Baseball Pitching Arm Strength—Are Pitchers Wasting Time Trying To Get It?

by Dick Mills on December 15, 2004

Baseball Pitching Arm Strength—Are Pitchers Wasting Time Trying To Get It

Most every baseball pitcher, or parent or coach seems to believe that the secret to baseball pitching velocity is to develop more baseball pitching arm strength. The sole focus then becomes the arm. This is one of the reasons why many websites are foolishly hyping the value of weighted baseballs as an instant means of developing velocity…the idea being that if you overload the arm with some extra weight then that will add extra baseball pitching arm strength which will show up on the radar gun as extra pitching velocity.

Or we have thousands upon thousands of pitchers from high school to college…even professional baseball that will waste thousands of hours doing weight room based workouts all during the offseason thinking that more strength is what pitchers need to throw harder. The problem there is that unless a pitcher is doing exercises that will teach his body to move faster…then no amount of weight room training will help a pitcher throw with more velocity.

Is a strong arm important for baseball pitching? Certainly. But the biggest single problem that I see when analyzing youth, high school, college and even some minor league pitchers…is that their lack of velocity is not because of a lack of arm strength but because they do not understand how to use their body to speed up their arm. When they are standing on the mound they do not understand how their body can produce velocity using quality and efficient mechanics.

If you want to see how much the arm really contributes to a throw then try this. Have a pitcher stand facing straight on at his intended target with feet spreard a little more than shoulder width apart…instead of how he would normally throw by standing sideways to his target. Now have someone hold his opposite arm throwing shoulder so that he cannot rotate it forward and thereby rotate or pull back his throwing shoulder for added extension. Then have him see how far he can throw the ball without using the mechanical advantage of using his trunk. It won't be very far because he is using just his arm and not getting the benefit of hip and trunk rotation.

He may be able to throw the ball thirty or forty feet? Not much arm strength required for that? But then release his opposite arm shoulder and allow him to use the rotational forces of his pelvis (hips) and his trunk and he will be able to throw the ball at least five times as far.

The question you must ask yourself is how will throwing weighted baseballs help…when the majority of speed comes from rotational forces which are the summation of forces of the entire elastic energy of the body.

Baseball pitching velocity is all about how many muscles a pitcher can put on stretch as quickly as possible. It is about the proper timing of one part of the body handing off energy to the next part efficiently. Baseball pitching velocity is about moving all those body parts as quickly as possible where the energy continues to add up and finally ends up as arm speed. The pitcher's body is using all it's elastic energy to finally whip the arm through. The arm cannot do much by itself as anyone can prove.

The point being made is that most pitchers, parents and many coaches do not understand that baseball pitching is a full body activity…and arm strength is just a part. With the strongest arm and poor mechanics how much velocity do you think a pitcher will have? Not enough and this is why so many pitchers end up with sore arms. They think pitching velocity is about arm strength.

The question is how many are wasting time in the weight room doing exercises they believe will build arm strength?

How many are wasting their time throwing weighted baseballs…which none of the advocates can explain how or why they are supposed to work since there is no sports science principle that confirms their value.

Baseball pitching velocity is ultimately about efficient mechanics and understanding how those mechanics will help speed up the pitcher's body parts to deliver the arm at high speed.

What pitcher's need to do is throw with good mechanics a lot…and mostly from the mound because that is what pitching is all about. There is certainly nothing wrong with long toss as a general form of conditioning during the offseason or as a warmup device inseason but there is no evidence that long toss will help increase velocity. It is not a pitching specific activity since you use a crow hop, throw with an upward trajectory and not to a specific fine target.

Pitching is a skill rather than a strength activity. The closer you get to your practice season the more you should throw from the mound. That is the only possible way you canl become a more successful pitcher.

If you have questions about this post or on any phase of pitching—mechanics, strength and conditioning, mental training, strategy send those questions to

and I will answer them here.

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