Does Velocity Come from the Arm or the Body?
April 16, 2009
The arm throws the ball but does it generate the velocity in a 90+ mph fastball?
This question can stir up a big argument but there is only one answer. The arm does not generate the velocity. It only guides the pitch. Therefore the arm must follow the body and does not come into play until the body has done its job.
I have been in many arguments about this issue. I have listened to coaches tell their pitchers that if they want to throw harder they need to speed up their arms. My question is how will speeding up your arm increase your velocity? This doesn’t make much sense because if you arm leads your body, it must leave the body behind. If you leave the body behind then it is up to the small muscles of the arm to take the entire workload of generating 90+ mph.
I think to prove my answer to the question above we must once again look at the little pitchers in the game. This is because these guys must work a lot harder to generate 90+ mph. I go once again to my favorite little man Tim Lincecum; 5’7 165 lbs. Notice the picture here of him at front foot strike. Now, where is his arm? It is hiding behind his body. YES, all you coaches out there who are coaching your pitchers to speed up there arms, it is behind his body. This means his body is driving the pitch. This means his body is generating the velocity. This means the arm is along for the ride.
The coaches who will argue my point here are the coaches who use giant pitchers like Randy Johnson as their example of pitchers who have a lot of arm action. This is true but these pitchers have more leverage on the ball than the average man. If you are 6’8 like Randy Johnson then congratulations you are in a small percentage of baseball players but if you are 6’2 and under take it easy on your arm and learn to work your body as a single unit in your delivery. When you work on generating velocity, work on pulling it from your legs and core and not your arm.
I recommend using medicine balls as often as you can. I have many throwing drills with these balls that force the pitcher to use every muscle they have to make the throw. This is how we must pitch if we want to throw and withstand 90+ mph.
The Ace Pitcher Handbook has a full medicine ball workout.
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Written by Brent Pourciau · Filed Under Pitching Articles
Tagged: arm action, average man, balls, baseball, baseball players, coach, deliveries, doe, Drills, er, fastball, foot strike, game, generations, giants, job, learning, legs, leverage, little man, medicine, muscles, muscles of the arm, percentages, pitch, pitchers, pitches, pitching, randy johnson, s, single unit, speed, throwing, tim Lincecum, Velocity, workload
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8 Responses to “Does Velocity Come from the Arm or the Body?”
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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.
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The fact that a player can achieve 50% of their velocity (in studies) by isolating the throw to the shoulders-fingertips indicates that the arm is capable of producing a very significant amount of force.
Granted, the body obviously contributes a huge amount to velocity as well, but once the shoulder reaches maximum internal rotation (that is, right before the shoulder begins to externally rotate), there is, IN ADDITION to the energy that is flowing up the kinetic chain from the hips and core, an active effort by the thrower to use the arm to assist the throw.
Every piece of the kinetic chain actively contributes to velocity. The arm happens to be the last piece of the chain, but it is not the case (and this is in fact extremely intuitive when you think about it) that the musculature, the internal rotators of the arm are not firing just as hard as every other piece in the kinetic chain. They just happen to have the job of not only independendtly generating force, but also HARNESSING all the energy that has been transferred to it by the hips and core.
I think the mindset that this article evokes may be a good one. Many players dont get enough out of the first part of the kinetic chain and solely rely on the last piece. However, it's innacurate to say that the arm literally is along for the ride, even if this is a useless cue for many many players out there.
Lanky
what I meant to say was useful* cue
Yes, you are correct but most athletes can not cognitively develop your perspective on throwing/ pitching. Therefore teaching throwing mechanics without bringing a lot of emphasis to the arm is very effective when initially learning throwing mechanics. Thanks for the comment!
You've got an interesting and thought provoking site…I like the info very much for the most part. Consider learning as much as you can about SETPRO which will certainly help you clarify and refine many of your ideas/principles.
A major weakness that I've noticed in some of your articles is the HOW. How do you teach a player to get separation, etc. Sure, now they know that this is crucial for velocity, but how do you generate this torque in the core? Setpro offers a motor learning perspective that is very interesting/helpful although sometimes the answer is frustrating: through trial and error.
anyway check it out.
Lanky
Lankylefty thanks for the comments. I will look more into setpro. To answer your question how do you train separation I would suggest you read this article http://topvelocity.net/triple-extension-creates-o…
You have to look at the throwing motion of the body as the same as you do a drag car. The BODY is the ENGINE, the SHOULDER is TRANSMISSION and the ARM is the DRIVE LINE and the Hand or figures are the tires. The BODY the legs, core, and chest generate the torque. The SHOULDER is the horse power or acceleration.The ARM transfers the the torque and horse power to the HAND. The HAND puts the power of the BODY and the acceleration of the SHOULDER on to the Hang which controls where the ball goes. If everything is in line then the motion is powerful and effortless. If the motion of the mechanics is flawed then the line of power is broken and is a percentage of power is lost and injury in inevitable.
Joe, great analogy! This takes my article here and brings it to the next level. The intentions of my article above is to educate the beginner and the pitcher or coach who is still using conventional wisdom, which believes that arm strength determines velocity, as their basic foundation to pitching mechanics.
Lanky Lefty,
Pitching using the whole body from the ground up as Brent emphasizes is a side ways body movement to front foot touch down with a stride length of at least matching one's body height with no body rotation until front foot touch down, a highly experienced and knowledgeable baseball person I know of teaches that lower body rotation is executed at the split second before front foot touch down and the upper torso, shoulders are still closed, aimed at the intended target and then follow with their rotation immediately after hip rotation which creates lower body and upper torso, shoulder separation at that point in the forward movement, to answer your question if after reading Brent's article you are still not sure I suggest you get into pitching position then stay sideways and stride now hold that sideways position and rotate your hips only leaving your upper torso and shoulders closed, aimed straight down the line at your target, now you are in a lower body, hips and upper torso, shoulders separation position. As during tee hitting you would approach the ball in a straight sideways movement and then just rotate your hips leaving your upper torso, shoulders closed still aimed straight down the line which at this point in the movement you would be in a lower body, hips, upper torso, shoulders body separation also.
In Joes very nice break down I would have liked for him to have mentioned the hips in there because the hips are highly instrumental during playing all phases of the game.
Here is something that may bring on a considerable number of disagreer's which is the comment heard very often by pitchers during games when they become somewhat erratic which is don't aim the ball, there are two words here , "AIM" and "GUIDE" and in my opinion the positive word to use is "AIM" as in aiming the rifle barrel straight at your target, aim your arm straight at your target, I feel that when a pitcher tightens up, chokes the ball underneath with the thumb etc. he attempts to guide and lose control of the ball.
Lets not forget that the arm and hand are the last pieces of body movement involved in delivering the ball to its final destination and also that an enormous amount of energy has been generated or should have been generated by the body in the process and that the arm has to continue to furnish the great amount of energy built up by the body so let's remember that body momentum and arm speed out of the glove are vitally important during the arms final throwing movement.
The above comments and opinions have brought up some excellent points to talk about.
Don Ervin
kom_ervin@yahoo.com