Let’s face it, throwing the ball at your top velocity is risky but so is returning punts in the NFL. If we are going to enhance our ability while promoting a long and healthy career, we must understand how our bodies work and how to prevent injury. The American Sports Medicine Institute has already informed the public that pitching injuries spawn from three main factors; Overuse, Poor Physical Fitness and Poor Mechanics. To take this information further, I will list here the top 10 pitching secrets to prevent injury in order from the most significant to the least but still significant.

Pitching injury prevention secrets

1. More Hip to Shoulder Separation – This is not only a major pitching velocity secret but it is also a major injury prevention secret. You know it is a good tip when it will increase both velocity and prevent injury. It will prevent injury because it allows the arm to stay relaxed while the body builds the power instead of the arm working to build the power. Optimal hip to shoulder separation will put the throwing arm behind the ball through release. If the pitcher has poor hip to shoulder separation then his arm will get out front early, preventing proper pronation. This is also critical for good deceleration which promotes arm health.
2. Increase Your Stride Distance and Power – I would bet that pitchers who have longer strides, have less arm issues than pitchers with shorter strides, but I have no research to back this up. I am making this claim strictly from my experience playing, coaching and analyzing this game through my career. The theory is that a short stride will prevent the pitcher from building more stride power which will force the arm to generate most of the velocity. This will then lead to more wear and tear on the arm and then eventually an injury. Increasing your stride distance is the first step towards injury prevention. The next step is increasing your stride power.
3. Do Not Swing Your Arm - The arm should never swing out of the glove, especially behind the back or way above the shoulder before the shoulders fire towards the target. This is what leads to the infamous inverted W or in laymen’s terms the M. It puts the arm in what is called the “Red Zone,” this is the zone where the shoulder and elbow are most vulnerable because there is more torque being applied to the joints based on the positioning. To prevent over abusing the arm, we must train it to follow the body and not lead the way. The revolutionary approach to pitching velocity called 3X Pitching has proven that when the arm starts the delivery, the body takes a back seat which reduces velocity and leads to injury. This swinging of the arm is a sign that the arm is taking control and in return, most of the stress.
4. Do Not Pull Down to Release – It feels strong when your arm is firing towards release and you start pulling down on your forearm to force your arm through its final path to the target. This pulling down of the forearm makes it feel like the ball is screaming out of your fingers tips. This may increase velocity but it comes with a big price. The price is the effects of overworking the forearm muscles. These are small muscles that when they fatigue, the body losses the fine motor skills of the hand which will effect your pitch grips. Most important, it will put more wear and tear in your elbow. This pulling down of the arm is not a component of hard throwers. It is what pitchers do when they are struggling with transferring stride power into core torque and then the velocity of the ball. Instead of pulling down to release, work on more hip to shoulder separation and good forearm pronation.
5. Build Joint Integrity Weekly – Just like eating, taking a shower or brushing your teeth, if you want to pitch at your top velocity through a long career then you must perform rotator cuff exercises to strengthen your cuff two times per week. You would be surprised the amount of pitchers who never do this. Post rotator cuff surgery, if I miss a few weeks of joint integrity training while in-season, my shoulder stability begins to fail. It is amazing how quickly I can loss this stability and strength. This loss of stability overtime will definitely lead to injury. For a complete rotator cuff program check out the 3X Pitching Velocity program.
6. Develop More Core and Leg Strength -  If you have weak legs and core then where will your body get its power? The shoulders and arms. I have worked with pitchers who are so weak in their core and legs that when they try to increase their stride distance, their arms start flapping like a bird trying to take flight. If you look at some of the biggest legs of pitchers in Major League Baseball you will find a ton of healthy, hard throwing pitchers. Nolan Ryan is probably the best example of this in my lifetime. He stayed in the upper 90′s even into his 40′s. He has tree trunks for legs and he never had a serious pitching injury.
7. Quality Throws over Quantity – If you want to “strengthen your arm” do it with your strength and conditioning program, like in the 3X pitching Velocity program. Do not do it with your throwing program. Your throwing program should be used to improve your mechanics with drills and a low volume of throws, like in the 3X Pitching Velocity Program. Do not use your throwing program as your strength and conditioning program, this will only lead to overuse and abuse of your shoulder and elbow. This is why I do not support extreme long tossing.
8. Avoid Machine Lifting – Machine weight training is terrible for athletes. It promotes pattern overload and will make a pitcher more vulnerable to injury. This is the case because when using machines for lifting weights, like with a press movement, the machines forces the pitcher to take the same path of movement every single rep. When using free weights, the pattern of movement is always different. There is a mechanism in the body to prevent the overload of one muscle or muscle group which will prevent over fatigue of a single muscle or muscle group. By changing the path of movement, the body uses different muscles or muscle groups to share in the work load. When a muscle is fatigued and the reps continue, other muscles take over to over compensate for the malfunction. In the shoulder, this will change the efficiency of the movement and force the shoulder to rotate off axis. This has been proven to lead to serious joint injury.
9. Eat like a Pro – If you do not give your body the building blocks to a healthy pitcher, in its diet, then how is it going to maintain itself as a healthy pitcher? This is the most neglected secret of injury prevention. Most athletes and especially pitchers believe they can eat whatever they want whenever they want. This is complete ignorance. If you can take the time to learn the basics of a healthy diet and how to feed your body what it needs then you are at least giving your body the chance to stay healthy.
10. 10 Hours of Quality Sleep Daily – If you are not sleeping at least 10 hours when training or pitching then you are not giving your body what it needs to repair itself. If you can follow secrets 1-9 then this last pitching injury prevention secret will work wonders for your career. A quality nights sleep can mean the difference between a great days performance and a good days performance. Losing sleep overtime prevents the body from fully recovering and rebuilding which eventually leads to injury.

If you have been following this site then you know that I am totally against this approach to pitching. Here is a quick summary of why I am against this type of training. The American Sports Medicine Institute (ASMI) proves in their latest case study here that this type of long toss creates elbow varus torque in the arm and uses different mechanics than those used on the mound. In defence, Alan Jaeger says that the athletics of the 300 foot throw when restricted to 60 feet, through his “Pull Down” phase, forces the pitcher to be more open and explosive. The reason that the revolutionary approach to pitching velocity, 3X Pitching, is far superior to this extreme long toss approach is because the 3X approach defines each component of its 3X Pitching Mechanics and uses drills and a complete training program to train the pitcher to implement these mechanics into their delivery, without abusing the arm. Alan Jaeger’s program never seems to mention anything about good mechanics. This is a major reason why I am against his extreme long toss and speak out against it, because if you do not have good mechanics when building your throws to 300 feet, you are extremely vulnerable to injury as proven in the ASMI case study and the reason why ASMI advises against this type of training. Another big reason is the fact that what he is trying to teach athletically, through his extreme long toss program, can be done without putting the pitcher through this type of rotator cuff and elbow abuse.

If Alan Jaeger understood the mechanics of this own training then he would learn that throwing long toss at extreme distances trains the pitcher to build elastic energy early in the delivery. This means it forces the pitcher to get good external rotation in the arm, along with building elastic energy through the chest cavity and hip flexors early. This occurs because the trajectory of release is a lot higher than throwing off of the mound, which forces the pitcher to throw the ball behind the front leg. Alan Jaeger then attempts to correct this mechanical flaw by taking these mechanics through his “Pull Down” phase, down to 60 feet, which forces the pitcher to finish over the front leg. This would be a good approach if he used good mechanics to keep pitchers safe from this extreme training. Just like it is critical to have good lifting mechanics when training to get bigger, stronger and faster but the main reason that 3X Pitching is a far superior approach to pitching velocity is because it trains the pitcher to do the same as an extreme long toss program without putting the abuse on the arm. This is why 3X Pitching wins hands down!

In the 3X Pitching Velocity Program the medicine ball drills are training the pitcher to develop elastic energy early in the delivery as effectively as extreme long toss but you are only throwing the 2 lb med ball 40 feet while focusing to hit all of the 3X Mechanics. You then take these mechanics into the target throws with the 5 ounce baseball. This is why 3X Pitching is so effective in increasing velocity and it is injury free. With Alan Jaeger’s extreme long toss program, I know he can not say the same!

Stodden DF, Fleisig GS, McLean SP, Lyman SL, Andrews JR. Relationship of pelvis and upper torso kinematics to pitched baseball velocity. Journal of Applied Biomechanics 17(2):164-172, 2001.

Matsuo T, Escamilla RF, Fleisig GS, Barrentine SW, Andrews JF. Comparison of kinematic and temporal parameters between different pitch velocity groups. Journal of Applied Biomechanics 17(1): 1-13, 2001.

Stodden, DF, Fleisig, GS, McLean, SP, Andrews, JR. Relationship of Biomechanical Factors to Basebal Pitching Velocity: Within Pitcher Variation. Journal of Applied Biomechanics 21(1): 44-56, 2005

Methods

In three published studies, Dr. Glenn Fleisig and Dr. James R. Andrews from ASMI worked with other researchers in studying many of the parameters that affect baseball pitch velocity. Two of the studies looked between different pitchers and one study looked at variations within each pitcher. Motions during delivery were analyzed using a high speed (200 frames per second) infrared three-dimensional motion analysis system.

Results

In the study by Matsuo and others, pitchers with higher ball velocity were compared with pitchers with lower ball velocity. Four significant differences were found between these two groups. Compared to the low ball velocity group, the higher ball velocity pitchers demonstrated less lead knee flexion velocity after front foot contact and greater lead knee extension velocity at the time of ball release. Extending the lead knee in this manner may provide stabilization allowing better energy transfer from the trunk to the throwing arm, and could be a critical factor in pitch velocity. Maximum shoulder external rotation and forward trunk tilt at ball release were also greater in the higher velocity group. Greater shoulder external rotation causes a stretch of the internal rotators allowing energy to be stored in these muscles, and creating greater internal rotation during the arm acceleration phase.

Two variations were found in the timing of events. Maximum elbow extension angular velocity and maximum shoulder internal rotation angular velocity occurred earlier in the motion of higher velocity pitchers. The maximum shoulder internal rotation angular velocity also occurred closer to the moment of ball release in the higher velocity pitchers. This optimal timing may aid in generating higher velocity pitches.

Another finding of interest is that early in the pitching motion, the two groups were dissimilar in the timing of their movements, while their later movement timing was much more similar. This implies that early trunk and torso movements are more varied among pitchers than late arm movements.

In the first study by Stodden and others (2001), pelvis and upper torso variables were studied in 19 elite baseball pitchers. The study found that when the arm was completely cocked back (that is, maximum shoulder external rotation, or “MER”), more “open” pelvis and upper torso orientation correlated with increased ball velocity. More open pelvis angle at the time of ball release (REL) also correlated with increased pitch velocity increased. Additionally, pelvis angular velocity from front foot contact to MER, and upper torso angular velocity from MER to REL increased with increased velocity.

The data indicate that a pitcher who is able to position himself properly, and rotate his pelvis and upper torso more quickly is able to generate greater momentum. Theoretically, this increase in momentum leads to greater velocity of the throwing arm and thus greater pitch velocity.

The most recent study by Stodden and others (2005) showed that for a given pitcher, increased elbow flexion torque, shoulder proximal force and elbow proximal force produced greater ball velocity. In addition, the maximum shoulder horizontal adduction occurred later and maximum shoulder internal rotation occurred earlier at greater ball velocities. Higher ball velocity also resulted in decreased shoulder horizontal adduction at foot contact, decreased shoulder abduction during acceleration, and increased trunk tilt forward at ball release.

Conclusion

A pitcher with increased shoulder external rotation, faster pelvis and upper trunk rotation, and greater front knee stabilization and extension will throw with greater ball velocity. Improved timing to maximize arm velocity closer to the time of ball release will also help ball velocity. Increased torque and force produced at both the shoulder and elbow will also lead to greater ball velocity.

Copyright © 2000, American Sports Medicine Institute
December 18, 2007

http://www.asmi.org/asmiweb/research/usedarticles/highlowpitches.htm

This question can stir up a big argument but there is only one answer. The arm does not generate the velocity. It only guides the pitch. Therefore the arm must follow the body and does not come into play until the body has done its job.

I have been in many arguments about this issue. I have listened to coaches tell their pitchers that if they want to throw harder they need to speed up their arms. My question is how will speeding up your arm increase your velocity? This doesn’t make much sense because if you arm leads your body, it must leave the body behind. If you leave the body behind then it is up to the small muscles of the arm to take the entire workload of generating 90+ mph.

I think to prove my answer to the question above we must once again look at the little pitchers in the game. This is because these guys must work a lot harder to generate 90+ mph. I go once again to my favorite little man Tim Lincecum; 5’7 165 lbs. Notice the picture here of him at front foot strike. Now, where is his arm? It is hiding behind his body. YES, all you coaches out there who are coaching your pitchers to speed up there arms, it is behind his body. This means his body is driving the pitch. This means his body is generating the velocity. This means the arm is along for the ride.

The coaches who will argue my point here are the coaches who use giant pitchers like Randy Johnson as their example of pitchers who have a lot of arm action. This is true but these pitchers have more leverage on the ball than the average man. If you are 6’8 like Randy Johnson then congratulations you are in a small percentage of baseball players but if you are 6’2 and under take it easy on your arm and learn to work your body as a single unit in your delivery. When you work on generating velocity, work on pulling it from your legs and core and not your arm.

I recommend using medicine balls as often as you can. I have many throwing drills with these balls that force the pitcher to use every muscle they have to make the throw. This is how we must pitch if we want to throw and withstand 90+ mph.

The Ace Pitcher Handbook has a full medicine ball workout.

This is only a beginner training program. It does not included any joint integrity training, medicine ball training or anaerobic conditioning. To learn a more advanced training program, which includes everything you need to know to increase your athletic performance as a pitcher or position player, check out the 3X Pitching Velocity Program. It is highly recommended!

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ALKALINE / ACIDIC FOOD CHARTS

The charts below are provided for those trying to “adjust” their body pH through their diet. The pH scale is from 0 to 14, with numbers below 7 acidic (low on oxygen) and numbers above 7 alkaline. These charts are intended only as a general guide to alkalizing and acidifying foods. Note that there may be some discrepancies between foods included on these charts.*

To learn why this diet is important for athletes and pitchers read this article Pitching Nutrition and Supplements.

For more info visit http://www.essense-of-life.com/moreinfo/foodcharts.htm

I am writing about “Violence,” the way I would write about “Power” in the pitching delivery. I use the word “Violence” to make a point. Before I attempt to make the point let’s look at the definition.

Define Violence: Violence is the exertion of physical force so as to injure or abuse.

Now why would I want to use the word “Violence” to make a point about something as delicate as pitching? The same reason companies use the word “Maximum Strength” to describe something as delicate as medicine.  Jerry Sienfeld has some great comedy on this topic.

Some people aren’t satisfied with “extra”, they want “maximum”! “Gimme the maximum strength ! Give me the maximum allowable human dosage ! That’s the kind of pain I’m in!

Figure out what will kill me, and then back it off a little bit”.

Very funny stuff but their is some truth in this joke. This is what makes it a great joke. The truth is, “Figure out what will kill me, and then back it off a little bit”, this actually works in the medical field. This is why morphine is still used today.

So lets take this philosphy and use it with pitching or any sport specific event. As pitchers, let’s learn how to exert as much force to our body WITHOUT causing injury. Now, let’s be careful here because your one body is all you have. So you better educate yourself like a doctor would do in his career, before pushing your body to its limit. To educate yourself you need to use a website like this to learn everything you can about good mechanics and how to develop an athletic physique. Not until you have established an above average understanding of “Physic driven Mechanics,” and have developed optimal strength, should you push your body to the limit.  I am serious. If you push too hard, too soon, you could seriously damage yourself. I did!

The way “Violence” in your delivery will help you, is if you use it at the correct time. Science has shown, that the speed of rotation from hips to shoulders, is in direct correlation to the velocity of the pitch. This means if you have good “Separation” in your hips to shoulders at front foot strike, then adding more violence to the rotation of these two pivots will increase your velocity. This video of Edison Volquez illustrates this point.

You can see the “Violence” in his delivery. He is pushing his body to its limits to achieve his maximum velocity. The longevity of his career rides in his mechanics. Does he have good enough mecahnics to prevent his wear and tear from exceeding his recovery rate between pitching appearances.

This is the name of the game in Pro ball. You may not realize this at the level you are now, so this is why I am giving you this information. If you want to play pro ball one day you need to start learning as much as you can about your body. My advice to you is, you must first train your body to handle this stress before you subject it to this stress. Also, remember drugs will always tempt you because of their healing powers but in the long term your body will last longer if you learn to do it naturally.