GLENDALE, Ariz. >> When players pour into spring training clubhouses across Arizona and Florida, it really is baseball’s version of the First Day of School. They talk about what they did over their winter break, where they went, who they saw.

If Dodgers pitcher Alex Wood is being honest with his teammates, here’s what he’ll tell them: For at least three days a week for about four weeks, he stood on a mound without a baseball. His buddy Will would hold up a camera (maybe someone else if Will wasn’t around), while Wood pretended to warm up for a game. He’d start off from a stretch position, then a full windup, and throw about 25 or 30 times — no ball, no catcher, just him on a mound with a camera.

Then after each session Wood would send the film to two people. One was Mike Dillon, a physical therapist and biomechanics expert at the Athens (Georgia) Orthopedic Clinic. The other was Troy Jones, another physical therapist and biomechanics expert at the Peachtree Orthopedic Clinic, also in Georgia.

Once, Wood sent his film to Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt.

“I just said I like where your mind’s at, what you’re doing. Stay with it,” Honeycutt said.

Honeycutt had no idea the video, or the change, was coming.

Wood took the feedback from Honeycutt, Jones and Dillon and tried to incorporate it into his next film session. After about a month’s worth of pantomimes, the left-hander was ready to pick up a baseball again and throw to a catcher.

The result is what the Dodgers saw when Wood threw his first bullpen session this week in spring training.

“My arm’s way higher. I’m behind the ball. Taller, stronger on my front side. A lot of major differences for sure,” Wood said.

To the untrained eye, it’s just cleaner. Wood still gets the most out of his lanky 6-foot-4 frame, with a pronounced distance between his left arm and his right (front) foot at full extension. But it’s less herky-jerky, more fluid from start to finish.

Wood described his mechanical problems as a gradual decline that started sometime late in 2014 or early 2015.

The work he did over the winter “is just a good change back to where he was pre-whatever,” Honeycutt said. “It’s funny how in this game, we move and don’t really know it at the time. We compete, but sometimes we don’t know we’ve went as far as we’ve gone.”

Wood’s wonky windup only begins to explain his erratic results as a Dodger last season: A 4.35 ERA (4.10 FIP) in 12 starts, along with a lower strikeout-to-walk ratio than he posted in 2013 and 2014 with the Atlanta Braves.

The problem was compounded by a bone bruise in Wood’s right foot, the one he lands on every time he pitches. He said it developed shortly before the Dodgers acquired him from the Braves on July 30 of last year, along with Jim Johnson, Luis Avilan, Jose Peraza and Bronson Arroyo. Of the seven players the Dodgers acquired in that three-team trade, only Wood and Avilan remain with the team. That includes pitcher Mat Latos and first baseman Mike Morse, the two Miami Marlins involved in the deal.

All the while Wood was pitching for the Dodgers, he was trying to compensate for the bone bruise, then correct his pre-existing mechanical flaws as much as possible between starts. There was only so much he could do.

“It’s a lot harder to do that when you’re toeing the rubber every fifth day because of the workload you already have,” he said.

That’s why Wood began the video sessions as soon as he could, once his bone bruise had healed in December.

Pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu (shoulder) told reporters in Dodgers camp Saturday that he doesn’t expect to be ready until May, at least a month into the regular season. That opens an obvious spot for Wood to join Clayton Kershaw, Scott Kazmir, Brett Anderson and Kenta Maeda in the Dodgers’ season-opening rotation.

Ryu went 28-15 with a 3.17 ERA in his first two seasons with the Dodgers, then missed all of 2015 with shoulder labrum surgery. He’s still limiting his effort on the mound in the early stages of camp.

Wood is healthy, something he’s never been able to say during his brief time as a Dodger. Pitch f/x data revealed that Wood had lost command, vertical movement and velocity compared to his rookie season of 2013. Now we know why.

“I want to get back to who I was, get that consistency back, so everything comes out sharper and I get behind the baseball,” he said.