Hey Flow Masters,

Have you ever heard a hitting or pitching coach say “You have to stay connected”, “Stay square”, “Your front shoulder is flying open”?

What needs to stay connected, what has to stay square, and why is the front shoulder flying open?

At Baseball Flows, we’ve discovered a surprising theme: poor movement skills and athleticism are often at the root of many performance issues. It’s not just about having big, overdeveloped quads, hamstrings, or biceps—the real problem lies deeper, in the deep core and pelvic girdle.

Let’s Dive In!!

Why not just focus on overloading the back hip?

Because clean baseball swings and throws have little to no wasted motion. For years, coaches have used phrases like “turn in a phone booth” and “swing between your feet” to teach the importance of loading the deep core and pelvic girdle. Overloading the back hip throws the body off balance, resulting in poor movement efficiency and a longer time to unload.

Great hitters and throwers maintain balance by keeping their weight centered, which allows them to load and explode from the deep core and pelvic girdle, not just the hips. When players try to load the hips instead, they tend to get stuck on their backside or crash into their front side, throwing their center of gravity off balance. The solution? Train to load the middle of your body—your deep core and pelvic girdle—so you stay balanced and athletic.

Why the Deep Core Matters

Think of your deep core as the foundation of a house. If the foundation is unstable, the entire structure is compromised. When the deep core and pelvic girdle aren’t strong and stable, your arms, legs, and joints—everything outside your core—can’t move efficiently.

At Baseball Flows, we emphasize strengthening the deep core and pelvic region because they "escort" your arms and legs, allowing for fluid, efficient movement. Tightness in areas like your hamstrings, pecs, and lats is often a result of deep core weakness. When the core doesn’t stabilize properly, these muscles overcompensate and become tight, limiting mobility.

Proximal to Distal Sequencing: How the Body Works in Baseball

In baseball, whether you’re swinging, throwing, or running, efficient movement always starts from the center (proximal) and works its way outward (distal). When your core and pelvis are stable, energy transfers smoothly to your arms and legs, allowing for powerful, fluid motion.

It’s like cracking a whip—the handle (your core) moves first, creating a chain reaction that ends with a powerful snap at the tip (your arms or bat). If the handle is weak, the whip can’t generate the same force. Similarly, if your deep core isn’t strong and stable, your swing or throw will lack power and efficiency.

Stabilize to Mobilize

“Stabilize to Mobilize” means that core stability unlocks freedom of movement in the rest of the body. Without a stable deep core, your body compensates by stiffening other muscles, like your hamstrings or hips, to protect itself from injury. But once your core is stable, those tight muscles can relax, allowing you to move more freely.

The Pelvic Girdle: Your Athletic Powerhouse

Your pelvis is the engine that drives athletic movement. When it’s stable and aligned, your body works efficiently, like a finely tuned machine. But if the pelvic girdle is unstable, it leads to energy leaks, inefficiencies, and increased risk of injury.

Think of it like riding a bike with a wobbly seat—no matter how strong your legs are, you won’t be able to pedal effectively. A stable pelvic girdle allows for optimal energy transfer, giving you the foundation for powerful movements.

Unleashing Distal Athleticism through Proximal Stiffness

Controlled stiffness in the deep core unleashes athleticism in your arms and legs. It’s like pulling back on a bowstring—the tension (stiffness) creates energy that’s released in a powerful shot when the string is released.

In baseball, stabilizing your deep core allows you to store energy and transfer it efficiently to your bat or arm, giving you more power and speed.

Enter the Fascial Corset: Imagine your body has a built-in support system, like an elastic web holding everything together and helping you move more efficiently. That’s your fascia—a network of connective tissue running throughout your body. But it doesn’t just sit there; it’s like a series of rubber bands, or what we call "fascial slings," that stretch and snap back to transfer energy from one part of your body to another, especially when you’re throwing or swinging.

Now, here’s where it gets interesting: all these slings need a strong anchor in the middle—kind of like how a tent needs its center poles stable to stay up. This is where your deep core, pelvic girdle and more specifically, your "fascial corset" comes in. It’s not just about your abs working on their own; it’s a system of muscles and fascia working together to create stability around your whole midsection.

From my experience on the field and working with athletes in the clinic, I’ve seen how important this is. The core, hips, and fascia aren’t just there to look good or move in isolation—they’re key to how well you can move, and more importantly, how well you can flow. If you’re having trouble getting power from your hips or transferring energy to your arm when you throw and swing, chances are it’s not just a strength issue—it could be that your fascial system isn’t working properly.

By training natural movement patterns, you can actually strengthen this corset effect around your deep core and pelvic girdle. This helps you stabilize better, react faster, and move more smoothly, because the deep core and pelvis lead the movement while the arms follow. Think of it like a team—your body moves as a unit, with everything working together.

Athletes who have a solid deep core and pelvic girdle tend to move more fluidly and stay healthier because they’re not fighting against their own body mechanics. It’s not just about strengthening the muscles but also training the fascia to stay responsive. In short, optimizing your fascia can take your athleticism to the next level.

Swinging and Throwing: Controlling Your Center of Mass

Athleticism is about controlling your center of mass, staying within the width of your pelvis, and maintaining balance while making explosive movements. Loading the pelvic girdle and deep core while moving forward with minimal wasted motion is key to unlocking athletic potential.

At the end of the day, it’s all about conditioning your body to move efficiently and retraining your brain to operate with natural flow and athleticism.

Coache’s Verbal Cues Explained

When a coach tells a player, "Get into your legs," the ideal response should be engaging the deep core and pelvic girdle, not just sinking into a "quad-dominant" squat. We often see players default to squatting, which doesn't effectively load the pelvis and limits rotational athleticism. In some cases, they lose their hip hinge early, straightening out too soon, which affects balance and movement efficiency.

Similarly, when coaches say, "You have to hinge better," they’re referring to a key movement pattern that helps athletes load the deep core and pelvic girdle. A proper hip hinge acts as an anchor, creating a stable axis for rotation. It's more than just bending at the hips—it’s about maintaining fluidity and balance throughout the movement.

Another common cue is, "You need to load better." So what exactly needs to be loaded? From our experience, the gluteus medius (part of the posterior chain) plays a crucial role in the initial load. This muscle helps keep the pelvis aligned as the player enters the hitting zone. Eventually, the focus shifts to loading the pelvic girdle and deep core, which powers efficient and explosive movements.

So how do you train the deep core and pelvic girdle? Through movement practice that focuses on natural, flowing patterns designed to enhance core engagement and pelvic stability. This approach builds the foundation for optimal movement and athletic performance.

Unlock Your Potential with Baseball Flows

Our Baseball Flows system is built around the principles of core stability, proximal to distal sequencing, and efficient energy transfer. By focusing on the deep core and pelvic girdle, we create the foundation for powerful, fluid movements.

Our exercises are designed in a manner where the players challenge thru ground flow movements to self-organize into optimal pelvic girdle and deep core loading global patterns. We utilize the ground and the players body position as a constraint to force the player to use their hips, deep core and pelvic girdle to transition thru rotational (body turning) global patterns. (click on google link to view one of our videos on our Baseball Flows training app)

If you want to improve your swing, throw, or overall athleticism, it all starts with stabilizing the core. Once you’ve built that foundation, you’ll unlock the full potential of your body—moving stronger, faster, and more efficiently.

Check out these two instructional Flow videos from our Baseball Flows app to dive deeper into training your movement system. Learn how to load your deep core and pelvic girdle while maintaining control of your global movement flow and center of mass.

You’ve just read "The Pelvis and Deep Core Escort the Arms! (Part One)." We’d love to hear your thoughts! Reply with any questions or suggestions to help further this important discussion on movement and athletic performance. Reader engagement enriches our learning. We all learn together.

Want to take a deep dive into our training methods? (Click on the link)

Ready to unlock your athletic potential? Start stabilizing to mobilize with Baseball Flows today!

Visit www.baseballflows.com to learn more about our programs and how we can help you unleash your best performance on the field.

Stay stable, stay flowing!

Want to experience our Baseball Flows app?

For a limited time, get 20% off our annual subscription and receive our “Flows to Throw” athletic throwing program for free!

Coaches! welcome to our Level 1 Certification, where you'll witness the extraordinary influence of Global Pattern Screening firsthand. Together, we will unlock the true potential of baseball and softball players, revolutionizing player development through the art of movement system training.

Baseball Flows (Level 1 Certification): Global Patterns Screening (GPS)

Share your experiences and insights with your friends! If you enjoy our newsletter and feel that a coach, parent, or player will benefit from reading our content, hit the “forward” button and toss it over to them. Let's learn from each other and embrace the power of Baseball Flows together!

Let's train smarter, move better, and flow in the game.

I want to take a moment to say a genuine thank you. I truly appreciate all the support and involvement you’ve given to Baseball Flows and me personally.

For those who don’t know my story, you can check it out on my podcast with Patrick Jones (link below). I went from being a high school dropout to playing pro ball with the Dodgers, earning a doctorate, and founding Baseball Flows. I'm incredibly grateful that you’ve chosen to invest your time and resources into learning and growing alongside me..

Best Regards,

Dr. Ismael Gallo DPT, MBA

Founder, Baseball Flows

Want to know more about Baseball Flows? _{click here}