Today, I wanted to give Craig Kimbrel’s pitching stance a try. You know, that guy from the Orioles? He’s got this weird way of standing before he throws the ball. I’d seen it a bunch of times in videos and pictures, and I thought, “Why not?”
First off, I watched a few videos of Kimbrel pitching. Just studied how he stood there, all hunched over like a bird of prey. It looked kinda funny, to be honest, but I figured there must be something to it if a pro like him does it, right?
So, I grabbed my glove and a baseball and headed out to the backyard. I tried to mimic Kimbrel’s stance, putting my hands on my hips and placing my right foot slightly in front of the left one. It felt super awkward at first, I gotta say. Like, I was gonna fall over or something.
- I practiced just standing there for a bit, trying to get the feel of it.
- Then I started doing some practice throws from that stance.
Man, it was tough! I kept losing my balance, and the ball wasn’t going where I wanted it to. But I stuck with it, throwing the ball against the back wall, over and over again. Slowly but surely, I started to get a little more comfortable. It still felt weird, but I wasn’t stumbling as much.
My Little Experiment
I even tried to measure if my throws were any faster or more accurate from this stance. I don’t have any fancy equipment, so I just counted how many throws hit a certain spot on the wall. From my usual stance, I was hitting it maybe 6 out of 10 times. With the Kimbrel stance, it was more like 4 out of 10. So, yeah, didn’t really improve my game any.
After a while, I called it quits. My arm was starting to ache, and I wasn’t really seeing any benefits. I guess that Kimbrel stance is just something that works for him, but it’s definitely not for me. Or maybe I just need more practice, who knows? Anyway, it was a fun little experiment. Maybe I’ll try some other pitcher’s stance next time. Who should I imitate next?
