Pitching Velocity
Many students come to me for the sole purpose of increasing velocity. One of the first questions I ask these students is “what do you think gets a hitter out?” Some of the responses I get are throwing strikes, I don’t know, movement on the ball, blowing the ball right past a hitter and so on. Not many pitchers get it right. What does get a hitter out? Is it velocity? The answer is a variety of things do and that is why a pitcher cannot rely on velocity alone to succeed. Change of speed, movement on the ball and location get a hitter out. That is what keeps the hitter off balance. So does velocity matter?
Of course velocity matters. The harder a pitcher throws any of their pitches the more rotation the ball will have. Therefore, the ball will have more movement. The more movement on the ball, the more difficult it is to hit. It’s that simple.
So if velocity matters, how does a pitcher increase their pitching velocity? I will do my best to try and simplify this process. First of all, most pitchers use too much of their throwing arm while trying to pitch; even in the collegiate levels. A sufficient stride is very helpful because it allows you to not only explode toward the plate it allows a pitcher to release the ball closer to it.
It is also important for pitchers to explode to foot strike while they are striding. If they mosey on down to foot strike they end up throwing with their upper body more than their legs and hips. To get explosive power a pitcher should push off the ball of their pivot foot (while maintaining balance of course), use their landing leg as a leveraging tool to propel themselves forward and also use what is called delayed shoulder rotation. Delayed shoulder rotation allows a pitcher to utilize more of their hips while throwing the ball, while keeping your upper body closed a bit longer for more torque. For further explanation on these methods I recommend you visit www.simplifiedpitching.com.
