3X Pitching is an advanced approach to pitching velocity. It is extremely effective but requires an insane work ethic to implement the 3X mechanics. It is hard enough to perfect the 3X approach when in practice, when in a game, it can almost seem impossible until you have given it enough time and effort. What makes game time so difficult is the stress factor. Stress effects the brain by overloading it with excessive stimulation. This means all of the new motor coordination, that has just been programmed, is out the window when stress shows up. The only way to battle this is to learn how to reduce your stress levels by giving your brain some triggers to simplify the mechanics commands to help stimulate your central nervous system.
How the Brain Works During Game Time
Before we go into these 3X Pitching mechanics triggers let's take a look at how our brain works best during game time. During game time the brain is overwhelmed with responsibility from keeping track of the count to holding runners on base. Overloading the brain with a ton of mechanic positions and adjustments can be detrimental to a pitchers performance. The key is to keep the amount of information the brain has to process to a minimum. This is why a good pre-game routine to help reduce this stress is so important. This article does not cover a full pre-game routine but it will support it with some key 3X Pitching mechanics triggers to simplify the process of keeping the pitchers mechanics on target during the game.
These 4 triggers listed below should be used within your inner dialog during game time. This means these are commands for your inner voice before every pitch. If you do not have an inner voice then just say these 3X pitching triggers out loud. Don't worry, you will not be the first pitcher who likes to talk to himself!
4 Key 3X Pitching Triggers for Game Time
- Knee to Hip - This is a great place to start. This simple trigger should tell your body to move your drive leg knee forward during your leg lift until it is in a linear position with your front hip. This will help you hit the perfect "Load" position with these simple words.
- Accelerate - This will immediately follow the first trigger and it should tell your body to start moving and work to hit your peak speed before front foot strike. This will support triple extension before front foot strike along with building optimal stride power.
- Separate - This will follow the previous trigger and notice that these last three triggers rhythm which makes it easy to say them quickly because you will also be moving through these triggers and mechanics very quickly. When you say separate, you are telling your body at front foot strike to feel your hips slam open, as it separates your hips from shoulders, building optimal core torque.
- Pronate - Moving into this trigger from the last skips some important components, the reason we skip them is because they happen so quickly that you will not be able to influence them during game time as easily as the 4 triggers here. If you can focus on separation into pronation, then there is a good chance that you have implemented the components in between correctly and are reaching your top velocity. I believe good pronation of the throwing arm at release will only occur if you have good external rotation and forward trunk tilt which are the critical components that occur between this trigger and the last one.
If these 4 3X Pitching Triggers for game time do not work for you then make sure that you keep your triggers simple. The goal here is to help your body mechanically at game time without overloading itself with too much information for it to process under stress.
All of these 3X Pitching Triggers come from the 3X Pitching Velocity program. It is a requirement to have completed this program before these trigger will work for you. I would bet you your money back that if you complete the 16 week 3X Pitching Velocity program that these pitching triggers will be the key to your success this season. Best of luck!
This article goes great with the 3X programs. This will really help me this season.
ok so I was wondering. Every time I make a mechanical adjustment, it feels great for about a week and then I lose feel of the adjustment and I have to go back to where I was before the adjustment. do you know why this is? How do I prevent this? I don’t have any current videos but I’ll try and get my coach to film me soon.
The current mechanical adjustment I’m struggling with is leading with my hips and the load. It felt great at first, but it’s gone awry this week. It’s effecting everything later in my delivery too, including the degree of my separation.
Cal Ripken talked about this. He said that each game he had to change something to make it all work. He said it never stayed the same.
I believe once you program new motor coordination then your thoughts have a different effect on your movements. This is what causes things to always change. All you can do is learn more about yourself so you know how to make the adjustments that are necessary in that moment.
Sounds like you need more video analysis.
ok, thanks for the advice, I really do need more video analysis. Speaking of which, another thing I was wondering, because I’ve been playing college baseball and it’s the in-season right now, it’s been really hard for me to do the 3X pitching program completely since we don’t consistently go into the weight room 4 times a week and stuff like that. Does the free video analysis and access to you as a coach expire after 16 weeks? I ordered 3X pitching in December and I haven’t been consistently able to do it since February, do you think I can put 3X pitching on hold and start it over in the summer if it does expire after 16 weeks?
Yes, no problem!