Scott Wilhelm

Assessment Project: Proper Pitching Mechanics

  1. Problem:

To analyze an individual’s pitching motion specifically with the intent to prevent common elbow and shoulder injury.

  1. Refining The Problem

This assessment will be focusing on baseball players of all ages, grades, and backgrounds in the rec baseball program in Mount Laurel, NJ. Preferably, the athletes would want to learn proper technique at an early age so they don’t form bad habits, but it is never too late to teach proper pitching form to an older athlete that somehow managed to not get seriously hurt.

A pre and posttest will be used to judge the scale. The scale will determine overall arm pain levels while pitching. The pretest will be a test of pain with the athlete’s current pitching motion, and the posttest will be a test of pain with the athletes learned or adopted pitching motion.

  1. Components of the pitching motion that will be evaluated include:

-Ability to keep weight back on drive leg

-Ability to not pull/yank glove hand into chest causing excessive force to throwing arm

-Ability to throw will full body weight coming from behind you instead of with all arm

-Ability to find an appropriate arm angle that will provide deception to the hitter but also not hurt the athlete

-Ability to stay closed throughout the entire pitching motion so that the elbow is not exposed to forces that can rupture ligaments

  1. Instrumentation and Methodology

Numerical Performance Scale: (This all assumed the athlete had a problem with their pitching motion and is in pain/needs help)

-0-2: No to little change in pitching motion

-3-5: Moderate change in pitching motion

-6-8: Definite noticeable change in pitching motion

-9-10: Complete change in pitching motion

  1. The test administrator would have to have prior experience with pitching in order to teach young kids about the benefits of the 5 pitching tips listed above. The administrator also would ideally have had an arm injury in the past so that they know what they did wrong, what they did to fix it, what they changed in order to come back from it, and how to implement and sustain the positive changes made.
  1. The results from the rating scale will be used in relation to both of the tests, pre and post. A short video of the athletes pitching motion will be filmed, and provided to the athlete to look and to critique themselves and look at what they have done wrong/right. The administrator will go through step by step with each of the pitching criteria and give the athlete a rating of 1-10 based on the progress made in the 5 main areas listed to change in the pitching motion. If an athlete already does one thing well, a grade of 10 will be automatically placed to show previous knowledge of the action. Other than that, any other improvement that needs to be notified will be done by the grading scale. The scale will show whether or not the athlete will need to improve on the pitching motion, or if they are at a suitable grade that they will probably be avoiding injury.

Grade Scale

Athlete’s name: ______

Grade: ______

Highest Level of Baseball: ______

Administrator’s Name: ______

0 / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10
Weight back on drive leg
No yank/pull of glove
Throw with full body weight behind you
Finding appropriate arm angle
Staying closed throughout motion

-0-2: No to little change in pitching motion

-3-5: Moderate change in pitching motion

-6-8: Definite noticeable change in pitching motion

-9-10: Complete change in pitching motion

*If any one of the categories is still a 5 or below, the athlete must work on improving that specific flaw until they perform in a game like situation to avoid serious injury*

Reference on keeping weight back:

DiMichele, Frank. "PRO MOTION® ARMSAVER."The Pitching Pro. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2016. From: