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Strasburg Meets his Ultimate Challenge

I want to feel bad for Stephen Strasburg for tearing his ulnar cruciate ligament in his first MLB season but I remember that his signing bonus was $15 Million and then I don’t feel so bad. Having Tommy John surgery today isn’t that rare. Just view the list below of the 187 MLB and some minor league ball players who have survived the surgery and there is a lot more. Most say that you will come out of Tommy John surgery throwing harder but this is a misconception. Studies show that those pitchers who increase velocity post Tommy John surgery is mainly because they develop more of a focus on their training program along with making mechanical corrections. My experience with surgery is if you can survive it, you will come out better, not physically better but better prepared for life. If Strasburg is going to come back and be the next greatest thing again he is going to have to overcome a major hurdle in his professional career. Mark Prior is a pitcher who was dealt a similar hand than Strasburg and he is still trying to make his come back after his career ending injury. Mark Prior is now learning that his best years may be behind him. Read more

Popularity: 1%

Stephen Strasburg Pitching

I hate to kill the buzz over Stephen Strasburg but he isn’t doing anything special mechanically to throw the ball 100 plus mph. I have studied this guy ever sense he was playing at San Diego State where I was also playing minor league ball. Every single pitching coach online is trying to prove some mechanical detail in his deliver to his success. It doesn’t exist! Stephen Strasburg is who he is because he is a big, elite athlete with good pitching mechanics. If we were talking football and he was a quarterback, would mechanics come up when discussing his ability. I think not! We would talk about his size, strength and speed on the field. Strasburg is an elite athlete because of his genetics and his training program. Tony Gwynn said when he found him he was an average pitcher with some arm problems. All he did was get him with a strength and conditioning coach to build him like an elite athlete and it worked. Tony Gwynn had the foresight to see that this kid had the tools, he just needed to be developed into a top level athlete. Read more

Popularity: 5%

3X Velocity Camp Instruction Videos

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Popularity: 7%

3X Pitching and the Timing Factor

Triple Extension or 3X is the extension of the drive leg ankle, knee and hip flexor. Triple Extending the drive leg drives the hips completely through to the target. If triple extension occurs quick enough and with enough force at the end of the stride while the shoulders stay closed and relaxed, this will create optimal separation in your core. The NPA’s (National Pitching Association) velocity case study of 2006 proved that elite pitchers who throw 90 plus mph get up to 60 degrees of hip to shoulder separation at front foot strike. Therefore if you are going to increase velocity you must learn to increase hip to shoulder separation by learning triple extension. Once you learn how to incorporate full triple extension into your pitching delivery, you will not see its benefits until you master the final factor. The final factor in learning any new muscle memory is the timing factor. The timing factor of triple extension is critical to creating 60 degrees of hip to shoulder separation and increasing velocity. Read more

Popularity: 8%

Triple Extension – 3X Pitching

The topic of Triple Extension in the Pitching delivery is growing more attention. I first brought the teachings of triple extension from Olympic Lifting into the Pitching world when I launched TopVelocity.net. I continue to believe that Triple Extension, or the acronym 3X, is a major component of velocity. Triple Extension is the extension of the ankle joint, the knee joint and the hip flexors. The best way to understand and visualize 3X is when jumping. When you jump, you triple extend these 3 joints as your body drives itself off the ground. The problem with learning 3x and pitching is that it must come after good hip to shoulder separation. The reason most coaches do not coach driving off the mound is because they do not know how to teach hip to shoulder separation before teaching driving the back leg. Teaching 3X without teaching good separation is like putting the cart before the horse. It doesn’t work and therefore most coaches totally avoid the entire 3X approach. Read more

Popularity: 16%

The Adventures of Long Tossing!

Long tossing has been a heated debate on Topvelocity.net in the past month. The day I posted my first article against the practice of “Extreme Long Tossing” I was contacted by Alan Jaeger with Jaeger Sports. Lets just say he wasn’t happy with my research. The problem is Alan Jaeger and I have totally different back grounds. He played a little college baseball and I played a little pro baseball. Jaeger is a yoga instructor and I am a strength and conditioning specialist. It isn’t that I do not agree with everything he teaches, I just don’t agree with a lot of it but that is the best part about the internet. We can all have our own opinions and programs. Read more

Popularity: 14%

The Phenomenon of Speed Mechanics!

We have all heard about the importance of Momentum in pitching but do we really know what it means? Velocity is a product of Momentum and Rotational Torque. I believe that Top Velocity is achieved when both rotational torque and momentum meet. The problem is we all understand rotational forces when throwing but momentum seems to be a lot harder to truly understand and implement into our deliveries. To truly understand Momentum, I have coined a new term, along with its description. Read more

Popularity: 15%

Pitching Velocity Mechanics aka Speed Mechanics

The definition of velocity from the University of Princeton’s website is, “speed: distance travelled per unit time.”

To a scientist this is a “Duh” moment, but to most pitching coaches this is a “What?” moment.

There are not many pitching coaches who would agree with you if you switched the word velocity with speed when talking about pitching mechanics. Read more

Popularity: 14%

The Pitching Key to Torque is in the “Tilt”

One of the main reasons a pitcher the size of Tim Lincecum, can generate as much velocity as a pitcher as tall as Randy Johnson, is because of core torque. The key to Tim Lincecum’s ability to create optimal torque is in his release point.

Tim has an “Over the top” release point and Randy has a “Sidearm” release point. I am not saying that every pitcher should throw the ball with a higher release point the shorter they are because there are benefits with all arm angles. What I am saying is a higher release point, using total body mechanics, will generate more core torque and in return increase velocity. Read more

Popularity: 19%

Alan Jaeger is teaching Voodoo!

In today’s day and age you can’t walk around proclaiming your greatness without either showing results or providing scientific information supporting your claims. In the case of Alan Jaeger scientific information isn’t in his vocabulary or on his website or videos, I guess this means he has results. Let’s look at his results.

Alan Jaeger has three major pitchers on his website who I assume used his program. One of them is Joel Zumaya.  Joel Zumaya is quoted on Jaeger’s website saying:

“The Jaeger Sports Training Program has helped me improve the health and strength of my arm..”

Joel Zumaya’s career has been plagued by injury and he just recently broke off his shoulder bone while pitching a game. I have honestly never heard of this injury until this happened. If I was his pitching coach, I would personally take responsibility for his injury’s because bad mechanics is what is causing them. Chris Oleary will tell you why here. Jaeger’s next victim or should I say poster boy is Barry Zito. Read more

Popularity: 20%

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