The Pitching Report breaks a single delivery down into checkpoints and key metrics. This article explains what appears on each page of the report and how to read it.
What You Receive After Processing
A processed pitching assessment produces three outputs:
PDF Summary Report — the multi-page report described here.
Overlay Video (.mp4) — your pitching video with full-body tracking, a colour-coded performance timeline, and summary data overlaid on the footage.
Data Summary File (.json) — for API users, containing input and processing data, subject information, video parameters, and the analysis summary.
How to Read the Colour Bands
Most metrics in the report appear on a colour-coded scale:
Green — great performance
Yellow — moderate performance
Red — an area for improvement
Each metric displays its name, the athlete's value, and the minimum and maximum of the range at either end of the bar (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Example metric with colour-ranges indicating performance. The metric name is on the top left, metric value prominently on the top right, and the min/max ranges are on either end of the bar. The black line and arrow indicate that athlete's performance on that metric.
Where the bands come from: they are generated from our database of pitchers at every level, from amateur to professional. A band is a population reference, not a true pass or fail. Therefore, an athlete can sit outside the green band and still be effective, and a green band on one metric does not make a delivery sound overall.
Page 1: Pitching Mechanics Overview
The first page gives a high-level mechanics and performance summary built around four checkpoints in the delivery. A screenshot from your video is displayed at each one, so you can see whole-body posture at that instant.
Checkpoint | Definition |
Peak Leg Kick (PK) | Peak knee height during the leg kick. |
Foot Plant (FP) | Lead foot contact with the ground at the end of the stride. |
Maximum External Rotation (MER) | Maximal external rotation of the throwing arm, also called "layback". |
Ball Release (BR) | The moment the ball leaves the throwing hand. |
Metrics at Each Checkpoint
Three metrics are scored at each of the three measured checkpoints:
Checkpoint | Metric | What it Measures |
Foot Plant | Elbow flexion angle | The angle at the elbow joint as the stride foot lands. |
Foot Plant | Shoulder abduction angle | The elevation angle between the upper arm and the trunk. |
Foot Plant | Hip-shoulder separation angle | How open the trunk is relative to the pelvis. |
MER | Shoulder external rotation angle | Peak layback of the throwing shoulder. |
MER | Stride length | Stride distance, normalised as a percentage of athlete height. |
MER | Horizontal abduction | How far forward or backward the upper arm sits relative to the trunk. |
Ball Release | Hand speed | Speed of the hand at release. |
Ball Release | Knee flexion angle | Bend of the lead knee at release. |
Ball Release | Knee extension velocity | How quickly power is being absorbed from the lower limb. |
Page 2: Sequencing and Key Metrics
Kinematic Sequencing
Kinematic sequencing is the order and relative timing of key events through the delivery, and it is the clearest single indicator of how well power transfers through the body. Strong pitchers transfer power from the ground up: energy moves through the pelvis, into the torso, then through the shoulder and arm to release the ball. Four events are ranked:
Peak pelvis rotational velocity
Peak torso rotational velocity
Peak elbow extension velocity
Peak shoulder internal rotation velocity
The report presents this three ways:
A sequencing plot with time-varying data for pelvis, torso, elbow and shoulder.
Sequence indicators ranking each segment by the order in which it peaked.
A Sequencing score out of 100, where higher values mean better transfer of power through the whole motion.
Why it Matters
Two pitchers can hit identical velocity numbers with very different efficiency. Sequencing is where that difference shows up, and where it points to something coachable.
Key Metrics
Metric | Unit | What it Means |
Performance Score | /100 | Overall performance score for the delivery. |
Hand Speed | mph | Peak hand speed at ball release. |
Ball Path | % height | Total length of the path travelled by the ball through the motion. |
Stride Length | % height | Distance between the feet at foot plant. |
Shoulder Rotation | deg | Peak shoulder external rotation angle. |
Trunk Flexion | deg/s | Peak trunk flexion velocity approaching ball release. |
Hip-Shoulder Separation | deg/s | Peak hip-shoulder separation velocity approaching release — how fast the pitcher closes the gap between pelvis and trunk. |
Page 3: Joint Angles
The third page shows how joint angles change continuously across the delivery. Body segments and rotation sequences follow International Society of Biomechanics (ISB) standards for a full-body model. Time-varying plots are grouped into two sets:
Throwing Arm — elbow extension, shoulder horizontal abduction, shoulder abduction, shoulder external rotation.
Trunk and Legs — trunk flexion, trunk rotation, lead knee flexion, pelvis rotation, hip-shoulder separation.
Why it Matters
Checkpoint metrics tell you what a joint was doing at one moment in time. These plots tell you what happened between the checkpoints — whether the elbow drops between foot plant and MER, for example.
Page 4: Joint Velocities
The fourth page shows the angular velocity of each of those same joint angles across the delivery, grouped the same way into Throwing Arm and Trunk and Legs.
Where the angle plots show position, these show how fast each joint is moving, which is what underlies the sequencing analysis on page 2.
Further Education
For a deeper dive into pitching biomechanics, take our Introduction to Pitching Biomechanics course on our ProPlayAI website. Developed by our Product and Innovation team, learn about the basics of biomechanics as it applies to pitching, and how to better understand mechanical data. All course finishers will receive a certificate of completion.
Need Help?
If you have any further questions, our support team is happy to assist.
Contact Support: support@3motionai.com