Shohei 'Showtime' Ohtani | Mechanical Breakdown

Shohei Ohtani has undergone a long path (and plenty of hype) to get to this point in 2021, but he finally appears to be delivering on this hype. What sets his mechanics apart, and what can we learn from this Unicorn talent?
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Chapters:
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0:00 Shohei “Showtime” Ohtani
0:40 Quick Facts
1:04 Career Timeline
3:18 Injury History
6:29 Ohtani’s Arsenal
7:10 Fastball Breakdown
10:37 Splitter Breakdown
11:47 Arsenal Summary
13:07 Tempo
16:43 Similarities to the Swing
26:08 How does he throw 100 mph?
31:47 85 mph to 101??
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[rsuriyop]

Awesome breakdown, this is about as technical as it gets. You sound just like an actual pitching coach.

[vjcarter]

I love it that you included swing mechanics ❤❤

[myl]

I think one of the reasons for his fluctuation in velo lies in him DHing everyday, he's mentioned a few times when he had a noticeable velo drop that his body felt sluggish and tired, I think if he had the routine of a regular starter he can have more consistency with his intensity.

[yudaessi]

Thank you for your interesting mechanical review.

[BryanChance]

Oh I've been waiting for this video. Really nice job. Thank you.
I would love to your comment on how pitching and hitting in the same game and playing both roles affect his pitching and hitting mechanics. Would his pitching and hitting mechanics be different if he only play a single role? I hope this makes sense. I don't know the lingo. -:)

[anthonybrace]

a thought on your comment about his FB vs SPL usage : you made a point that his metrics on the SPL aren't anything to write home about, but his results are significantly better compared to the FB and that's why he should throw it more often. perhaps his results are so much better with the SPL because of how/when he uses it and goes off his fastball as opposed to the pitch itself ?

[djbolo]

If you were to work with ohtani, would you work on trying to achieve a wider range of motion and keeping him consistently in the upper 90s range on his fastball and if you were able to achieve that would he be more susceptible to injury when he threw his splitter. Great video btw

[OKHSFB_Gameday]

I would have to argue that part of his splitter success is because of his fastball percentage

[ussbridgefour]

Why didn't you talk about his slider? I'm just always curious about since it's a higher spin efficiency slider that gets a lot of movement and I don't know why?

[mrtravis]

hi, I have noticed one thing this year in his mechanics compared to last year or even before his surgery, that he tends to loosen his left side and left arm after the delivery. Before 2021, he tucked his glove all the way from acceleration to follow through phase. But now, he kinda just left his left arm hang after the throw. What's your opinion on that? Is that intentional or just natural from adjustment he made? Thanks for the video, great analysis!!

[benjaminpriest]

Notice how his trail leg gets a lot of hip flexion in his follow through? That’s a big part of his injuries. Dr. Josh Heenan has talked about this a lot but it’s been prevalent in pitchers who deal with lots of injuries. Kluber has a very similar thing.

[mikeliang]

Question: After glove-hand separation, you should sit in your drive leg and drive. What's the timing of you to cave in the back leg and create shoulder-hip separation. Should we let the drive leg extend to is maxium length and cave in or we should cave the leg in in the very begining when you sit and caving in the leg as you drive forward?

[sacroon]

Would u say he is IR or ER dominant when pitching?

[michaeldonodeo]

I think the concept of the fluctuations of velocity being a result of active effort, whereas a pitcher with elite range of motion can be more consistent. Do you think this played into Kumar Rocker's velocity fluctuations his final season at Vanderbilt? I saw someone mention that Rocker's pelvis was flying open a little early, and the rotation on his shoulder being limited also meant that he wasn't getting as much out of his arm as he could. Is this the same concept as Ohtani, maybe just on a less athletic body? And if so, how fixable do you think it is? Thanks!

[au]

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[joeyartk]

So from your analysis, I would say Ohtani is probably closer to Tanaka in ability than Darvish. Would you agree?