3X

3X Pitching

3X stands for Triple Extension. Triple Extension is the extension of the ankle joint, the knee joint and the hip flexor. Triple Extension or 3X is the foundation of 3X Pitching. This term comes from the Olympic Lifting world which was the springboard for sport specific training. The reason that Triple Extension is so important is that this is how athletes move and generate power. Without Triple Extension or pushing off of the ground, we are almost powerless. Better athletes are able to bounce more force off of the ground through the stretch shortening cycle and Triple Extension than others. Before I get more into Triple Extension, the stretch shortening cycle, ground reaction forces, Triple Flexion, the Kinetic Chain and other advanced terminology that will help teach you a cutting edge approach to pitching velocity, (that at the current time very few coaches are teaching and will allow you to reach your velocity goals) I will first cover the philosophy, benefits and the inspiration of this velocity enhancement and injury prevention focused approach to pitching.

The 3X Philosophy

Most approaches to pitching mechanics are arm or upper body focused. Most of them are mainly focusing after front foot strike. This would be when the lead leg lands just following the stride. The 3X approach to pitching is lower body focused and believes that the arm is only along for the ride and not the main tool for developing your top velocity. In the case study from the U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health called “An EMG Analysis of the Shoulder in Throwing and Pitching” by Doctors Jobe FW, Tibone JE, Perry J, Moynes D states that during acceleration of the shoulder and arm, the shoulder and arm had a lack of muscle activity, even though the arm was accelerating forward in space. Here is the conclusion of the entire study:

Five male subjects’ throwing and pitching motions were analyzed by dynamic electromyography and high speed photography. Electrodes inserted into the deltoid and rotator cuff muscles attempted to define muscle activation patterns during the throwing and pitching cycle. The wind-up or preparation (Stage I) had no consistent pattern. Cocking (Stage II) had a sequential muscle activation pattern of first deltoid activity, followed by the S.I.T. muscles and finally by the subscapularis muscle. Acceleration (Stage III) had a lack of muscle activity, even though the arm was accelerating forward in space. Follow-through (Stage IV) was the most active stage with all the muscles firing intensely. The muscle patterns observed during the cycle were largely characteristic of attempts to decelerate the arm.
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6829838)

This proves that the power to move the arm through the acceleration stage, to throw the ball to the target, was created before the acceleration stage, which is also before the arm is ever being used to throw the ball. This means that from the beginning of the leg lift, through the stride and all of the mechanical events that occur after front foot strike, this is when power is being generated. The 3X approach to pitching uses science to teach pitchers how to generate more power before the acceleration stage of the arm.

The scientific formula of 3X Pitching is based on the science of matter and energy and their interactions, which is better known as physics. Older descriptions to pitching like “Drop and Drive” or “Stand Tall and Fall” are broad labels on pitching styles but fail to define a scientific approach to pitching. 3X Pitching starts by defining the three most important components and their relationships: force, acceleration, and torque. To understand the importance of the relationship between these three we must first define them separately.

1. Force - is a cause to move by pushing or pulling.
2. Acceleration - is the change in velocity over time.
3. Torque - is a twisting force.

Now let’s put them together in their relationships. Force starts the delivery through a pushing or pulling effect to generate momentum. Acceleration is the change of speed or velocity of that momentum and Torque is adding a twisting force to take advantage of the elastic properties of the body to assist the speed or velocity of the momentum. As you can see these three components are critical and must all be present when pitching. What it is teaching us is if you max out these three components, by increasing your body’s ability to generate power in your pitching delivery, you have reached your top velocity.

This is a very simplistic way to define pitching and pitching velocity through physics but it is a very significant way to define it as well. “Occam’s razor,” is an old teaching that says “the simplest explanation is more likely the correct one.” This means if you can break something complicated down into its simplest form then you may just have your answer. This answer is the formula for the 3X Pitching approach. Later on in this book I will uncover the building blocks that will build on top of this formula and teach you how to incorporate 3X Pitching into your own delivery, which will help you reach your velocity goals.

The Benefits of 3X Pitching

Of course, before you do anything in life you want to know why you are doing it and the answer to the “why” lives in the benefits. The list of benefits that come from the 3X approach to pitching is as follows.

1. More Power
2. More Velocity
3. Longevity
4. Less Chance of Injury
5. More Confidence
6. More Success

Velocity enhancement alone is a major benefit that sells most pitchers but you must make sure that you are not gaining a negative with your new positive. For example, you wouldn’t want to gain velocity and in return develop a labrum tear. Therefore you must make sure that with velocity enhancement comes injury prevention. This is another big plus about 3X Pitching.

I first developed this approach learning how to pitch again injury free. The bonus was the velocity gains. Once I started to notice the velocity gains while my arm was feeling better and stronger, I realized that I was on to something special. This doesn’t mean that you can’t get hurt once you learn 3X Pitching. What it means is it takes a more total body approach to pitching, which helps pitchers who have more “all arm mechanics”, reduce the stress they are putting on their rotator cuff and elbow. The effect of these total body mechanics will also improve your longevity. This means you will not only be able to throw more pitches at a higher intensity in the game but through your entire career. Finally with all of these benefits comes confidence, and ultimately success, but this doesn’t come without a price. The price is in the workload. It will not be easy to implement 3X Pitching into your own delivery, so if you commit, you must be certain that you will find success. If you can’t make this commitment, then I wouldn’t recommend changing what you have been doing up to this point in your career.

Inspiration of 3X Pitching

I was 18 years old and a late bloomer with a full scholarship to a top level Junior College. I was only 6 feet and 175 pounds at the time. I was set up to be the second starter in rotation for the top Junior College pitching staffs in the state. My coach was expecting a lot of me and I also had a few NCAA DI schools interested. The problem was my arm was killing me. During the second game of the season, into the 4th inning, my arm hurt so bad I was forced to take massive amounts of pain killers and on top of that I had to punch my arm while sitting in the dugout so I would feel the pain of the punch instead of the pain of the inflammation in my arm. I was facing the first batter of the inning and it happened like it was out of a movie. I threw a pitch and my arm completely gave out. I could no longer move it. I looked at my coach and he knew something was wrong. He took me out and said, “go ice your arm and we will see how it looks tomorrow.” One week later I still could not move my arm. I had surgery and my life changed forever. After 6 months of rehab, I had made no progress. My arm still hurt and I couldn’t throw the ball. At this point every major Doctor in the area told me I would never pitch again. I even worked with the strength and conditioning coach for the Dodgers and Giants and he told me that I was finished. I was 18 years old and my life of baseball was over. I could not accept this because it made no sense to me at all. This is why I decided to grow up and learn what had just happened in my life.

What I first learned was that the medical field is flawed. They do not have all of the answers. Hell, they had only one answer for me and that was “sorry we can’t help you.” I then went to coaches and pitching instructors who said if you can’t pitch, then you must be finished. This is why I was forced to learn this myself or move on in my life. I loved the game and my talents, so I refused to give up on them. I spent the next five years looking outside of baseball and outside of the medical field for answers because I felt that baseball and medicine had failed me. What I found was that baseball and the medical professions live in their own little cocoons and there is a whole new world of information that has yet to penetrate these organizations. This mainly has to do with politics and traditions. Once I learned that there is a lot more information out there than what I was told, I never stopped searching for more. This searching lead to a new approach to pitching and training for me and this is how I not only pitched again but reach my velocity goal of 94mph and played minor league ball after doctors and baseball told me I was finished.

Even after I decided to retire from professional baseball, I am still searching for more information today, 16 years after my surgery. This searching and my pitching experience has given me the knowledge of pitching mechanics that very few people possess. I would have to say that my inspiration to the 3X Pitching approach came first from my career ending injury and then the discovery that most approaches to pitching were so old that I felt I could discover something revolutionary. I will let you be the judge of that.

Triple Extension (3X)

When I first learned of the phrase Triple Extension I was shocked. I was in college and I was being trained by the top strength and conditioning Coaches in the Nation, post surgery. I could not believe that in my entire career, from rec ball to high school ball in both football and baseball, I had never heard of this terminology. I was actually very upset. It felt like all of my previous Coaches were holding valuable information from me to hinder my success. This was the day I saw the light…………………………………………………………….

Entire book for purchase. Coming soon…..

Download 3X Pitching sample here!

Before I give you these keys you need to prepare your mind for success because these keys will change how you look at pitching and velocity. More than likely the knowledge you have of pitching velocity is not getting the job done and YES you can gain knowledge from a source like TopVelocity.net which will guide you to pitching velocity that you have dreamed of reaching. Obviously, I am proud of these 3 Keys to Pitching Velocity because I am gloating but I did have to pay a heavy price for this knowledge. I had to overcome a career ending rotator cuff tear before playing pro ball, along with over ten years of searching and searching for this knowledge and abusing my body through trial and error. These 3 Keys helped me to reach my velocity goals after several doctors told me I would never pitch again. So here goes!

The 3 Keys to Pitching Velocity

1. Triple Extension
2. Optimal Hip to Shoulder Separation
3. 180 degrees of External Rotation

That is it! This list is the Holy Grail to Pitching Velocity and you now have it. I am sure you have no idea what you have, so I will take the rest of this article to explain what each one of these keys mean to you.

Triple Extension

This is the foundation of my 3X program which is apart of the Ace Pitcher Handbook and the 3X Velocity Camp Instruction Videos. Triple Extension is defined as the extension of the ankle joint, the knee joint and the hip flexor. This is the first phase of generating velocity. If performed effectively this key will increase velocity by 4-5 mph. To be performed effectively it must occur JUST BEFORE FRONT FOOT STRIKE. This is when the lift leg lands and opens to the target. If Triple Extension does not occur JUST BEFORE FRONT FOOT STRIKE then it will have a limited effect on velocity. To learn more read the article here at TopVelocity.net on 3X Pitching.

Optimal Hip to Shoulder Separation

This key to Pitching Velocity is the hardest to learn out of all the keys. It is also what separates high velocity throwers from low velocity throwers. The reason for its difficulty is that your lower half must separate from your upper half and most young pitchers do not have this coordination. Try it the next time you are throwing and you will feel how awkward it is when you first experiment with it. You can perform this component by driving your drive leg forward and at the same time cocking your throwing arm back. What this key does is build what I call core torque. Putting majority torque in your core will not only allow you to generate more velocity, it will protect your arm from injury. It will protect your arm because when you build more core torque you have a better chance of not abducting your arm into the red zone. It will generate more velocity because you are now using a big explosive muscle group to assist momentum. To learn more about this key and how to implement it into your delivery I recommend the Ace Pitcher Handbook.

180 degrees of External Rotation

This key only comes when you have mastered the two keys before this. This key component should not be implemented or worked on until you have mastered the two keys before this one. The day you are able to externally rotate your arm to 180 degrees after building optimal hip to shoulder separation, you will experience a mental high that you have never felt before. The day that ball rips out of your fingers at 90 or 95 plus, you will not look back. This key will also only occur when your arm is completely relaxed to allow these eccentric forces to take control of the ball. This is the point in the delivery that Nolan Ryan would say he would then just let it ride. No pulling the ball down to finish the pitch, only tucking your chin and thrusting your chest forward while relaxing your arm and letting your arm externally rotate. Once your arm is stretched out then all you need to do is let it fire by allowing it to internally rotate to release as quick as possible.

Like I said before this may not make much since to the pitcher who has been brain washed by conventional wisdom. So do yourself a favor if you are that guy and watch the Matrix. Yes, watch the movie the Matrix and then stop listening to the same old stuff that everyone is telling you and has been telling you on the ball field and cut through the BS. Velocity is the product of an explosive kinetic chain of events that move through the entire body and transfer efficiently and effectively into the ball. For a pitcher to reach velocities as high as 90 or 100 mph he must fire and stretch his muscles and skeletal structure to its limits without causing injury over time. If you are to reach these velocities you must push yourself to these limits and train your body to max out its potential by using everything that it has in its power. You can rely on luck or you can get down to business and learn how to implement these 3 keys of pitching velocity into your mechanics and training.

3X Pitching

To learn the 3X pitching approach you must first understand the timing behind the science. Timing is everything when you are trying to develop more efficient and explosive mechanics. If your timing is off, everything can go wrong. This will not only effect velocity but accuracy and most important it could cause injury because this approach is using big muscle groups to drive little muscle groups. So when learning 3X pitching start at a low intensity until you develop sound mechanics.

With 3X pitching we are not focused as much on the lift leg as the drive leg. The reason for this is because the drive leg is more important in generating momentum than the lift leg. A good example is a pitcher like Dontrelle Willis who has an enormous leg lift in the windup and a normal leg lift in the stretch but keeps his same velocity between both deliveries. This is because of the power in his drive leg and most important the timing of his drive leg.

Before we go over 3X timing we need to cover hip to shoulder separation. Notice in the picture of Tim Lincecum that his shoulders are completely closed and his hips are almost facing home plate. This is creating core torque in his delivery which you can see in the front of his jersey. His jersey looks like it is being rung out to dry. The key to creating this much hip to shoulder separation is by making sure that the lower half starts before the upper half. This means that the arm is the last projectile to launch in this ballistic movement. This degree of separation will allow for optimal torque to be generated in the big muscle groups of the core while holding the arm and shoulders back so the body can accelerate to its maximum speed. If this degree of separation is not created and the back hip and shoulder are in sync then the arm will throw the ball before momentum and torque can be generated. This means that 3X will have very little effect on the velocity of the ball.

To allow 3X to have a big impact on your velocity the timing must come just before front foot strike. It must work with the stability of the landing leg to generate torque while accelerating momentum. If 3X occurs to early or too late then momentum will slow down into front foot strike which will decrease both torque and momentum. Therefore, 3X must occur just before front foot strike if optimal torque and momentum are to be generated which will produce top velocity in return.

3X Pitching is very difficult to learn because of these types of body movements that must occur at the correct time, along with the ability to generate extreme amounts of power when performing the movement. To learn this approach to pitching, so it can help increase your velocity, you must not only use drills that will help you develop the muscle memory but you will also need to increase your bodies ability to develop power from the back leg.

The Ace Pitcher Handbook has drills and a training program that focuses on the 3X approach to pitching.

The picture here of Roy Oswalt illustrates this optimal “Triple Extension” and “Separation.” Good separation from back hip to back shoulder builds torque in the core. An indication that a pitcher is developing that torque is noticeable in the twisting of the front of the jersey which is obvious in the picture of Oswalt. This is the most difficult position to master in the pitching delivery. It is a challenge to learn the muscle memory that allows the shoulders to stay back while the hips drive forward. The reason for the difficulty is that this requires a lot of core and leg strength. This is why I promote a very intense lifting program for pitchers that develops fast twitch muscle fibers and optimal core and leg strength. You will not master this position or this core torque until you are strong enough to achieve it.

Watch this video here or read my article on, “Olympic Lifting Increases Pitching Velocity” to learn more and purchase the “Ace Pitcher Handbook” to start the lifting program.