Pitching Velocity Training Aide The Pitchers Power Drive Actually Reduces Velocity Potential

by Dick Mills on February 01, 2010

The Pitchers Power Drive is a new pitching training aide designed to help pitchers shift their lower body away from the rubber so they can produce more back leg power and drive thus improved lower body mechanics and more eventual velocity.  But does it really work to do what it is supposed to do? I got an email recently asking me my professional opinion about the Pitchers Power Drive.

Weight shift and back leg drive are two of the most important aspects of lower body mechanics that will help a pitcher improve his velocity.  Most Little League, high school and many college pitchers do not understand how to do this.  This is the reason that the Pitchers Power Drive was created....to help pitchers improve their lower body power.

However, this device actually has the opposite effect of creating more lower body power.  Furthermore getting the feel of how the back leg and hip need to work to shift the pitcher's lower body away from the rubber cannot be provided without the pitcher's foot being in contact with the ground. It is the feel of the pitcher's foot anchored into the ground that provides the ground reaction force to help use the entire back leg and hip to move the pitcher's body powerfully away from the rubber into landing.  Devices are no substitution for how the body creates movement in any sport or the important feel that the athlete must develop.

The Pitchers Power Drive actually creates one of the most common faults that reduce pitching velocity and that is early hip rotation created by the position of the back knee in relation to the back foot. If the pitcher's knee upon weight shift gets positioned to the inside of the foot, the pitcher will lose the ability to use his entire leg and back hip to produce full leg drive.  This will reduce velocity dramatically.  And because of this,  lower body explosiveness is seriously reduced because the back leg is never able to get to near full extension just prior to landing and thus the back hip will end up positioned too low to get up and over the front leg into a powerful ball release position. 

And yet it is being endorsed by not only D1 coaches but also some major league coaches.  This is not unusual since most coaches do not understand how to body works to produce velocity...yes even major league pitching coaches. 

Here is the website for the Pitchers Power Drive.  www.pitcherspowerdrive.com  Watch the video.  The pitchers demonstrating the Pitchers Power Drive habr some very poor overall pitching mechanics.

The Pitchers Power Drive forces the pitcher to shift his weight to the inside of the foot much too early and thus the pitcher is not able to anchor his foot with the entire weight of his body into the ground prior to weight shift.  When this is done correctly the pitcher's knee will stay over his foot as his back hip is shifted away from the rubber.  This is the most important aspect of gaining maximum leg drive. The feel of the back foot, back leg and hip is critical if a pitcher wants to maximize his weight shift and leg drive.

The attached photo shows a pitcher using the Pitchers Power Drive and how his knee gets positioned to the inside of his foot because his weight shifts to the inside of his foot much to early. The photo to the right is of Red Sox pitcher Daniel Bard who throws 96-100 mph and whose back leg drive is the key to moving his body down the mound explosively. Notice how Bard keeps his knee positioned over his foot while his back hip shifts away from the rubber. 

I know of no major league power pitcher who throws with above average velocity who would shift his weight the way that the Pitchers Power Drive teaches.

In fact, just this past week, we had a 17 year old pitcher from New York come here for a two day lesson. His main problem that reduced his velocity was that his back knee caved in to the inside of his foot the way the Pitchers Power Drive teaches.  We spent most of the two days working on him getting the feel of keeping his knee positioned over his foot so he could gain the feel of his foot anchored into the mound surface so he could initiate proper weight shift and get the feel of maximum leg drive. No device is a substitute for what the body must feel.

I could not recommend the Pitchers Power Drive as a good training aide for pitchers. In fact, I have never seen one training device in all my years of teaching that can help a pitcher improve his pitching performance.

These are some of the important aspects I have been focusing on in our Explosively Pitching DVD program since 2004.  We teach parents how to help their sons use their bodies to pitch instead of just their arms. Not only does this improve velocity but reduces the risk of arm injuries.  We teach them proper conditioning.

See our Off-season discounts on our instructional DVD's:  http://www.pitching.com/products/

"I had spent several hundred dollars on a pitching coach who was leading my son down the path to ruin. He embraced every failed philosophy and technique you've identified - long toss, towel drills and more drills ad nauseum. My son's skills were deteriorating. When I found your website and read your report, I sense intuitively your words had merit and deserved further study."                                Mark Smith, Downers Grove,IL