MMV #027: 3 Reasons Your Arm is Late

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Read time: 3 minutes

An on time arm is important for health and delivery efficiency.

Before we dive into potential causes, let's first talk about what it means to be on time.

An on time arm means the throwing shoulder is externally rotated between 45-90 degrees when the front foot is fully in the ground.

A simple way to visualize this:

Palm facing towards the ground = 0 degrees

Palm facing straight ahead = 90 degrees

Now that we understand what being on time means, let's talk through 3 potential causes for a late arm.

1. Arm path length

The length of your arm path by itself isn’t good or bad.

What matters is that the lower and upper half are in sync.

You can have a long arm path and be on time.

You can have a short arm action and be early, which isn’t good either.

When looking at video ask yourself these 2 questions:

• Where is the arm at foot plant?
• Is the arm flowing smoothly through the delivery?

If the answer is yes, you likely don't need to change it.

2. Poor pelvis rotation

Often times the arm will flip up into position as the pelvis rotates.

So, if the pelvis is late to rotate, the arm will likely be late as well.

Improving your load and pelvis rotation will often improve arm timing.

This is why improving your back leg is one of the first things to focus on.

It will likely have a downstream effect on the rest of the delivery.

3. Closing the front side

Closing the front side is when the upper body gets out front too early and the shoulders are tilted down.

 When this happens, the elbow will often climb and cause the arm to get “stuck”, AKA be late.

Try this:

• Match upper and lower half rhythm
• Focus on improving load and pelvis rotation
• A supinated (thumb up) takeaway can help arm path timing

RECAP

3 common causes for a late arm:

1. Arm path length
2. Poor pelvis rotation
3. Closing the front side

That's all for this week.

See you next Monday!

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