Written on May 11, 2012 at 9:33 am, by Eric Cressey
Everyone wants to improve pitching velocity, but unfortunately, the answer to the question of "how" is different for everyone. To that end, I pulled together a quick list of 101 strategies you can use to improve pitching velocity. They aren't the same for everyone, but chances are that at least a few of these will help you. I'd encourage you to print this off and highlight the areas in which you think you can improve.
1. Optimize mechanics (this could be 100 more ways in itself; I will leave it alone for now).
2. Gain weight (if skinny).
3. Lose weight (if fat).
4. Get taller (shorter throwers can’t create as much separation, and are further away from homeplate)
5. Get shorter (taller throwers have more energy leaks).
38. Change footwear (guys usually throw harder in cleats).
39. Throw less.
40. Throw more.
41. Pitch less.
42. Pitch more.
43. Politely ask your mom to stop yelling, “Super job, kiddo!” after every pitch you throw.
44. Do strength exercises outside the sagittal plane.
45. Take all the money you were going to blow on fall/winter showcases and instead devote it to books, DVDs, training, food, and charitable donations. If there is anything left over, blow it on lottery tickets and sketchy real estate ventures, both of which have a higher return-on-investment than showcases in the fall and winter.
46. Switch from a turf mound indoors to a dirt/clay mound outdoors.
51. Improve glute activation so that you can fully extend your hip in your delivery.
52. Stop thinking that the exact workout a big league pitcher uses is exactly what you need to do.
53. Subcategory of #52: Remove the phrase "But Tim Lincecum does it" from your vocabulary. You aren't Tim Lincecum, and you probably never will be. Heck, Tim Lincecum isn't Tim Lincecum anymore, either. You can learn from his delivery, but 99.9999% of people who try to copy his delivery fail miserably.
54. Read more. This applies to personal development in a general sense, and baseball is certainly no exception. The guys who have the longest, most successful careers are usually the ones who dedicate themselves to learning about their craft.
55. Stay away from alcohol. It kills tissue quality, negatively affects protein synthesis, messes with sleep quality, and screws with hormonal status.
56. Incorporate more single-leg landings with your plyos; you land on one leg when you throw, don't you?
57. Be a good teammate. If you aren't a tool, they'll be more likely to help you when you get into a funk with your mechanics or need someone to light a fire under your butt.
58. Respect the game. Pitchers who don't respect the game invariably end up getting plunked the first time they wind up going up to bat. Getting hit by a lot of pitches isn't going to help your velocity.
59. Train the glutes in all three planes (read more HERE).
60. Remember your roots and always be loyal. You never know when you'll need to go back to ask your little league, middle school, high school, or AAU coach for advice to help you right the ship.
61. Get focal manual therapy like Active Release.
62. Get diffuse manual therapy like instrument-assisted modalities or general massage.
63. Make sweet love to a foam roller.
64. Throw a jacket on between innings to keep your body temperature up.
65. Pitch from the wind-up.
66. Drink magical velocity-increasing snake oil (just making sure you were still reading and paying attention).
67. Pick a better walkout song.
68. Get on a steeper mound (expect this to also increase arm stress).
69. Train hip mobility and core stability simultaneously.
70. Get around successful people in the pitching world and learn from them. Find a way to chat with someone who has accomplished something you want to accomplish. If you hang around schleps who complain about their genes and have never thrown above 75mph, though, expect to be a schlep who throws 75mph, too.
71. Pick the right parents (sorry, genes do play a role).
74. Get 8-12 weeks off completely from throwing per year. Read more about why HERE and HERE.
75. Be candid with yourself about how hard you’re really working (most guys talk about working hard when they should actually be working hard).
76. Take the stupid sticker off your hat.
77. Stop thinking so much.
78. Think more.
79. Stop stretching your throwing shoulder into external rotation (read more on that HERE).
80. Get in a better training environment.
81. Surround yourself with unconditionally positive and supportive people.
82. Talk to a different pitching coach to get a new perspective.
83. Stop talking to so many pitching coaches because too many cooks are spoiling the broth.
84. Lengthen your stride (learn more HERE, HERE, and HERE).
85. Shorten your stride.
86. Get your ego crushed when you realize that no matter how strong you think you are, there is a girl somewhere warming up with your max. And, my wife might even be able to do more pull-ups than you!
87. Stop trying to learn a cutter, knuckle-curve, slider, and “invisiball” when you can’t even throw a four-seam where you want it to go.
88. Play multiple sports (excluding cross-country).
89. Stay healthy when other pitchers are getting hurt.
90. Stop pitching for five different teams in the same season.
91. Pre-game routine: dynamic warm-up, sprinting progressions, long toss, pull-down throws, flat-ground, bullpen. Post-game routine: make out with prom queen after complete game shutout.
92. Do rhythmic stabilizations before you throw (if you’re a congenitally lax/”loose” guy) to "wake up" the rotator cuff.
104. Breath better (less shoulder shrug and more diaphragm).
105. Train the rotator cuff less.
106. Change the day on which you throw your bullpen.
107. For relievers, stay loose and warm throughout the game (read more about that HERE). Staying entertained is also important, as CP athlete Joe Van Meter demonstrates.
108. Here and there, between starts, skip your bullpen and throw a flat-ground instead to give your arm a chance to bounce back.
109. Consider creatine (the most researched strength and power supplement in history, yet surprisingly few people in baseball use it)
110. Work faster (the fielders behind you will love you).
111. Work slower (recover better between pitches and self-correct).
112. Stop ignoring your low right shoulder and adducted right hip.
113. Pick a college program where you’ll have an opportunity to play right away and get innings.
114. Move from a 5-day rotation to a 7-day rotation.
115. Decide to wake up in the morning and piss excellence!
These are really just the tip of the iceberg, so by all means, feel free to share your own strategies and ask questions in the comments section below.
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Squat more than a girl. Probably in there somewhere but I wanted to say it. A funny thing with baseball players (and basketball players) is that they are scared of lifting weights because they don’t want to get too muscular (like that will be a problem anyway) and tight. By far, the tightest athletes I have are baseball players and the most flexible are football players.
What your wife was doing looked suspiciously like chin ups (not pull ups)…… though 8 ain’t bad either way. Maybe you could create a “150 ways to get your pullups to 20” article next. LOL!
Eric can you direct me to some sound resources on promoting healthy throwing and pitching mechanics for youth and high school pitchers? Specifically promoting shoulder health as well as avoiding delivery red flags and enhancing Effectiveness.
Also, what do you think about static stretching as a part of both the post-game and post-bullpen routines? You mentioned in one of your previous articles having your pitchers static stretch every day but wasn’t sure if you still had them do this.
Kids who eat red meat, chicken, fish, etc are already taking it. However, in supplemental form, we don’t really discuss things with kids until age 16+.
I am a former college player and have a depressed right shoulder. You mentioned its connection to an adducted hip. Can you touch on that a little bit more and how to go about fixing such a problem? Thanks!
When you say: 112. Stop ignoring your low right shoulder and adducted right hip. What does that mean? My son is 12 and has been playing travel baseball for 3 years and his hip and shoulder look just like the photo posted. I’ve taken him to a doctor and they say his back is straight and legs are the same length. What should he do? Thanks.
Great article! As a high school baseball coach, I am constantly looking for new and innovative training methods and ideas. This blog post gave us several new additions to our pitchers’ training programs and their routines. Very happy to have found this!
I wrote a blog post to help high school ball players learn what college coaches are looking for in a player. If you have a break in time, then please read it and share it with someone that could benefit from it: http://thepatrickmullin.com/college-baseball-recruiting/
These apps are garbage. First of all, they all do the calculation from the rubber and nobody releases the ball from the rubber. They’re already off by 10 percent at that point. So, your 80 mph is actually 72. Then, they calculate the average velocity where radar guns catch the velocity right out of your hand. For somebody throwing in the range of 80 mph, that’s another 4.5 mph of error. A pitched ball loses about 9 mph on it’s way to the plate, so high is 4.5 mph higher than the average and low is 4.5 mph below the average. Plus, the accepted error in a human being using a stopwatch (which is all that this app is) is +/- 0.2 seconds. Since an 80 mph pitch gets there in 0.5 seconds, that’s +/- 40 percent error!
Garbage.
May 11th, 2012 at 10:12 am
Awesome!
May 11th, 2012 at 11:03 am
Squat more than a girl. Probably in there somewhere but I wanted to say it. A funny thing with baseball players (and basketball players) is that they are scared of lifting weights because they don’t want to get too muscular (like that will be a problem anyway) and tight. By far, the tightest athletes I have are baseball players and the most flexible are football players.
May 11th, 2012 at 12:09 pm
116. think less, you’ll only hurt the ball club.
May 11th, 2012 at 12:19 pm
Don’t really know what to say–or better, see you soon.
May 11th, 2012 at 12:46 pm
I can’t really think of many people I’d be scared to roll around w/ but Bo Jackson would definitely be one of them.
May 11th, 2012 at 12:49 pm
Do you recommend having pitchers do less biceps workouts and do more triceps to limit flexion & increase extension in the arm?
May 11th, 2012 at 1:02 pm
What your wife was doing looked suspiciously like chin ups (not pull ups)…… though 8 ain’t bad either way. Maybe you could create a “150 ways to get your pullups to 20” article next. LOL!
May 11th, 2012 at 2:07 pm
Eric can you direct me to some sound resources on promoting healthy throwing and pitching mechanics for youth and high school pitchers? Specifically promoting shoulder health as well as avoiding delivery red flags and enhancing Effectiveness.
May 11th, 2012 at 3:03 pm
Were #’s 50 thru 59 important? They are missing on my e-mail. Good Stuff as usual.
May 11th, 2012 at 3:20 pm
JC – Oops! Those ones didn’t copy and paste in correctly. Just revised it and included them. Thanks!
May 11th, 2012 at 5:14 pm
How about: Make deadlifting your best friend!
Also, what do you think about static stretching as a part of both the post-game and post-bullpen routines? You mentioned in one of your previous articles having your pitchers static stretch every day but wasn’t sure if you still had them do this.
May 11th, 2012 at 10:38 pm
#45 is some of the best advice I’ve heard period!
May 11th, 2012 at 10:47 pm
hahahaha that was awesome. I was laughing the whole time 🙂
May 16th, 2012 at 10:37 am
I like #55.
January 31st, 2013 at 2:35 pm
Liked this list entirely but #87 & 73 were spot on for many guys. Great stuff, thanks!
March 23rd, 2013 at 7:52 am
What is the youngest age you would you age you would recommend taking creatine as a supplement?
March 24th, 2013 at 2:33 pm
Sheldon,
Kids who eat red meat, chicken, fish, etc are already taking it. However, in supplemental form, we don’t really discuss things with kids until age 16+.
May 13th, 2013 at 12:05 pm
What are some corrective exercises for “lowered shoulder?” (112) Or are there any?
May 28th, 2013 at 6:45 pm
Eric,
I am a former college player and have a depressed right shoulder. You mentioned its connection to an adducted hip. Can you touch on that a little bit more and how to go about fixing such a problem? Thanks!
May 29th, 2013 at 2:34 pm
Russ,
Check out this post; it’s a good start: http://ecressey.wpengine.com/5-lose-fat-gain-muscle-get-strong-move-better-41
May 29th, 2013 at 2:36 pm
Aaron,
Give this a read; it’s a good start: http://ecressey.wpengine.com/5-lose-fat-gain-muscle-get-strong-move-better-41
May 30th, 2013 at 3:19 pm
When you say: 112. Stop ignoring your low right shoulder and adducted right hip. What does that mean? My son is 12 and has been playing travel baseball for 3 years and his hip and shoulder look just like the photo posted. I’ve taken him to a doctor and they say his back is straight and legs are the same length. What should he do? Thanks.
May 30th, 2013 at 7:10 pm
Hi Bruce,
Give this a read; it’s a good start:
http://ecressey.wpengine.com/5-lose-fat-gain-muscle-get-strong-move-better-41
March 28th, 2014 at 9:47 pm
Great article! As a high school baseball coach, I am constantly looking for new and innovative training methods and ideas. This blog post gave us several new additions to our pitchers’ training programs and their routines. Very happy to have found this!
I wrote a blog post to help high school ball players learn what college coaches are looking for in a player. If you have a break in time, then please read it and share it with someone that could benefit from it: http://thepatrickmullin.com/college-baseball-recruiting/
August 5th, 2014 at 9:41 am
There are apps which can essentially replace your radar gun for calculating pitch speed with great accuracy:
iOS: Baseball Radar Gun+ https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/baseball-radar-gun+-pitchers/id772927896?mt=8
Android: Baseball Pitch Speed Radar Gun
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cobbysoft.sports.baseballpitchspeed&hl=en
March 15th, 2015 at 11:06 pm
These apps are garbage. First of all, they all do the calculation from the rubber and nobody releases the ball from the rubber. They’re already off by 10 percent at that point. So, your 80 mph is actually 72. Then, they calculate the average velocity where radar guns catch the velocity right out of your hand. For somebody throwing in the range of 80 mph, that’s another 4.5 mph of error. A pitched ball loses about 9 mph on it’s way to the plate, so high is 4.5 mph higher than the average and low is 4.5 mph below the average. Plus, the accepted error in a human being using a stopwatch (which is all that this app is) is +/- 0.2 seconds. Since an 80 mph pitch gets there in 0.5 seconds, that’s +/- 40 percent error!
Garbage.
And before you ask, yes, I am a physicist.