Timmy: Landing Leg
The landing leg drive. Not the drive leg. It needs to land in a certain position, which is driven by your landing foot, and then it needs to drive back into the front hip to complete hip rotation so that you can extend your release out in front of your chest properly. Strength is key. Remember, you can add The Program for a full 18-week MLB team’s off-season workout!
Landing Leg Mechanics
#1: Stay Relaxed Until Weight Pushes Into Ground.
You want your hips to trigger rotation from the drive leg, and you want your landing leg to stay quiet for as long as possible. Otherwise, you run the risk of your front leg swinging open which triggers early hip rotation from the weaker front side. It may be helpful to extend this front leg in order to stay in the glute.
#2: Brace. Extend, if You Can. Front Leg Drive.
Once your body weight gets firmly planted into the ground on your front side, then it’s time to brace with all your might. This front leg drives energy back into the body to fully rotate the hips and send energy up into the torso, shoulders, arm and eventually the hand. And bracing the front side is the only way to effectively get extension to stay behind the knuckleball for as long as possible.
#3: Rotate Around One Point In Space.
Your front leg is now blocked, and, if you’re extremely athletic and strong, then your front leg is extended. Your back leg should have let go of the ground so that the back hip is now thrown around the front hip to rotate around one point in space — the front hip. But you’ll get stuck accelerating the ball behind your body and throwing uphill if your back foot stays rooted to the ground. That effectively forces your body to rotate around two points in space — both the back and front hips — which leads to pushy arm action and a knuckleball that suffers.
#4: Extend. At Least A Little Bit.
You need to extend out in front of the body with your throw arm to release a good knuckleball. In fact, you’ll benefit from keep your hand tracking straight behind the ball for as long as possible (just look up an image of Hall of Famer Phil Niekro’s extension). Extension can only be done with a proper front leg drive, so get strong to be able stop your upper body with your front leg to extend as fas as possible to the plate.