Dick Mills' All About Pitching

How Pitchers Can Easily Improve Velocity And Control

2008-04-01T00:14:13+00:00

How can parents and coaches help pitchers improve their pitching velocity along with their control? If pitchers want to improve pitching velocity they must improve speed of movement and momentum. I have written before that pitching velocity is about how a pitcher moves from the back leg to the front leg into a long stride...a stride that should eventually be 100% of his height rather than 80-90% as is taught by many coaches and instructors. The back leg and hip are what move the body away from the rubber into a long stride. And the key to more velocity is explosive mechanics. Think of the back leg in pitching and the pitching rubber like a sprinter would think about using his back leg against the starting blocks to get a quick start. However, what is most important for getting the back leg to do its job is to understand that in order to move the body away from the rubber so that the front hip moves out ahead of the front shoulder...is to make sure that there is sufficient bend in the back leg. But this should happen naturally rather than trying to tell the pitcher exactly how much to bend it. Hall Of Fame Lefty Sandy Koufax Emphasized Staying Low Sandy Koufax was a high velocity pitcher with a great curveball. He emphasized why pitchers should strive to stay low...rather than stay tall...as many coaches teach today. Look...if you want to achieve a long stride how can you be tall. You can't. It's actually impossible to stay tall while moving into landing or ball release. All you have to do is observe what pitchers look like at landing. Check out Nolan Ryan, Josh Beckett, or Tim Lincecum. These pitchers all throw in the mid to upper nineties. What do they all have in common. They have long strides, they move fast, they stay low and they use their back legs to drive their front hip at the target. So where does better control come in. The closer a pitcher can get his body and the arm to the target...the easier it becomes to control the ball. Plus the less time the hitter has to react to the ball. And the faster you move toward the plate the less chance of mechanical error. Move faster if you want better control. Do not move slower. Just try it. So if you want more pitching velocity and better control...learn how to to move faster and stay lower and get the body closer to the plate with a longer stride.

8 Steps To Powerful Little League Pitching Mechanics

2008-03-25T22:08:03+00:00

How can parents of Little League pitchers best insure that their sons have a successful and fun season this year. I have a few suggestions. Keep pitching mechanics simple, practice often and use a video camera to improve. The other suggestion, not related to performance improvement, is to lower expectations and don't focus on results but improvement. After all pitching is a learned skill like golf. It takes lots of prudent practice. Keeping Little League pitching mechanics simple is much more difficult today because instructors and coaches break down the pitching delivery into small pieces that only serve to complicate Little League pitching mechanics. This breaking down of the delivery into small parts using pitching drills is what I believe reduces velocity and control and forces the pitcher to think much too much about how to throw the ball instead of learning naturlaly where to throw it. The result is the pitcher ends up with slow movements and hesitations which not only kill velocity but control as well. Throwing a baseball is a natural action…having been around for a few thousand years or so. That being the case shouldn't we keep it more natural by keeping it more simple? Shouldn't all instruction be based on science instead of just coaching beliefs? Stop All Pitching Drills Here's why. Pitching is a two-phase motor skill like golf that has no natural breaks or stopping points. Once a pitcher starst his movement toward the plate he must not hesitate in any way. The balance drill is one of the worst drills ever invented, followed by the kneeling drill and now the famous towel drill. I have written several articles about why these drills are counterproductive and are ruining pitchers every day by the thousands. Pitching drills are fine initially for a beginning pitcher. But once a motion has been built there is little need for doing more drills. Drills complicate, waste time, and actually reduce performance. This fact has been proven by sports science research over and over again. But baseball coaches do not read research. However, I do. In fact, since reading this research, I have not done a pitching drills since 2003, nor have I recommended pitching drills to our clients, who number close to 20,000. Slow movements and hesitation is what kills not only pitching velocity but the abiltity to direct the ball toward the target. Moving slower is not how to improve controlas most instructors or coaches advise. So elimate any slow movements and hesitation. 8 Steps To Keeping Mechanics Simple But Powerful & Effective Pitch only out of the stretch initially. Start with the feet fairly close together so that the pitcher's weight (head) is positioned over the back leg. Start with the hands comfortably at mid-chest or the belt. Use what I call the timing trigger, when the hands move down the back leg bends and the pitcher drives his front hip at the plate, all done simultaneously. Land on a flexed front leg at least 90% of the pitcher's height, with a goal eventually of reaching 100% of his height. Land on the mid-line or slightly open. You draw a line from the ball of the pitcher's foot toward the plate. His front foot should land on the line or for a RH pitcher 1-2 inches open on the first base side of the line. The foot for a RH pitcher ideally should be pointed at the RH batter's box—at a "slight" angle. Land with the head directly between both feet. This requires proper shifting of the weight away from the rubber by leading with the front hip, not the shoulder. Finish the pitch with the pitcher's trunk flexed forward with his back parellel to the ground. I call this the "flat back" position. This insures that the arm takes on less stress. Make sure he is not upright when he releases the ball which indicates he is moving too slowly and which produces a short stride. Short strides kill velocity and being upright at ball release is more stressful on the arm. Now that you know what to look for, get the video camera out and record your son during a bullpen session. Do this regularly. Now check these points I have made and then make corrections from there for improvement. But the key is to practice often and always keep checking by using the video camera. Honestly, I use the video camera during every one of my lessons. Even with major and minor league pitchers.

7 Faults That Kill A Little League Pitcher’s Velocity

2008-03-11T14:05:20+00:00

How can a parent, coach or instructor help a Little League pitcher improve his pitching mechanics and his throwing velocity? Here are seven pitching faults that reduce every Little League pitcher's velocity: Slow movements and hesitation. Short strides (stride should be 100% of the pitcher's height). Not moving the body or landing in a straight line toward the plate. Taking the ball out of the glove too early (the hands should break apart after the pitcher starts into his stride). Breaking the hands too high on the chest (this will get the arm up too early). Not swinging the arm down, then back and up. Not using the back leg to get the pitcher low so he can create a longer stride. But what are the causes of these problems that ruin pitching mechanics and pitching velocity in most Little League pitchers? Too many Pitching drills is one answer. As soon as we stop wasting our time on too many pitching drills then pitchers will learn how to use natural movements that allow their bodies to work faster delivering their arm. Remember pitching drills are a fairly recent practice activity in baseball. They largely did not exist until about the late 80s. Prior to that pitchers did not use pitching drills. I was one of the those pitchers as I pitched in Little League in the fifties. I played high school, college and pro ball in the sixties and seventies without doing one pitching drill or may I add without ever doing long toss. The balance drill, the kneeling drill and the towel drill are what create slow moving and robotic pitchers. The large majority of major league pitchers for the past 100 years or more never did pitching drills. In 2004 I stopped recommending pitching drills based on sports science research. We have found a far better way to teach beginner pitchers how to use their bodies to produce velocity instead of their arms...all without drills. Pitching drills produce slow movements and hesitation and create very mechanical pitchers who think far too much about every step in the delivery rather than thinking about pitching as a total body motion where the body moves explosively toward the plate to deliver the arm. The arm is used mainly for control. When Little League pitchers are taught how to use their back leg to drive their front hip and body toward the plate faster into a longer stride (100% of their height) onto a bent front leg then their velocity will almost instantly improve. What all parents, coaches and players must understand is that pitching velocity is the result of speed of movement from total body actions rather than from arm strength. Research has proven that arm strength has little to do with pitching velocity. Not knowing this will cause you and your son to waste a lot of valuable time on what does not work for improving velocity. When coaches and instructors begin focusing on using more natural full-body movements in pitching and doing less pitching drills while teaching the pitcher to move faster, only then will pitchers naturally and more automatically improve their velocity, their control, reduce stress to their arms and improve their overall performance.

Pitching Velocity & Conditioning The Pitcher

2007-12-03T15:04:54+00:00

The question that is often asked today is—should weight training be a large factor for helping pitchers improve their velocity and for reducing the risk of injury? Conditioning pitchers is one of the most misunderstood subjects in sports today. The fact is that until about 1990, there was not much emphasis on strength training at all as being a factor for improving velocity or for reducing the risk of injury. However, even with lots of available research, pitchers are still being told by coaches that strength is one of the overriding factors for improving velocity whether it's by lifting weights or building arm strength. The research does not prove that out. What did pitchers do prior to 1990 if they did not focus on strength training? Basically, they involved themselves in general fitness or overall full body activities. Instinctively, I believe most pitchers, including myself, realized pitching was not a strength activity such as football anymore than golf is. There is certainly nothing wrong with some weight training however after about four to six weeks of general strength training, without heavy weights, any additional strength gains are mostly useless. Why is this? Because strength training is about resistance. The muscles grow and condition based on resisting a certain amount of weight. However, in order to use these strength gains a baseball pitcher will have to resist against something. But all he can resist is a 5 oz. baseball which 10-year-old pitchers can throw 70 mph with obviously not much strength. Just because a pitcher can squat or bench press a lot of weight has no meaning when he is on the mound trying to move a 5 oz. baseball down the mound against a hitter. That weight training is not going to help him move that 5 oz. baseball faster. Plus, there is no evidence that weight training will reduce injuries. In fact, if we look at baseball pitchers today, are we not seeing more arm injuries than ever before? It seems so. If weight training is mostly a waste of time, then what should pitchers be doing during the off-season to get ready for the 2008 season? They should be focused on doing full body explosive exercises such as medicine ball for upper body and lower body polymetrics. The idea of doing full body explosive exercises is to help the pitcher condition his entire body…activating as many muscles as possible since pitching velocity is a full body activity. Focusing on building certain muscles groups such as the leg will not improve velocity. This is why skinny pitchers with skinny legs can still throw with above average velocity. It can't be about the legs. So the pitcher can do some weight training for a few weeks then switch to full body explosive exercises. Then after about six to eight weeks his body should be fully conditioned to start pitching from the mound…which is the only possible way a pitcher will improve for next year. In my opinion, high school and college pitchers should be throwing at least two full effort bullpens per week while focusing on improving their mechanics. In order to improve their mechanics they must be videotaped so they can see whether they are improving or not. Eyeballing a pitchers mechanics is mostly a waste of time. Pitchers who have such a schedule of conditioning and pitching from the mound will be less likely to get injured than those that just hit the weight room and build extra strength…most of which they will not be able to use when facing down hitters in early Spring. Pitching requires a general level of fitness…not strength training. Just ask all the successful pitchers prior to 1990 what they did for conditioning. It was not weight training. Then look and see whether pitchers were more effective now or then. I say then. Hitters now clearly have the advantage, since pitchers spend less time pitching and more time in the weight room or trying to build arm strength…neither of which is needed to throw overpowering fastballs…or for reducing injury risk. Pitchers are not reaching their full potential because of one main cause. They are wasting valuable time on activities that do not lead to improvement such as weight training or trying to gain extra arm strength. Pitching velocity is clearly a speed of movement activity rather than a strength activity. Show me a pitcher who learns to move his body faster down the mound into a long stride (100% of his height) while removing any slow movements and hesitation and I will show you a pitcher who has a good chance of reaching his full velocity potential.

36 Important Facts About Baseball Pitching You Should Know

2007-10-30T15:08:55+00:00

Here are some facts about pitching that every parent, player, and coach should know going into the off-season. The single biggest reason that more pitchers cannot improve their velocity or control is because they are wasting time on activities that have not proven to improve performance. Improving pitching velocity requires that pitchers devote sufficient time to improving pitching mechanics. It has little to do with building more arm strength. These facts are all backed up by sports science research and over 500 scientific references. Facts You Should Know About Baseball Pitching Long toss, weighted balls, and weight training do not improve pitching velocity, but they do waste a lot of valuable time. Additional strength does not improve pitching velocity or reduce injuries. Stretching before pitching reduces velocity and increases the risk of injury. Flat ground pitching and long toss are more stressful than pitching from a mound. Flat ground pitching reduces performance and disrupts pitching mechanics. Moving slow and controlled reduces velocity while moving faster improves it. Throwing and pitching are two completely different activities. Playing catch has little benefit for pitching. Moving the body faster improves control of all pitches. The towel drill, balance drill, or kneeling drill reduce performance and disrupt mechanics as do most pitching drills. Bigger pitchers are not less likely to get injured than smaller pitchers. Long toss should never be done during the season unless briefly as part of a warm-up routine. Weight training has no value when performed during the season but may increase the risk of injury. Pitching at less than game intensity has no value for improving pitching performance or mechanics. Emphasizing a balance position in the delivery reduces velocity. Stepping to the side before lifting the leg up makes no sense. Pitching should not be encouraged to stay tall. The faster you move the faster you throw. The faster you move the less chance of mechanical errors. The body produces velocity not the arm. The longer your stride and the closer you are to the plate the better control you will have. To reduce the risk of injury throw more practice pitches at game intensity while using good mechanics. Icing the arm has no proven benefit after pitching. Building lower body strength does not improve pitching velocity. Trying to stay tall in the pitching delivery reduces velocity and control. Videotaping a pitcher's delivery is the single most important tool for improving velocity and control. Throwing fewer pitches in practice produces more not less injuries. Flexible tubing exercises do not improve velocity or reduce arm injuries. Most pitchers are not fit to pitch because they do not pitch enough. Emphasizing hip and trunk rotation can reduce velocity. The momentum of the body is the single biggest indicator of pitching velocity. To improve pitching velocity pitchers should break their hands later. Smaller pitchers do not have less inherent stamina than larger pitchers. A high leg lift will reduce potential velocity. There are not exercises to improve velocity. Doing explosive full body exercises are more effective than weight training and reduce the risk of injury. Most coaches at all levels do not understand these facts and this is why so many pitchers will never reach their full potential.

For High School Pitchers To Improve Velocity They Must Change

2007-08-14T15:51:00+00:00

Can a 16-year-old 6' 160 lb. high school pitcher improve his velocity 9 mph in less than five weeks going from 78-87 mph? Read on. For high school pitchers to improve their velocity or control they must first get a good evaluation of their mechanics. Then they must understand that if they really want to improve their velocity and control that they must make changes to their mechanics. And when pitchers make changes to their mechanics it is going to feel uncomfortable for a time. Resisting that feeling of being uncomfortable is what keeps them stuck and does not provide improvement. In fact, if pitchers don't feel uncomfortable when changing then they know they are not changing. Also, they may have to take two steps back and one step forward for a while until the new movement begins to take hold. With repetition it will eventually feel comfortable, but getting through that stage is the key to change. Since gaining more velocity seems to be the most popular goal for most pitchers, understanding what it takes to improve it is the key. And most high school pitchers are being advised to improve arm strength or hit the weight room in the off-season as the key. However, neither will work to improve velocity. No amount of additional arm strength is going to improve velocity. Why? Because velocity is a function of speed of movement, momentum and a long stride. Moving the body faster for high school pitchers is a difficult feeling to achieve initially because they have been lead to believe that the arm is the source of velocity…instead of the body. They are being told to long toss or throw weighted balls. Neither of which has any benefit to improving velocity. Ask any college pitcher who is struggling to improve his velocity and he will tell you he has tried it all…and none of those activities has helped one bit. Plus, because of endless towel drills, balance drills, or kneeing drills, a high school pitcher's body is used to feeling slow and robotic instead of explosive. The key then is that high school pitchers must understand that in order to improve velocity they must first learn how to build forward momentum. That comes with the understanding that the back leg is the key. The back leg is the key to velocity just as the back leg is the key for a sprinter getting out of the starting blocks. For both the pitcher and the sprinter, speed of movement is the key…not strength. As lefty great Sandy Koufax said—the key to pitching is the back leg. A recent story comes from our member's forum. A 16-year-old RH high school pitcher, 6' 160 lbs., was trying to get his velocity up from 78 mph for next season, which is not bad coming off his sophomore year summer season. Less than one year ago he was a catcher…now turned pitcher. So what did he grab onto first in order to improve his velocity? He fully understood that the back leg was the key and getting his body away from the rubber as fast as possible into a stride at least his body height if not more. So that is what he worked on for one solid month. Every opportunity he had he was doing repetitions of moving fast from his back leg to his front leg always focusing on lengthening his stride. He did it outside, in the house, and a lot of repetitions. Guess how many each day? He estimated about 500 a day! He figured that he did about 15,000 repetitions of back leg drive into a long stride over the course of a month. And he threw off the mound in the back yard as well. Who else is willing to do 500 repetitions a day of anything for a month? So did it payoff? Boy did it. He was going to be used in a game in relief. And interestingly, the regular ump did not show up. So guess who ended up as the umpire? His dad. So while warming up to go in, he made the decision to bring his new delivery into the game…which his father had not even seen yet. This was not the same pitcher. He did not look like any of the other pitchers, any more than Giants rookie Tim Lincecum looks like any other major league pitcher. Maybe that is why Tim Lincecum throws 93-98 mph regularly. He doesn't look slow and robotic like most pitchers. This was a pitcher who had had a few lessons and ended up with a very traditional pitching motion with a fairly high leg lift. But not anymore. So what were the results of this month long work on improving his speed of movement, his back leg drive and lengthening his stride. Here is what his post says on our member's forum: eliminated high leg lift and gained 5 mph. That's right, by eliminating his high leg lift and only pitching out of the stretch, he gained 5 mph in less than five weeks. But here is what is interesting. After some of the other forum members looked at his video clip, we made one suggestion that clicked. We told him to break his hands later. This resulted in a 4 mph velocity increase the next day. So he ended up adding 9 mph to his velocity in less than five weeks by working on something that was completely foreign to him and did not feel comfortable until he did enough repetitions over the course of a month. He went from 78-87 mph. Now I will end this by letting you read what his father wrote about this on our member's forum: Having just called five innings behind the plate with various pitchers, I must say there was quite a contrast between everyone else and Bill. The batters noticed as well. I have come up with the analogy of starting a race with someone where one of you would traditionally pronounce, "Ready, set, go!" That day it was as if Bill was challenging the batter to a race as said "Go!" I actually had a batter look at strike three, a fast ball right down the middle, turn, look at me with a face that said, "What just happened?" He faced four batters (the first reaching 1B on a blooper hit off the end of the bat that went about 20'), the next three were easily retired. Mind you these were very good varsity hitters (they had scored ten runs the first five innings). I was very proud, confused, and actually it bit upset, all at the same time. After Bill's one inning I was able to contrast him to other pitchers further. I think batter's tend to time their hitting triggers a bit, by watching a pitcher flow through there motion, they see it coming, they see the ball, they track it all the way in. As an umpire, I do this as well. To time my crouch, and to track the pitch. That day with Bill, it was like having a screen in front of him with the ball shooting out of a hole. He is just standing there, and then all of a sudden, without any notice, you are trying to spot the ball. I have umpired hundreds of games and have never seen anything like it. At the time, I didn't know what to think. I still don't know what to think, because I am worried about what his high school coaches are thinking now. My wife said she saw the high school pitching coach studying Bill intently the whole time. I suspect that they too, were quite confused, he looked strange, but then again he had a very successful inning. Who knows what they are thinking. On a good note, when Bill had the high leg kick, he had trouble holding runners on 1B (not an issue any more with this delivery). He has been doing this for a month now, (but has spent countless hours striding in the house). He was a catcher his entire youth baseball career and on his freshman team. He just recently started pitching (his first lessons were last fall). This spring on his JV team as a sophomore, he was not in the regular rotation, and this provides much of his motivation, to improve/change. If you are a pitcher or the parent of a pitcher or a coach at any level… speed of movement, better momentum into a stride length of at least the pitcher's height is the key to velocity improvement. Nothing much was said about this pitcher's arm except break your hands later so the energy builds in the body longer so more of that energy ends up on the ball. If you want improvement, then now is the time. Pitchers are made in the off-season. Don't waste your time hoping that arm strength or getting bigger or stronger is the key. Focus on your leg drive, more speed of movement, more momentum into a much longer stride. And come back next spring throwing much harder with better control. Yes, better control. The closer you are to the target the easier it is to control the ball. Pitching velocity is produced by the body as it moves from the back leg to the front leg. What is required is faster tempo for more speed of body movement, and forward momentum into a stride of 100% of the pitcher's height. As Giants rookie phenom Tim Lincecum says…who is 5'10" and throws 95-100 mph—the arm is along for the ride. If you want to throw fast you must move fast. Find an instructor who fully understands that and you have a chance of reaching your potential velocity. With an arm strength model of boosting velocity…you are doomed to mediocrity.

Pitching Arm Injuries - What To Do When A Pitcher Gets A Sore Arm

2009-04-13T13:37:22+00:00

Here are some common causes of pitching arm injuries that can also affect pitching velocity and control - poor pitching mechanics, lack of conditioning or doing the wrong workout, weight lifting, overuse throwing, lack of proper warm-up and actually not throwing enough pitches in practice to keep the pitcher "fit to pitch" for games. Parents should be very concerned if their son has a sore arm. They should not take it lightly as it is an indication that they body is being stressed. Other causes of a sore arm may be the towel drill where the pitcher forces his throwing arm to full extension. This puts tremendous force on the throwing elbow. Or long toss where recent studies have proven that long toss increases stress to the throwing elbow. Also a study came out in 2004 that proved why stretching before pitching or throwing increases arm stress and reduces velocity. So arm stretches and even lower body stretches are not recommended. Instead pitchers are much better off doing an active warm-up instead of stretching and holding their arms or legs in a stretched position. What then should a parent do if their son complains of a sore arm? Should the parent immediately take him to a doctor? Not necessarily. In most cases, if this is the first time a sore arm has developed, a doctor may not be necessary. The doctor in most first time cases will just tell the pitcher to take a week or ten days off from throwing. That makes sense however the doctor will not usually know what caused the sore arm. If the pitcher has experienced a sore arm before or has complained of sharp pain he should immediately seek the advice a sports medicine doctor who has experience with pitching arms. And depending on the diagnosis, a second opinion may be warranted especially if surgery is advised. In Little League pitchers most arm injuries are to the throwing elbow because most Little League pitchers do not develop enough force to create a shoulder problem. Here are some steps parents can take to help their sons reduce the risk of an arm injury: Develop proper throwing mechanics so that he is using his body to develop force and not just his arm Use a proper fully body warm-up before throwing...not just focusing on the arm Stop the towel drill Reduce any long toss to off-season only don't stretch before throwing or pitching... do an active full body warm-up instead have at least one if not two bullpen sessions in between games to make mechanical adjustments throw all bullpens at game intensity so the body and arm are conditioned for the game limit the number of pitches early in the season build up the number of pitches in practice so the body and arm are ready for the game insure proper recovery time between games to avoid overuse throwing focus on explosive full body exercises instead of lots of weight training Parents should learn as much as they can about throwing mechanics. This allows them to videotape so they can recognize the common throwing faults that not only create sore arms but limit velocity and control such as...moving the body too slow, hesitating in the balance position, striding too short, breaking the hands too high and too early and not using their lower body to create momentum into a long stride.

Why Long Toss Ruins Pitching Mechanics And Increases Arm Injuries

2009-04-07T15:01:29+00:00

Long toss does not improve pitching velocity, arm strength or reduce the risk of arm injuries. Long toss instead encourages pitchers to waste time on an activity that clearly has no real benefit to improving pitching performance. The video above demonstrates and compares four critical positions that a pitcher must get his body into if he expects to maximize his velocity and control while reducing the risk of injury. Long toss does not allow a pitcher to get into these important positions because the pitcher must release the ball in an upward trajectory...an action that a pitcher never does while pitching from the mound. Long toss actually encourages pitchers to use their arm more while getting very little energy of the throw from their body. Thus long toss is clearly a more stressful way of throwing that can only encourage poor throwing mechanics for pitchers while increasing the risk of injury. This is completely counter to what baseball professional baseball believes because baseball coaches are not reading the latest sports science research...that proves why pitching velocity must come from the body and not the arm. On January 25, 2009 I spoke at the 27th annual American Sports Medicine Institutes Course On Baseball Injuries. My topic was about why long toss had no benefit to pitching, why it did not improve arm strength or pitching velocity but actually adds more stress to the throwing arm while encouraging pitchers to develop poor throwing mechanics. Why Ranger's President Nolan Ryan Should Rethink His Beliefs About The Value Of Long Toss In a recent article in Baseball America magazine http://tinyurl.com/cjxpvz Texas Ranger's President Nolan Ryan is advising that his pitchers increase their long toss distances in order to build more arm strength and reduce their risk of injury. Unfortunately Nolan Ryan also believes that long toss has benefits for pitching when it is quite clear it has none. I would suggest to Nolan Ryan that he will actually be making things worse for all Ranger's pitchers by spending time doing more or longer distance long toss. Long toss can only reduce a pitcher's ability to pitch more with better mechanics and less risk of injury. I would suggest to Nolan Ryan that he advise Rangers' pitchers to do more mound pitching which will improve pitching mechanics as well as command of all their pitches...which will help improve their overall performance while reducing the risk of arm injuries. By pitching more from the mound, allowing the body to do the work not the arm, using a higher volume of pitches than is normally recommended, pitchers will be able to increaase their body's ability to stay more fit to pitch thus reducing their overall risk of injury.

How To Teach Pitching Velocity To 9 Year Old Little League Pitchers In 15 Minutes

2009-04-01T14:28:19+00:00

Many parents don't know how to teach pitching velocity to young Little League pitchers...even 9 year old pitchers. Most have been led to believe that beginner pitchers must first do pitching drills. Pitching drills, in fact, are a poor way to start teaching a pitcher how to pitch. Pitching drills are what produce slow and robotic pitchers. Because of pitching drills many pitchers never learn how to use their lower bodies to produce pitching velocity because they are taught to focus on what their throwing arms are doing. This 9 year old Little Leaguer...just starting out is being helped by an instructor who follows our program and philosophy (Explosive Pitching DVD's... http://tinyurl.com/4tz8se) which encourages Little League pitchers to work on being explosive rather than moving slow or using pitching drills. Here is what the instructor had to say about this session. "Hey all. Here's a clip of a 9 1/2 year old I worked with yesterday. In about 15 minutes he went from a typical upright thrower to a more explosive/MP (Momentum Pitcher), all with just a few minutes of backwards shaping, modeling of another pitcher and review of video and encouragement. He was way short of his height (stride length), with no flat back. Now he looks better than most 12 year olds! He still needs practice, but the feeling is there and won't go away!Check out the smile at about 1 minute 32 seconds when it clicks for him. Thanks folks...you're the best. Jim"

How To Reduce Little League Pitching Arm Injuries Using Momentum Pitching

2009-03-29T21:41:28+00:00

Most parents of Little League pitchers want their sons to stay injury free while maximizing their velocity and building good control of the ball. The only way to accomplish this is to help the Little League pitcher develop solid pitching mechanics where the body does the work and not the arm. How can parents, coaches and players best achieve this goal of staying injury free yet maximizing velocity and control? The above video shows a 13 year old pitcher who demonstrates the advantages of Momentum Pitching...a new style of pitching developed by myself and Dr. Brent Rushall. This pitcher started using Momentum Pitching as a 12 year old. Notice what's different from a traditional pitching delivery. He steps back first toward second base instead of to the side. This is how many Hall of Fame pitchers from the past used to pitch. He does not lift his leg to the balance position. Notice how explosive he is moving toward the target. The step back insures he will produce maximum momentum in a straight line toward the plate which improves velocity and control as well. This explosive and fast movement toward the plate is similar to how Giants and Cy Young award winner Tim Lincecum is able to generate so much velocity from his small stature at 5'10" 170 lbs. This allows Lincecum to throw fastballs 95-100 mph. He moves fast into a long stride well over 100% of his height. Actually his stride is 120% of his height...the longest height to stride ratio of any major league starting pitcher. Shoudn't all coaches begin to look at speed of movement, momentum and a long stride as big factors for producing velocity. Lincecum himself says that velocity comes from his body and his arm is just along for the ride. Because this 13 year old in the video does not lift his leg up it allows his body to move faster into a long stride instead of producing the slowing action that occurs when lifting the leg up. The balance position in pitching limits a pitcher's ability to generate maximum velocity which forces the pitcher to use more of his arm. Thus pitching becomes more stressful...not less. Here are some of the many advantages to using Momentum Pitching... especially for the beginner or Little League pitcher: It is a more natural way to pitch It is simple to teach since the pitcher just steps back, pushes into the pivot and then drives his front shoulder and hip at the target using back leg drive It creates a longer stride which increases the amount of elastic energy that whips the arm through almost effortlessly...so there is less stress to the arm More velocity can be created much more quickly because the pitcher will naturally and more easily use his body instead of just his arm It can be taught by inexperienced parents in just one 1 hour session. ( I personally have taught it to many pitchers who easily get it within 10-15 minutes as if they have been pitching this way forever There is far less to think about so the pitcher gains mastery and confidence quicker The added momentum produced from Momentum Pitching also helps the pitcher improve his velocity and his control since his stride length will improve getting him closer to the hitter. The closer the pitcher is to the hitter the less time the hitter has to react and the easier it is to control the ball. Unfortunately most Little League pitchers throw with just their arm instead of their body. And parents wonder why they cannot improve velocity. Once they learn how to use their lower body to produce energy their arm feels much better and stays healthier. Momentum Pitching should be the first choice for all parents when teaching their sons how to pitch. It is the simplest way to teach mechanics and will have the quickest impact on boosting both velocity and control. Momentum Pitching is now part of our Exposive Pitching DVD program.