How important is velocity?

quote:

I'm worried that my velocity (aka the lack thereof) could hurt my chances of playin college ball.

Zach, No doubt velocity plays a part in getting to the next level but low velocity doesn't totally ELIMINATE your chances. My suggestions are to GET SOME INSTRUCTIONS from a knowledgeable pitching instructor and continue to develop your arm. You may have a flaw in your delivery and poor mechanics can reduce your velocity significantly. You never know what the future may hold so continue to work toward the goal of playing college baseball. I think you have a great attitude and that alone is a big plus. Keep us posted.
Fungo

PS: Let tell you a “Once upon a time” story. Once upon a time, a tiny frog fell into a giant bowl of cream. Unable to get out, the little fella kept kicking, kicking, kicking until finally the cream turned to butter, and he was able to jump to safety.

This is us. We are the frog. We can either give up hope when faced with impossible challenges, or we can kick, kick, kick until the curses turn to blessings.

You won't know until you give it your best shot.

Fungo's advice is solid.

Tell us more about what you're currently doing. What level in HS did you play last spring? What did you do over the summer? What did you do last fall? What did you do over the winter?

Zach, you're still young and probably have some more growing to do, so nobody will know how hard you might throw in another year or two. You have gotten excellent advice from Fungo, but I'm going to add one other thing that is just as important as developing whatever velocity you might be able to gain. Take care of your grades in the classroom. If you're a left hander who's also an outstanding student, you're giving colleges more reasons to be interested in you.

If you can pitch, there are programs that will probably be a good fit, even if your velocity doesn't get all that much higher, but the grades may be the clincher for someone so make them the best you can.

And remember, D1 isn't the only good baseball. There are plenty of lower division teams that are looking for quality pitchers who are also good students.

Fungo- That sounds like a good idea I actually went down to a local baseball academy today and set up a lesson with the pitching instructor there for after spring break so I'll see how that goes.

Beezer- Right now I'm throwing 2 times a week (Mon and Wed) and lifting Monday Wednesday Friday. I played sophomore ball last year, and over the summer it was more throwing that lifting, but then once fall and winter hit it's been almost all lifting and no throwing.

quote:

Originally posted by Zachbino57:
Beezer- Right now I'm throwing 2 times a week (Mon and Wed) and lifting Monday Wednesday Friday. I played sophomore ball last year, and over the summer it was more throwing that lifting, but then once fall and winter hit it's been almost all lifting and no throwing.

No summer or fall baseball?

Summer baseball was high school baseball, the season didn't get over until the middle of July. And I play football too, so that conflicted with fall baseball

Zach,

Remember - its not about how hard the ball comes into the plate - its about how hard it is hit in the other direction.

Work hard - try to continue to learn - and get it done.

Zachbino57, you are not throwing enough. You should be long-tossing 5-6x weekly, year-round. That's what will give you the arm strength and arm speed to suceed.

Long toss is great...if you are an outfielder. My son increased his velocity from 74 to 84 by using momentum pitching and throwing 3 100+ blocked bullpens 100% effort a week. If you are a pitcher, I believe you should not waste you time throwing long toss when you could be working off a mound.

Before you blow up and say that is too much pitching in a week I will explaina blocked bullpen.

First off start small with about 40 to 50 pitches.
Throw 5 pitches to a particular spot,say low and in. take a break of about 5 minutes. Move to another spot say high and away, do the same. Do not move on until you are hitting the spot 3 or 4 out of 5 times.

After 25 pitches, take a 15 minute break as you would between innings. Do this until you work up to 100 pitch bull pens.

The problem with long toss,, other than a warm up before games is the angle you are throwing is nothing like a pitch off a mound. You are doing nothing for your accuracy. if you are going to throw and are a pitcher, throw off the mound and at least get some work on your pitch location. A pitcher throws from 60'6" Long toss is something that was never done until recently.

Bob Gibson, Sandy Kofaux, Whitey Ford, Bob Feller and guys like that did pretty well without it.

I believe Bum's son increased his velocity from 79 to 88 using long toss and has excellent command. Those were showcase results on a Stalker.

You can bet that Bob Gibson et al., played plenty of long toss. They called it playing catch.

There are two claims now, opposite each other, that Bob Gibson et al played long toss or didn't.

Does anyone have any evidence of their claim?

CPLZ,
No proof whatsoever and I didn't make a claim other than that they played catch. However, don't you think it is likely that Bob Gibson among others was willing to show off his arm when playing catch? Perhaps a few throws when shagging balls in the outfield? Pretty reasonable assumption.

Velocity is important - no doubt about it. But as long as you continue to get people OUT at whatever level you are pitching at, you will get the opportunity to adavance to the next level.

This will happen until you reach the level where you can't get anyone out.

Now, with the above being said, if you are a 6'6", 225 lbs, RHP, who throws 95 mph, you will have to prove that you CANNOT pitch.

Alright time for a quick update. I've gone to the pitching coach twice, and he found a couple of flaws with the mechanics that have really seemed to help. The first thing he noticed was that when I strode during my delivery, I drove in a diagonal direction ( \ if the top of that line is the plant foot and the bottom is the drive foot). This didn't allow my shoulders to open up fully and I was throwing across my body. The second thing we changed was my arm slot. Because of the stride, I was throwing at a side arm angle. He moved that up to a 3/4 delivery, and this has not only helped my velocity but I'm controlling my changeup and curveball much better now. Yesterday at throwing I hit 74 twice and my fastball was under 70 only once. Thanks for all the help and I'll keep everyone update on how it goes through the rest of the spring/season.

Zach -
Great start....keep working hard. Sometimes things take time and although you're really just starting, keep after it. Guarantee you will see more and more results!

Keep us updated.

quote:

Originally posted by crawdad:
Velocity is important - no doubt about it. But as long as you continue to get people OUT at whatever level you are pitching at, you will get the opportunity to adavance to the next level.

This will happen until you reach the level where you can't get anyone out.

Now, with the above being said, if you are a 6'6", 225 lbs, RHP, who throws 95 mph, you will have to prove that you CANNOT pitch.

Very well stated in my opinion. Coaches are in love with size and throwing velocity, both of which for the most part are things you are born with. If you don't have these attributes, but can still get people out, you will get noticed. It just makes the hill a little steeper.