Lonnie's James Paxton Video - ThruStroke and Decel

=== Throughstroke ===

At release, Paxton is completely over the top of the baseball with an overhand motion:


Usually, "overhand" refers to the elbow being bent at release (so the hand and the ball are higher off the ground than the elbow is).

With both Tim Lincecum and James Paxton, "overhand" refers to a (very desirable) tilt of the shoulderline.

One scout reported Paxton to be "throwing bricks up there," hard fastballs with late sink that "clonked" when contact was made.  The ML prototype for this was Mark Mulder, another "physical" lefty pitcher who threw a heavy fastball and got plenty of ground balls (to go with the strikeouts).

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One difference, though, favors Paxton:  while his shoulders are tilted, his head is not.  

Since Paxton's head does not tilt sideways during the motion, his eyes don't get a rotating image of home plate.  This "steady head" principle is axiomatic in basketball and in golf.

The quietness of the head can be emphasized with one more image:


You can go through Lonnie's videos a few more times and see for yourself that Paxton has virtually a dart-thrower's quietness in the head and eyes.

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=== Deceleration ===

Paxton does not land as far forward as Lincecum, one reason that he doesn't have the same power-to-weight ratio.

However, Paxton still lands so far forward that by the time his weight glides over his bent front knee, his force has dissipated smoothly and gently.

The arm clears with no banging against his chest, and his back is bent over in the classic "nose-to-leather" finish.   In fact Paxton often leaves his left arm dangling comfortably, swinging back in forth like a tire swing on a tree.

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