The purpose of this study was to clarify the relationship between ball velocity and the mechanical power of the lower limbs during pitching motion in 30 collegiate baseball pitchers. 3-dimensional positions of 37 reflective markers attached to the subject were tracked by an optical motion capture system (Mac3D System) with 12 cameras. The ground-reaction forces (GRF) of the pivot and stride legs during pitching were determined using 2 multicomponent force plates. Pitching motion was assessed in terms of the joint torques, joint torque powers and work done by each of joint in the lower limbs using a three-dimensional motion system. The joint torques of the hip, knee, and ankle were calculated using inverse-dynamics computation of a musculoskeletal human model (nMotion musculous 1.51). Pitching motion was divided into 2 phases: phase 1 was defined as the time taken from the knee of the stride leg reaching maximal height (MKH, 0%time) to the stride foot making contact with the ground (SFC, 100%time), and phase 2 was defined as the time taken from SFC to the ball being released (REL, 200%time).
These studies revealed that the positive work resulting from hip abduction (r=0.401) and knee extension (r=0.355) of the pivot leg (Phase 1) was positively correlated with ball velocity (p<0.05). The positive work resulting from hip adduction (r=0.359) and knee extension (r=0.409) of the stride leg (Phase 2) was positively correlated with ball velocity (p<0.05). In addition, the pitched ball velocity was positively correlated with pivot hip abduction torque at 74–94%time, pivot hip internal rotation torque at 76–89%time, stride hip adduction torque at 96–114%time, stride hip adduction torque power at 108–114%time, stride knee extension torque at 101–131%time, stride knee extension angular velocities at 158–189%time, and stride knee extension torque power at 156–174%time (p<0.05).
These results indicate that a pitcher with high pitched ball velocity can generate hip abduction and knee extension power of the pivot leg, and that these are increased by hip abduction and hip internal rotation torque when moving the body forward before stride foot contact. In addition, it is suggested that high-ball-velocity pitchers can generate hip abduction and knee extension torque in order to stabilize the body just after stride foot contact, and that these are increased by the knee extension power for increasing trunk rotation and trunk twisting from the first half to the middle of the second phase.
Therefore, the present results indicate that pitchers with a higher ball velocity can generate greater mechanical power of the lower limbs for increasing the energy of trunk rotation and the arm.
