A term that has grown in popularity lately in the fastpitch softball world is the “kinetic chain.” If you’ve seen any of the many “how-to” posts or videos on Facebook groups, Instagram, Tik Tok, or other social media outlets you’ve no doubt come across the term.
You may have even nodded along as the creators talked about the importance of maintaining the kinetic chain even though you weren’t actually sure what it is. If you’re nodding along with this one you’re in luck because we’re going to define it before we get into the meat of today’s topic. You’re welcome.
Basically, the kinetic chain is an instance where the body’s muscles, joints, and nerves all work together as interconnected links to produce a complex movement. Each link works with the others to transfer energy through the body, creating a multiplying effect that improves the result of the final, intended action, such as swinging a bat or throwing a ball.
The key here is that each link in the chain has to work with the others in the context of the overall movement, and it has to do its job at the right time, i.e., in the proper sequence. If any link in the chain acts independently, or at the wrong time, it reduces instead of enhances the overall outcome.
Ok, I know that was a little complex and abstract, but I think it’s important to establish the science first so this isn’t just one of the many millions of random opinions out there masquerading as fact. Now let’s get to the fun stuff – how it applies practically to fastpitch softball.
The kinetic chain and hitting
The basic kinetic chain for quality hitting involves moving the hips first (using the big muscles in the core, the abdominals, etc.), followed by the shoulders, and finishing with the arms to deliver the bat to the ball.
Yet what you see many young and even some older hitters doing is initiating the swing with their arms and then yanking on the bat for all they’re worth to try to hit the ball hard. That works off the tee, and can even work in games at times if the hitter is reasonably strong.
But when you do that, you’re basically putting the cart before the horse. The arms are supplying the bulk (if not all) of the energy that is going into the ball, essentially choking off any energy the big muscles in the legs and torso are trying to produce.
Rather than moving a lot of energy up through the chain, that arms-based swing is limiting how much of that energy can be used – by a lot. It also reduces the body’s ability to adjust to the pitch as it’s coming in because the arms are creating an early path that gathers momentum as the bat moves forward.
It’s like firing an arrow and then trying to aim the bow. It just doesn’t work.
By keeping the kinetic chain intact the hitter has time to see the ball while she’s generating larger energy than she can with her arms alone, gathering information about where the ball is headed, and is then in a better position to direct that energy when the ball gets to her.
The same limiting factor comes into play when hitters spin their back leg in place (the old “squish the bug” cue) rather than engaging the hips. While it may appear to the naked eye that some high-level hitters do that, if you look at high-speed video you’ll see that they actually turn the hips into the ball then fall back into the “turned” position after contact.
Honestly, I’ve been fooled by that before myself, thinking that a hitter didn’t use her hips enough. But a quick video shows she actually did what she was supposed to – it just happened so quickly it was difficult to see in real time.
The kinetic chain in pitching
There are a lot of similarities between hitting and pitching as far as the kinetic chain goes. You are still doing a ground-up movement, with a firing order that moves from the hips to the shoulders to the arms.
The difference here, though, is that you’re focused on one arm, and that arm has two pieces that need to fire in order to maximize the transfer of energy (and thus ball speed). So the full sequence is hips-shoulders-upper arm-forearm.
Notice I didn’t say anything about the wrist. It does contribute to the overall pitch, but not forcefully as some people still believe.
The wrist is more of a “let it happen” than a “make it happen” contributor on most pitches. The exception, in my opinion, is the curve ball, where it does have to do a little bit of work to put the hand under the ball properly to achieve the correct spin.
After that, though, it’s still more of a “let it happen.”
What trips up many pitchers trying to achieve speed is muscling up at the shoulder, or forearm, or trying to do a hard snap upward with the wrist. Those actions may feel powerful, but not only do they not add anything to the energy transfer to the ball, they actually take away from it.
When you muscle up on any of the downstream segments it chokes off at least a part of the flow of energy. Less energy into the ball = reduced speed.
What you want instead is to allow the joints to move freely in a quick acceleration/deceleration sequence that moves the energy from one segment to another until it reaches the ball. Muscling up slows the individual piece that’s being used down, which means it has less energy to pass along to the next one.
This relaxed flow of energy is especially true for what happens with the arm. Once the hips and shoulders have stabilized (stopped turning forward), the upper arm uses the energy from the body to begin accelerating toward release.
This movement will happen much faster if it’s allowed to happen rather than the pitcher trying to force it to happen by consciously muscling the arm downward. Just accept the energy and direct it downward until the upper arm comes into contact with the ribcage.
If that happens, the sudden stop of the upper arm transfers the energy down into the lower arm, causing the forearm to accelerate suddenly until it reaches brush contact/brush trigger – the light contact of the forearm (not the elbow!) against the hip. This action causes the forearm to decelerate suddenly, delivering all that energy that was created throughout every phase of the pitch and transferring it into the ball through the fingers.
Again, any attempt to force these movements by muscling up will have the opposite effect to what is desired – it will break the kinetic chain and reduce the speed.
You see this reduction a lot with pitchers who are trying to force strikes. They slow their arms down to get the ball over the plate and then can’t figure out why they’re not throwing faster.
Then, of course, they try to muscle up the finish and not only are they throwing slower, they’re now less accurate as well. It’s a vicious circle.
By the way, all of these principles apply to overhead throwing as well, although in a slightly different manner. The concept is the same though – if you want to throw hard, you have to let the chain happen instead of trying to force movements.
Better by design
The human body is an entire system designed for one primary purpose: to keep us safe. Each movement has a particular purpose that was developed to work in concert with other movements to create the optimal whole.
So you can see why breaking the kinetic chain by imposing unnatural movements on it isn’t a great idea. Let the body work the way it’s designed to work and you’ll achieve much better results – with less wasted effort to boot!