Overview

Overview

Kinetics and kinematics are two fundamental branches of biomechanics used to analyse human movement. Kinematics focuses on the motion of bodies without considering the forces that cause the motion. It includes variables such as displacement, velocity, acceleration, and joint angles, providing a detailed description of how an object or body moves through space and time (Hall, 2012).  Kinematic analysis is commonly used to assess technique and movement patterns in sports and rehabilitation. In comparison to kinetics, which examines the forces responsible for movement. This includes internal forces, such as muscle contractions, and external forces, such as gravity, friction, and ground reaction forces. Kinetic analysis is essential for understanding how forces influence performance and contribute to injury risk. Together, these concepts help evaluate efficiency, improve performance, and reduce the likelihood of injury through targeted interventions and technique adjustments.

A baseball pitch is a skill that requires many different types of biomechanics to execute the pitch. The pitch motion is split up into six phases with those phases being wind up, stride, arm cocking, arm acceleration, arm deceleration and follow through.

(Erickson, 2016)

As shown in the image above, it can be seen how kinetics and kinematics are used in a baseball pitch. Kinematics shows how the body moves, such as arm speed and angle. Kinetics looks at the body movements like muscle effort, this can be shown clearer with a real life example by the muscles in the forearms may pop out more in a higher perceived effort throw. As the pitcher moves through the phases, there is use of rotational velocity by how the hips and torso rotate and how fast they rotate can vary the power of the pitch. Whole body mechanics can be shown when the pitcher is side on and transfers energy from the legs up into the body and arms from the wind up. These motions help generate a faster ball release speed and with optimal technique lead to a more accurate throw.

Rotational velocity, also known as angular velocity, is the rate of which something rotates around an axis, normally measured in degrees per second or radians per second. It helps describe how quickly a body part (in baseball pitching it would be the arm) turns during motion. This is important for baseball pitching as angular velocity can directly impact the quality of a pitch. As angular velocity directly influences how quickly and efficiently energy is transferred through the body to the throwing arm. High angular velocity of the hips, torso and shoulder during the pitching motion allows pitchers to generate greater force and ball speed (Aguinaldo, 2019). The faster the body parts rotate, during the cocking and acceleration phases the more power can be delivered to the ball.

Whole body mechanics refers to how different parts of the body work together in a coordinated way to produce efficient movement. In sports and physical activity, it means using the legs, hips, core, arms, and other body parts in the correct order and timing which is also known as the kinetic chain. This helps to create power, speed, and control while reducing stress on any single joint or muscle.

For example, in baseball pitching, good whole body mechanics involve pushing off with the legs, rotating the hips and torso and then transferring that energy into the throwing arm. This full body coordination helps the pitcher throw faster and more accurately while lowering the risk of injury.

Other examples of whole body mechanics in sport include swimming strokes, serving in tennis or sprinting. As these actions require coordination of multiple body parts to effectively produce force and movement for their respected sporting actions.

In this blog report ball release speed is measured in km/h. Ball release speed is measured by how fast the ball is released from the participants arm. Ball release speed is heavily determined by other biomechanics factors like whole body mechanics such as coordination of body parts like legs, hips, torso and arms. Kinetics and Kinematics are also very important for ball release speed as a transfer of energy is needed from the lower half of the body up through the body during the phases of a pitch. Hence why baseball pitchers have such an exaggerated pitching technique. Another factor of ball release speed is the arm length of the individual. In 2025 the average height of an MLB pitcher was 6 feet 2.5 inches or 189.24cm (Mazzone, 2023). This suggest that the taller someone is and the longer their arm is, the faster their ball release speed will be. This relates back to angular velocity and how an object rotates around an axis.

In this blog report, there will be a variation of techniques shown and an analysis of these techniques will show determine to see if optimal technique produce a greater ball release speed and accuracy which is crucial in a baseball pitch. Throwing technique plays a crucial role in determining the speed, accuracy, and overall effectiveness of a throw, particularly in sports like baseball, javelin, and cricket. Proper technique allows an athlete to efficiently transfer energy from the ground up through the kinetic chain from the legs, hips and torso to the shoulder, arm and finally the hand. This is known as segmental coordination, which maximizes force production and minimizes injury risk. Key technical elements include body alignment, timing of joint rotations, stride length, and follow through. A beginner’s technique may include a starting position of front on compared to a professional technique which starts side on, other comparisons in technique may be the wind up, cocking, arm acceleration and deceleration and follow through like mentioned previously. This blog reports aim is to see whether or not optimal throwing techniques can affect the ball release speed of a pitch and to analyse biomechanics factors.