=== Acceleration ===

After Paxton sinks way down, and connects his collarbone line with the CF ... he begins his acceleration by driving his butt at the hitter.

We kid you not - check the "Sidd Finch" photo above, and go back and look at Lonnie's videos several times.  Especially the slo-mo at 1:02.  You can't miss it.  The left (front) backside completely takes over, as Paxton transitions from coil into acceleration.

The effect is almost hilarious - it's as though he had a 12-penny nail sticking straight out of his back pocket, and he were trying to kill an attacking dog with it.

All pitchers have to do this to some extent, like all golfers have to move their shoulders back and forth to swing a 1-wood.  But some golfers get power out of that shoulder...

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This is precisely the kind of thing that they wallow in, at the aikido dojo.  It's a beautiful dynamic, beautiful in the sense of "picturesque, charming, delightful, splendid," all that stuff.

Sophomoric humor aside, if possible, an aiki sensei could sit and watch that movement over and over again.  We've never seen a pitcher demonstrate this principle quite so emphatically.

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From an aiki standpoint, we're simply thrilled.  Power begins in the hip area, and Paxton's easy power is derived from the fact that his shoulders and hips are doing the heavy lifting in his sports motion.

Well, his long and talented left arm may get some credit, we'll grant you...

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As you can see in the photo below, Paxton doesn't load his scapulas much, after he starts forward.

Most 95-mph pitchers have a radical "chicken-wing" effect on load -- in fact, this squeezing of the muscles is where most pitchers get their power.

That Paxton does not need to do this, is another manifestation of what a small fraction of the work that his arm is doing throughout his motion.

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