Follow @TopVelocity

• Home
• Forum
• Video Analysis
• Products
  • Checkout
  • Your Account
• Ask a Question
• About Us
• Contact Us
• Equipment
• Disclaimer
  • Return and Refund Policy
  • Cancelation Policy
  • Delivery & Shipping Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Sitemap

• Baseball Articles
• Drills
• Media
• Nutrition
• Pitching Articles
• References
• Training Articles
• Velocity Quick Tips

Pitching Velocity Before Ball Movement

I have worked with a lot of “Side Arm” Pitchers who are worried about losing movement when I am training and coaching them to increase velocity, with 3X Pitching. I am not talking about pitchers who throw upper 80′s, because most of the pitchers I work with are more like upper 70′s. It just blows my mind that an upper 70′s pitcher would rather have ball movement than more velocity.

The reality is, not until you get to professional baseball will ball movement start to become an important factor and at this level you will actually have coaches who will coach this with pitch grips. I really believe that changing mechanics to enhance ball movement is not a healthy approach for a pitcher. A great example was John Smoltz, at the end of his career the Atlanta, Braves made him a closer and also dropped his arm angle to a side arm position, so he could get a more natural run on the ball. This was effective at first, then he was put on the DL with bone spurs in his elbow. I believe he cut his career short when he made this mechanical adjustment for ball movement. Read more

The Pitching Windup vs Stretch

I get this question a lot, “the windup vs the stretch, what is better?” The problem is the windup is almost sacred to the game of baseball but it really has no purpose besides a kind of confidence builder on the mental state of the pitcher. The windup represents the old style of pitching from back in the day when the pitchers would use the windup to get their arms moving faster like in the video clip here of Dizzy Dean. Now that we have learned that doing this is destructive to pitching velocity, the windup has become just an extra step to throwing in the stretch. Read more

Little League Pitching

One of the most common questions I get as a Coach is, “How old should a kid start pitching?” I was pretty young myself but then again I also had major shoulder surgery in college. With my experience I would say, “Wait as long as you can to start making pitching your number one position.” If you have the dreams of playing Pro ball one day, I would definitely keep your arm as fresh as possible. Pro scouts drool over live fresh arms. Their eyes pop out of their heads when they learn that a young live arm has little time spent on the mound. So that being said, focus more on throwing mechanics than getting time on the hill in the little league to junior high ranks. Read more

Weight for it!

Momentum transfer is a key component of velocity. There are many different ways to transfer momentum. You could transfer the momentum slowly over a certain period of time, randomly over a certain period of time or in the case of generating efficient and explosive velocity, you must transfer momentum as quickly as possible during your pitching delivery.

Notice pitcher’s like John Smoltz here, he has a delivery that looks effortless. This is because the explosiveness of his delivery comes at a point in time that is so fast it fools the human eye. Think of a golfer like Tiger Woods. When he swings the club back, if you blink your eyes he has already hit the ball and is following through. The same is with pitchers like John Smoltz. He throws in the upper 90′s but it sure doesn’t look like he does.

The question is, “How does this happen?” What these pitchers are doing, as they start to build momentum, is hold all of their weight back waiting for the last possible second to transfer the momentum as quick as they can. The best way for you to get a good understanding of this is with video. I hope this helps. Read more

What is Top Velocity?

Living most of my past life as a baseball pitcher, the pivotal moment in my pitching career was overcoming career ending shoulder surgery. It changed my life and I was never the same. I spent the next five years after this major event trying everything I could to get back to the game I loved. It was the hardest thing I would ever do. I am now dealing with my addictions to over training and I am full of Top Velocity education.

What I learned of the mechanics of throwing is that we put too much torque on the arm when we are growing up in the game (watch my 5 components of pitching for more on this). It takes the best ball players in the game less time to learn how to develop torque in the core of the body and we average to below average ball players an injury to develop this understanding of Top Velocity. Read more