Baseball Workouts to Make You Bigger, Stronger, Faster
April 18, 2011
In the game of baseball, all skills require small muscle groups moving big muscle groups. This means you must use a strength and conditioning program that not only develops you to become Bigger, Stronger, Faster but it builds joint integrity as well. Most training programs neglect either the effectiveness of training the big muscle groups and only isolates the small muscle groups and vice verse. A training program that is built around both muscle groups is far superior to the others.
It is important to also make sure that you are educated in the mechanics of the lifts. The Olympic lifts are some of the most powerful lifts in the weight room to training the athlete to grow Bigger, Stronger, Faster. These lifts though are as intricate as learn proper throwing or hitting mechanics. You must spend as much time learning these lifting mechanics as you spend learning your throwing or hitting mechanics. This would mean you need a program that comes with a trainer who is educated enough to coach these lifts or a training video that will replace the trainer. You will find some great training videos below along with the baseball training programs. Read more
Does Increasing Arm Strength Increase Velocity?
March 25, 2011
Basic physics teaches us that to throw a ball at your top velocity you must use more than just your arm. You must use the entire kinetic chain, along with every muscle group that will help you reach your top velocity. There are countless articles on this site on how to use more of your body to increase velocity and there is also the revolutionary pitching velocity program called 3X Pitching to coach and train you how to pitch with your total body and increase velocity from 5-10 mph. Outside of this information lets go into more detail on arm strength and velocity.
Arm Strength and Velocity
To answer the question, YES, more arm strength will increase velocity but it could prevent you from reaching your potential top velocity. The arm muscles that are responsible for generating arm velocity is the Pectoralis major, Subscapularis, Supraspinatus, Infraspinatus, Teres minor and Latissimus dorsi. Technically these are not arm muscles because they are more apart of the shoulder, but these muscles are responsible for moving the arm. This is one of the problems with using the phrase “arm strength” when talking about throwing velocity. Read more
Triple Extension – 3X Pitching
January 27, 2010
The topic of Triple Extension in the Pitching delivery is growing more attention. I first brought the teachings of triple extension from Olympic Lifting into the Pitching world when I launched TopVelocity.net. I continue to believe that Triple Extension, or the acronym 3X, is a major component of velocity. Triple Extension is the extension of the ankle joint, the knee joint and the hip flexors. The best way to understand and visualize 3X is when jumping. When you jump, you triple extend these 3 joints as your body drives itself off the ground. The problem with learning 3x and pitching, is that it must come after learning good hip to shoulder separation. The reason most coaches do not coach driving off the mound is because they do not know how to teach hip to shoulder separation before teaching driving the back leg. Teaching 3X without teaching good separation is like putting the cart before the horse. It doesn’t work and therefore most coaches totally avoid the entire 3X approach. Read more
The Proper Research on Why Extreme Long Toss is Bad for Your Arm!
July 18, 2009
Alan Jaeger is upset that TopVelocity.net has not done the proper research on long tossing. He said in an email to me, “If you are going to be in the public domain, I would urge you to do the proper research.” I am not sure if you have visited his website but I do not see him practicing what he preaches. There is a lot more research posted on TopVelocity.net than www.jaegersports.com but I will still give him what he has requested in his email, “Proper Research.” Read more
The Hip Slide to Pitching Velocity
February 12, 2009
The biggest problem I find in young pitchers is that they have poor separation in hips to shoulders. There are many articles on this site covering the pitching component “Separation.” It is so important because having separation from your back hip to back shoulder before the shoulders rotate to the plate, is critical for velocity and the health of your arm. What “Separation” does is it builds core torque. It puts more torque in the big muscle groups of the core, instead of mainly in the small muscle groups of the shoulder. Read more


