All About Pitching

For High School Pitchers To Improve Velocity They Must Change

Can a 16-year-old 6' 160 lb. high school pitcher improve his velocity 9 mph in less than five weeks going from 78-87 mph? Read on.

For high school pitchers to improve their velocity or control they must first get a good evaluation of their mechanics. Then they must understand that if they really want to improve their velocity and control that they must make changes to their mechanics. And when pitchers make changes to their mechanics it is going to feel uncomfortable for a time. Resisting that feeling of being uncomfortable is what keeps them stuck and does not provide improvement. In fact, if pitchers don't feel uncomfortable when changing then they know they are not changing.

Also, they may have to take two steps back and one step forward for a while until the new movement begins to take hold. With repetition it will eventually feel comfortable, but getting through that stage is the key to change.

Since gaining more velocity seems to be the most popular goal for most pitchers, understanding what it takes to improve it is the key. And most high school pitchers are being advised to improve arm strength or hit the weight room in the off-season as the key. However, neither will work to improve velocity.

No amount of additional arm strength is going to improve velocity. Why? Because velocity is a function of speed of movement, momentum and a long stride. Moving the body faster for high school pitchers is a difficult feeling to achieve initially because they have been lead to believe that the arm is the source of velocity…instead of the body. They are being told to long toss or throw weighted balls. Neither of which has any benefit to improving velocity.

Ask any college pitcher who is struggling to improve his velocity and he will tell you he has tried it all…and none of those activities has helped one bit. Plus, because of endless towel drills, balance drills, or kneeing drills, a high school pitcher's body is used to feeling slow and robotic instead of explosive. The key then is that high school pitchers must understand that in order to improve velocity they must first learn how to build forward momentum. That comes with the understanding that the back leg is the key.

The back leg is the key to velocity just as the back leg is the key for a sprinter getting out of the starting blocks. For both the pitcher and the sprinter, speed of movement is the key…not strength. As lefty great Sandy Koufax said—the key to pitching is the back leg.

A recent story comes from our member's forum. A 16-year-old RH high school pitcher, 6' 160 lbs., was trying to get his velocity up from 78 mph for next season, which is not bad coming off his sophomore year summer season. Less than one year ago he was a catcher…now turned pitcher.

So what did he grab onto first in order to improve his velocity? He fully understood that the back leg was the key and getting his body away from the rubber as fast as possible into a stride at least his body height if not more. So that is what he worked on for one solid month. Every opportunity he had he was doing repetitions of moving fast from his back leg to his front leg always focusing on lengthening his stride.

He did it outside, in the house, and a lot of repetitions. Guess how many each day? He estimated about 500 a day!

He figured that he did about 15,000 repetitions of back leg drive into a long stride over the course of a month. And he threw off the mound in the back yard as well. Who else is willing to do 500 repetitions a day of anything for a month?

So did it payoff? Boy did it. He was going to be used in a game in relief. And interestingly, the regular ump did not show up. So guess who ended up as the umpire? His dad. So while warming up to go in, he made the decision to bring his new delivery into the game…which his father had not even seen yet.

This was not the same pitcher. He did not look like any of the other pitchers, any more than Giants rookie Tim Lincecum looks like any other major league pitcher. Maybe that is why Tim Lincecum throws 93-98 mph regularly. He doesn't look slow and robotic like most pitchers. This was a pitcher who had had a few lessons and ended up with a very traditional pitching motion with a fairly high leg lift. But not anymore.

So what were the results of this month long work on improving his speed of movement, his back leg drive and lengthening his stride. Here is what his post says on our member's forum: eliminated high leg lift and gained 5 mph.

That's right, by eliminating his high leg lift and only pitching out of the stretch, he gained 5 mph in less than five weeks. But here is what is interesting. After some of the other forum members looked at his video clip, we made one suggestion that clicked. We told him to break his hands later. This resulted in a 4 mph velocity increase the next day.

So he ended up adding 9 mph to his velocity in less than five weeks by working on something that was completely foreign to him and did not feel comfortable until he did enough repetitions over the course of a month. He went from 78-87 mph.

Now I will end this by letting you read what his father wrote about this on our member's forum:

Having just called five innings behind the plate with various pitchers, I must say there was quite a contrast between everyone else and Bill. The batters noticed as well. I have come up with the analogy of starting a race with someone where one of you would traditionally pronounce, "Ready, set, go!"

That day it was as if Bill was challenging the batter to a race as said "Go!" I actually had a batter look at strike three, a fast ball right down the middle, turn, look at me with a face that said, "What just happened?"

He faced four batters (the first reaching 1B on a blooper hit off the end of the bat that went about 20'), the next three were easily retired. Mind you these were very good varsity hitters (they had scored ten runs the first five innings).

I was very proud, confused, and actually it bit upset, all at the same time. After Bill's one inning I was able to contrast him to other pitchers further. I think batter's tend to time their hitting triggers a bit, by watching a pitcher flow through there motion, they see it coming, they see the ball, they track it all the way in.

As an umpire, I do this as well. To time my crouch, and to track the pitch. That day with Bill, it was like having a screen in front of him with the ball shooting out of a hole. He is just standing there, and then all of a sudden, without any notice, you are trying to spot the ball. I have umpired hundreds of games and have never seen anything like it.

At the time, I didn't know what to think. I still don't know what to think, because I am worried about what his high school coaches are thinking now.

My wife said she saw the high school pitching coach studying Bill intently the whole time. I suspect that they too, were quite confused, he looked strange, but then again he had a very successful inning. Who knows what they are thinking.

On a good note, when Bill had the high leg kick, he had trouble holding runners on 1B (not an issue any more with this delivery).

He has been doing this for a month now, (but has spent countless hours striding in the house).

He was a catcher his entire youth baseball career and on his freshman team. He just recently started pitching (his first lessons were last fall). This spring on his JV team as a sophomore, he was not in the regular rotation, and this provides much of his motivation, to improve/change.

If you are a pitcher or the parent of a pitcher or a coach at any level… speed of movement, better momentum into a stride length of at least the pitcher's height is the key to velocity improvement.

Nothing much was said about this pitcher's arm except break your hands later so the energy builds in the body longer so more of that energy ends up on the ball. If you want improvement, then now is the time. Pitchers are made in the off-season.

Don't waste your time hoping that arm strength or getting bigger or stronger is the key. Focus on your leg drive, more speed of movement, more momentum into a much longer stride. And come back next spring throwing much harder with better control. Yes, better control. The closer you are to the target the easier it is to control the ball.

Pitching velocity is produced by the body as it moves from the back leg to the front leg. What is required is faster tempo for more speed of body movement, and forward momentum into a stride of 100% of the pitcher's height.

As Giants rookie phenom Tim Lincecum says…who is 5'10" and throws 95-100 mph—the arm is along for the ride. If you want to throw fast you must move fast.

Find an instructor who fully understands that and you have a chance of reaching your potential velocity. With an arm strength model of boosting velocity…you are doomed to mediocrity.

Don't Forget - My Complete Pitching Instruction program is the only complete "pitching clinic" home study course available that is backed by real sports science research. It's designed for parents, coaches, and players of all ages. Whether you're a pitcher just starting out, or an advanced pitcher looking for answers, we make it simple to understand for both the parent and pitcher.

"Dick’s program has given me the knowledge I need as a pitching coach to help young people succeed. I highly recommend it to any pitcher Little League through college. From mechanics to conditioning to the mental aspect, everything he does is top notch. His program helped our pitchers go 29-1, have a 0.80 ERA last season, and win a State Championship."

Banks Faulkner, Gilbert Indian Baseball, Gilbert, SC

If you're serious about improving pitching performance without risking arm injury or worse reserve your copy of the Complete Pitching Instruction DVD Set today!