Velocity is a product of power and if you can understand how we generate power as athletes, you will then discover how you can personally increase and maintain velocity.

Power is both speed and strength. It isn’t enough to be an athlete who can only move a lot of weight or an athlete who can only move very quickly. You must be that athlete who can move a lot of weight, very quickly. This is called explosive power or explosive strength. This can all be measured in what I call the Pitcher Power Curve.

The Pitcher Power Curve

This diagram alone is the secret to velocity, if you have learned how to convert power to velocity. To learn how power is converted to velocity then watch the 3X Pitching 101 video. If you understand or have implemented the 3X Mechanics and you are dealing with a power issue then this diagram is what you need to discover where you must spend your time. The way this curve works is simple. Write down your percentages of your 1 Repitition Maximum or 1RM for these three lifts; the Back Squat, the Power Clean and the Bench Press. Also write down your vertical or broad jump distances with your sprint times in the 40 yard dash or the 60 yard dash. Here is how to decipher these numbers.

• Pure Strength can be measured in the Back Squat and Bench Press exercises.
• Pure Speed can be measured in the 40/60 Yard Dash. You can also record how many times you can jump rope in say a 1 minute time.

Now look at your measurements and determine, based on your age and size, where do you stand as compared to the average athlete at your age and size. You can determine this by measuring up your teammates and competition. Once you get a good understand of how you match up to them, within these lifts and exercises, then you can see where you fall on the Pitcher Power Curve.

Let’s say you rank very high in pure speed but you rank very low in pure strength. Your arrow swings all the way over to the right. Then you need to focus more on strength to develop more power. This doesn’t mean stop training for speed, but that you need to focus more on your strength training. Power is the goal here, so wherever you fall on the Power Curve, your goal is to get your ability more towards Pure Power.

The reason I told you to record your clean 1RM is because this is a Pure Power lift. It will tell you where you stand when it comes to Pure Power, which is the goal. The problem is the cleans do not tell you where are you lacking on the power curve. Is it pure strength or pure speed? The Power Curve will do this for you.

The Fusion System in the 3X Pitching Velocity Program includes a full spectrum of lifts and exercises that fall on the Pitcher Power Curve and if you would like to know the lifts and exercises that or more towards pure strength or pure speed, please contact me.

Countdown to Launch 9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 —–> 3X Pitching!

Once again, more new information that proves 3X Pitching to be not just revolutionary but a must learn approach to pitching velocity. Explosive Triple Extension is the only way a pitcher is going to increase stride distance and stride speed effectively to stand out with this new 3D Doppler Radar technology. The average stride length to pitch release is 5.10 feet and this is because these pitchers are not achieving complete 3X or Triple Extension before front foot strike. They are also not performing 3X explosively enough to finish with the maximum amount of forward trunk tilt at ball release, to allow the pitcher to finish out over the front foot, which puts his release point closer to the plate. The 3X Pitching Approach is the only way a pitcher will be able to increase their stride distance from the plate, along with their release point.

I have received a lot of interest lately, from newbies to 3X Pitching, who want to learn how to get more extension at pitch release. This could have a lot to do with the buzz around this technology. I first tell them that the WORST thing they can do to shorten their release point distance is to pull down or even reach forward at ball release. I then open their eyes to the 3X Pitching approach of stride length and stride speed through triple extension with hip to shoulder separation and the light goes on! They learn quickly that there is no other way to develop more velocity and that “Sneaky” fastball than with the 3X Pitching Velocity Program. The data that will begin to flow from this 3D Doppler Radar will change the game and will also be the launching pad that mainstreams 3X Pitching.

This information was first brought to my attention in another great article by Tom Verducci with Sports Illustrated. I highly recommend that you read his article about this revolutionary technology. He covers it more in depth and lists pitchers who score higher on the 3D Doppler Radar. Here is the entire article.

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.

The USA men’s weightlifting head coach at the 2004 Olympic Games, Hatch was inducted into the USA Strength and Conditioning Coaches Hall of Fame’s inaugural 14-member class in August 2003, along with Baton Rouge’s Alvin Roy; and the USA Olympic Weightlifting Federation Hall of Fame in April 2002. He received the NFL Strength & Conditioning Coaches Society “President’s Award” for his role in developing the profession at the 2005 NFL Combine. Hatch served as meet director of the 2000 USA Olympic Trials. In 2007-08, Hatch worked at LSU as basketball strength and conditioning coach after his program helped the 2006 Tigers reach the Final Four.

The Baton Rouge, LA resident has won 12 national Coach of the Year honors from USA Weightlifting. He has coached 43 national champion lifters who set numerous American and junior American records. Among his best-known athletes are 1984 USA Olympian Tommy Calandro and 1988 and 1992 USA Olympian Bret Brian. He has had athletes named to more than 50 USA teams competing internationally. Hatch also has helped shape the careers of several notable strength coaches in the college and professional sports ranks. LSU’s head strength coach, Tommy Moffitt, and Tennessee’s head strength coach, Johnny Long, both attribute their recent national football championships in part to the Hatch strength program. Hatch was a dynamic basketball player for Northwestern State in 1960-62 who was drafted to play professionally. While at Northwestern, Hatch led the Demons in scoring, rebounding and field goal percentage before he was chosen by the Chicago Majors of the American Basketball League, forerunner of the American Basketball Association which eventually merged with the NBA. Hatch set a school record in his senior year by shooting 57.7 percent in 1961-62, a mark that ranks 10th in school history some 40 years later. Hatch established a school mark for scoring with 18 field goals made in a game against a 21-4 Kentucky Wesleyan team, missing only three shots in an amazing performance. He was elected to the American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003. He is in six Halls of Fame, also included in the Catholic HS, Northwestern State athletic, Northwestern State alumni halls, and material on him was included in the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of the American Indian when it opened in 2005.

From Basketball Star to Strongman
by Jimmy Peyton

Coach Hatch continued his strength training after his basketball career, and he went from a strong man to a super-strong man. I was amazed when I first met him. He stood 6 feet 6 inches tall and weighted an athletic 290 pounds.

Strong-man contest such as the Scottish Highland Games were not televised back in those days, but with Coach Hatch’s height, athletic ability and freaky strength, I believe he could have won a world championship. We just didn’t know such contest existed. Olympic lifting and power lifting were the only strength sports we knew about. I saw Coach press 290 pounds for 6 reps behind the neck, and curl 4 sets of 6 with 240 pounds. I watched him do full good mornings with 400 pounds for 5 reps with ease. Coach Hatch also did a pinch grip exercise with the old York 45 pound plates smooth side out for 5 to 10 seconds. I saw him dead lift 855 pounds out of the power rack with the pins set so that the plates were 3 inches off the floor. I also saw Coach bench press 450 pounds 6 times with a fractured bone in his forearm. He didn’t flinch, and he didn’t say a word after he finished the set except to get on our butts for standing around watching him. “Get back to work,” he said and we hopped to it. That made it hard to tell a man like that you had a nagging injury. If you were hurt that was one thing, but nagging injuries you worked around them. I saw him pick up 300 pounds that a lifter missed on a jerk off the rack and do a forearm curl and re-rack the weight like nothing. Bob McCarron, a current master lifter and I just stood there and looked at each other in amazement. Coach didn’t say a word.

Coach Hatch was also undefeated in arm wrestling. He actually had competitions at the state weightlifting and powerlifting meets. The entry form would read “Gayle Hatch vs. all comers $200.00 per match to the winner”. That was big money for those days, but of course his winnings went to the team to buy equipment. The favorite Coach Hatch story that old timers still talk about today is when the town bully challenged Coach Hatch to a street fight. After being told by so many people that there was one man he couldn’t whip, the bully just couldn’t stand it anymore. This man worked for gamblers and loan sharks and made his living beating up people who were late on their payments. He also liked going into bars just so he could beat up on someone. If you know Coach Hatch at all then you know he doesn’t take any garbage. The time and place was set, and the fight was on. After the massacre, the bully was taken off to the hospital.

Coach is still powerful today even though he is in his sixties. I recently saw him do something that blew my mind. I watched two lifters of good strength trying to move a squat rack that was stuck. The pins completely came out and the medal bar that held the weight slid down and became stuck. Both lifters were pulling and banging on the rack with medal plates, but the bar didn’t move. Coach walked over to them and with one hand grabbed the stuck bar and pulled it back up exactly to its proper position.

Coach Hatch has always been known as a fearless man. He had that reputation as an athlete, and he has it as a man. He received a certification of appreciation from the Baton Rouge Police Chief, Willard Ashford. The certification reads, “In recognition of unusual and outstanding service of the city by assisting the police department in the performance of their duty. Hatch was cited for an act of bravery on December 16, 1974. On that date, he saw a man running at full speed through a parking lot. About two blocks behind, he noticed two men who appeared to be plain clothed detectives giving chase and losing ground. Hatch took off after the man and apprehended him after a few blocks of running. The police then arrived, arrested the man and charged him with two counts of felony. The presentation was shown on television.

John Thrush one of American’s top weightlifting coaches said of coach Hatch that if you get past the technical aspects which he is obviously an expert in, he has a real presence about him, a real rapport with the athletes. Thrush said, “He’s kind of a commanding guy. He reminds me of Patton”. Most of his lifters compare him to John Wayne. 2001 American Open Champion, Buster Bourgeois found a life size poster of “The Duke”, brought it to the training center and pined it on Coach Hatch’s office door. Luckily for Buster Coach found it amusing.

1984 Olympian Tommy Calandro say’s Coach Hatch, a better man you’ll never meet. You’re a better person just being around this guy, and I trained under him for years. He is a great Coach. I didn’t go to the Olympics we went. Without Coach Hatch I’m not there. 1988 and 1992 Olympian, Bret Brian, said without Coach Hatch I would not be an Olympian. He made my dream come true. He has every quality that a coach should have and manages to impart that to the athlete.

I was a member of Coach Hatch’s first team to attend a national meet. The 1974 National Collegiates at Montclair State in New Jersey. This was a shootout between two of America’s greatest lifters, Phil Grippalli and Mark Cameron. The crowd went crazy and Phil edged out Mark to win the 198 pound class. Our team, LSU, placed second to Montclair State. The LSU Team consisted of Lim Ko Hup, Mike Neal, James Stefanski, John Black, Mike Edwards, Charles Heard, Roy Cefalu, Quan Bryce and me, Jimmy Peyton. It never entered my mind at that time that the Gayle Hatch Team would one day win over forty national championships and have representation on four Olympic Teams and still counting. Keep an eye on Matt Bruce for 2008.

Coach Hatch is a member of both the USA Weightlifting Hall of Fame and the USA Strength and Conditioning Coaches Hall of Fame. LSU, Tennessee and Miami have all won BCS National Championships in football. The head strength coaches have all been students of Coach Hatch. LSU and Miami baseball teams have also won national championships with strength coaches who were trained by Coach Hatch. He has helped the careers of many other notable strength coaches in the high school, collegiate and professional ranks. One other note about the 2004 Olympic Games, Coach Hatch who is a member of the American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame donated the uniform he wore at the opening ceremonies in Athens, Greece to the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C.

Denis Reno sometimes refers to coach Hatch as the “Ghost Coach”. This is because he usually arrives right before his first lifter lifts and leaves soon after his last lifter has lifted. This is not because he is not sociable in fact he is sociable. But years ago he became disenchanted with the political infighting that went on between different factions of the Federation. He felt once the competition was over, he had completed his job. He and his lovely wife Peggy usually go out to dinner and enjoy a quite evening. Speaking of Mrs. Hatch, the team absolutely loves and respects her. In the early years you could see her working at the score table from the local meets to the national and international competitions. Coach and Peggy were college sweethearts. Coach has told me more than once how lucky he is to have her for his wife. “She helped bring out the best in me”, Coach would say.

Coach Hatch is more than a weightlifting coach or strength coach. He is an “All American”. From head to toe, he is loyal to the American Flag to the max. He believes in the right moral tings to live by, and he teaches and expects his lifters to follow his lead. There are no ifs or buts about it. You follow Coach, listen to his wisdom and you will profit in life. He believes right is right and wrong is wrong. He never waivers from the truth. If you do right, he will be loyal to you for life.

The Gayle Hatch Weightlifting Team is one of the greatest weightlifting programs in the history of America, and I am proud to be a part of it.

What makes a BAD pitching Coach?

Someone who has no experience in playing the position at the top levels of the game, or someone who has no certified education of how to coach the position.

How can a BAD pitching Coach effect a pitcher?

Pitching takes a tremendous amount of muscle coordination. The body must naturally understand how to build maximum momentum and torque, to deliver an above average fastball to a specific location. It is a pitching Coaches job to guide the pitcher to reaching his athletic potential. This takes an expert understanding of the position and the athlete. If the pitching Coach is far from an expert then the chances of him being a guide to the pitchers athletic potential, is very poor. This could be detrimental to a young pitchers career because promoting bad mechanics, due to the lack of experience or education, will decrease velocity and cause injury. It happened to Me.

What are the signs of a BAD pitching Coach?

1) No experience in the top levels of the game.

2) No certified education in the world of pitching and athletic training.

3) A poor understanding of Physics Driven Pitching Mechanics.

4) A poor understanding of the physiology and psychology of his pitchers.

5) Over throwing his staff of pitchers.

6) Discouraging his pitchers from using a strength and conditioning program.

7) Forcing his pitchers to throw more breaking balls than fastballs.

8 ) Using Long Distance running to build endurance in his pitchers.

9) Excessive amounts of long toss.

10) A poor warm-up and dynamic stretching routine.

11) Not educating his pitchers on proper athletic nutrition and rehabilitation.

12) Not educating his pitchers on the mental game.

13) Uses a lot of poor conventional wisdom to coach his pitchers.

What are the signs of POOR conventional wisdom of pitching mechanics?

These are old techniques of pitching, that have been proven throw science, to decrease velocity or cause injury.

This would be Coaching the pitcher to:

1) Take the ball out of the glove and reach it to the sky.

2) Get into the T position. Glove hand to target and ball to center field.

3) Pull the glove hand in hard to your body, while pulling the throwing arm down to throw.

4) Kick the back leg up high after release. He may even use a chair for the pitcher to kick his leg over, after release, to force this bad pitching mechanic.

5) Keep your landing leg bent at release. Do not let it straighten!

6) Pull your head down hard during pitch.

7) Wipe your arm.

8 ) Slam your chest into your landing leg.

9) Move your arm faster.

10) Drive your glove hand to the target.

How to PLEASE a BAD Pitching Coach?

I will be the first to tell you that this isn’t easy. Due to the high percentage of BAD pitching Coaches in all levels of the game, ever pitcher will deal with a BAD pitching Coach a few times to many in their career. The best way to deal with a BAD pitching Coach, without him having an effect on your career, is not to avoid him but to please him. Here is some TIPS that will help.

1) Do whatever he says when he is looking and then do what you think is best when he isn’t looking.

2) Study the game, the position, physics driven mechanics and strength and conditioning. Become your Coach.

3) Do not let him catch you educating the other pitchers. Especially if he is a HOT HEAD.

4) Do not screw around when he is around you.

5) Do not talk bad about him to other players.

This is the MOST IMPORTANT TIP:

6) You must IMPROVE.

The hardest thing that any pitcher or athlete must learn, is that it is a rare case for you to find a Coach that will propel your career to the top levels of the game. This is because, they are just as concerned about their job, as you are about your job. So if you want to make it as a professional one day, you are going to have to knock down a lot of doors. You will always find support but the only person that is going to help you get their is yourself. I will leave you with this quote from Nolan Ryan.

“Pitching in the big leagues is a dream. Preparing to pitch in the big leagues is a nightmare.”

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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