Stephen Strasburg Pitching
July 10, 2010
I hate to kill the buzz over Stephen Strasburg but he isn’t doing anything special mechanically to throw the ball 100 plus mph. I have studied this guy ever sense he was playing at San Diego State where I was also playing minor league ball. Every single pitching coach online is trying to prove some mechanical detail in his deliver to his success. It doesn’t exist! Stephen Strasburg is who he is because he is a big, elite athlete with good pitching mechanics. If we were talking football and he was a quarterback, would mechanics come up when discussing his ability. I think not! We would talk about his size, strength and speed on the field. Strasburg is an elite athlete because of his genetics and his training program. Tony Gwynn said when he found him he was an average pitcher with some arm problems. All he did was get him with a strength and conditioning coach to build him like an elite athlete and it worked. Tony Gwynn had the foresight to see that this kid had the tools, he just needed to be developed into a top level athlete.
Mechanically Steven Strasburg is very conservative. His mechanics are not over exaggerated or freakish like Tim Lincecum. This is because Tim is 5’11 170 lbs and Strasburg is 6’4 220 lbs. Tim needs all the help he can get because he is one of the smallest guys on the field. Tim like Strasburg is an elite athlete because of his speed and strength but Tim lacks the leverage because of his size. This is why Tim has freakish mechanics. His ability to generated core torque makes him look like a contortionist. See both pics here of Tim and Stephen in the same position.
Stephen Strasburg proves what I used to overcome a career ending injury to top at 94mph when doctors told me I was done which is the bigger, stronger, faster approach to developing the elite athlete. If you think that if you can pitch mechanically like Strasburg that you will throw as hard as him, you are clueless. The only way you will experience the power of Stasburg is if you jump into his body or you train your own body to be as big, strong and fast as his.
So stop listening to those pitching coaches who are telling you that they have the secrets to Strasburg’s success, because they don’t. Strasburg has no secrets. What he has is good genetics, well trained mechanics and the work ethic of an elite athlete.
If you want a program that will train you like an elite athlete to help you meet your velocity goals then you need the Fusion System in the Ace Pitcher Handbook.
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4 Responses to “Stephen Strasburg Pitching”
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I agree with you about Strasburg about being a good athlete with good mechanics but don't agree completely about Lincecum. There are numerous examples of pitchers that are not very big with fairly normal mechanics that throw very hard. Bob Feller did not have unusual mechanics but threw up to about 100 mph. He was about 6 feet 180 lbs. Billy Wagner is under 6 feet but threw close to 100 mph. Pedro Martinez was about 5 feet 10 and threw over 95 mph with pretty normal mechanics.
Bill,
Bob Feller was a farm boy and was baling hey at a very young age. This is one of the best strength and conditioning exercises for building fast twitch muscle fiber. I wish I could get my athletes to do this. Also I wouldn't call Feller's mechanics normal.
<img title="Bob Feller" src="http://topvelocity.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/bob-feller.jpg" alt="Bob Feller" height="200" />
As for the other shorter pitchers they didn't have normal mechanics either. Billy Wagner's external rotation after chest thrust is unbelievable. The average arm would explode under this amount of torque and pressure. Pedro is one of the most explosive body types to play the game. His vertical leap is probably 40 plus inches. When I think of normal pitching mechanics none of these pitchers come to mind. Roger Clemens would be in my book for normal pitching mechanics along with John Smoltz and Greg Maddox.
The point of my article is that Tim Lincecum builds more range of motion when he gets core torque than Strasburg. This allows him to overcome the lack of leverage and still throw as hard as Strasburg. It is basic physics, if you have less leverage between joints then you must make up for it with more speed.
Strasburg doesnt have good mechanics. He got injured! Lifting heavy doesnt work. I have seen skinny high school kids pump 98mph.
Nolan Ryan, Josh Beckett, Aroldis Chapman, Randy Johnson, John Smoltz, David Cone and many more great pitchers have been injured. Does this mean they all have bad mechanics? No, they have flaws and most of them over pitch but all in all, pretty good mechanics.
What if you are a skinny high school kid who throws 78mph? Can you inform everyone how you get these guys to 98mph. I would love to see your Velocity program!