04/23/2026
Building a Hypothesis: The Linear Move Before Rotation🧵
When you’re breaking down lower body mechanical patterns, specifically through the linear move, the central question you need to answer is this: Is the linear momentum created from the initial move (or “drift”) actually being captured and converted into rotational force?
Let’s work through how to evaluate the linear move, read the contextual clues the athlete is giving you, and build a structured problem-solving process for mechanical adjustments inside a developmental framework.
Where to Start: The Pelvis and Its Role in the Linear Move
Your assessment should start at the most proximal point to the body’s midline -> the pelvis as the lead leg comes down from peak leg lift.
How the center of mass transfers toward home plate is what determines whether linear momentum is actually captured during the linear move, which feeds into the ongoing debate around “more drift = better”.
The orientation of the pelvis at peak leg lift is where it all begins whether the pelvis is posteriorly tilted and counterrotated or sitting neutral, that position sets the ceiling for how much linear momentum you can capture.
Structural physiology inherently is what builds the foundation and defines the constraints the athlete is working within.
Understanding “Sticking Points”
Here’s the next question worth asking: Does the pelvis stay “put” through the linear move, or is it gradually rotating as the athlete moves down the mound?
When the pelvis settles, you’ll typically see hip flexion, knee flexion, and dorsiflexion settle right along with it, that’s what I’d call a “sticking point”.
These sticking points inherently trace directly back to the pelvis, on the other hand, when the pelvis anchors as a fixed reference point in that stationary position, the femur has the freedom to rotate on its own, either internally or externally.
As an example, if the pelvis is sitting neutral during the linear move, the back leg femur can internally rotate before any pelvic rotation kicks in.
Check out the full thread through the link in my bio on X!
