Pitching Velocity—Why High School And College Pitchers Aren’t Improving

Maybe the most asked question today about improving pitching performance is how to improve pitching velocity. Can pitching velocity be improved by doing long toss or throwing weighted balls or weight lifting? The answer is no. If you ask any high school or college coach or even a professional coach or scout you will get what has become a standard answer—long toss or get bigger and stronger. However, most college pitchers have long tossed and lifted weighted all through high school and college and have seen little if any improvements in velocity. It seems then that most pitchers at all levels have been given poor information about the benefits of velocity improvement. Long toss has not proven to work nor has weight lifting or throwing weighted baseballs. In my opinion long toss has two and only two small benefits. One is as a small part of an off-season full body conditioning program. And the other is possibly as a warm up tool. However, I see no benefit of extreme long distance throwing as is recommended by even big league pitching coaches…especially during the season. Coaches Cannot Explain Why Long Toss Benefits Velocity Not one coach has ever explained why long toss has benefits. All they say is that it improves arm strength. However, arm strength has been proven to have little value for improving pitching velocity since strength is not a factor. If strength was a factor that would mean that there are certain muscles in a pitcher’s arm that once strengthened would improve pitching velocity. However, there are no such muscles that have ever been identified. Studies about arm strength have proven that the throwing arm and the non-throwing arm are just about equal in strength. So for pitchers, with all that throwing that is being done, strength does not improve. This simply means that arm strength is not an important ingredient for improving velocity.  What is important for improving velocity? Mechanical energy and elastic energy. If long toss worked then why do we not see many more high school and college pitchers throwing 90 mph fastballs? The problem today is that coaches and instructors do not know how velocity is developed within the body. Unfortunately, even professional pitchers and coaches believe that arm strength is important. What has proven to be most important ingredient for velocity improvement is the development of elastic energy. This is mechanical energy that is development by pitching from the mound at full game intensity. That is why skinny pitchers, with skinny legs and skinny arms and flat chests can throwing overpowering fastballs. Here are other things that do not work for improving pitching performance or velocity. Weighted baseballs, pitching drills, flat ground throwing, weight lifting, flexible tubing exercises or training aids. What does work to improving pitching velocity? Please listen carefully. The real secrets to improving pitching velocity:

1. A long stride several inches longer than body height (not 80-90% stride length)
2. Pitching from the mound at full game intensity more often
3. Throwing more pitches during each bullpen at full game intensity
4. Develop more forward momentum using a big step back toward second base (not a short step)
5. Eliminate any lateral movement (sideways) of the body such as swinging the leg out and around
6. Don’t lift the lead leg up higher than waste height (putting energy into lifting up is wasted energy)
7. Remove any delays, hesitations or slowing of movements such as getting to a ”balance position” (there is no balance position)
8. Landing on the bent lead leg only after the drive leg movement has completed the push off from an extended back leg
9. Flexing the trunk forward until the back is close to parallel to the ground
10. Explosive initiations of the full action

Those are the secrets to more velocity that not one coach in 100 understands because they are locked into the belief that the arm is the source of velocity. The arm has little to do with velocity production. The arm is mainly for control. Did you notice that out of that list of ten things to improve pitching velocity not once was the arm mentioned. If you continue to listen to what the masses of pitchers are doing to improve pitching velocity and most baseball coaches you will end up producing mediocrity. If the arm is the focus then pitchers have little chance of gaining improvement once the are fully developed. Don’t be observing what major league pitchers are doing. Many major league pitchers could improve their velocity 6-12 mph if they used the suggestions from the above list. Very few major league pitchers have outstanding mechanics. I have used Nolan Ryan and left-hander Sandy Koufax as good examples of pitchers who do many of the things on our list that create more velocity. Nolan Ryan is a great example of using an explosive initiations off the full action going toward the plate. However, despite what coaches have said in the past, his high leg lift did not contribute to that velocity but detracted. It actually slowed down him forward momentum toward the plate. For a fully developed pitcher, velocity can only be improved by changing and improving mechanics. If long toss worked to improve velocity for high school and college pitchers then all fully developed professional pitchers would be able to improve velocity by long tossing from year to year. That has not proven to work at all. If you continue to do what you have been doing then you will continue to get similar results. For more information on evidence based research that helped produce this article and others, see The Science And Art Of Baseball Pitching—A Coach’s Handbook For Scientific Pitching. Dick Mills, www.pitching.nexcess.net All About Pitching If you have questions about this blog post or on any phase of pitching—mechanics, strength and conditioning, mental training, strategy send those questions to:
dickmills@gmail.com Get my free 30-page pitching report. Click the link below. We won’t waste your time. We show you how to recognize exactly what is holding back most pitchers…find the problem—fix the problem. I show you a comparison between two high school pitchers, a Little League pitcher and a major league pitcher who throws mid to upper nineties. You will see the biggest problem that reduces velocity in the majority of pitchers. If you want an explosive body and 6-12 mph of velocity you need to get my 30-page free report. It will explain much of the misinformation about pitching that is ruining pitchers and stopping them. Or read about our new book The Science And Art Of Baseball Pitching written for high school, college and professional coaches (and sports writers) who want answers backed up by science. This is not a beginner’s book for how to teach pitching but a reference book that is 624 pages, contains over 500 scientific references and covers 58 pitching topics.30-page free report mailed by first class mail.