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.

Most of the articles on this site pertain to pure velocity but what is the value of Top Velocity when the pitcher can not locate his pitch? Zero is the answer. There is no value in Velocity that doesn’t end in a strike. I have witnessed many hard throwing pitchers or should I say throwers in my career who could not hit “the broad side of a barn.” These guys never made it anywhere because of this major problem of poor accuracy. The problem with coaching accuracy is that most pitching coaches over do it. They create pitchers who look like they should be throwing darts instead of fastballs. This is why I focus on velocity first and then I teach my pitchers how to control it.

I recommend that you read at least three articles on this site about velocity before continuing on with this article.

Pitch location is as important as velocity. For a pitcher to be successful on the mound he must disrupt the batters timing. There are many ways a pitcher can do this. Pitch speed, pitch movement and pitch location. I believe the two most effective is pitch speed and pitch location. If you can reach your top velocity and locate your pitches then you can make it into minor league ball with just a fastball and change up. I would recommend you use this stratgey in your own career because if you start throwing breaking balls and you have poor mechanics, it can be devastating to your arm. So why take the risk when you can be just as effective or even more effective with top velocity and good pitch location?

Before you can start hitting your spots with pin point accuracy you must understand how to control your pitches. Conventional wisdom would talk about the balance point and go on about it for hours. I will show you a different perspective.

Accuracy is controlling your momentum. To control your momentum you must be balanced but that should be second nature. The goal is to control your momentum without effecting it. This is where most pitchers fail. They try to control their momentum to a point that it slows it down. This is no good. This is why I teach top velocity until it becomes second nature and then I teach how to control that velocity.

The control comes from the front side. You must take aim with your front side as you begin to start your momentum to the target. This is important because once your hips start building momentum towards the target, you must do everything in your power to release every ounce of explosive energy from your body, while using that energy to fire certain muscle groups at specific times in your delivery. So once you lift your leg and kick that butt out to start your load to building momentum you must setup your front side for pitch location. To do this you must separate your hands and relax your throwing arm while closing off your glove hand. You must also slightly turn your lift leg foot inward to close off your hips. Notice the picture above of Jon Lester performing this setup. This is a similar moment in the delivery as a sprinter would perform just before taking off. The sprinter would setup his body for take off to control his launch and gives his body the best opportunity to reach his top velocity as quick as possible, which is the same thing we are trying to do as pitchers.

The reason for closing off the front side is because it makes it easier for our momentum to travel straight to the target. If the glove arm was to open early or the lift leg, then this would throw our weight off to the side and more than likely the pitch would follow. So staying closed is important because it keeps our momentum going straight to the target. Just like a sprinter wouldn’t want to start leaning to his left before he fired out of his stance.

Another important tip is to stay closed as long as possible because of the same reasons and also because it will help you build more torque in “Separation.” “Separation” is when your hips have opened to the target and your shoulders are still closed like the picture below. Building more torque means more velocity.

Do not forget that you must not effect your velocity when adjusting your mechanics for pitch location. To prevent this you must close your shoulders and hips off first and then the rest of the delivery you must keep them closed while hitting all the key components of velocity that I have described in detail on this site. This is a lot of coordination but remember not everyone has the ability to pitch in the top levels on the game.

The two greatest pitchers of our time is Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens. Their success came from their genetic make up and also their work ethics. Both of these pitchers had intense training programs. Roger Clemens was even using illegal drugs to enhance his work ethic and increase his improvements. Both of these pitchers grew bigger, stronger, faster in their careers and they both threw harder the older they got. This is because their work ethics improved their overall strength, which helped keep their flawless mechanics consistent and efficient. If they had slacked on their off-season training programs then you would have noticed a decline in their careers. This wasn’t the case and it is known today that they both where extremely hard workers.

Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens careers are proof that proper weight training and plyometric training will lead to a successful career. So why do coaches ignore this fact? Because they usually do not have first hand experience. If you want to be a high performance machine then you must train your body to become one.

Why should pitchers use a good strength and conditioning program?

1. To enhance pitching mechanical efficiency, which will lead to more consistency and increased longevity.
2. Help the body heal faster.
3. Develop fast twitch muscle fibers which have a higher capacity for explosive energy.

If you are a tall and skinny freak who throws 90+mph then stop reading and have a great career. If you are like most of us, average in size and believe you have the potential to throw a lot harder without causing injury, then you must begin to learn what the strength and conditioning world has discovered.

The strength and conditioning profession has proven that pitching is an anaerobic exercise. An exercise that does not involve oxidation. The systems involved in creating energy for pitching, during the anaerobic exercise, are phosphagen and glycolysis systems. This is the use of creatine phosphate and sugars to make ATP (energy). What this means is, if a pitcher trains these systems in the off season then the muscles will develop more fast twitch muscle fibers to support the anaerobic exercise. More fast twitch muscle fibers means you have a higher capacity and storage of ATP. You also have the ability to recruit more muscle fibers, to add to the intensity of the workload. More muscle fiber recruitment creates more muscle strength during exercise. This increased muscle fiber recruitment during exercise causes more damage in the muscle during fatigue and in return promotes more testosterone to be released in the muscles to heal the damage tissue. This will build more muscle mass for future damage control. These side effects of high intensity anaerobic training, without a doubt, will lead to an increase in velocity. This is why pitchers who get bigger, stronger, faster, throw harder. When I say bigger, I do not exactly mean larger muscles like a body builder. I am talking about muscles that are more dense. A good example would be a light weight Olympic lifter. They look like little kids and can lift like machines.

I have dedicated this website to the secrets of velocity. They are velocity secrets because conventional wisdom doesn’t want you to know. Conventional wisdom sees pitching more as an art, instead of a science. If you have the desire to take it to the next level of pitching, you are going to have to overcome the old school techniques of coaching this position. You must learn the science of strength and conditioning for athletes. You must understand that if you need the most out of your body, you must learn what that is and what does it take. The first step in this process is questioning conventional wisdom and learning the science in everything you do. The next step is training fast twitch muscle fiber in the off season and maintaining the gains into the season. It isn’t an easy task but done correctly, it will mean the difference from a college career to a professional career.

I recommend the Ace Pitcher Handbook as an excellent off-season and in-season program that will promote fast twitch muscle fiber development.

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.”

Using the overload to underload approach to train the pitchers body and central nervous system to increase arm speed is the right concept but the wrong approach when using weighted balls. The problem with using weighted balls is that it sacrifices the arm to teach the body how to move weight more quickly. To understand how backwards this weighted ball approach is we must first look at what role the arm plays in the pitching delivery.

The Role of the Arm in the Pitching Delivery

The role of the arm is to get into position to allow for the transfer of energy from the lower kinetic chain into the upper kinetic chain. Once this energy has coiled the shoulder during external rotation the arm’s role is to deliver the pitch to its desired location. Never does the arm work to generate velocity except for using the elastic properties of the arm muscles when coiling during the energy transfer. To better understand the sequence of events through the entire kinetic chain, which leads to the top velocity of the pitcher, you need to learn the revolutionary approach to pitching velocity called 3X Pitching. 3X Pitching proves that to increase the coil of the shoulder during external rotation the pitcher must first increase linear stride power and then transfer that power into core torque at front foot strike.

Why Weightballs are a Waste of Time for Pitchers?

Based on the understanding of how velocity is generated through the entire kinetic chain of the body stated above and also in the 3X Pitching approach, you can see that training with weighted balls using an overload to underload approach is a waste of time because it does not work with power pitching mechanics. Yes, this weighted balls approach may increase arm strength, using the weights, and may increase some arm speed, through training the central nervous system to rotate the arm faster, but the final result will be much less effective than taking a total body approach to velocity like with the 3X Pitching Velocity program.

I used the Overload Underload weighted balls throwing program for years when Dick Mill’s once preached it back in the 90′s. He now credits it to causing injury. It happened that I was using this program the year I torn my rotator cuff. I am not saying that this program was the reason for my tear but it did speed up the process of the injury. My problem was I had bad mechanics. I was an all arm pitcher and when I used this program it made everything even worse. The overloading with the weighted balls put more wear and tear on my cuff and in the end, even if I had added a few mph, it wouldn’t have been worth the extra wear and tear that came with it.

If you are looking to use weighted balls to increase velocity, I really believe that you are looking for the easy answer here. Increasing velocity is developing power pitching mechanics and also developing yourself into a power pitcher. The 3X Pitching Velocity program gives you all of this with a revolutionary approach to pitching velocity. This approach uses the famous 3X Velocity System throwing program to develop the 3X mechanics and the famous Fusion system which is the strength and conditioning program to develop you into an elite power pitcher.So, stop looking for the easy way out and get serious with a serious velocity program like 3X!

When I speak of long toss, I mean throwing the ball more than 120 feet. This means throwing the ball farther than from home to second base. To make this easy to understand and for you to base your opinion, I will break long toss down into a list of pros and cons.

The Pros of Long Toss:

It is a max effort exercise which is pushing the body to generate more force to the ball. If performed with total body mechanics, this can train and help develop the total body. Long toss mainly trains the “Load position.”

The long distance toss increases the chance of error in locating the target. This is training accuracy for long distance.

The Cons of Long Toss:

It is a max effort throwing exercise which is putting a lot of stress on the arm. Especially the decelerator muscles. If a pitcher has poor mechanics and throws with more arm than body, then long toss can be very destructive to the pitcher. If you are looking for an overall total body training program I would suggest mixing Olympic lifting and plyometric training with a throwing program that does not over throw the arm.

It is training long distance accuracy which is a different release point than 60 feet pitching accuracy. If performing long toss, it is important to finish throwing  from at least 60-65 feet after throwing long, to re-establish your pitching release point.

The mechanical difference from long toss to pitching on the mound, is almost the same difference as playing home run derby as opposed to hitting off of a live pitcher. There is a mechanical adjustment from hitting slow pitches intended for home runs, to hitting hard pitches intended to strikeout the hitter. This adjustment is proof that throwing long toss to pitching has a placebo effect (A placebo is anything of no real benefit which nevertheless makes people feel better.) For example, hitting the home runs in a home run derby would build confidence, which then would effect how you perform against a live pitcher. Just like throwing the ball 350 feet would give you more confidence when you start throwing the ball at 60 feet. It is now a shorter distance and it requires less effort, so you feel a lot more powerful. This is because throwing the ball 350 feet gives a visual measurement of your strength. To help you understand this point I ask this question. Which way do you think it is easier to tell who is throwing harder? The difference between a pitcher throwing 85 mph to a pitcher throwing 90 mph, or the difference between a pitcher throwing 310 feet to a pitcher throwing 350 feet.

There is a difference in mechanics for a pitcher throwing at max effort from 70 feet away to 350 feet away. The difference is in the release point. A pitcher should always throw with the same release point because it is crucial for velocity and accuracy. Continuously changing release points from throwing long toss to pitching on a mound will effect a pitchers consistency. Therefore, the only reason to perform long toss is for the placebo effect. It is just like taking an over the counter supplement that says it will increase your muscle mass. It gets you all excited and pumped up, but this doesn’t mean it is actually working. If this feeling is all that matters to you, then keep playing long toss. Otherwise, if you feel the placebo effect is a waste of time and emotion, then I would suggest you train your pitching delivery the same ever day. Constantly making mechanical adjustments to increase your velocity on the mound, without putting a lot of throws on your arm. You will see more velocity gains from a total body training program than from a long toss program any day.

To prevent or overcome shoulder surgery starts here with this diagram.

You must learn these small muscle. These muscle are your career. They are here to internally and externally rotate your arm. The most important information to remember about these muscles are that they can only handle around 5 pounds of pressure each. The deltoids take over if the pressure exceeds this amount. So this means, all we need is 3 to 5 pounds to strengthen the rotator cuff muscles. Anything more will prevent you from isolating them properly, for development.

The most important muscle of the rotator cuff, for throwers, is the supraspinatous. This muscle lives under the acromion tip of the clavicle. This is the end of the collar bone. This muscle takes a lot of abuse, when the elbow is above the shoulder. This is because it is being impinged by the acrominon tip. If your arm is internally rotated to far forward, when you pull your arm back to throw, this can cause the supraspinatous to “pop” or “grind” under the acrominon. Over time, this can tear the muscle. To prevent this impingement, you must learn good throwing mechanics and how to build joint integrity. You can not do one without the other, to prevent an injury.

You can learn the correct mechanics to prevent injury from the Ace Pitcher Instructional Videos. To build joint integrity, you need two 3 or 5 pound weights to get started. All of the exercise you will need are listed in the AcePitcher Handbook. You can then stream the instructional videos on how to perform the exercises on this site.

The first sign of poor joint integrity is posture. If you are someone who slouches over when sitting or standing, this could be a sign of poor shoulder joint integrity. Another sign is when the ball of the shoulder socket is protruding forward past the chest and the shoulder blade is sticking out like a wing. This means that the anterior muscles are stronger than the posterior muscles. This is the definition of poor joint integrity. This will lead to a shoulder injury.

Common pain that is a sign of an impingement is usually referred pain from the supraspinatous. Most of the pain from the cuff is referred pain. Referred pain means pain that originates in one part of the body, but is felt in another part of the body. If you feel pain on the outside of your arm, between the bicep and tricep muscles, just below the mid deltoid, then this is an impingement. Don’t be alarmed, it isn’t a tear. The supraspinatous is probably inflamed. This can be remedied with ice. You should only ice your arm for 15-20 minutes on and 15-20 minutes off. You can repeat the process but anymore than 15-20 minutes on, can cause nerve damage. Always finish with ice. Never finish with heat. Heat inflames the muscle tissue, and when the tissue is inflamed, it isn’t healing. It is also not a good idea to ice an arm just after pitching. It is best to flush the system. This is when you do some good sprints, to get your heart beating, so you can get your blood pumping. This will help flush the breakdown of waste from pitching out of your arm. Then you can ice. Also never ice your Ulnar nerve. You can also take anti inflammatories, recommended by your Doctor. This is a symptom you can pitch through, but remember when the supraspinatous is inflamed, this will cause more wear and tear on the cuff. So try hard to take care of it ASAP.

The sign of a rotator cuff tear is very obvious. You have considerable loss in movement in your arm, with serious pain. If the supraspinatous is torn, which is the most common tear for throwers, you will not be able to turn your hand thumb down and raise it straight out in front of your body. This is because this movement requires a lot of work from the supraspinatous. If this is the case I am sure you have already seen a Doctor and unfortunately you need surgery. This was my case. It is a hard reality to face. Especially when you are 18, like I was. There was one moment that got me thinking positive and it was a saying I saw on a wall just after the Doctor diagnosed the tear. “Where there is a Will, there is a Way.” Ever six months the body regenerates itself. This means ever muscle has grown new tissue from the inside out. Like your skin. If you can get yourself on the right track, you can start over again and this is exactly what it will feel like. You are starting over at this point and you may not get another chance. It is a tough road but laced with so many rewards. If you are someone who is post surgery and needs a little boost to get back to the game you love, then please contact me and I will get you on the right track.

In conclusion, your rotator cuff is your life support as a pitcher. It is like a par of tires that you can never change on your race car. It is vital that you learn how to take care of it, if you want to play well into your twenties and beyond. I hope this article gets you going and please contact me with any questions or post them in the discussion board.

Nutrition and supplementation for athletes should be based on whole foods.

“If you put into your body what you where made to eat, then you will get out of your body what you where made to do.”

If you are someone who has no clue about nutrition, you eat fast food all day long and you are considering an illegal supplement, this is crazy. You are playing Russian roulette with your life. If you have the desire to be a high performance Athlete/Pitcher, you need to learn as much as you can about nutrition and your body. This article should help get you started.

After I tore my rotator cuff and Doctors told me I didn’t have enough eligibility in college to recover from this injury, I read something that lifted my spirits. Ever six months your body replenishes itself, just like the rings on a tree your muscles are replenishing themselves from the inside out. The same with your skin. This doesn’t mean that your body will reconnect a tear from bone to muscle but a Doctor can. Basically what this means is you always have the opportunity to get on the path to good health. The edge you are looking for is between your ears. Educate yourself on your body and nutrition and you will put yourself in an elite group of athletes.

Good nutrition starts with an alkaline based diet. It is simple; your body’s health rides on its PH levels. If your PH levels are balanced, your blood is feeding oxygen to its cells. If your body’s PH levels are too acidic, then your body isn’t feeding its cells. We must nurture our body’s on the cellular level. This is the building blocks of our health and career. Most pitchers have no idea how to nurture the body on the cellular level. This is where you can get an edge.

To prevent your body from becoming too acidic you must understand what causes this acidity. It is mainly food and stress. Here is a chart that lists the alkaline and acidic foods. Learn this chart and start eating more foods on the alkaline side. This diet doesn’t mean you should avoid foods on the acid side, it only means you should eat more alkaline foods to prevent your body from becoming acidic. So for every acid food you eat, add 3 alkaline foods. Keep your meals simple and raw if possible. Raw green vegetables are a good foundation to building an alkaline dominate diet.

Ok, so you would like to know why you should eat these green vegetables! This is the deal. Keeping your body more alkaline allows for quicker recovery. Pitching is very stressful to the body. It uses a lot of energy and develops a lot of waste from that energy. The waste is mainly acid. It begins to eat at your muscles, tendons and the rest of your body. If the acid is not flushed out, it is stored in your tissue to continue causing problems. This is why pitchers experience serious soreness after a long game of pitching. The only way of flushing the acidity is by restoring your body’s PH levels to a more neutral balance. This means eating alkaline foods. The quicker you can restore your PH levels after a performance, the quicker you recover. This will increase pitching velocity, because the faster your body rebuilds, the faster your body grows. This is why steroids are so effective. The hormone testosterone heals the body. More of it heals the body faster. When the body heals faster, it has the potential to grow quicker. The problem with testosterone coming from outside of your body is your body will become dependent on the source. This means when you stop giving it steroids, your body could also stop producing testosterone. So let’s do this the natural way with an alkaline diet.

Supplements

There are only four supplements that I recommend for Athletes/Pitchers. This is mainly because all the others are a waste of money. Believe me I have tried most of them. The most important supplement that Athletes/Pitchers cannot do without is a multivitamin. I recommend a whole foods multivitamin. Synthetic vitamins are weak. Whole food vitamins found at health food stores are what you need.

Juice Plus

My next recommendation is Alkaline Water. There is no better way to restore your PH levels post workout or game than with water. Not only this but most good alkaline water machines can produce water that transforms the water into a higher concentration of oxygen micro-clusters. This not only hydrates you many times more but when taken with your supplements you assimilate more of the supplement into your system. If you really want an edge in this game and on life then contact me for more info on the Alkaline water machines.

The next supplement I would recommend is protein based. You can get protein from many sources. The best is white meat. If you feel you are not getting enough protein from your diet then I would recommend an amino acid supplement as well. You need at least 1 gram of protein for every pound of body weight. All you need to do is buy an amino acid supplement and take the recommended dosage. Make sure you cycle it on and off. This means, take the recommended dosage for a month or two then take a few weeks off from it. Brewers yeast is also a good amino acid supplement. This is a whole foods product full of vitamins, minerals and all the essential amino acids.

The last supplement I recommend is Omega-3. Our body’s can not produce Omega in our system. A balance of Omega-3 and Omega-6 is critical for brain function and reducing inflammation. Inflammation is a problem for most athletes. To prevent anti-inflammatory abuse with drugs like advil, aleve and others, you must have a balanced diet of Omega-3 to Omega-6 fatty acids. The average diet has a lot more Omega-6 than Omega-3. Omega-6 comes from animal fats and it promotes inflammation in the body. Omega-3 is found in fish oils, some nuts and vegatables. The easiest way to get this into your system is with a Omega-3 supplement. You can find this in most grocery stores or drug stores. Make sure it is cholesterol free and mercury free.  Take it everyday.

In conclusion, it is important that you learn about what you are putting in your mouth and feeding your body with. Read labels on products and stay away from processed foods. Eat everything that comes from the ground and your body will stay on the path to good health and recovery. If you just learn a basic understand of a good diet and follow it, you will be shock how your athletic performance improves.

To start the analogy we have a car, a hill and a wall. The car is sitting on top of the hill and the wall is built at the bottom. The wall is high enough to just peak over the hood of the car. There is a passenger in the car not wearing a seat belt. To begin, the car starts down the hill at full throttle. The farther it travels, the more speed it gains. It reaches the end of the hill and slams into the wall at full speed. The wall does not break or move. At this point I would like you to really visualize this event. I am sure you have good enough knowledge about classic physics to know what is going to happen to the passenger. Yes, the passenger is propelled through the windshield and flies through the air and lands about 40 feet in front of the car. So, why did this happen? Yes I could throw a bunch of scientific jargon at you but it shouldn’t be this complicated. The passenger flies out of the vehicle after hitting the wall at full speed because it was the only part of the car that wasn’t secured to it. Energy must go somewhere, so when the wall stopped the car, all the momentum transferred to the passenger because it still had the potential to move.

How does this relate to pitching? Good question! The best way for you to understand this comparison is if I describe the correlation. Let’s start with the car. The frame of the car in the analogy of the car crash is the pitchers core. The hill is of course the pitching mound and the wall is when the pitchers front leg lands and stabilizes in his delivery. Now, the front leg is important in this analogy. It is playing the role of the wall. That is no easy role to fill because the wall, in this case, was able to stop the car dead in its tracks. So as the pitchers core travels down the hill, like the car, gains momentum, then the front leg lands and plays the role of the bionic wall. What happens now? Let’s continue to keep this simple. To understand what happens now we must label the last correlation of the car crash analogy. That being the passenger. What is playing the role of the passenger during the pitching delivery? I will tell you! The ball is the passenger. The ball is along for the ride like the passenger and it also is the only part of the ride that isn’t secured to the vehicle or in this case, the pitcher. So, if the front leg does its job of playing the wall, then the ball will be forced to receive all of the momentum generated; in return reaching its top velocity potential.

You may still be a little confused at this point, so to help you pull it all together I will go into more detail about the wall. Let’s bring back up the event of the car crash again. Let’s say the car speeds down the hill and hits the wall but the wall does not hold. It gives away but manages to slow the car some. What happens now to the passenger? The passenger does not fly through the windshield. This occurs because the wall didn’t completely stop the car. It was allowed to continue moving until all the enegry created from the inertia of the car dissipated. Therefore the pasenger was saved because he wasn’t forced to receive all of the momentum from the car. This will be the same case with the ball, if the wall or leg does not stablize completely. This will mean the pitchers front leg will continue to bend instead of hold and the body will not transfer all of the momentum to the ball. For the pitcher to reach his top velocity potential he must stabilize from the front leg all the way up to the chin. The arm and ball should be the only part of the body moving after the chest has extended as far out as it is capable of going. Watch the video above of Edison Volquez performing this almost perfectly. Also view the pic here of Chien-Ming Wang in complete stablization of his front side.