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Measuring Up To Walter Johnson - Not Tall but Long Arms

M micdsguy1,000+ posts
Found this on baseball-fever.com:

[Question] "Does anyone, have any idea on how Walter Johnson [6'1" 200 lbs] threw so hard? I mean, it says he never raised his back leg when he threw. How did he get so much power?


[Answer] Kyle - In Baseball Magazine October 1913 they have an outanding article that tries to answer that very same question. At some point I would like to post that article on the site because it is fascinating stuff.

They took measurements of the arm length, arm dimensions, height and weight of all of the top pitchers and tried to make some sense as to why big muscular guys like Jean Duboc were not power pitchers while a lanky, sinewy pitcher like Johnson had tremendous speed.

What they found is that Johnson had a reach of 78 1/2 inches. He had one of the largest arm spans of any of the pitchers that they measured - although a couple like Cy Falkenberg had a reach of 79 1/2 inches. Typically you will find that your average man will have a reach equal to his height. So you would expect that Johnson's reach would be about 73 inches.

What they also found was that Johnson had the longest arms of anyone that they measured - 34 inches. The 6'5" Falkenberg had an arm length of 33 inches. Carl Weilman was over 6'6" and had a wingspan of "only" 75 inches and an arm length of 31 1/2 inches.

Johnson's arm dimensions are as follows: 7 1/8 inch wrist, 12 12/2 inch forearm and 12 1/2 inch biceps.

So you had a man with extraordinary long arms and an arm like a whip. If you watch old movies of him pitch, that's exactly what it looks like.

There are some great pictures in the article. I am going to send them to Bill and maybe he can post them. They show Johnson showing off his reach. His arms look like a whip."
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GM Gingerbread Man500+ posts
You mentioned raising the back leg when he threw. This follow through is closely related to the trajectory or plane of the hips in relation to the ground. Sidearm pitchers will rarely have much back leg lift follow through because the rotation of the hips relative to the ground is more parallel. If anything, a lot of low throwers will have a leg drag event as their follow through. The back leg follow through is a natural reaction to what happens when the hip is rotated with a lot of force. All back legs will have a follow through, although the lower the arm slot usually means the lower the leg follow through.

The plane of the arm through the motion of a pitch will also translate into the same plane and trajectory of the hips. If the follow through of the arm changes drastically from a high to low as in an over the top pitcher, he will most likely have a leg lift follow through that raises his back leg very high, sometimes higher than his shoulders and head.
BumBum1,000+ posts
micdsguy, this is very interesting stuff. So, if I understand you correctly, there is a positive correlation between (velocity) and the ratio of (arm length to height). In other words, the higher the ratio of arm length to height, the greater the expected velocity, all other factors equal. Interesting.

..so I guess the measuring tape (and not the Stalker) is really the way to go!
Last edited by Bum
M micdsguy1,000+ posts
quote:
micdsguy, this is very interesting stuff. So, if I understand you correctly,...

This isn't MY opinion. I'm just passing it along. The quote came from Baseball-fever.com and was based on a 1913 article from Baseball Magazine.

quote:
so I guess the measuring tape (and not the Stalker) is really the way to go!
Stalker measures the actuality while $1 tape MAY give a clue as to potential.
I doubt it's the ratio, but the absolute wingspan. A midget with long arms is likely still doomed. But there can't be that much to this theory or major league fastballers would almost all be above 6'8" like NBA centers.
Last edited by micdsguy
Nitric_AcidNitric_Acid100+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by micdsguy:
Found this on baseball-fever.com:

[Question] "Does anyone, have any idea on how Walter Johnson [6'1" 200 lbs] threw so hard? I mean, it says he never raised his back leg when he threw. How did he get so much power?


[Answer] Kyle - In Baseball Magazine October 1913 they have an outanding article that tries to answer that very same question. At some point I would like to post that article on the site because it is fascinating stuff.

They took measurements of the arm length, arm dimensions, height and weight of all of the top pitchers and tried to make some sense as to why big muscular guys like Jean Duboc were not power pitchers while a lanky, sinewy pitcher like Johnson had tremendous speed.

What they found is that Johnson had a reach of 78 1/2 inches. He had one of the largest arm spans of any of the pitchers that they measured - although a couple like Cy Falkenberg had a reach of 79 1/2 inches. Typically you will find that your average man will have a reach equal to his height. So you would expect that Johnson's reach would be about 73 inches.

What they also found was that Johnson had the longest arms of anyone that they measured - 34 inches. The 6'5" Falkenberg had an arm length of 33 inches. Carl Weilman was over 6'6" and had a wingspan of "only" 75 inches and an arm length of 31 1/2 inches.

Johnson's arm dimensions are as follows: 7 1/8 inch wrist, 12 12/2 inch forearm and 12 1/2 inch biceps.

So you had a man with extraordinary long arms and an arm like a whip. If you watch old movies of him pitch, that's exactly what it looks like.

There are some great pictures in the article. I am going to send them to Bill and maybe he can post them. They show Johnson showing off his reach. His arms look like a whip."


After reading this post, I measured my son's "wingspan". 78"+ from tip to tip. Maybe there is hope after all.

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