Triple Extension – 3X Pitching
January 27, 2010
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: 6%
The Adventures of Long Tossing!
January 23, 2010
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: 5%
The Phenomenon of Speed Mechanics!
January 9, 2010
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: 6%
Pitching Velocity Mechanics aka Speed Mechanics
January 5, 2010
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: 6%
The Pitching Key to Torque is in the “Tilt”
November 18, 2009
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: 11%
Alan Jaeger is teaching Voodoo!
October 31, 2009
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: 12%
Pulling Down is Slowing Down
October 26, 2009
Alan Jaeger’s Long Toss program uses what he calls the “Pull down phase.” This is because after throwing the ball 300 feet in his “Air it out” program he wants you to pull down your delivery so you do not continue to launch the ball high as you move closer to 60 feet. The problem is this goes against the science of velocity.
Pitching velocity is the product of momentum and torque. You can read countless articles on this site about Momentum and Torque. Pulling the ball down during release prevents early internal rotation which is a key component to velocity as stated in the American Sports Medicine Institute (ASMI) case study called Comparison of High Velocity and Low Velocity Pitch Deliveries. Read more
Popularity: 13%
Elastic energy = Pitch Velocity
August 26, 2009
I have already made the argument that the body generates the velocity of the pitch and not the arm. This article will continue to prove this point and give the pitcher a better understanding of how velocity is generated.
Dr. Jobe FW, Dr. Tibone JE, Dr. Perry J, Dr. Moynes D performed a case study called An EMG Analysis Of The Pitching Shoulder. This study is the proof that the accelerator muscles in the arm do not fire when the arm is moving forward. Which means the arm muscles do not activate to generate the velocity of the pitch. Here is a summary of the study. Read more
Popularity: 25%
MLB folds under pressure!
August 12, 2009
It took steroids in the game of baseball to wake up the MLB. They learned quickly that the old school mentality that weight training will not make a baseball player better probably was dead wrong but instead of the MLB opening the game to the latest advances of the strength and conditioning world they decided to fold. Now why would they fold such a big hand that was dealt to them with a hard slap across the face? This is because of the pressures of the United States government. Congress threatened the MLB to a point of no return. To remove steroids from the poisoned roots of Major League Baseball they pushed out everything that resembled the disease. This meant strength and conditioning practices that juiced athletes used to develop their steroid-induced gains. Read more
Popularity: 16%
The proper research on why long toss is bad for your arm!
July 18, 2009
Alan Jaeger is upset that TopVelocity.net has not done the proper research on long tossing. He said in an email to me, “If you are going to be in the public domain, I would urge you to do the proper research.” I am not sure if you have visited his website but I do not see him practicing what he preaches. There is a lot more research posted on TopVelocity.net than www.jaegersports.com but I will still give him what he has requested in his email, “Proper Research.” Read more
Popularity: 27%
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