back to Within 90 degrees

Lead Leg Disconnection from Pelvis→ Lead leg reconnects to pelvis into landing

This is by no means an exhaustive list of all the different spaces created throughout the delivery. If we wanted to we could go a layer even deeper as the body creates relative joint on joint motion within itself which can also be considered spaces that must be managed.

Ultimately, the body moves through expansion and compression to apply force to the baseball. When expansion happens to the right degree, at the right places with proper timing, compression is well timed and is able to apply force to the baseball.

Let’s look at this piece by piece:

What does it mean to create “Gaps” that are the right size for an athlete?

At face value, you may come to the conclusion as you read through these ideas that the best in the world must create the biggest gaps, but unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple.

As humans, each movement we make physically leverages different parts of our body to take on responsibility. The shapes that our body takes on will put certain muscles and connective tissue in positions to do a lot of work and at the same time put others into a more of a passive role. This is the idea of length-tension relationships in the body. An easy visual of this is to do a bicep curl. If someone was to forcibly press down on your hand at what angle would you be strongest to resist it? Likely, it would be somewhere not too close to full elbow extension but also not bent all the way as far as you could. That strongest point would be an example of an optimal length-tension relationship for the bicep to contract. Now, looking at the delivery you can imagine all the different length-tension relationships of the body interacting with each other.

Each movement makes it easier or harder for certain muscles to work. It would be an exhausting process to think through the optimal length tension relationships for each muscle individually. Fortunately, our bodies don’t work in this type of isolation but rather through lines of connective tissue called fascia. Fascia can most easily be described as trails of very strong, elastic, and spider web-like material that runs in certain patterns across our muscles. These trails (more commonly called slings), allow for the release of elastic energy and for more coordinated use of our muscles.

So now if we come back to the idea of gaps, there are a few reasons bigger isn’t always better.

To start, more length may mean less than optimal ability for certain stabilizing muscles to do their job correctly. A common example of this is adductor length on the back leg. If we have a pitcher that pushes down the mound too aggressively they may put the adductor at too big of a length for it to do its job in stabilizing the pelvis as rotation happens, leading to compensation elsewhere in the body to make up for it.

Another reason more isn’t always better is that some athletes are naturally a bit tighter fascially. Meaning the trails of their fascia don’t have quite as much length to them. For that reason, we may actually be fighting against their anatomy to try and create bigger gaps. This may lead to compensations in other parts of the body and also doesn’t allow the athletes to fully take advantage of the elastic properties of fascia by stretching it beyond what it can rebound out of.

Additionally, large gaps aren’t always best because the whole point of a gap is to be closed on time to put force into the baseball. Closing gaps on time is what allows for the body to efficiently decelerate the pelvis and torso to allow for speed gain into the baseball itself. If an athlete for example were to create massive hip shoulder separation, but could not actually decelerate the hips to allow for energy to catch at the right time and send it into the baseball, there would be no benefit to creating a bigger move that is likely harder to repeat as is. This is also where we can start to see the coordinative aspect of movement, as at the end of the day a pitcher’s job is to get outs which requires some level of consistency in movement. This means their movement solutions must be at least somewhat efficient. Chasing bigger gaps, though good in some contexts, can in other contexts lead to more inconsistency.

What does it mean to create and close gaps at the right time?

Timing is an integral part of efficient movement, it’s not just about getting to good positions, it's about moving through good positions at the right time and with connection to the rest of the body. One of the main reasons that timing is important is for force transmission, the ability to apply force into the baseball. The timing and synergy of movements is ultimately what allows the best in the world to make it look easy. It’s the ability to apply more force into the baseball with the least amount of effort.

So ultimately we need gaps that stretch and release at the right time in order to apply force to the baseball.

To visualize force transmission, you can think of two cars driving down the highway: Let’s say one car is driving 80 mph and then hits traffic on the highway and has to ease to a stop while the second car is driving 40 mph and has a car swerve in front of them causing them to slam on their brakes to bring the car to a dead stop suddenly. In which car would the driver get jolted forward more in their seat?

In the 70 mph car there is a ton of momentum and potential for force application to the driver but, the fact they ease to a stop mitigates how much force applied forward on them. Whereas in the 40 mph car the suddenness of the stop is what sends the force that jolts them forward.

The delivery is about timing because at its essence the body is organizing itself to apply force into an object. Closing gaps on time can mean getting the body back to optimal length tension relationships but it also means closing gaps of separation in order to allow the body to decelerate the right places at the right time in order to apply force to the baseball. In the best throwers in the world, if you slow things down you see that for a brief second everything becomes still other than the arm delivering the baseball. This is the point in time when deceleration of the pelvis and trunk leads to acceleration of the throwing arm. No different than the car and the driver, the timing of the impulse is everything.

Timing can also be visualized by looking through the lens of compression and expansion. Compression is the application of force, the closing of space whereas expansion is the creation of space for compression to occur into. If there is no space to compress into it’s going to be difficult to apply a lot of force and on the flipside if there is a ton of space created and a lack of compression then very little force is actually going to be applied.

So, timing in the delivery is about getting the body to work in synergy with itself. Timing expansion and compression in a way that works for the individual's body and coordinative abilities. It is worth mentioning how anatomically speaking these lines of expansion and compression work reciprocally. Meaning they work across the body along fascial lines that can efficiently deliver energy due to their elastic properties. Timing the stretch and release of these lines with properly timed muscular impulse that can help stabilize and anchor the body is what opening and closing gaps is really all about.

The beauty of the throw is how much is going on underneath the surface. With so much information to filter through, understanding the first principles of efficient movement is important. At the end of the day, the goal of looking at the throw in terms of gaps at its core isn’t about being different for the sake of it, but rather looking through a lens as coaches that keeps us accountable to leave behind our own biases as we look at different athlete’s movements.