3X Timing Factor

The component before 3X occurs is the “Load” position. This is when your lift leg is coming down and your squatting on your drive leg as your hips begin to build momentum towards the target. The speed of your lower body at this position is moving at a slow pace. You are mainly working to get everything in position for triple extension. Most pitchers who do not understand the timing of triple extension would try to triple extend quickly while still in the “Load” position. This would prevent good hip to shoulder separation at front foot strike and the pitcher would leap towards his front foot landing instead of hover. To prevent premature triple extension, you must wait for your hips to be as far away from the rubber as possible with you drive leg still bent and ready to fire and your lift leg is just about to land. Notice the photo of Joba Chamberlain in this position. Now that you know when to fire your drive leg into 3X you must now understand the speed of the movement.

Remember momentum must continue to accelerate to ball release. Therefore if you accelerate two early in your delivery it will cause you to decelerate before ball release. You want the climax of your speed to hit when the ball is launching out of your hand. As for the speed of triple extension, you must start your leg drive after the “Load” position at a slow pace to make sure your drive leg and hip are moving before your back shoulder. Once you feel the separation of back hip to back shoulder begin and your core is starting to tighten then this is when you explode into full triple extension. If you do not feel the separation of hips to shoulders before you triple extend then you could easily triple extend your drive leg and your back shoulder would move along with it killing your chance of creating optimal separation. So once you feel your core tightening then it is time to fire that drive leg and push your hips to your target. Notice in the video clip of Joba here he does not accelerate his lower half and triple extend until he is coming out of the load position and his lift leg is starting to open and land. You will notice that it looks like his knee is driving down into the ground. This is the effect of the extension of the drive leg as the body is moving down hill.

Another indicator that you created good core torque is if you can hear your drive foot dragging before your shoulders and chest start towards the target. This dragging sound should happen just as your chest is thrusting forward. Notice in the video clip of Joba that his shoulders begin following the hips towards the target just after his drive foot is dragging. Most young pitchers will see in video analysis that their drive foot drag happens after their shoulders commit towards the target.

Related articles:

• “Triple Extension” creates optimal “Separation.”
• The Pitching Windup or Stretch
• Pitching Velocity Drills – The Sled

Pitching in today’s game is a game of power and deception. Back in the day, pitchers could fool hitters without high velocity but in today’s game this isn’t the case. Pitchers are in serious need for velocity and the best place you can find it is in the weight room. The problem is it isn’t that simple. The weight room can be your best friend or your worst nightmare. It is a nightmare for those who do not have the education or the guidance to survive it. The reality is the weight room is a concentration camp, for the lack of a better word. It is a place you go to destroy your body to a point just before injury. The reason for this behavior is to force your body to breakdown and rebuild bigger, stronger and faster. The issue is this takes a lot of trial and error before you get it right because every one’s body is different.

The point I am trying to make is that injury is going to happen but serious injury can and must be avoided without abandoning your best friend, the weight room. This is why I put together this article on the most important things to look out for in the weight room when training in or out of season.

10 ways pitchers can injure themselves in a Weight Room

1. Over Training – This is when you stop listening to your body because your ego is getting in the way. Weight training for speed/velocity is a science and not a competition. The most important component of this science is the recovery part. So when your body is saying, “I am not recovered yet,” then you better listen to it or be forced to face the consequences. This is when you stop and take a day off. Taking a few days off after a hard week of training actually makes you stronger.
2. Sacrifice Strength Gains For Joint Integrity – Joint Integrity is balance in a joint. Our entire body is put together and functions around all of our joint systems. If we have poor integrity in these joint system then we have a poor performing machine. Do not push for strength gains when these gains are jeopardizing your joint integrity. A great example is bench press. Guys love to grow big pecs and talk about how much they can bench, which is fine, unless your back is now weaker than your chest. This will cause poor joint integrity in your shoulders because the chest and back muscles are apart of the shoulder joint systems. Remember, to keep integrity you must pull whatever you can push in the weight room.
3. Training Outside of Your Sport – This is why the label sport specific training is so popular today. This label isn’t for marketing purposes. It is defining the evolution of strength and conditioning. Athletes have learned that less injures occur when you are not training outside of the muscular demands of your sport. A good example would be with base running. If you train for more speed in the off season but your workload was only in a straight line then the day you showed up to spring training to show off your new explosive speed it could have gone down like this. Let’s say you got your first hit and when making it to first base the ball went past the first baseman to the back stop and at this point you quickly make a cut to second base. This cut will put serious amounts of pressure on your groin muscles as your body quickly changes direction. Because of your off season linear sprint training program you did not develop these muscles like you developed the quads and hamstrings. This makes you very vulnerable to pulling or tearing these groin muscles in this game situation.
4. Lifting With Your Friends – I never once had a great workout in the weight room with a friend. The problem is we all are such competitors that we will turn the lift into a competition instead of a training regimen. We will ignore the process to go for the most weight or most reps to show off to the friend. There is nothing wrong with this behavior in sports but in the weight room it is the number one ingredient for injury.
5. Bad Mechanics – I am  not talking pitching mechanics because this would not fit in this article. I am talking about training mechanics, especially with lifts like the Olympic lifts. The better lifts are usually the more risky lifts. These lifts are considered better because they are the lifts that have a more positive effect on the athletes performance. These are functional lifts like the Olympic lifts. They train the body as a single unit as opposed to isolating a single muscle.  They are risky because the movement to perform the lift is more complicated than a single movement isolating a single muscle. Therefore bad mechanics with the functional lifts can easily cause injury. This is why when starting off with these functional lifts you must have an experience trainer guide you through the workout.
6. Adding More Weight to Bad Mechanics – What is more risky than training with bad mechanics is adding more weight to those bad mechanics. If you do not feel comfortable with a lift or you do not feel that your mechanics are efficient then DO NOT ADD MORE WEIGHT! This is like pouring gasoline on a fire. Adding more weight when you are not ready can easily cause an injury.
7. Poor Training Program – There are a lot of workouts out there today. I was lucky to have been trained by the best because that was all I had to chose from. I can’t imagine what you guys are experiencing today with the web and the hundreds of training programs and gimmicks you come across but remember that a training program can make or break a season. Do not find yourself using a training program that was designed for Navy Seals or Hollywood Models. It is very important that you are using a training program that is either developed for the baseball player or the pitcher. If you ignore this piece of advice you could find yourself with an injury or very poor results.
8. Too Much Time in Weight Room – The weight room is a positive place until you have overstayed your welcome. I believe that where you spend most of your time has more of a dominate effect on your body. If you bench press all day every day then you will be pretty much a bench pressing machine and it will be very difficult to be as effective with any other skill. This means get in the weight room and do not screw around. Get your workout done and get back on the ball field.
9. Poor Nutrition – Most ball players pay little to no attention to diet until pro ball. This is a mistake. If recovery is such an important part of training and diet is such an important part of recovery then nutrition should be a top priority. You have a small window after you workout of about one hour when your body needs optimal nutrition before it goes into starving mode. This mode has an effect on your body chemistry and development and can throw everything out of whack. Miss a good meal after a good workout and you will probably not sleep well that night and you will wake up in the morning feeling like a truck hit you. Overtime this cycle will cause your body to breakdown more than build up. This breakdown is the beginning of injury.
10. Illegal Supplements – This is a no brainier. Illegal substances like steroids, amphetamines and HGH is not for the uneducated. Unless you are a medical Doctor then stay away from these supplements. Oh yeah, did I say that they are ILLEGAL. This means don’t mess with them. They make this stuff illegal for a reason and it usually has to do with your health. I trained with many ball players on these substances and I could still lift with them. I was blown away by their new found strength but it was always short term. They would either plateau or stop taking the drug and the effects would wear off quickly. Also the majority of the people I know who used these illegal substances wound up with an injury during the time period. Mainly because they over trained due to the quick strength gains.

If you feel more confident about the weight room then I would highly recommend that you start with the Ace Pitcher Handbook. It was developed by a pitcher to train a pitching machine.

Related articles:

• Fast Twitch Pitching
• How a BAD Pitching Coach Can Ruin a GOOD Pitcher
• The Adventures of Long Tossing!

The article on TopVelocity.net that has been getting a lot of attention and the one that Jaeger is not happy with, is the article called Long Toss and the Placebo Effect. You can view it by selecting the title. The comments are below the article. Everyone thinks that I am against Long Tossing and the truth is that this isn’t true. I believe in Long Tossing up to about 120 feet. What I DO NOT agree with is “Extreme Long Tossing” like Jaeger promotes which can exceed distances of 350 feet. I feel that this is reckless because if you do not have efficient throwing mechanics you are taking a big risk with the health of your arm at these levels. This is why I preach against Jaeger’s Long Toss program because he does not work intently on correcting mechanical flaws before pushing his pitchers to these extreme distances. A great example is Joel Zumaya. This is Jaeger’s claim to fame whom he has put all over his website. Just this past MLB season Joel Zumaya broke off his shoulder bone. This is a major mechanical flaw that caused Zumaya’s shoulder bone to snap and you would hope his pitching coach could have prevented this major shoulder injury. If I was his pitching coach I would have at least taking responsibility for his injury.

Another reason I do not support this “Extreme Long Tossing” is because I like many other pro pitchers did not use this in my professional career. Actually before I tore my rotator cuff in college, I would perform extreme long toss. I am not saying that this is why I injured my arm. What I am saying is I never used it again and was able to add 8 mph on my fastball which got me into pro ball.

The day I broke 90+mph post surgery, which I had at 18 years old when I was throwing 86 mph with horrendous mechanics, is because of a new program I was on for about 6 months to a year. The day I found this program was the day I decided to stop making this stuff up and seek professional help from those who I felt knew what they were talking about. I found Tom House who is a well known pitching coach and Doctor and Kurt Hester who is a nationally recognized strength and conditioning specialist. Tom House taught me about hip to shoulder separation, which I had none and Kurt taught me speed and strength like you wouldn’t believe. With this combination I experienced an 8 mph increase in velocity.

I wasn’t long tossing past 250 feet plus. I wasn’t using weighted balls. I was performing the Olympic lifts, plyos, and sprint work, 1 hour a day, 5 days a week while I was playing for a travel team in the summer. If I pitched on a day of a lift, I would not change my program. I would lift at full intensity and then pitch a 7-9 inning game one hour later. This is because the lifting program was lower body dominate. I wasn’t pounding my arms. I was pounding my legs. I also was working on good hip to shoulder separation during practice and before the games. I thought at this time, that with the lifting intensity and the pitching of 7-9 innings that my body would give out and it did the opposite. I would finish a 9 inning game with higher velocities than in the first inning. I continued this program and it is what I believe put me into pro ball after doctors told me I would never be able to compete again.

The program I used is now the Ace Pitcher Handbook. I am aware that this program isn’t for everyone and that just because it worked for me, doesn’t mean it will work for you. I understand this but you will never know if a program like this will have the same effect on you if you don’t give it your best.

I also believe that the reason arm injuries have increased by 700% in the past ten years is because pitchers are training outside of the mechanics of the pitcher. Extreme long toss mechanics is a lot different than on the mound mechanics. I explain this here

The Proper Research on Why Long Toss is Bad for your Arm

This is also the case in the weight room. This is why I believe the Olympic lifts are the only intense lifts you should use because they have a lot of similarities in mechanics to pitching. You can read more about this point in the first article I wrote on this site.

Olympic lifting Increases Pitching Velocity.

I am glad that “Extreme Long Tossing” is getting this much attention with this site and Jaeger’s but I hope that those who are using this approach are educating themselves on the dangers. I also hope those who use my approach are educating themselves on the dangers as well. Which are, just like learning good throwing mechanics before you try to throw your arm off you must learn good lifting mechanics  before you try to move a house. Be smart, work hard and always listen to your body!

Related articles:

• Alan Jaeger is teaching Voodoo!
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Speed Mechanics:

Speed Mechanics is the act of accelerating the body, through the delivery, to produce more speed or velocity.

The reason I do not call it Velocity Mechanics is because when we think of Velocity, we think of throwing and when we think of throwing, we think of rotational forces. Speed Mechanics makes us think of momentum which is the point of the term.

To better understand Speed Mechanics you must understand momentum. The definition of Momentum, by Google, is the product of a body’s mass and its velocity. It is essential that to generate more speed or velocity you must continue accelerating your bodies momentum. This is where most young pitchers fail. Check your own delivery to see if your bodies momentum is accelerating. The most important time to check for acceleration is after your front foot lands. This is when low velocity pitchers slow down their bodies momentum and rotational forces take over. If both momentum and rotational torque do not meet at this point and continue increasing force to the ball, then velocity suffers.

Notice in the animated sequence of Tim Lincecum that when his front foot lands his head stays up above his shoulders and his momentum transfers from his legs into his chest. You can tell his bodies momentum is continuing to accelerate because his weight is still moving forward after front foot strike. There are no forces rotating down or across his body at this point. We can also tell his weight is moving forward because when he releases the pitch his back leg is flying forward over his head. This doesn’t mean after you release the ball to kick your leg over your head. This would be like using your hands to spin the wheels faster to speed up the car, just hit the gas and use the engine. Your engine when pitching is the muscles in your legs.

I originally brought the term Triple Extension from the Olympic lifting world into the pitching world to explain the mechanics of pitchers legs. Triple extension is the extension of the ankle joint, knee joint and hip flexor. This is anytime we push off of the ground. Like when we pitch or sprint. The reason for the picture above of Tim Lincecum and Jeremy Wariner, the USA Olympic sprinter, is to help illustrate Speed Mechanics. If it is the act of accelerating your bodies momentum to increase your speed or velocity, then this means as pitchers we should move like sprinters. Consider your stride as no different than a sprinters stride when he is up and running for the finish line. Both the pitcher and the sprinter are using the same tools to produce a similar outcome. The only difference is the pitcher is transferring his bodies speed into the ball. This is why after the pitcher’s stride he stops and the ball continues but after a sprinters stride, he continues and strides again. So just like the sprinter, if a pitcher wants to accelerate his bodies momentum to increase his speed, he must triple extend his back leg harder and faster.

The negative behind Speed Mechanics is that it is an advanced level of pitching and trying to learn this as a beginner could cause serious problems to your delivery. This is not for young pitchers or even older pitchers, it is for experienced pitchers who have been sitting at a plateau on their pitch velocity for a few years.  The reason for this is because learning Speed Mechanics before learning momentum transfer and hip to shoulder separation, is like learning how to pull the trigger on a double barreled shotgun before being taught how to hold and aim it. This means your delivery will be a train wreck if you do not learn momentum transfer before Speed Mechanics. So if you are still learning how to transfer your momentum into the ball efficiently and effectively then bookmark this article and come back to it later. It might not be valuable to you now but when you are ready for it, learning Speed Mechanics may give you those few miles per hour to get you over the 90mph mark. In the meantime, you should always train to develop more explosive power in your body.

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LetsTalkPitching.com is Steven’s claim to fame. This is his forums and it has over 10,000 current members. I have spent a lot of hours on this site myself reading and answering posts. I have also seen a lot of good pitching coaches participating on this board. I encourage anyone who is looking for an online pitching community to use it. It is incredibly valuable. I also would like to ask you to help me get my forum going www.DiscussPitching.com if you wouldn’t mind. If you have any suggestions on the board please post them on the forum.

The only topic that Steven and I compete with is with our instructional manuals. I have found a lot of pitchers online comparing my Ace Pitcher Handbook to Steven’s Tough Cuff. I have not purchased his handbook but what I have heard is that Tough Cuff uses a very different system of training for pitchers than my Ace Pitcher Handbook. Of course, I am bias but I also believe that the Ace Pitcher handbook is more velocity focused than Steven’s Tough Cuff, if that is important to you. If I am wrong about Tough Cuff then I would encourage anyone to post the argument here. I would suggest to Steven that it would be good for our readers if he could do a critique of the Ace Pitcher Handbook and I do a critique of Tough Cuff and then we both could post an article of our critiques on our sites. I am definitely up for it and I have a FREE Handbook for him right next to me!

You will notice that Steven Ellis’ websites are so popular because he hosts a broad range of pitching information. From pitching grips to pitching clips. I am more for supporting guys like Steven in the pitching world than guys like Dick Mills and Alan Jaeger, who have that “My way or the Highway” attitude. You can learn something from anyone if you just listen and reflect. I don’t get this from Mills and Jaeger. I have to give it to Ellis though, he works hard and has done a lot for pitching in today’s information age!

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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. Not really known for his velocity which is what Jaeger teaches and what Zito is quoted saying on his website:

“Working with Jaeger Sports the past eight years has made my arm very strong…”

Finally we have Dan Haren. Dan is Jaeger’s best prospect out of the three and I have no bad information on him. It is hard to say that these poster boys are the results that have made Jaeger who he is today.  I wouldn’t be writing this article if Alan Jaeger wasn’t recognized in the baseball world. He has a following of people and I am a little confused why. He has a proclaimed 20 years of experience, he is stationed in Los Angeles, California and he only has one Big League Pitcher who is half way descent and injury free. This doesn’t make sense. Why is he so recognized and why is Nolan Ryan using his program with the Rangers?

I have come to a conclusion on this issue. Alan Jaeger is teaching Voodoo. He has put a spell on the baseball world and he has everyone fooled. Can someone prove me wrong? Show me proof that what he teaches can hold up in court! Show me the evidence! Show me the scientific data! I mean for God’s sake Jaeger do what Chris Oleary has done and break it down for us. Is that too much to ask of a coach who is proclaiming to have 2o years of experience? Using words like “Freedom,” “Warmth” and “Looseness” to describe pitching mechanics makes you sound like you are teaching a yoga class. I can understand how yoga would support a mental game but pitching mechanics, NO WAY. Yoga is an isometric exercise and pitching is an explosive fast twitch anaerobic event. It isn’t possible that your understanding of yoga is what made you successful in the pitching world. I would rather believe that you have used the teachings of “Joe Boo” from the movie Major League before believing that yoga can increase pitching velocity.

I am writing this article in hopes that Alan Jaeger or his posse can post on the comments here some scientific data supporting the Jaeger throwing program. The only requirement is that the data must be posted on his website or some type of media that has his stamp. If Alan Jaeger can not produce some type of documentation that proves why his program is great then I have no choice but to say it, “Up your butt Joe Boo!”

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I do not own these photos. This is a collection I obtained from the web. To view Professional Pitching deliveries in video format select here.

There are some random images in the slideshow. You are better off sorting with the slider at the bottom of the slideshow to find what you are looking for.

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Evidence that the MLB folded this hand is in articles like this here on MLB.com. The title says it all, Coach wants methods to catch on in bigs – Jaeger’s old-school, unorthodox regimen preserves arms. What will they do next, MLB forcing their pitchers to run longer distances for conditioning! This is just mind blowing. Alan Jaeger’s reason for his old school approach, over the new school approaches of the MLB which are still old school in my book, is in his quote here from the article.

“Among nature’s mightiest, most majestic creations are the Great Redwoods, which stretch skyward to heights of 350 feet and beyond…..But what might happen if you planted a baby Redwood tree in a greenhouse with a 10-foot ceiling reinforced with steel? The tree, much like a young Geisha girl’s feet shoved into unusually small shoes, would never reach its intended growth capacity. Both are examples of natural development being stunted, unnaturally. This, says Alan Jaeger, is the plight of pitching arms in America — and, by extension, many arms in Major League Baseball.”

The fact that this is the language that Jaeger uses to coach pitchers through his program is child’s play. If I was forced into a debate over this rhetoric I would have to counter his analogy with an analogy that is similar and defines the new school approach of Bigger, Stronger, Faster. My analogy would go something like this.

“Among nature’s mightiest, most ferocious creations is the Awesome Lion, the King of the jungle, who has the strength and speed to caught a Gazelle and rip his flesh to pieces…….But what might happen if you caged this Lion in a 30 foot cage reinforced with steel and barbed wire and force him to attack and kill large elephants and hippos? Much like the way Michael Vick raised his pit bulls for cage fighting. The day the lion was freed from his cage he would more than likely devour everything in his path. This, says Brent Pourciau is how I train my pitchers to grow Bigger, Stronger, Faster so they can reach their potential velocity or maybe even exceed my expectations.”

The fact that the likes of Nolan Ryan would actually entertain this old school approach on arm health for his Ranger pitchers makes me believe that major league baseball is going backwards again. Just when I thought the likes of Tim Lincecum had pushed the MLB into a new school revolution I was wrong. I believe the only hope that the MLB has is Dr. Andrew’s. If he finds the time to convince the MLB with his scientific studies of why arm injuries occur when unorthodox methods like Jaeger’s “air it out” throwing program are used then maybe the MLB will step into the future of strength and conditioning. Until then I am going to remain an MLB outcast and preach against this nonsense!

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What to expect at a MLB tryout!

If you are planning to attend a MLB Scouting Bureau tryout then you need an idea of what is expected of you. When you arrive at the tryout you will need to check in. Arrival times are usually early in the morning and it is good to be a little early. When you check in you will be asked to fill in a questionnaire. The information they will be requesting is basic contact information, what schools have you played for, have you been drafted before and if you are under the age of 18 you will need a legal guardian to sign for you. There is a number at the top of the sign up form that is your identity for the rest of the tryout. Do not forget your number. The scouts hate it when someone forgets their number.

After everyone has checked in you will then be asked to meet on the field and organized into lines based on position. YOU CAN ONLY TRYOUT FOR ONE POSITION. Do not ask if you can tryout for two or more positions. Once you are put into your lines based on your position you must remember your position in the line. This is the order you will tryout in for your position.

The first event of the tryout will be the 60 yard dash. This is for all positions except pitchers. Pitchers will not run the 60 yard dash. Pitchers will wait on the side while all positions run the 60 yard dash.

Two players at a time will be timed in the 60 yard dash. It goes pretty quick so make sure you are paying attention when your number is called. Do not ask for your times after you run. You can ask for them after the tryout is over. If you have a good time you may be asked to run again at the end of the event.

After the 60 yard dash is finished, this is when the pitchers will pitch off of the mound in the bullpen. You will be put into lines to warm up before entering the bullpen. You must be warm before entering the pen. They will clock your velocity on the first pitch and remember that first pitch is critical to your success in the tryout. You should get about 6-8 pitches and make sure every pitch is 100%. They will ask you to throw some off speed pitches at the end if they want to see it. The worst thing you can do is not be ready!

After your 6-8 pitches in the bullpen the pitchers are done until cuts are made for the simulated game in the afternoon. Find a comfortable place to sit and stay out of the sun.

While the pitchers were throwing in the pen the position players are hitting in the cages. They are looking for bat speed. You will not get many pitches to show your skills so make sure you are ready right out of the gate.

After hitting in the cages all position players will go to their position. They will start from the outfield and work into the infield evaluating your arm speed and quickness. Once again you will not get many throws so take advantage of what you get.

Once all players have been given their opportunities to show their talents the scouts will make their cuts. They will have you all meet together and give you a speech about how it is getting close to the end of the road in your career and you all have some discussions to make. Blah Blah Blah. Then they will call out the names of those who they would like to see perform in the simulated game in the afternoon.

If you do not make it, don’t worry, because the odds of making it out of a Scouting Bureau tryout is poor. Just continue to attend any tryout you can find. I would also recommend independent minor league tryouts. If you do make the tryout then get some lunch and get ready to sit around again.

The simulated game is exactly that. Pitchers will pitch two or three batters and position players will face the pitchers and play the field. They are mainly looking at the pitcher and hitter at this point. They want to see how the pitchers perform against live hitting and vice versa. Pitchers make sure that your velocity is up and your location is on point. They are still recording your velocity and they want to see how effective your pitches are with the hitters.

The simulated game is your opportunity to show them more of what you can do. If you perform well they will stay in contact with you and if you perform poor they may not. It is really a crap shoot and if you are going to make it somewhere it will be determined on how well you persist. Just like I said to the guys who will not make the first cut, don’t give up if you really want to play professional ball. I believe if you don’t give up, something is bound to happen. Search the web and this site for more tryouts. Remember if it doesn’t work out there is always next season.

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• MLB folds under pressure!
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Stodden DF, Fleisig GS, McLean SP, Lyman SL, Andrews JR. Relationship of pelvis and upper torso kinematics to pitched baseball velocity. Journal of Applied Biomechanics 17(2):164-172, 2001.

Matsuo T, Escamilla RF, Fleisig GS, Barrentine SW, Andrews JF. Comparison of kinematic and temporal parameters between different pitch velocity groups. Journal of Applied Biomechanics 17(1): 1-13, 2001.

Stodden, DF, Fleisig, GS, McLean, SP, Andrews, JR. Relationship of Biomechanical Factors to Basebal Pitching Velocity: Within Pitcher Variation. Journal of Applied Biomechanics 21(1): 44-56, 2005

Methods

In three published studies, Dr. Glenn Fleisig and Dr. James R. Andrews from ASMI worked with other researchers in studying many of the parameters that affect baseball pitch velocity. Two of the studies looked between different pitchers and one study looked at variations within each pitcher. Motions during delivery were analyzed using a high speed (200 frames per second) infrared three-dimensional motion analysis system.

Results

In the study by Matsuo and others, pitchers with higher ball velocity were compared with pitchers with lower ball velocity. Four significant differences were found between these two groups. Compared to the low ball velocity group, the higher ball velocity pitchers demonstrated less lead knee flexion velocity after front foot contact and greater lead knee extension velocity at the time of ball release. Extending the lead knee in this manner may provide stabilization allowing better energy transfer from the trunk to the throwing arm, and could be a critical factor in pitch velocity. Maximum shoulder external rotation and forward trunk tilt at ball release were also greater in the higher velocity group. Greater shoulder external rotation causes a stretch of the internal rotators allowing energy to be stored in these muscles, and creating greater internal rotation during the arm acceleration phase.

Two variations were found in the timing of events. Maximum elbow extension angular velocity and maximum shoulder internal rotation angular velocity occurred earlier in the motion of higher velocity pitchers. The maximum shoulder internal rotation angular velocity also occurred closer to the moment of ball release in the higher velocity pitchers. This optimal timing may aid in generating higher velocity pitches.

Another finding of interest is that early in the pitching motion, the two groups were dissimilar in the timing of their movements, while their later movement timing was much more similar. This implies that early trunk and torso movements are more varied among pitchers than late arm movements.

In the first study by Stodden and others (2001), pelvis and upper torso variables were studied in 19 elite baseball pitchers. The study found that when the arm was completely cocked back (that is, maximum shoulder external rotation, or “MER”), more “open” pelvis and upper torso orientation correlated with increased ball velocity. More open pelvis angle at the time of ball release (REL) also correlated with increased pitch velocity increased. Additionally, pelvis angular velocity from front foot contact to MER, and upper torso angular velocity from MER to REL increased with increased velocity.

The data indicate that a pitcher who is able to position himself properly, and rotate his pelvis and upper torso more quickly is able to generate greater momentum. Theoretically, this increase in momentum leads to greater velocity of the throwing arm and thus greater pitch velocity.

The most recent study by Stodden and others (2005) showed that for a given pitcher, increased elbow flexion torque, shoulder proximal force and elbow proximal force produced greater ball velocity. In addition, the maximum shoulder horizontal adduction occurred later and maximum shoulder internal rotation occurred earlier at greater ball velocities. Higher ball velocity also resulted in decreased shoulder horizontal adduction at foot contact, decreased shoulder abduction during acceleration, and increased trunk tilt forward at ball release.

Conclusion

A pitcher with increased shoulder external rotation, faster pelvis and upper trunk rotation, and greater front knee stabilization and extension will throw with greater ball velocity. Improved timing to maximize arm velocity closer to the time of ball release will also help ball velocity. Increased torque and force produced at both the shoulder and elbow will also lead to greater ball velocity.

Copyright © 2000, American Sports Medicine Institute
December 18, 2007

http://www.asmi.org/asmiweb/research/usedarticles/highlowpitches.htm

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