Every pitcher wants to reach his maximum velocity potential so he can throw harder, and still have great control. Both of these things are possible for a pitcher in Little League right through pro baseball, but only if you approach them using what has actually proven to work rather than what sounds good.
Remember the one principle that not one coach in 100 fully understands: Pitching velocity is dependent on speed of movement of the body. It is the body that produces velocity, not the arm. It’s not big strong legs, either since many skinny pitchers with skinny arms and legs can throw overpowering fastballs. If you understand that, then you have a good chance of maximizing pitching velocity. If you think for one second that velocity is about the arm, then you are in big trouble and will more than likely waste a great deal of time trying to find something when you are looking in the wrong place.
In baseball today, it seems that whenever a pitcher is having problems, such as control, or is coming back from an injury, the first adjustment that is made by coaches is to slow the pitcher’s delivery down. Or, have him hesitate at the balance position, so he can “gather” himself before moving toward the plate. I have always wondered about this idea of gathering before moving toward the plate. Why is this necessary? Why not just focus on driving the body toward the plate as fast as possible?
So, the next time a coach or instructor tells you or your son to stop or hesitate or gather himself before continuing his body toward the plate, ask him for a full explanation of this foolish idea. Yes, it is totally foolish. Does it make any sense to you if you think about this for yourself or do we just blindly listen to instruction that makes no common sense, whether you know baseball or not?
Slowing a Pitcher’s Motion Down Increases Injury Risk
This type of solution, slowing a pitcher down, is what reduces velocity, control, and actually increases the risk of injury. I recently heard that a Major League pitching coach wanted to slow down a top Major League phenom by having him hesitate briefly at the balance position. This will only serve to reduce momentum and, thereby, force the pitcher to generate more velocity from his arm. So, his velocity goes down, and his arm injury risk goes up. But, this is just another belief-based adjustment that runs rampant at all levels of baseball.
I am sure that motor skills experts and sports scientists just shake their heads in disbelief since it has clearly been proven repeatedly in all sports that velocity should never be sacrificed to gain control. Never. There are coaches and instructors that still have pitchers lift their legs up, and then stop to balance themselves. Why? This would only serve a purpose if the idea in pitching was to stop at this point for some reason based on the rules. But to develop an explosive movement such as pitching, why would you have a pitcher ever stop when the idea should be to get down the mound as fast as possible to ensure a long stride, so the pitcher gets closer to the hitter.
In fact, slowing down the speed of movement of a pitcher as he moves from his back leg to his front leg while driving away from the rubber actually increases the probability of mechanical error. Move slow and create more mechanical problems. Move faster and reduce mechanical error and increase velocity and control.
Again, sports science research has proven this ancient principle for decades. But baseball coaches and private instructors continue to make things up as they go along, all at the expense of the player. So, the faster you move the body in a straight line toward the plate, the less risk of errors such as balance problems or even direction problems.
Getting Closer to the Plate After Release Improves Control
Every pitcher should try to get his body as close to the plate as possible. First of all, that allows the ball to be closer to the hitter, which makes it easier to control where the ball is going. Plus, the closer the pitcher is to the plate, the less time the hitter has to react to all his pitches. What has been found is that the closer the pitcher gets to the hitter, the more late movement he will gain on all his pitches. Yet, despite all the benefits coaches and instructors continue to slow pitchers down thereby actually creating more problems than they are trying to solve.
For people who are paying for pitching lessons, this means they are not only wasting their money but paying to have their son reduce his pitching performance ability. Speed of movement of the pitcher’s body is specific to his fastball velocity. If a pitcher throws a bullpen at less than game intensity, such as 70 percent intensity, which is regularly advocated even at top Division I colleges, he is actually teaching the body a completely different movement skill specific to throwing the ball at 70 percent intensity.
This pitcher who throws less-than-game-intensity bullpens, so he can work on his control or his mechanics, is basically wasting valuable time because his 70 percent bullpen will not help him when he has to throw at 100 percent intensity in the game. He might as well go shoot some baskets, and at least get good at that. This simply means that what you practice must be specific if you want to improve for the game.
Pitchers should never throw a bullpen at less-than-game intensity once they are fully warmed up. Never. That is unless they want to have two different deliveries, one for practice and one for the game. But does that make sense. Could this be why high school and college pitchers have such poor control and poor velocity? And, so much injury? They are not practicing at game intensity, so they are not practicing for the game.
So, velocity goes down, and so does control. Plus when they pitch in the game they are doing something they have not practiced. This means their bodies are really not fit to deliver their arms. Therefore, they increase their risk of injury because their body will fatigue faster, and they will try to gain more from their throwing arm. If pitchers practice on flat ground, they become good flat ground pitchers since flat ground and throwing from a mound are two completely different movement skills.
Mechanics are totally different when you change the plane from where you will pitch. Timing is different. Stride length is different. The position of the throwing arm is different. What I see today in baseball are pitchers that are already moving too slow, and wondering why they can’t improve velocity. They have tried all the popular velocity boosters, such as long toss, weighted balls, drills of every sort, lifting weights, or other newly invented activities.
I recently heard that some high schools in Florida were recommending a six-week velocity program of throwing softballs, and making sure the pitchers didn’t stride more than 75 percent of their height. So, they will end up with a lot of good overhand softball throwers with short strides.
I recently heard of one self-professed online pitching guru who spends 1 1/2 hours with pitchers working on balance. Does this make any sense?
Balance Can Be Fixed by Watching Video
If pitchers don’t have balance just videotape them, show them what they are doing, and have them make the correction. This should take no more than 15 minutes. Can coaches think anymore, or even do they? Or, are they just like a bunch of stupid sheep who follow the flock off the cliff, and take all their pitchers with them.
Velocity is a function of three important ingredients: Speed of movement, momentum, and a long stride. Slowing a pitcher down for any reason reduces the ability to develop maximum velocity.
Pitching drills are another reason that pitching deliveries are so slow today. Drills simply serve to slow pitchers down, make them mechanical, robotic, and overthinking. I have yet to see one pitching drill that makes sense. Don’t get me going on foolish time wasting drills. I stopped using drills back in early 2004 when I read all the research on how counter-productive they were to pitching. Does slowing a pitcher down make sense to you? Does practicing hesitating at the balance position make sense?
If a pitcher moves slow into landing, he will have to try to gain velocity from his arm since the body is the mechanism for producing both kinetic and elastic energy that whips the arm through. If we, as instructors, want pitchers to reach their maximum velocity potential, we must teach them to remove all slow movements and hesitation and gain more forward momentum by simply moving the body faster as they drive away from the rubber. Nothing else will improve velocity faster.
I have spent a great deal of time watching San Francisco Giants rookie phenom Tim Lincecum, who pitches consistently between 95 to 100 mph at 5 feet 10 inches tall and 170 pounds. How does he do it? He moves his body fast, builds momentum into a stride length equal to or greater than his height. Lincecum says that velocity is not about the arm. He says “my arm is along for the ride.”
Lincecum knows that his body produces the energy that drives his arm at high speed. Can anyone explain to me logically how throwing weighted balls can help Lincecum throw even faster? Pure foolishness.
One online weighted ball advocate, who also wants you to believe is a conditioning expert, who I actually mention in our book, “The Science and Art of Baseball Pitching: The Coach’s Complete Handbook of Scientific Pitching,” says that throwing a 4-ounce ball is the secret to more velocity. Hah! How does this work?
In our book, Dr. Brent S. Rushall, Ph.D., R.Psy., a world renowned sports scientist, completely obliterates the idea that weighted balls, whether 4 ounces or 2 pounds, can work to improve velocity. We spend 16 pages of our 500-plus page reference book proving why all the weighted ball studies are totally flawed.
Interestingly, none of the scientists who we mention in our book, who did the original weighted ball studies, have stepped forward to defend their work. Also, if an instructor advocates weighted balls for more velocity, you can be sure his conditioning advice is also flawed.
As Lincecum says, the arm is along for the ride. The body delivers the arm. No amount of arm exercises or extra weight training will improve velocity. But building momentum quickly, moving the body faster into a long stride will and faster than you ever thought possible.
Ask your pitching instructor how pitching velocity is produced. Or, if you are a high school player trying to choose a college, ask the coach this same question. If they say anything about the arm for producing velocity, you are in deep trouble. Here’s what Dr. Rushall has to say about how to produce more pitching velocity. You will never hear this from a baseball coach.
“To throw fast, one must move fast.” It has to be obvious that when an action is slowed it feels different and disrupts control.”
The post Why Slow Pitching Deliveries Produce Slow Pitching Velocities appeared first on Baseball Pitching.