Let’s first get some footage of your pitching. Shoot some video of a few pitches of you pitching so we can analyze your first move in increasing pitching velocity. Make sure that this footage is shooting from a side perspective, chest facing the camera like Trevor Bauer here. Once you get your footage onto a computer, you then need to find a video player that will give you the ability to move frame by frame, so we can analyze each frame.

Misconceptions of the Pitchers Leg Lift

Conventional wisdom coaches the pitcher to come to a Balance Point during the leg lift. If you analyze video of hard throwers you will find that the majority of them never come to a static balanced position at leg lift. They start moving forward during the lifting of the leg which puts their head and front hip inside their drive leg when their leg lift is at its peak.

Another major misconception of the leg lift is that the leg lift is strictly used to lead the delivery. This means the pitcher must have an aggressive leg lift and then must continue to use the leg lift to drive the stride into front foot strike. This will create a dead drive leg and prevent optimal hip to shoulder separation. If you have spent more than ten minutes on this site, you will learn that the key to velocity is in the drive leg using triple extension (3X). This aggressive leg lift approach will also force the pitcher to open his front hip early in the delivery which is another reason for decreasing hip to shoulder separation and power production.

The Importance of the Pitchers First Move

These major misconceptions to the pitchers leg lift are so critical to overall velocity because they have a bigger effect on the delivery than any other component. The reason is because this is the first move of the pitching delivery. The reason the first move is so important is because every other move is a reaction to this first move.

The pitching delivery is a sequenced chain of movements that move through the muscular and skeletal system that start from ground reaction forces and move up the body into the ball at release. This means the biggest impact on the movement chain comes in the beginning and not at the end. Just like any other chain reaction in the physical world the beginning sets the rest of the movements into motion. For example; think of a multiple car accident like in the picture here. The first car hits the second car which then flies into the next one and so on until you have no cars left to hit or the energy runs out. If the first car did not hit the second car then the chain reaction never would have occurred. Also the speed of the first car will determine the severity of the entire accident. This is no difference with pitching mechanics. This is a simple analogy to illustrate why the first move in the pitching delivery is so critical and it can have such a major impact on your overall velocity.

How Adjusting Your First Move Can Increase Pitching Velocity

The most effective way to start building momentum in the beginning of your leg lift is to establish your forward movement before your rotational movements. This is ultimately the 3X approach to pitching velocity. What this means is that if your forward or linear power movements are going to create your rotational movements or torque then you must start your first move with a linear or forward movement.

The best example of this first move is in the video clip here of Trevor Bauer. Notice when he lifts his leg, it moves up and then his front hip starts moving forward which in return pulls his lift leg back towards his drive leg, closing off his hips. The 3X approach teaches us that to enhance power through your entire stride, you must keep your front side closed to the target until just before front foot strike. The point of this article is that we must close off the hips during the leg lift as a reaction to a forward movement and not first as a rotational movement of the hips.

What this first move adjustment will do is allow the hips to lead and force the lift leg to drag or follow the hips. If the first move begins with a basic rotational leg lift to a balanced position then the lift leg could easily dominate the stride and fly open early, killing momentum and power production.

The best way to discover if your first move is more rotational or linear, is to slow down your pitching delivery using your pitching video. If you see your leg lift lifting back towards the drive leg before you start your hips towards the target then this is a rotational leg lift. The adjustment you need to make is like Trevor Bauer here, first lift your leg straight up and before it reaches its peak, start taking your front hip towards the target. This movement should then rotate your lift leg back towards your drive leg and put you in a better position to build a power focuses stride.

Motor coordination is the combination of body movements created with the kinematic (such as spatial direction) and kinetic (force) parameters that result in intended actions.

Michael Jordan spent most of his life playing basketball. Olympians spend most of their lives practicing their Olympic skills. This means their motor coordination is specific to their skill set and if they want to convert their talents into another sport then they would have to spend a good portion of their lives re-programming their motor coordination. Just watch the Biography of Michael Jordan playing minor league baseball late in his career. He struggled for years before he started to see any success in the game. He also had to double his practice time to keep up with his competition.

The point to this argument is that when the conventional wisdom of the game dismisses the statements that jumping farther, running faster, lifting heavier does not apply to the act of throwing or hitting a baseball, is absurd. If this was the case, then why does Major League baseball measure the vertical jump, running speeds and overall speed and strength of the athlete when scouting? I understand, it isn’t enough to just find the logic in this argument, I must also produce a study to help prove my point. View the study below called, The Relationship Between Power And Lean Body Mass To Sport-specific Skills Of College Baseball Players. You can view the source to the study here.

METHODS: Thirty-seven members of an NCAA Division I men’s baseball team (age =19.7 ± 1.3 yr) volunteered to be evaluated. Tests included percent body fat, lean body mass (LBM), grip strength, upper (1RM bench press and 1-arm dumbbell row) and lower body (1RM squat) strength, rotational power (medicine ball side toss), leg power (vertical jump), running speed (10, 30, 60 yd sprint), throwing velocity (TV), bat velocity (BV), and batted-ball velocity (BBV).

RESULTS: Correlation coefficients were calculated for all variables by utilizing a correlation matrix from raw scores. Significant (p < 0.05) and moderately high positive relationships were indicated between BV and BBV (r = 0.70); 60 yd sprint and 30 yd sprint (r = 0.77), 10 yd sprint (r = 0.70). Significant and moderately positive relationships were indicated between BV and vertical jump (r = 0.58), LBM (r = 0.43); medicine ball side toss and BV (r = 0.50), TV (r = 0.49), BBV (r = 0.45); 1RM squat and 1RM bench press (r = 0.58). Significant and moderately negative relationships were indicated between 60 yd sprint and vertical jump (r = -0.57). Coefficients of determination for all variables were also calculated. Of particular interest was BV and BBV (r2 = 0.49), vertical jump (r2 = 0.34), medicine ball side toss (r2 = 0.25), LBM (r2 = 0.18); medicine ball side toss and TV (r2 = 0.24), BBV (r2 = 0.20); 60 yd sprint and 30 yd sprint (r2 = 0.59), 10 yd sprint (r2 = 0.49), VJ (r2 = -0.32).

CONCLUSION: Results suggest that strength training programs designed to improve baseball player’s performance should emphasize increasing leg power, rotational power, and LBM.

This study is suggesting that increasing ones vertical jump or leg power, along with rotational power and Lean Body Mass, will increase velocity. So this study supports the claims that jumping farther, running faster, lifting heavier will actually increase your velocity. This study goes to show you how illogical and uneducated the conventional wisdom of the game is, which unfortunately includes most pitching coaches!

If this case study isn’t enough, then here are some great examples of how this athletic approach to training the pitcher is changing the game. The best example of the athletic pitcher, in my book, is Tim Lincecum. He is small and explosive like an Olympic gymnast. Here is an excerpt from the New York times where his teammate Mark DeRosa is talking about his amazing athletic ability.

Outfielder Mark DeRosa, who signed with the Giants last winter, said he never knew Lincecum was so athletic until he saw him ace the team’s agility testing — standing broad jump, vertical leap — in spring training. DeRosa already knew how that translated to the mound. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/sports/baseball/07giants.html

I am assuming Mark DeRosa knows how Lincecum’s vertical leap power converts to the mound because he understands the basics of motor coordination. How many conventional pitching coaches in this game understand the difference between motor coordination and athletic ability? I would say very few.

Here is another great excerpt from an ESPN article where one of Lincecum’s teammates are amazed by his athletic ability.

In one well-traveled story from last year, the ace (Tim Lincecum) walked through the clubhouse and suddenly did a complete backflip, sticking a perfect landing. Centerfielder Aaron Rowand, one of the crustier Giants, took Lincecum to task immediately, telling him he was too valuable to endanger himself with such frivolity. The pitcher didn’t argue, but his father says, “They don’t understand what kind of athlete he is. He’s not going to hurt himself doing that.” http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3931546

I understand that Tim Lincecum was born with the potential to be this athletic but I believe most all people have this potential as well, just some have to work harder than others to get it out of them. Here is a perfect example of a pitcher working hard to pull this kind of athletic ability out of him. Men’s Health put together an excellent article on how Major League Pitcher Tim Collins turned himself into an elite athlete, using hard work and a strength and conditioning program, that developed his lower body, core strength and Lean Body Mass. Here is some excerpts from the Men’s Health article which illustrate his transformation.

Tim Collins was a 131-pound high school senior who stood 5’5″ and threw an 82-mph fastball.

The 131-pounder with the 25-inch vertical jump is now 172 rock-hard pounds with a 38.7-inch vertical. The guy who was gassed racing against a couple of strength coaches now spends 8 hours a day in the gym, hanging out with the athletes and coaches before, between, and after his training sessions.

The fourth pitch is Collins’ fastest so far, a 93-mph dart that Hunter swings at, and misses.
http://www.menshealth.com/fitness/transformation-tim-collins/

Tim Collins is a pitcher who tapped into his potential through hard work and went from 82 mph to 93 mph, using a strength and conditioning program developed by Eric Cressey.

At my Baseball Academy, just outside of New Orleans Louisiana. I have a very similar story with one of my local pitchers. His name is Mitchel Sewald and he has been on the 3X Pitching Velocity program for the past 6 months. His vertical jump was around 28 inches before the program and his 60 yard dash was around a 7.3 before the program. At the end of this summer, his vertical jump went over 36 inches and his 60 yard dash went down to 6.5 secs. At the same time his pitching velocity went from 82 mph to 92 mph. He just committed to a full ride to pitch for LSU after his senior year. He is going into his senior year season this new year.

This is all proof, that increasing your vertical or linear jump, which is your power production, while developing proper motor coordination around good pitching mechanics, like the 3X mechanics, will increase velocity. So yes, you can tell your pitching coach that if you can Jump Farther, you will Throw Harder.

The Problems with Changing your Arm Path

If you define the pitching delivery in the two phases as labeled here in this article called, How to Throw Hard and even Harder, you will learn that when the arm is starting to apply the force to the ball which happens after external rotation of the throwing arm, the arm path is moving in a straight line towards the target. This means that when conventional wisdom says you should have a short arm path in the beginning of the delivery and a long arm path at the end, this changing of the arm path actually has no effect on the velocity of the ball. What this is doing is making a mechanical change to your delivery which is the why your velocity is changing.

If you look in Professional Baseball you find all different styles of arm path and no relationship with velocity. This is because velocity is based around stride speed or power and the relationship between the rotational pivots which are the hips and shoulders. Being that the arm is connected to the shoulders, it does have some control of the shoulder pivot but ultimately the shoulders are in control. Based on the 3X Mechanics velocity is mainly influenced by the relationship of the hips to shoulders at front foot strike. The arm path can go almost anywhere it wants, as long as the shoulders are closed while the hips are open at front foot strike. You could pitch like Tim Lincecum and put the arm down behind your back during your stride, or like Zach Outman who looks like he is stretching his throwing arm while he is striding, either arm path will have an effect on velocity if their other mechanics do not change.

The lesson learned here is never focus on arm path, it does not control the legs, core or shoulders and it will more than likely have a negative effect on your pitching velocity. If you want to learn good mechanics to increase pitching velocity then stay away from conventional wisdom and learn to implement the 3X mechanics which you can see here in this pitching 101 video.

25 college age volunteers were randomly assigned to groups performing either resistance training or static stretching. A 12 person control group remained inactive. All were pre-tested on hamstring extension, hip flexion and extension, and shoulder extension flexibility, as well as peak torque of quadriceps and hamstring muscles. The resistance training and stretching programs focused on the same muscle-joint complexes over similar movements and ranges. Post-tests measured flexibility and strength.

The results - which may surprise advocates of stretching to improve flexibility- showed no statistically significant advantage of stretching over resistance training. Resistance training, in fact, produced greater improvements in flexibility in some cases, while also improving strength. Whitehead emphasized that this was a preliminary study involving a small sample size and called for carefully designed research with more participants to confirm or disprove the results.

It is hard to believe that this is the only study that I could find online that had anything to do with testing the conventional wisdom of weight training and flexibility. I first discovered that the belief of weight training limiting flexibility as being completely false when I first trained with the Olympic Lifters. I have posted a video of Coach Gayle Hatch who I have been mentored by and Matt Bruce who I have watched in “AWE” many times move weight like a beast when he looks like a little boy. Watch the USA Olympian Matt Bruce perform the back squat. He is moving around 250lbs in the video like it is nothing. His hip rotation and hip mobility is unbelievable. When I first witnessed this I said to myself, how can someone like Matt, who looks like a boy, have this kind of joint flexibility and clean and jerk over his head, over 400lbs? This blew my mind! I then ask myself why do pitchers not train like this?

This study above and the flexibility of these Olympic Lifters is proof that weight training does not reduce joint flexibility or mobility. This is because they train with weight moving through a full range of motion. Before I started lifting with the Olympic lifts in my pitching career, I was underdeveloped and my flexibility was horrible. I couldn’t even touch my toes. After my first year of training my flexibility was unbelievable. I could not only touch my toes but I could kick my leg over my head. I believe this type of flexibility is far superior for the athlete than the type of flexibility developed through static stretching. Not only is this statement proven true in the above study but the science behind this theory makes perfect sense.

Functional Flexibility

Functional flexibility is a phrase that is used sometimes to define flexibility that is developed through dynamic or athletic movements. This means that the flexibility or mobility of the joint is built around the strength through a full range of motion. The opposite would be flexibility developed through static stretching which more than likely will develop flexibility in the joint without the strength. This may create a flexible athlete but it will not be functional because there is not enough strength through the entire range of motion. This type of mobility or flexibility is useless to the athlete. This is why a weight training program that trains the athlete through a full range of motion with resistance, is building a stronger and more flexible athlete. This doesn’t mean all you need to do is lift weights with a full range of motion because the range of motion must not push outside of the overall technique of the lifts. Sometimes training through a full range of motion can injury the athlete, so you must make sure that the technique of the lift is pr0moting a full range of motion and if it is not then you need to incorporate other exercises or lifts to cover the full range of motion for that specific joint, if necessary.

The purpose of this article was not to tell you that you need to use a full range of motion when lifting. It is to open a pitchers eyes to weight training as a means to not only developing strength but developing flexibility. You need to watch the instructional videos here to see how Olympic Lifting promotes joint mobility and you also need to get on a athlete/pitcher sport specific training program like the Fusion System in the 3X Pitching Velocity program to help you develop optimal strength and flexibility.

For proper pronation to occur in the throwing arm at release the pitcher must extend the arm to release. The improper release of the throwing arm which would prevent proper pronation would be to pull the arm down to release. I find this to be a major misconception in the conventional wisdom of the game. Physics proves that during the velocity phase of the throwing arm, the pivot or elbow, must remain stationary until after release. This means the elbow must extend to release to prevent the elbow from moving down during the throw. This not only supports velocity but protects the elbow from resisting high amounts of deceleration forces. Extending the elbow to release also protects the rotator cuff during the deceleration of the arm. This will allow more of the back muscles to get involved during the deceleration phase.

Pitching Pain and Injury Solutions

Dr. Mike Marshal built his entire coaching career around proper pronation of the throwing arm. He even went as far as to develop and entire approach to pitching based around this throwing arm pronation. This is because he ended his Major League career with a UCL tear before the famous “Tommy John” surgery. I believe Dr. Marshall went to far with this discover of proper pronation by turning it into a style of pitching. I do believe his pitchers who use this style or approach to pitching are protecting their elbows from injury but their velocity is taking a beating in return. Using the 3X Approach to Pitching proper prontation will occur because the 3X Mechanics trains the body to finish first and the arm to extend and finish last. The picture of me here illustrates the 3X approach to proper pronation. These mechanics will increase velocity and protect the elbow and shoulder from extreme abuse.

I highly recommend replacing the baseball in the 3X Velocity System throwing drills with a football, if you are having issues with finishing with proper pronation. This is because you can not throw a spiral, with the nose down, with a football, if you do not finish with proper pronation.

Off speed pitches can also cause improper pronation because the wrist is usually rotating the opposite way at release during these pitches. This combined with the misconception of pulling down to release would compound the impact on the elbow and make a pitcher more vulnerable to elbow injury. It first starts with elbow pain and then it progresses into an injury. This is exactly how my arm began to breakdown. I had poor pronation along with an addictive curveball because it was unhittable. After 6 shots of cortisone in my elbow and rotator cuff surgery at 18, I never threw that damn thing again. I have even tried throwing it today and I can still feel the old wound from the many years of improper pronation. This is why I recommend less aggressive breaking balls for pitchers. A good fastball will get you a lot farther in your career than a good breaking ball!

There currently is a gimmick that supposedly helps the pitcher to get into this position but the problem with these gimmicks is if you cannot pitch with this device in a game, what use does it have for the pitcher? If the pitcher can not put himself into this power drive position without the device then it is a total waste of money. I have never worked with the device, so this is not a review.

The 3X Pitching Velocity Program trains the pitcher through drills to achieve this Power Drive Position. I will cover some of these components here that are in full detail in the 3X Pitching Velocity Program.

The Pitchers Power Drive Components

1. Lift and Lead – Lift your lift leg as you lead with your hips. You want to start your momentum towards your front foot as quickly as possible while closing off your hips with your lift leg.
2. Align your Force Vector with your Front Hip – Your force vector is your ankle to knee. This must get in line with your front hip as soon as possible. You can make this happen by driving your shin into the ground as you push your hips towards the target.
3. Power Pads Force Production – You want your drive leg foot completely flush against the rubber with your weight sitting on your power pads. This is the area from the ball of the foot towards the arc. This is where you want to start applying force as you align your force vector with your front hip and as you move into triple extension. This is where you use ground reaction forces to generate your power.

This is definitely not an approach to pitching from the conventional wisdom of the game. Critiques of this approach would say that this goes against the old school “Balance Position.” Those who think this way do not have a physiological understanding of explosive movements. Lifting the leg and pausing to establish “Balance,” does not support an explosive movement by definition. To the explosive athlete “Balance” is the athletes ability to control the momentum of the body and direct it towards the goal. This balance is most important during the stride when power is generated and at front foot strike when power is converted to torque.

Great examples of pitchers who put themselves into a Power Drive Position would be all hard throwers. My favorite example is Trevor Bauer, Tim Lincecum, Aroldis Chapman, Felix Hernandez, Nolan Ryan, etc.

Learn the Pitchers Power Drive

To learn more about all of these power pitching components read more articles here or purchase the 3X Pitching Velocity Program.

What is the best way to use the glove side to increase shoulder and pitch speed?

Before I go into answering this question please understand that there is several critical mechanical components that occur before the glove side even comes into play during the pitching delivery. It is essential when learning velocity focused pitching mechanics that you master all of these critical components before front foot strike which is when the glove side takes action. You can learn all of these mechanical components in the 3X Pitching Velocity Program.

When the glove side is ready to serve its purpose, it must immediately spring into action and become an effective fulcrum for the shoulders to launch. This means it must tuck tightly under the glove arm and shoulder. The tuck should be enough for the chest to push forward while the glove arm bicep is fully contracted like when curling weight. Do not let the glove drop or the elbow to swing out towards the dugout. The elbow must stick into the obliques of the core. By tucking the glove side up and under the arm and keeping it tight with the chest pushing forward this will set a strong fulcrum for the shoulders to efficiently accelerate around. Remember the purpose of the tuck is to create a stable fulcrum or pivot, NOT to assist the throwing arm during the launch. Using the glove side to assist the throwing arm during the throw will cause instability in the pivot point, slowing down the speed of the shoulders and could also cause arm drag which can lead to elbow and shoulder injury.

The best way to learn the glove side is to watch the glove side of hard throwers in slow motion.

When revolutionary information is uncovered and it begins to move into the realm of conventional wisdom, it will make both a positive and a negative impact. In the case of stride length, the positive impact is that pitchers will start to think more with their lower kinetic chain and start to pitch from the ground up. Done correctly, with optimal leg strength, this could potentially lower the high ratio of arm injuries to young pitchers. The negative aspects could be increased stride length without increased leg strength. This could cause pitchers to just reach out with the lead leg and open up early in their deliveries which will put more stress on the shoulder and elbow when pitching. To prevent this we must understand that the reason these hard throwers have long strides is not because they made this mechanical adjustment to reach out farther but because they are focusing on generating power through the stride phase which is launching them way away from the pitching rubber and creating these long strides. They also understand, cognitively or inherently, that this power is a product of leg strength. Optimal leg strength would allow the pitcher the ability to move through a full range of motion while accelerating the speed of their body. This would not only create long strides but quick stride speeds which is another valuable piece of data coming from the analysis of these explosive pitchers.

What this all means is that to avoid falling into the negatives of this revolutionary scientific information you must equate stride length to leg strength. The inability to understand the importance of this relationship could do more harm than good to your pitching delivery.

Stride length, stride speed and leg strength is the foundation of 3X Pitching. 3X or triple extension is why these hard throwers are ably to mechanically create these incredible stride distances and speeds. This single component, 3X, along with hip to shoulder separation is the only way you will mechanically increase your stride and increase velocity. To effectively implement 3X into your pitching delivery you must first train your body how to generate power with it through a strength and conditioning program that is built around triple extension. By far the best program to do this is called the 3X Pitching Velocity Program.

When I developed the revolutionary approach to pitching velocity called 3X Pitching, I first analyzed some of the hardest throwers in the game to try and discover their secrets. I wasn’t as interested in their training programs because most of these hard throwers, I felt, had superior genetics. I knew that if I could learn what they were doing mechanically, which was causing them to throw so hard, I could then try to emulate these mechanics through training my body to move like theirs. I believed that this was a good strategy for success. I soon learned that this was true.

The mechanical components that I pulled out of these hard throwing delivers are a main part to the 3X Pitching Velocity Program. The program lists all of these components and covers them in detail. More important than uncovering these velocity components was discovering the key component which was the foundation. This one component, if not performed correctly, would prevent all of the other components to be performed correctly as well. This was the case because these hard throwers were using the entire kinetic chain to generate their power and their velocity was initiated in the very start of the kinetic sequence. This component that I discovered was Triple Extension or what I call 3X. The day I discovered this key component I could not believe how effective it was and how clueless the rest of baseball was, to completely miss it. Even today I am shocked that I am the only pitching voice coaching it.

The problem with most velocity enhancement programs is that they focus on the mechanics more than the training or the training more than the mechanics. They must go hand in hand. The mechanics must be used as a measurement for the effectiveness of the training program and the means to the end. If not then you are training blind and going no where fast. The 3X Pitching Velocity Program is a multi-faceted approach to pitching velocity that believes a more powerful athletic pitcher will more effectively develop high velocity mechanics than the average pitcher. This is why this program produces results and makes it possible for all young pitchers to add 5-10 mph to their velocity.

I wanted to title this article, “Why Some Athletes Throw Harder than Others?” but conventional wisdom does not label pitchers as athletes yet so I didn’t want to confuse anyone. I hope I can help change this perspective of us Pitchers in the near future.

The results of the study showed that hard throwing pitchers had more external rotation of the throwing shoulder after front foot strike and also had more forward trunk tilt at ball release. You can read the results and more of the study here.

I believe these results are true because it is a part of my 6 components to velocity in the 3X Pitching Velocity Program. The reason that the results of this study do not answer the question, “Why Some Pitchers Throw Harder than Others?” is because you can’t answer a question with another question. The final results of this study leaves us with a new question, “Why Do Some Pitchers Have More External Rotation and More Forward Trunk Tilt than Others?” The answers to this question was attempted in the study but neglected, I believe because the researchers were more focused on physics than biology in finding the answer. I have nothing against a physics approach but it doesn’t give us all the answers and most researchers today, performing these baseball studies, are not focusing enough on biology. Now that we have a pretty good understanding of efficient and effective velocity focused pitching mechanics, we now need to understand more about the athletes or pitchers who are performing these mechanics.

The point in this study when the researchers attempted to answer the question, that inspired this study, was when they stated that, “The greater external rotation produced by the FAST group may increase the stretch-shortening action of the internal rotators, and consequently, contribute to greater ball velocity.” The reference to the stretch-shortening cycle should have pulled them into biology to continue searching for the final answer, but they left us hanging as if their money ran out and they had no more time to continue on. So, I would like to continue the study for them here. First we need to learn more about the stretch-shortening cycle before we continue.

The stretch-shortening cycle (SSC) can be defined as an active stretch (eccentric contraction) of a muscle followed by an immediate shortening (concentric contraction) of that same muscle.

This makes perfect sense because the reason the harder throwers have more external rotation and forward trunk tilt is to maximize the SSC but now the question becomes will all pitchers have the same velocities with the same degrees of external rotation? The answer to this question is, NO. All athletes are different because of their muscular, skeletal, and chemical makeup. This is what separates us physically from each other. The harder throwers will get more velocity from the same external rotation than the slower throwers because they have physical attributes that allow them to move with more power. Power is strength and speed combined. This would mean you could take two different body types, with the exact same pitching mechanics and receive two different velocities.

The Final Answer To Pitching Velocity

Why do some pitchers throw harder than others? Because they have more external rotation after front foot strike, more forward trunk tilt, and they are able to generate more power with their muscular, skeletal, and chemical makeup, through the stretch-shortening cycle, during external rotation.

In conclusion, this study shows us pitchers that we must create more external rotation after front foot strike, along with more forward trunk tilt. This will allow us to maximize our body’s potential to reach its top velocity. Once we accomplish this then we must train our body’s to produce more power than we are capable of creating. This is only possible through a strength and conditioning program that is focused on modeling more fast twitch muscle fibers. Fast twitch muscle fibers are the only muscle fibers that can generate power. This is why I highly recommend the Ace Pitcher Handbook. It takes this exact strategy to gaining velocity, with the Velocity drills, which train you to develop more external rotation with the 3X approach and forward trunk tilt, along with the Fusion System, which is a strength and conditioning program that focuses on modeling more fast twitch muscle fibers.

The next study I will be looking out for is, the one that shows us athletes how to model more fast twitch muscle fibers in a short amount of time, which will increase the power we can generate during the stretch-shortening cycle. Stay Tuned!

Articles on Hard Throwing Pitchers

Here are some of the latest articles and discussions on hard throwing pitchers. You are welcome to join in on the discussion or debate. You have to register before you can comment. Registration is FREE!

Justin Verlander Pitching Mechanics

Sports Illustrated Trevor Bauer article

Tim Lincecum Teaches Top Velocity