The Bigger And Stronger Pitcher Who Lost Velocity

Most aspiring baseball pitchers—especially high school and college don’t have a plan for what they want and how they are going to get to where they want to go.

So their time is spent doing a little of this and a little of that in hopes that something will come together to help them perform better. Most is about “getting bigger and stronger” since that is the coach’s mentality today.

The large majority of these pitchers will not get to where they want to go. Why? They lack focus because they simply listen to the wrong people…such as coaches who don’t know either.

I remember gettting a call a few years ago from the concerned mother of a college freshman who was a pro prospect out of high school here in Scottsdale. He was 6’5″ and weighed 185 throwing 87-89 mph as a high school senior. Very projectionable by pro baseball scouts because they figured he would more than likely throw even harder later.

So off he went to a D1 school in the West…which was also a football powerhouse. The baseball strength coach was the football strength coach too.

One look by the coach at that tall, lanky right-hander and he knew what needed to happen—get that kid bigger and stronger. And that’s exactly what the strength coach did.

A year later—after lots of strength training…most in the weight room the lanky right-hander was 210 and bigger and stronger. Well, bigger and stronger lifting weights anyway.

So why was his mother calling me? Because his velocity—which was supposed to be headed up was headed down…all the way to 82-84 mph. So what happened?

Well, he also got slower…doing all those slow movements in the weight room. After all that extra 25 lbs was foreign to his body so his body just did not know how to move as fast with all that extra muscle. But the D1 baseball coach and the strength coach only understood that more strength training was supposed to convert to more velocity. After all…why wouldn’t it?

Well, what they failed to understand is that baseball pitching velocity is not about strength at all…but much, much more about speed of movement of the body. This means that if a pitcher wants to throw harder he must get his body to move more explosively since throwing a 5 oz baseball does not require much strength at all. We see Little League pitchers throwing the equivilent of 90 mph all the time.

I noticed this year that the Twins closer Joe Nathan is 6’5″ 200 lbs. Joe routinely hits 96-98 mph. Probably skinny to most D1 coaches or pro scouts. But Joe also throws much harder than Roger Clemens who outweighs him by 40 lbs or Curt Schilling who outweighs him by 25-30 lbs. What gives here?

Pitching velocity is not about strength or who is the biggest…although taller can have advantages in more leverage. However, some small pitchers can throw hard too because they move even faster and more explosively.

Twins Joe Nathan is more explosive than Clemens or Schilling.

I wonder how many other high school and college pitchers are right now in the weight room 4 or 5 times a week working on getting “bigger and slower”…I mean “bigger and stronger?” Thousands of course.

So what do you do with a 6’5″ 185 lb stingbean RH high school pitcher who throws 87-89 mph? Help him get functionally stronger while focusing on explosiveness. A little weight room training of about four weeks is all he needs to get himself ready to do explosive movements. After four weeks of that weight room training…the strength gains he gets he won’t be able to use. Not in pitching anyway.

I would then continue to work on making sure his mechanics are rock solid…which they probably are not. In ten years of doing lots of video analysis of top high school and college pitchers…it is rare that I cannot find a missing ingredient that will help them throw even harder with better consistent control.

I would focus on developing his fastball and his command of his fastball so that he is able to locate it down and away and then in under the hitter’s hand—70% of the time. Next I would focus on his change-up and make sure that was rock solid and finally his breaking ball. All in that order.

I would make sure he never wasted one throw in practice…because every single throw counts when you are building pitching skills. Only the most skilled pitchers make it to the next level.

I assume that this high school pitcher is eating a well balanced diet and consumming enough calories.

All that being the case…you must let Mother Nature take care of the rest. Supplements such as protein drinks don’t work because all the do is add fat to the body. That slows down speed of movement. We want lean muscle because baseball pitching explosiveness is all about how quickly you can put as many muscles on stretch as possible.

Pitching is a full body activity. It’s about the sum of all the body’s forces working with good timing and efficiency of movement all added together to finally create more arm speed. Arm speed doesn’t happen by itself. A big reason why weighted balls make no sense. Or why there is no proof that long toss build velocity…since it is not about arm strength…but how fast the body can move the arm.

The key is the word “quickly.” And that’s why bigger and stronger usually doesn’t work to produce more velocity. We can’t afford slowness too.

The end of that story of the RH pitcher is a sad one. He never got his velocity back and was out of college baseball two years later.

Before your son decides on a college you might want to find out what their strength and conditioning philosophy is. Make sure it is not about producing more slowness.

Dick Mills

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 and I will answer them here.

If you want an explosive body and explosive mechanics you need to get my Free Report atwww.pitching.nexcess.net. 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 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 are a high school or college coach, ask for our special Free Coach’s Report.)