When Justin initially signed up with Connected Performance in the spring of 2020 his coach told me that he was a great kid with a ton of potential. He couldn’t have been more accurate. Justin had a wiry frame, possessing a large wingspan, and fast-twitch muscles but suffered from chronic medial elbow pain. Justin is extremely athletic and was a quality high school basketball player in Florida. His physical assessment did not show any glaring issues. So, with an athletic frame, quick-twitch muscles, and barely any physical limitations, why was his velocity in the low 80s?
Let’s take a look at his initial mechanical assessment and address his energy leaks. To start with his lower half, you’ll see two major flaws. The first is all in his hinge. What happens when an athlete doesn’t properly hinge his hips is his knee goes first. To have a better visual see the video below.
Improper hipe hinge-knee first
Notice how the first move comes from the back knee and not the glute? Think of your lower half like this, your hands are full of groceries in the kitchen and you need to push in the drawer. You could probably roundhouse kick it in, but you’d be sacrificing your groceries and maybe even take a spill. The safer bet is probably to push it in with your butt. You’d hinge your hips, your butt would get behind your heels and you’d push in the drawer, right? It’s the same concept in the athletes’ delivery. To optimize the athletes’ lower half, it all starts with a proper hip hinge. An improper hip hinge is like a domino effect. What happens is the hinge is executed poorly therefore the following movements such as stepping across your body and your lead leg opening early are all by-products of a bad hinge. As you can see, Justin is lacking in these key parts of his delivery.
Notice how the hips hinge and the butt gets behind the heel?
Secondly, you’ll see some glaring issues in his arm action. The first issue we needed to address is that he crosses the acromial line. Looking at this frame you can see his arm is not in an optimal position and is exposed to a higher chance of injury and poor performance. We also can note that you can run a semi-truck through his forearm flyout (seen in the photo below). These are 2positions that desperately needed to be fixed.
The How.
Since Justin suffered from medial elbow pain, we had to create an on-ramp process that created sequenced movement patterns, a pain-free environment and prepped his tissue for high intent throwing a month from now. I considered a connection ball but with how drastic his arm disconnections were I feared that the prescription may not be strong enough. Therefore, I also contemplated a “final connection” position, however, I did not want to lose the potential of his arm swing and scap retraction. Finally, I decided to implement a throwing club as I’ve seen it make proper adjustments with athletes who had drastic arm action disconnections. Only this time we let it rest on his shoulder giving him the feeling of a proper arm flip up at 90 degrees.
Justin Wit Abbreviated Arm Action Club Drill
Along with his mechanical flaws came a need for general strength. Justin’s weight room numbers were not impressive as he maxed at roughly 225 on squat and 135 on bench. Before we attacked a heavy strength phase, we wanted to ensure he was moving properly, therefore, we programmed 4 weeks of landmine work to groove proper movements in the gym and pattern his push, pull, and hinge.
The results? Check out his full transformation video here
They speak for themselves. After 3 months Justin was 25 lbs. heavier and eliminated his arm pain. Within 9 months Justin sat 90+ and added over 50 lbs. to all of his major lifts. Justin quickly turned the heads of his peers and coaches. After a few dominant outings at the JV level, Justin was immediately called up to the varsity squad. Nothing good comes without the hard work of a well-executed plan.
For inquiries on training email training@connected-performance.com