Feeling Movements: Scapular Retraction to Scapular Upward Mobility

Warm up and drill work should be a staple in every program one way or another. However, many coaches develop a love affair with verbal cues and mechanical verbiage. But how beneficial can that actually be? Although there is certainly a time when verbal cues are helpful, it is always useful to let athletes develop feel through positions and movements. This video shows an Arm Farm original drill. We call this a "feel drill".

Rather than constantly coaching and telling the athlete what is right, wrong and somewhere in between, we demonstrate and explain the goals of this drill and then let the athlete feel his way through it. This particular progression is used to feel through the transition of scapular retraction to scapular upward mobility in the delivery. As you work your way through this drill, you can add elements of progression and begin to feel for efficient rotation and setting your arm on path. Too many pitchers neglect the tedious process of "feeling" and look to get quick answers that will yield results. Sadly, that is not how performance development works. In order to ingrain a movement pattern or improve motor recruitment, you have to spend time making each movement you own.