Just Because: The Incredible Throwing Motion of Walter Johnson

[DixieBaseball]

Originally Posted by Jobu

I don't think anyone today would get past 7th grade pitching like that before his coach "fixed" his motion.

With his motion and power one would think that Johnson might have been susceptible to arm and shoulder injuries. However, Hank Thomas's excellent book (Walter Johnson: Baseball's Big Train) really only discusses a single serious arm injury in Walter's entire career. And there are many stories of Johnson, well into his retirement, pitching with speed that still wowed current major leaguers. In response to questions of whether he could still pitch he generally said that his arm felt great and was up to it but it was his knees that were not.

If you look at Big Train's delivery at the end of the video, look how he actually stops on his front knee/leg. That is more concerning to me than his limpy, whippy motion. He is fluid and easy with that motion, but his front leg almosts stops his delivery as he puts it in the ground. He doesn't do the classic follow through, bend the back, arm falls over towards the ground, etc. Its as if he uses his front leg as a stopper.... That's weird to me. His throwing motion is beautiful... Love that side action with a snap... Like he is tossing whiffle balls up there.

[D.P.Johnson]

Fantastic. First time I've seen him pitch and I immediately thought, "I couldn't hit a guy that threw like that."

[itjclarke]

Originally Posted by DixieBaseball

If you look at Big Train's delivery at the end of the video, look how he actually stops on his front knee/leg. That is more concerning to me than his limpy, whippy motion. He is fluid and easy with that motion, but his front leg almosts stops his delivery as he puts it in the ground. He doesn't do the classic follow through, bend the back, arm falls over towards the ground, etc. Its as if he uses his front leg as a stopper.... That's weird to me. His throwing motion is beautiful... Love that side action with a snap... Like he is tossing whiffle balls up there.

Yeah, I'd noticed that front leg when seeing another video that was posted a few months back. I think it was from that last angle shown in this video, and at full speed. He plants that leg so hard it looks like it's gonna break... and seems that's what he used to trigger his upper body twist. I gotta think he had ease up on that with age.. I just don't see how knees and hips could do that forever.

Really impressive nonetheless, and I wish there were still as many unique motions, swings, etc as there used to be. Seems a lot quirks have been "Tom Emanski'd" out in recent years.