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. This is because most of them do not have science degrees or are certified strength and conditioning specialist. Most of them would correlate speed with running and not throwing but in the world of science there isn’t much difference between the two.

To make my point more clear, who do you think moves faster in their sport and position, a marathon runner or a pitcher?

If you said marathon runner then welcome to TopVelocity.net. You need to download the Velocity Starter kit. If you said pitcher then I assume you have at least a beginners understanding of velocity. To make my point crystal clear, I will ask another question. If I was able to mimic Tim Lincecum of the Giants pitching mechanics perfectly, like a talented impressionist, and threw a pitch just like him but at a snails pace; would I throw as hard as him? The answer is No! I hope you just had a “Duh” moment. The answer is NO because velocity equals speed not perfect mechanics. Perfect mechanics is efficiency which supports speed by providing more focus energy to the ball.

Most everyone who plays baseball understands that to throw the ball faster we must move what is throwing the ball faster. The problem is conventional wisdom would say that this only happens with the arm and the strength and conditioning world would say you will get better results learning to move your entire body as a single unit faster. This is a “Duh” moment for me and I hope for you as well because once you learn how moving your entire body faster is so much more effective than just the arm, you will never go back to using just your arm. Not only does firing your muscles as fast as possible, through the kinetic chain of your skeletal structure, help with generating more velocity but it also distributes stress evenly through your muscular system, which prevents injury. The hard part is learning how to perform these mechanics perfectly and continuously. You can start by learning to impersonate efficient and explosive pitchers like Tim Lincecum and then using a fast twitch muscle fiber focuses strength and conditioning program like the “Fusion System” in the Ace Pitcher Handbook , to improve your speed.

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