There Are No Baseball Pitching Velocity Secrets Outside Of Good Mechanics, Growth And Development

by Dick Mills on November 18, 2004

I see that people are still looking for the baseball pitching magic bullets out there.

I know this based on questions I get on the phone and comments I get from fathers wondering why their sons cannot throw harder. The high school coach who has his pitchers throwing weighted baseballs for more pitching velocity.

Listen up again—put your ear real close because a lot of you are not paying attention.

Who wants instant success in life, their job, their business, their relationships?

We all want it don't we? But does wanting it make it possible? Unlikely. But there is a formula for getting whatever you want. But it does require education, effort, time, patience, commitment and persistence. Those are the keys to success in anything.

Do you know of any instant success secrets in any other sports such as javelin throwing, high jumping, pole vaulting, sprinting, rowing, quarterbacking, hitting, swimming, soccer, tennis, backetball, water polo, etc. How about golf?

There are thousands upon thousands of fathers who think that their sons should be throwing as hard as every other kid who throws hard. And they want the secret. Hello!!! Is anybody out there. Is anybody asking questions.

In Little League the bigger kids will throw harder with more pitching velocity in most cases. In high school it has a great deal to do with growth and development. I know of many, many kids who do gain 15-20 mph during high school. How. Building better mechanics while growing and developing. Some kids are early developers and some are late developers.

I remember working with a high school pitcher who could not break 78 mph after his junior year. With just three weeks of work he got to 86 mph in time for Area Code. With a change in his pitching mechanics along with growth and development he was throwing 89 mph and had 23 pro scouts at his first game senior year because they saw him at Area Code. How? Skill and growth and development. It works everytime.

But you don't want to wait. You want it now—don't you? Admit it. You have zero patience. And you continue to wonder about the online claims of weighted balls, long toss or weight training.

Roger Clemens and Billy Wagner and hundreds of professional baseball pitchers were not throwing 90 mph in high school and many could not break low eighties. Why. They had not developed yet.

Do you know that many olympic athletes were late developers. You cannot rush Mother Nature so this means you cannot control everything since growth and develpment is a big part of a pitchers ability to create velocity. The other has to do with his mechanics and his willingness to put in the needed time to train his body to throw explosively.

Have you all read any of the articles that I have posted on my website? Most of you have not. You don't have time but you have time to go out searching for magic bullets that you think just might be the trick.

Well good luck.

How many of you have not videotaped your sons pitching mechanics lately—or ever? I talked to two fathers last week whose sons have had pitching mechanic problems and guess what…neither have ever videotaped their sons and both of these fathers have had the Pitching Mastery instructional program for shows how to videotape any pitcher…for over six months. Hello!

I got to tell you that really raises my anger glands. Do you know why? Because they are not giving their sons a chance to get to first base as baseball pitchers. And these are the same people who will bellyache about their son's not having enough pitching velocity.

I got an email the other day about a long toss school. As if this long toss school is the answer. How could it be? I know one pro pitcher who tried it but left half way through. It did not make sense to him. He felt is was a total waste of time and money. And was in an elite group with other pro and major league pitchers. Why did they all go? Because they "believe" long toss helps. But none of them has any evidence.

Baseball pitching long toss is about conditioning the body…not about increasing pitching velocity.

Wouldn't these baseball pitchers be far better off spending their time throwing from a mound? After all why develop the skill of long tossing? Will that help you "hit the glove", change speeds and get hitters out?

Do you actually believe that because a major league pitcher does long toss that long toss is the secret. The fact is most major league pitchers do long toss because everyone else does long toss. Does long toss build velocity? There is zero evidence that it does. It may be a good warm-up routine or a part of a once a week overall offseason conditioning routine, but for velocity it makes no sense. And how about helping pitchers with their command? Won't work for that either.

I know a professional pitcher who was throwing 91-93 mph as a college freshman and now is upper eighties…and is a religious long toss advocate. Hasn't helped his velocity one bit and in my opinion has killed his mechanics.

I got a call from a college coach last week. He wanted to know if there anything that his pitchers could do for velocity because long toss and their weight lifting routine was not working after three years of doing both religiously. He also had them going through daily pitching drills on flat ground because he learned that at a pitching clinic. What do you think I told him about that? I said stop wasting your time on drills. Get these pitchers working on their mechanics from the mound.

I put something in one of this years newsletters showing how two high school pitchers moved off their back legs and compared them to a major league pitcher who throws upper nineties. I got lots of comments about that and it is clear that some understand it and some don't. And this is where most youth and high school pitchers get stuck. It all comes down to how they initially move from their back leg to their front leg. If their back leg collapses they lose power.

It is not about a lack of arm strength. It is not about not "staying back." But it has a lot to do with using a lunge type movement off the back leg while keeping the nose over the bellybutton all the way until landing using a long stride. If that isn't done correctly the pitcher is dead in the water.

If you have not videotaped your son then there is no way you will see this.

Only about 10 to maybe 20% of our customers use my Pitching Mastery program the way I suggest. Those are the ones who get this and the ones whose sons have a good chance of being successful long term. The rest will continue to search for the easy way…for the magic way.

And because they are not willing to put in the time to watch the DVD's, the videos, do the videotaping and then have the patience to make the adjustments as you go, your son is the one who will suffer. Or then maybe you will think that this is just too much work and turn him over to an instructor who has less of a clue than you do and who will end up charging you $50-75 an hour for a glorified bullpen—because after the third lesson he will have nothing of value to talk about.

Remember as parents the ball is in your court. What you do now this offseason will to a large degree determine how your son will do next year.

Do you have a plan to help your son? Have you recognized and discussed his problems?

With the proper tools you can help your son make huge gains by next year. But there is no magic way. Pitching success is all about doing the old fashioned way. Build better pitching mechanics and focus on explosiveness. Any time you spend away from doing those activities will keep you mediocre at best.

If you have questions on any phase of pitching—mechanics, strength and conditioning, mental training, strategy send those questions to dickmills@gmail.com and I will answer them here.

If you want an explosive body and explosive mechanics you need to get my Free Report at www.pitching.nexcess.net. We won't waste your time. We show you what works and what has been proven to work. I show you a comparison between two high school pitchers and a major league pitcher who throws mid to upper nineties. Find out why you do not have "explosive mechanics" that produce more velocity.