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.

In my career, I never met a scout at any level who said all they are looking for is a pitcher who can throw strikes and has natural run on the ball. During my last recruiting visit, for one of the pitchers I have been working with, the first thing the coach asked was, how hard does he throw. He then told us that he wasn’t interested in anyone that was mid 80′s or less. We were expecting this and this pitcher did well and was offered a great scholarship because of his velocity.

The Road to Pitching Velocity

The best road that a young pitcher can take, in his career, is the road towards his top velocity. This means your main focus your entire career is to develop and maintain a high velocity fastball. Ever other pitch should work to complement the fastball. If a young pitcher will take this road and never go off path, his chances of making it to the top level, is a lot greater. For example, I was watching an MLB game this past season and the announcer pulled some stats on Bartolo Colon. He said that Colon averages 85% fastballs each game. Here is a veteran pitcher in Major League Baseball, he has made it to the top level and he is still throwing fastballs 85% of the time. So if you are a young pitcher playing high school baseball and you are throwing 45% or 65% fastballs then what are the chances you will be a Bartolo Colon or a hard thrower one day? Not good! Oh, by the way, the MLB only drafts hard throwers!

If you decide to go down the road to pitching velocity then you must make time for an off-season. You need an off-season to start a velocity program like the 3X Pitching Velocity program, if you want to increase velocity. Trying to use an off-season program to increase velocity in-season will have little effect. This is why increasing velocity can be such a big challenge, you not only have to work hard through the program but you also have to make at least a 16 week commitment, 5 days a week, 2-3 hours a day. So stop going from in-season to in-season and take the time to develop a high velocity fastball in the off-season.

Location, Location, Location

Before you even start thinking about movement, after you have established a good fastball, you  must master pitch location first. This means learn to place your dominate fastball on the corners of the plate. Your fastball can work as an off-speed pitch just by moving it inside and outside of the strike-zone. An inside fastball on the hands of a batter adds 5 mph in perceived velocity to the hitters eye. An outside fastball is just the opposite. This means just throwing the ball inside and outside to the hitter, will throw his timing off and you haven’t even changed your pitch. If you can master painting the corners with your dominate fastball then you could possibly take this strategy all the way to pro ball. Just imagine what scouts will think when they have a kid throwing upper 80′s or low 90′s and all he needs is his fastball to dominate the game. This is a major plus for all scouts!

Now comes the Movement

You don’t have to throw “Side Arm” or “Submarine” to have ball movement. Greg Maddux was the master at ball movement and he did it with an almost over the top release point. The key to his ball movement was pitch grips. Once you have established your fastball and you are throwing it 85% of the time or more, inside and outside, then now you can start to work with ball movement. This doesn’t mean everyone must have the same arm slot. I believe your bone and muscular structure will establish your natural arm slot. All it means is your ball movement must come from your pitch grips. Pitch grips should be a simple process of finger placement and wrist release point. The rest is up to you to spend the time working with the feeling of the pitch, until you can get some good movement out of it.

I highly recommend that you do not spend much time at all with ball movement, until you are heading way done the road to pitching velocity. If you are a young pitcher and you are getting hit around a lot in travel ball or high school baseball then make time for an off-season and develop a fastball.

The Benefits of the Windup

1. This means no one is on base, so you potentially have more time to build momentum through your stride but you can also do this in the stretch.
2. This also means, you have more time once you start your delivery, to focus up on the target. Not to say you can’t do this in the stretch either.
3. It is a more intimidating position to face the batter which will give the pitcher more confidence.

The Benefits of the Stretch

1. You will throw your most important pitches here.
2. You have a more simple delivery mechanically.
3. You can get a good foot position on the rubber.

I believe that the deciding factor, of a pitcher who would either like to use the stretch or the windup without runners on base, is the foot position issue. You can get your foot in a more comfortable and athletic position when in the stretch. This would really benefit pitchers who are playing on bad fields. You know that mound that has a crater in front of the rubber that annoys the hell out of you! Here is a velocity quick tip that covers how to effectively position your foot on the rubber.

Pitchers that prefer the windup over the stretch, when acceptable, usually say the reason is because they feel more comfortable in the windup. If this is the case for you or your pitchers then this is fine. The only problem is if there is a significant difference between the pitchers delivery when in the windup as opposed to the stretch.  There should be no difference once the lift leg hip begins towards the target. Notice the video of John Smoltz below. His two deliveries are seamless between his windup and stretch.

I recommend pitching in the stretch more often because you will throw your most important pitches there. If you are more comfortable in the windup then this is usually because you throw more practice pitches in the windup. If this is the case, then I recommend throwing your bullpens in the stretch the majority of the time. This will also help you when you have runners on base. When runners are on base you must do your best to help your catcher to hold the runners on by being as quick as possible during your delivery. This means you may need to slide step. The problem is if you are a pitcher who likes to throw in the windup with a big leg lift, when in the stretch and slide stepping, you lose velocity. The key to not losing velocity in the slide step is focusing on the “Load” position. This position is when your hips are driving towards the target and you are squatting hard on your back leg. If you work hard to build momentum in the “Load” position, you can build as much momentum as you do with a high leg lift. Read my article on “Lift for Show, Load for Doe” to understand more about the “Load.”

I also recommend, when in the stretch, to start with your head and hips just inside your drive foot.  Have your feet almost shoulder width apart and your lift leg hip ready to fire to the target. This will help you get your lower half moving even faster to the target which will allow you to build maximum momentum along with optimal speed to hold base runners on.

It is important to remember that whatever you do to your delivery in the windup or stretch they must match each other once the hips begin moving towards the plate. If this does not occur then it will be very hard to stay consistent mechanically through the entire game. This will have a big effect on your balls to strikes ratio.

What you need to do first in your young career is focus one becoming an exceptional athlete. Scouts are looking for players who are talented athletes with little wear and tear. This is true with any recruiters out there. They do not want damaged goods. So the less time spent on the mound, at a young age, and the more time spent improving your athletic performance, the better. Play every position if possible and if you get to varsity baseball in high school and you want to just focus on pitching, then I would so, “OK, Do it!”

This doesn’t mean you should NOT practice pitching mechanics before high school. Start learning proper pitching mechanics as young as possible because proper pitching mechanics mean proper throwing mechanics. Proper throwing mechanics also produce proper hitting mechanics. This is because a Coach who knows how to train proper mechanics, understands how to train the athlete and not just a pitcher or hitter. This is also why I encourage young athletes to play as many sports as possible, without them overlapping. This is because, once again, we must train the athlete and not just one specific talent.

To prove this, just look at Professional sports. Pro sports are full of multi-sport athletes. Greg Maddux is a great golfer, along with John Smoltz, Roger Clemens, Ken Griffy Jr. Cal Ripken loved to play a lot of basketball in the off season. Tom Glavine was drafted in the NHL back in 1984. Michael Jordan retired from basketball to play minor league baseball. Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders and Brian Jordan, to name a few, played at the same time for the MLB and the NFL . The list goes on and on.

So, stop trying to fit yourself in the perfect mold of a pitcher at 14. Focus on your competitive edge and learn everything you can about the sport and all the positions. I always tell my pitchers, “Train the athlete first and then you can train the pitcher.”

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.

I hate to use a legend like Satchel Paige as a bad example but in this case he is a bad example of something he really didn’t care about. He was a magician with the ball, not a flame thrower. Notice how slowly Paige transfers his momentum all at once.

Now notice Felix Hernandez holding his weight back to the last second before letting his momentum explode to the target.

The key to performing this explosive mometum tranfer is in the lift leg and the head. When you lift your leg kick your butt towards the target, then lower the leg away from the body moving the hips back in the opposite direction.  Your weight is balanced over the “Power Pad” of your back foot. The “Power Pad” is the part of the bottom of your foot, just under the balls of your foot. As your lift leg travels down the hill and you squat on your back leg, keep your head over your back leg until your lift leg can not go any farther. Then triple extend your back leg, fire hips then shoulders.

The main focus here is transfering momentum at the last second by holding your weight back until you can’t anymore. If the mechanical directions I described here are confusing, then just use the focus of this topic and add it to your delivery as you see fit. I would take this advice with any correction to your delivery.

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.

“Top Velocity in all sports comes from momentum in the lower half leading to separation of back hip to back shoulder.”

Notice the three pictures here. These are the best throwers in their sport and what do they have in common besides the fact that they are throwing something? They all have separation of the hips and shoulders, which is giving them majority torque in the core instead of in the shoulder. This is why throwing upper 90′s in baseball looks effortless in guys like John Smoltz. When you can develop maximum torque in the core, instead of the shoulder, you will reach your Top Velocity.

This is why I have developed this site because most of you reading this are saying, “Wow, I never looked at these three sports this way and the similarities of these top athletes.”

So Why is this important?
This is important because throwing in these individual sports has been seen as a separate and unique event and not seen, until now, as something as common to all sports as running.

So what does this mean?
It means that we should be looking at what these top athletes are doing in all these sports, to help gain an edge in our sport. As I always say to my young pitchers, “First train as an athlete, then as a baseball player and finally as a pitcher.” This is the only way to reach your Top Velocity and I am here to help you. So read more of this site and post your questions on the forum. It is FREE!