KOUFAX WAS THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME

Mike Ryan - great Koufax breakdown. Love watching his footage. He seemed to know how to exploit his own body type for his profession by the 60s. Great leg strength. Long arms, wrists, and fingers apparently. I was fascinated by how low he held the ball to the ground in his left hand at the end of his wind up. Like any great pitcher, he hid the ball from batters until the last possible moment in his own unique way. Great video, man.

a thing of beauty

Just the best.....enough said.

Best comparison of Koufax's motion is to the medieval trebuchet -- essentially a two-part lever. The hips generate the initial thrust, and the leg push-off finishes the job of pulling the arm and upper body through with incredible momentum. Just look at still photos of him in action and see all that coiled power as he's about to push off the rubber. For that one amazing six-year stretch (1961-66), he was the greatest I ever saw.

Cub fan since the late 50s ... Former pitcher Tom House was credited for developing Mark Prior - he said he had perfect mechanics ... until Prior blew his arm out.

Mike Ryan, thank you so much for pointing out how flawed today's pitching instruction can be. You know, Ryan, today's instructors would hate the delivery of all the following: 1. Bob Gibson 2. Juan Marichal 3. Jim Bunning 4. Luis Tiant 5. Don Drysdale 6. Walter Johnson I suppose today's instructors wouldn't want any of those guys on their staffs. I've been saying for a long time that today's pitching deliveries all look alike - the coaches have standardized them. Thank you for pointing this out, Ryan.

Koufax generated rotational momentum in the trunk of his body. Add that to his long fingers which spun the ball strongly.

outstanding! palm beach-pitching

I am a right handed pitcher and Sandy was my idol so I imitated his windup. I had success in high school, average fastball, good curve. No success in college, I just didn't throw hard enough and I lost my confidence. I never studied pitching mechanics enough , nor did I understand why some guys could throw hard and some can't. I wish I had it to do all over again

Bow and Arrow effect equals the best ever.

How can anyone compare today 5 inning picther to the greats of the past who were expected to go 9. And you are right it's a fact that there are more arm injuries. All coaches seem to care about is how hard a man can throw. Velosity alone doesn't make a picher Randy Jone had a 75 mph fast ball, and won the 76 cy pitching for the last place Padres. Real men go nine!

MAYBE His Form Was "Unorthodox" But He Looked So Masterful When He Pitched!!!

I'm flabbergasted that somebody could think Koufax isn't doing it right. He absolutely dominated the mid 1960s pitching over 2,300 innings and could've probably pitched another 2,000 if they'd had Tommy John surgery back then. He'd have probably developed a change up to make up for the likely dip in velocity and put up monster numbers well into the 70s.

Koufax's arm slot was pretty overhand. I would think the shoulder tilt would work with that delivery, since his arm followed his lead shoulder over the top and down like a windmill. Someone like Drysdale, Whitey Ford or Randy Johnson, with 3/4 arm slots would be more level, no?

Does anyone doubt that there was a flaw in his mechanics that put undue stress on his arm? When I watch the video, I can see his arm being pulled down very aggressively during his follow through in a manner that cannot be a good thing for his arm, though I admit I am not exactly sure what he's doing wrong. I could be wrong, but his wrist does not seem to pronate much if at all after he releases the ball and I don't think his left shoulder internally rotates enough during his follow through.

If you pitch with momentum and use your legs, then your arm is just along for the ride. Today’s pitchers throw all arm, and don’t use their momentum and lower body.

Koufax mentioned in his book that the reason he puts his foot like that is basically so he can get a better push of the rubber which makes since. He said if you were to push a 100 lb metal plate (like the plate on barbells) back with your foot you wouldnt want to do it with the side of your foot but with the ball of your foot because you have more force. Pitchers today push with the side of their foot.

I love seeing video of Sandy Koufax. All the so called experts of today and those travel team coaches need to go back in time and see how its suppose to be done. Go look at video of Warren Spahn, Bob Feller and even Wilbur Wood. Ask yourself one question: How is it that in the past most major league teams had a 4 man rotation and they pitched a lot of compete games? If you want to go back even further: Ask how is it that CY YOUNG pitched over 1000 games in his career. Travel team coached need to back off and let boys throw rocks and play without coaches and play Sand Lot games !!!

I don't think a old school team will compare to a team in the modern era

To answer your question it's ego.I'm 51 yrs old and I still pitch , in a adult league, and every now and than Ill have one of these 26 - 35 yrs old coaches tell me than everything I'm doing is wrong. I was told by one coach not to extend my lead arm when picthing because it was wrong. I told him that's the way Catfish Hunter and Steve Carlton did it and they are both in the HOF , and of course he never heard of eighter one of them.

He threw too overhand, and as a result his left hand was not able to rotate enough, and this place tremendous stress on his left elbow.

they are trying to save pitchers with all of the pitch and innings counts - but since they make 10-20 million a year, who cares if their career is cut short? Maybe a lot of pitchers would rather have a career like Koufax who was in the world series 3 of his last 4 years and won about 25 games a year and then retire on top. Of course they would only make about 100 million in their lifetime doing this and not 250 million.But 3 world series rings and a bust in the HOF might soften the blow.

Were Sandy's mechanics responsible for his early demise out of MLB?? Seems difficult on every joint in the body.

todays pitchers throw fewer innings, fewer pitches, fewer games and have more injuries. The greatest era of pitching was from about 1962 to 1968. Every pitchers mechanics from that era was similar to Koufax's and would be considered unorthodox by todays standards. Yet the modern teachers insist on teaching todays "Wrong" mechanics as opposed to the fluid mechanics of the greatest pitchers from the greatest era of pitching. Why is that?

More force than the human body could withstand. That's why Koufax had to quit at 31.

Let's be realistic here Sandy Koufax did not have a winning season till his seventh Major League season it took him seven major league Seasons to have an actual winning season so why you're making him out to be such a great picture it took him nine Major League seasons for him to have a 20-game season he had only 320 game plus when seasons and all three scenes in the LA Dodgers won the pennant so the only reason why he had those big seasons is because his team went to the World Series Tom Seaver his first season he had a winning season his third Major League season he won over 20 games and except for 1969 when they won the World Series Tom Seavers pitch from mediocre New York Met teams so stop with this nonsense how great Sandy Koufax was look at Steve Carlton he won 27 games with a team that came in dead last now that's impressive Sandy Koufax was not impressive