Baseball Pitching Velocity

by Dick Mills on November 13, 2004

Welcome to my blog. Why do I call myself "the baseball pitching rebel?" Because I simply do not agree with the majority of current baseball pitching methodology on pitching mechanics, how to best train a pitcher and many other areas of pitching performance enhancement such as how to develop better command of pitches.

Most of all I do not agree with the hype that has become a huge part of online instruction regarding how to produce more velocity based on the use of weighted baseballs and now even the use of weighted vests. None of it has any basis in fact. None! This means that following these types of philosophies will ultimately produce fewer outstanding pitchers because they will waste time involved in activities that have not proven to produce better performing pitchers.

There is much interest, misinformation and confusion about how a pitcher can develop or create more velocity. This is a subject that has been hyped up for years now ever since more opportunists have come online that prey on the uninformed. The problem is that there is little accurate information that is based on sports science. The current methodology of developing more geneneral strength is mostly belief based or ideas that have been handed down year after year from well meaning coaches…who have not looked at what sports science has proven to be true in other sports.

Now online you have an endless list of websites that are trying to take advantage of the consumer because the consumer does not know and is relying on coaches who may be former college or even professional pitchers. The problem is that most of instruction…especially online is based on what that coach or instructor believes to be true rather than what sports science has proven to be true in all of sports…not just baseball. We must also understand that the large majority of these pitching instructors are simply not aware that their methods are not only outdated but lack proof in producing more successful pitchers.

The current methodology of how to develop and produce velocity for pitchers of all ages is based on the idea propogated especially online and by many high school and college coaches… is that if pitchers just get stronger that they will be able to throw harder. If pitching was a strength activity then this would make sense. However, sports science says that baseball pitching is an activity that is dominated much more by speed than strength. This means that in order for a pitcher to throw harder it is much more dependent on how quickly he can move his body than on how much force his body can produce through weight training.

When we simply think about this in common sense terms this seems to be logical…since weight room strength is designed to help the body produce more force such as a football lineman trying to move another football lineman. Yes, this does require force. The heavier the object you are trying to move the more force that is required.

But in pitching you need more force to move what…certainly not a heavy object? In baseball pitching we are trying to move a 5 oz baseball which is extremely light. Because the ball is so light we do not need much force or strength to move it. In activities that do not require force where a light object is being moved, sports science says that speed in most important.

What then do pitchers develop when the work out in the weight room? They develop more general strength but strength that will not be able to be used to move that light 5 oz baseball. This means that all that time a pitcher spends in the weight room trying to get stronger cannot be used to move his body faster to deliver a baseball at higher velocity. This means that the large majority of pitchers during this offseason are wasting their time in the weight room.

What should they be working on which would be more beneficial than building more general strength? Working on developing explosiviness which is speed component rather than a strength component of training. After all, pitching is one of the most explosive activities in sports.

How then do these websites or sellers of weighted ball training or weight room training come with testimonials that seem to prove that they work? This is easy. Because there are two elements that are actually responsible for these activities seeming to work. One if that the success stories and improvements happen only in pitchers who are not in a well trained state. This means that a pitcher who is not in good condition is going to show velocity from just about any activity that helps to improve his bodies condition. In this case it is the use of a weighted ball which causes the pitcher to just throw more. But it is the throwing more that creates the velocity not the weighted baseball itself.

If these weighted balls worked they would work on all pitchers…including top level pitchers. But they do not. These same untrained pitcher could have done many other activities as well that would have helped them produce more velocity including playing handball, which is a full body activity. They also would have produced equal results just throwing a 5 oz ball as much.

The other reason that some of these activities seem to work over a more extended period of time such as the offseason is just due to growth and development. The high school freshman pitcher who is throwing 70 mph does weight training in the offseason and by the end of his sophomore year he is throwing 80-82 mph. The deduction is made that it was the weight training that produced the extra 10-12 mph when in fact it would have occured without any weight training due to growth and development.

I know of many situations in high school pitchers…even early college pitchers who make jump in velocity. Then the claim is made that it was due to some special overload training of one sort or the other. More than likely it may have been due to late growth and development and maybe even better mechanics.

What activity will help a pitcher more than any other in his quest to become the best pitcher he can be? Throwing a baseball a lot of the time while practicing good mechanics. Nothing can ever beat that as the pitching choice for reaching overall better performance.

More about this issue of building more explosiviness rather than general strength in upcoming posts. I will also be discussing other issues such as long toss and whether there is value in doing drills once a pitcher has developed his delivery.