Pitching mechanics and velocity

Your upper body may be trying to come forward before your front foot lands. Do you have any catcher-view footage?

at the the moment no i dont, but if im able to get another video i'll post it

Not a pitching coach, but I would seek an opinion of a professional pitching coach for evaluation.

I think that your mechanics look pretty good. What I see is a lack of arm speed and possibly arm strength. Not sure what kind of lifting, ab work and running you do but work at it. I see lots of thin, splindly guys like you bring it upper 80's. Arm strength and arm speed are two things I'd work on...jmho

okay thanks, throwing and strengthening my arm is something that i should be doing more often, living in canada its hard with all of the snow and how cold it gets in the winter, but thats definitly something that im going to try and do alot more of this year. I did lots of working out and running and i mean i had no problem pitching full games,its just the velocity thats concerning me.

I like a lot of what you do. The leg lift is behind the rubber, heal to catcher and high. Those are all power positions. Try not to let you shoulders go with your legs. You are counter-rotating. This will actually give you less body rotation.

Keep your shoulders square to your target area but do the same three elements of your lift. This will actually give you more torque. You stay closed for a long time in your delivery, that is good. Keep your tempo but speed it up at the end. If you get your shoulders right, you will feel as though a wave happens from the floor to the whip that will be created from your hand at delivery. You want the energy to transfer through your core and not around your core. You do that already.

I wouldn't change much, let you body work the way it is.

I agree with the posters who say work out. Getting athletic is a common theme with good pitchers. Best wishes on going forward.

Leeson,

The first thing I noticed when I watched your video last night was your lack of arm speed. Everybody agrees that working on your core and arm strength this off season is very important going into your senior year. IMO, your mechanics look pretty decent, but as Sultan suggested, a view from behind the plate would help. I'm with TPM, your best bet would be to seek out a local respected pitching coach to help guide you...rather than taking suggestions from us "Arm Chair" coaches.

Best of luck to you!

quote:

Originally posted by Leeson13:
okay thanks, throwing and strengthening my arm is something that i should be doing more often, living in canada its hard with all of the snow and how cold it gets in the winter, but thats definitly something that im going to try and do alot more of this year. I did lots of working out and running and i mean i had no problem pitching full games,its just the velocity thats concerning me.

Running doesn't strengthen your core. Try to find some pitcher specific workouts and weight gain, and I still would get an evaluation from a pitching instructor or seek out help from a scout.

Working out will help, but your immediate problem is technique. I agree with others, see a pitching coach to sort this out.

Baseball is almost non-existant where i live. I've been having to play for a team located 6 hours away from me, where i move with my grandparents each summer just to get exposure. A few years back i found a very good pitching instructor who i worked with and helped me improve significantly but things happened to him and he is no longer in this area. Money has also been an issue so im limited to the opportunites and help that i can get, but i mean now that i have some feedback i can work on some of the stuff mentioned.

I hate to do this but...

Here's a video of a pitcher that I know taken in 2007.

http://www.pitchingclips.com/players/david_kopp.htm

Not perfect but may give you an idea of where you should be at each stage in the delivery. Notice footwork, stride and where arm and torso are at foot plant.

Lot of pitchers there to look at as well.

Hope that this helps you out.

Leeson13,

Your Back Leg collapse causes your Front Leg to open like a gate and, at the same time, prematurely open your Hips. At Foot Plant, because you've already lost your Hips, you throw mostly Upper Body. Without your Lower Body connecting to your Upper Body, your velocity and command suffers.

To correct this, you must change your Front Leg position in your Starting Position so you begin your motion athletically stacked (with your weight centered within your Body).

A stacked Starting Position makes your entire motion more dynamic, will allow your Throwing Hand to become more of an extension of your Hips and allow you to realize better command/velocity.

L.A. "Skip" Fast
Pro Pitching Institute

In the video that TPM gave you, notice the front side glove on that player. You lose much when you drop the glove hand as you do, look into the concept of "equal and opposite. Also, skinny or not, your bottom half is passive (Along for the ride), power is derived from the ground up. It is very common at your age to be as fast as the arm can get you, without integrating in that lower half, you'll be trapped at max arm speed (Usually low 80's).
I think you are creating your own hurdles, Canadians have a solid spot in the majors, somehow all those other guys worked it out...I'm sure Fergie Jenkins didn't have even indoor facilities..maybe not even Ryan Dempster..so desire is the thing..if you want it bad enough, you'll find a place to work and maybe a protein shake or two to add a pound or two to your skinny self.

Thanks, thats what i was told even when i had my pitching instructor and even my dad, that it looked like i was never exploding my lower half and when he tryed getting me to do it, it just felt really weird for some reason but thats something im going to obviously have to work on doing if i want to gain more velocity. It would be great if i could get a 5-10 mph gain this year and then maybe hopefully play college ball.

Leeson13,

Exploding your Lower Half is not an action ...
Exploding your Lower Half is a reaction to your Body being athletically stacked just prior to your Foot Strike and your Glove Hand activity triggering your Lower Half explosion.

To move into your Foot Strike athletically stacked, your Coach needs to teach you how to synchronize your Arm/Leg actions while on one leg. To make maintaining a single leg athletic stack easier, you want to move into your single leg phase from an already athletically stacked Starting Position.

You use your Front Leg in your Starting Position to keep your Head vertically over your Bellybutton. You essentially use your Front Leg to keep yourself balanced much the same way a tight rope walker uses his pole to keep himself from falling off his wire.

Your motion is a kinetic chain of events. Your first plan of attack needs to be your Starting Position. Ignore this and you may find your extra 5-10 miles per hour, but you'll lack the command needed to attract lots of Baseball Scouts.

L.A. "Skip" Fast
Pro Pitching Institute

My command has never been a problem, thats one of the main reasons why im still able to pitch as effectively as i am without the overpowering velocity. I've been told by many people that i need to get my velocity up if i want to get scouted which is why im making it a higher priority at the moment. My strike outs per game have been cut in half from 10-11 to now 5-6 because of my minimal velocity gains over the past few years.

Leeson13,

I measure command by the Pitcher's ability to hit their spots, not by their results. I also measure my program's success by my ability to teach Pitchers how to stay athletically stacked through out their motion and, at Foot Strike, allow all their energy to instantly go up the Trunk and into their Throwing Hand. Their Throwing Hand moves through a consistently tiny release window with maximum Throwing Arm speed.

About you decline in strike outs ... Consider this, over the past few years, your opponents have becomes more patient and more knowledgeable about their pitch selection. From my experience, Pitchers who measure their performance in terms of their results typically put the ball over the plate more often than Pitchers whose laser-focus is motion execution.

Command and velocity go hand in hand. The more you hit your spots, the more all you energy moves through a small release window. The more energy that goes out your Throwing Hand, the greater your velocity.

To get scouted, you need both command within the strike zone (from your comment, I interpret you have command around the strike zone) and consistent Throwing Arm speed. Both are measured through your pitching chain (a one-page, spot-action pitching motion film strip) and your ability to hit your spots.

L.A. "Skip" Fast
Pro Pitching Institute

I understand what your saying, but i've had no problem hitting the catchers glove whether it be inside or outside even with my off speed pitches.

At the level im playing at if you miss your spots, or throw a ball right down the middle its getting hit hard unless your fastball is overpowering, which mine isn't, so command is something that i have to rely heavily on.

I made this thread because of my lack of velocity, not because i had a lack of command and wanted to see if there were things that i could do within my mechanics to help me improve it. Lack of arm speed and a passive lower half were things that were mentioned on here and were also mentioned to me in the past by coaches and my dad.

Leeson13,

Ask one of your Coaches to show you how to begin with an athletically stack starting position (I bet you begin your motion with all your weight over your Back Foot), synchronize your Arm/Leg movements to maintain your stack through your single leg phase and use your Glove Hand to trigger an ideal Foot Strike Sequence.

All these are extremely teachable skills. Master these and you'll immediately realize a more active lower half that produces exceptional arm speed.

L.A. "Skip" Fast
Pro Pitching Institute