Ok well im now a junior in highschool and ive been stuck around the same velocity for about 2 years now. my fastball is topping out at around 70 or so. i have a 2 seam and a curveball but i need a good fastball before anything and 70 is like pitching batting practice in a varsity game. So can anybody help me figure out a way to throw harder. if it helps at all im about 5'10 150 lbs.

Brad

You have room to get stronger but be very selective in strength conditioning program.

If you will allow me, I would like to share from my own personal experience and what worked for me as a college/athlete and minor league player.

Before you begin, let me suggest "no heavy lifting" and a lot of rubber tubing and 1-2 pound weight for use to build rotator cuff housing muscles. Abduction, adduction, inversion, eversion, pronate, supranate...in other words, north/south/east/west, think of all these directional movements when composing individualized training program. This is vital in protecting shoulder and arm from injury and must be done prior to increasing weight amounts.

Let me say it this way, find and develop a program that will strengthen your body from the inside-out. What I mean by that is train fine motor skill muscles first in order to establish strong housing and foundation for the larger muscle groups. Specifically, the rotator cuff muscles around ball and socket joint of shoulder.

As in pitching, the lower body and abs play a much larger role than most HS players realize. Build up legs, preferably using running drills such as hill climbing, tire pulls, running with weight attachments, etc. You can be creative but make sure linear movement is involved in lower body building.

Would also increase ab workouts but be careful with lower back and ck with coach about recommended crunch programs. The center muscle groups compliment lower body conditioning and will help attain rotational power and linear movement.strength conditioning program should, in combination with these recommended components, increase velocity over a period of time, but won't happen over-night and will require much sacrifice and determination along with an All-American diet. Recommend vast amounts of collard greens and chicken every day-lol. All this I just shared, worked for the Shep-LOL But you got to work your program and totally focus with no side attractions, know what I mean .

Wish you the best of luck and hope these suggestions will put you on the road to great success.

Sincerely,
Gotta See Em Shep! (old board username-lol)

For what ever it's worth to you now Brad I will give you this info. For you this info might be coming a little late in your career, but for other young aspiring pitchers this would be good info and something to get started on right away. I'm not saying what Shep told you was wrong, but the weight lifting will only do so much for you. It will definitely get you in shape provided you have cardio vascular with the lifting. Think about it this way, what do pitchers do? They throw! What do you think the one thing that will help your arm strength and velocity? Throwing! Specifically, long toss. Long toss when ever you can, that increases your arm strength. When my son was growing up we used to play long toss all the time. Year after year his arm strength has increased. He is 17 now and throwing 88-89 consistently and even pops a 90-91 sometimes. We even had a mom who thought she knew so much question my son why he was out playing catch in October while her son was at the same park playing in a football game. (When her son pitches in games now his fastball is batting practice and is getting hammered.) This is sound info and was validated when my son attended a pitching camp at Notre Dame a couple weeks ago and the the question was asked to pitching coach Rooney. The single most important thing you can do to increase arm strength is to throw and play lots of long toss. Don't you wish you had this info when you were 9 years old?

Great stuff by both, but Shep sad it all as you get plenty of cardio from runnng, especially up hill. The long toss is also extremely important.

Thanks guys ive always heard long tossing and band exercises makes you throw harder its just the whole actually doing the stuff that gets me. But now ive realized that even though i dont play for a highschool thats big in baseball u can still make it to another level. so if anyone else has anymore tips please share them. thanks brad

mechanics

Brad

Those guys are correct also about long-toss and proper mechanics.

I only addressed the physical strengthening aspects as well as some cardiovascular suggestions as in lower body building and abs since you only weigh 150 now. It is my belief that putting on good fuctional body weight is most important at this point of your career, especially if your not even playing at a very big HS.

Remember Shep's motto: Preparation meets opportunity.

If you pay the price now, you will reap the dividends later.

Shep Cares

shep that is a great motto

http://www.thecompletepitcher.com/pitching_workouts/tubing_program.swf

There's the rubber tubing excersises if you needed'm.

Power your self off of the mound. Push hard, and good, strong, developed quads are the key. You can get them by doing squats.

I back SeedThrower's post 100%.

If you are very determined to increase your velocity, and funds are available, you might want to seek the advice of a pitching coach or trainer and not advice, though helpful and given in good spirit, from here.

If you begin a conditioning routine without proper direction, you most probably will end up hurt.

Do you know Chris who posted on another thread in this forum?

I don't even think you need a personal trainer/coach. If you put in the effort to listen to your coaches, that is enough instruction. Throwing with a friend is just as good for your arm as throwing with a trainer/personal coach.

Once you are in good condition for baseball, I would focus on pitching specific activites. In order to pitch, you must first learn to throw. It's been said that fifty percent of your velocity is produced from your shoulder to your finger tips. If this is true, you first need to address arm action issues. Make sure that you have no pauses in your arm action and that you are trying to move the arm quickly. Remember, you can't throw hard with a slow arm.

I once asked a similar question on another website, and I was told that in order to throw hard, you must practice throwing hard. This makes perfect since! You won't learn to throw harder by practicing at 50%. You must challenge yourself to throw harder. You have to go about this in an intelligent manner, you don't want to start out too hard and injure yourself. I am probably not qualified to give you any details, I am just relaying some information and beliefs that I have learned.

Also, you may want to research some weighted ball programs. They have been proven to improve velocity.

Whatever you decide to do, you will need to get your arm in better condition.

Long toss is always a good idea.

First, a 4-seamer will go faster than will a 2-seamer. More seams = less drag = extra 1-2 MPH (which is true but completely counter-intuitive). That's why a 4-seamer is often referred to as a "rising" fastball and a 2-seamer is often referred to as a "sinker." They both of course sink, but a 4-seamer sinks less due to the reduced drag.

Second, I'd be willing to be that you're not using your lower body efficiently. You need to get the rotation of your hips leading the rotation of your shoulders.

Third, I agree with the general advice above on conditioning, especially with respect to weighted balls (assuming that you gradually build up the weights). However, I think the point of conditioning the arm is to enable it to hold the shoulder together. Let the rotation of the hips, torso, and shoulder generate the primary force.

i've been going to a pitching coach for the last couple of years and he is recognized as the top in the country. whenever i ask him about velocity, he always stresses doing the tube exercises during the offseason while also doing lot of lower body strength training like squats and power cleans, but one thing he says is to lay off the long toss until the season starts. if anything, long toss in the offseason should be done sparingly, or else you will wear down at the end of the season.

quote:

Originally posted by the next...1:
mechanics

couldn't say it any better

By poss45

quote:

i've been going to a pitching coach for the last couple of years and he is recognized as the top in the country. whenever i ask him about velocity, he always stresses doing the tube exercises during the offseason while also doing lot of lower body strength training like squats and power cleans, but one thing he says is to lay off the long toss until the season starts. if anything, long toss in the offseason should be done sparingly, or else you will wear down at the end of the season.

poss,

Is it possible you could give out the name of this pitching instructor who is recognized the top one in the whole country? I was under the impression that long toss strengthened the arm so that it might not wear down as soon.

There are no magic words of wisdom. Read the good books written by great pitching coaches. Read Roger Clemens routine. He is disputably the hardest working pitcher in the business.
Watch any Pro ball game and you will see long toss and surgical tubes.
If you are young get your docs advice as to when to start heavier weights.
Read the Jim Morris story. Jim Morris went to heavy weights to develope his fast ball. I read another story of a guy who was going to give up and went to haevy weights and got into the 90s.
Personal experience although interesting is not scientific evidence.
Beware the quick fix, be patient and work hard with the time proven methods. The nice think is the advice is realatively inexpensive. Work on your whole game.

Brad, There are many forms of stength. One form is base strength often referred to as starting strength or limit stength. This is in general how strong a person is or how much strength can be called upon. There is also speed strength or power which is the combination of strength and speed together or combined. The level of ones base strength is directly related to ones ability to develop power. In theory the more strength one has to begin with the more power he should be able to develop. What many naysayers do not understand is one can train for power without using heavy weights. The best gains for power can be found using somewheres between 30-60% of max lifting capabilities. The best lifts for developing power are the olympic lifts.

You can believe whatever you want in regards to getting stronger for baseball or getting more strength to throw harder, however you want to state it. The fact remains if you want to get better a major part of that equation is centerd around strength. Strength enables ability/potential. Without developing the ability the potential drops significantly. Due to the fact that potential is in part centerd around ones ability.In other words when one elevates his ability his potential also elevates.

You stated something to the effect that you hit the wall in terms of velocity. This is not unique at all. How many other kids you know hit the wall at or near where you are? I bet a whol lot of kids are in the exact same boat you are. Why?

quote:

Ok well im now a junior in highschool and ive been stuck around the same velocity for about 2 years now. my fastball is topping out at around 70 or so. i have a 2 seam and a curveball but i need a good fastball before anything and 70 is like pitching batting practice in a varsity game. So can anybody help me figure out a way to throw harder. if it helps at all im about 5'10 150 lbs.

I would focus on improving the timing of the rotation of your lower body.

First of all, make sure that your hips are leading your shoulders. Second, try to keep you shoulders closed as long as possible. This will give your hips more time to open up.

If you do this in conunction with conditioning your lower body, then you should see a significant benefit.