You Go Pro Baseball
February 21, 2009
I have been in a few heated debates over my pitching career and this website. This is because I had an average to below average baseball career after I tore my rotator cuff at 18 years old in my first college appearance. So I don’t have all of the labels like, All American or Major League Experience which some of my readers want to hear. You need to understand that I spent most of my career focused on just being able to pitch again, first in college and then in professional baseball. My Doctors told me that I would never pitch again because one year after the surgery my arm was still not recovering. At TopVelocity.net I am not calling myself the greatest pitcher of all time. What I am calling myself, is a Velocity expert! This is because I overcame a major rotator cuff tear to not only pitch again but to develop enough velocity that I was able to “Go Pro!” Read more
The Split Perspective of Separation
February 17, 2009
Separation is a major component to developing top velocity and longevity. Separation means having separation from your back hip to back shoulder. Notice the picture here of Felix Hernandez. His back hip is pointing towards home plate and his back shoulder is pointing towards second base. This creates torque in the core. You can see the stretching in his jersey around the stomach area. Having more torque in the core instead of the shoulder of the arm will lead to more velocity and a healthier arm. Read more
The Hip Slide to Pitching Velocity
February 12, 2009
The biggest problem I find in young pitchers is that they have poor separation in hips to shoulders. There are many articles on this site covering the pitching component “Separation.” It is so important because having separation from your back hip to back shoulder before the shoulders rotate to the plate, is critical for velocity and the health of your arm. What “Separation” does is it builds core torque. It puts more torque in the big muscle groups of the core, instead of mainly in the small muscle groups of the shoulder. Read more
Bad Mechanics is a Sign of Muscular Weakness
February 10, 2009
Above average coordination is a sign of fast twitch muscle strength. Fast twitch motor neurons recruit more muscle fibers. This means more control of the body and also more explosive power. The biggest problem for a pitching coach, when working with a pitcher who does not have good hip rotation or who does not load and build a full body stride, is that this is the result of poor core and leg strength and no mechanical drill will fix this problem. Drills only help pitchers who are having a hard time changing flawed muscle memory. It doesn’t help pitchers who have good muscle memory but poor muscle strength. This is why we have weight rooms. This is why any coach who tells you that weight lifting will NOT help you as a pitcher is clueless and is wasting your time and maybe even your money. A good strength and conditioning program that incorporates Olympic lifts, plyometric training and an intense speed training program is estiental to developing good pitching mechanics. Good athletes make good pitchers. Read more
Coach Hatch Instructional Videos
February 5, 2009
View Coach Hatch’s Instructional Videos of the Olympic Lifts.
Topvelocity.net is a Baseball Pitching and velocity improvement training program. Our main offerings include: a Pitching Velocity Program along with tips and articles to increase a pitchers velocity and online Pitching Video Analysis for players.


