Wednesday, October 23, 2013

How to increase pitching velocity

How to increase pitching velocity in six weeks




Are you looking to gain 3-15mph on your fastball? Here are tips to help you gain velocity.

Strengthen the decelerator muscles to gain velocity.

Most pitchers focus on strengthening the accelerator muscles by doing presses and pushups, but strong back muscles are very important in throwing velocity. If the arm speeds up, then it also must slow down (decelerate) properly to avoid injury.


Suggestion:
Do twice as much work with the decelerator muscles over six weeks and you will see a jump in your throwing velocity.

What muscles slow down the arm?

The main decelerator muscles are the latissimus dorsi (lats), posterior deltoid ( back of the shoulder), the biceps (front of upper arm), trapezius (major back muscles) and rotator cuff muscles. These muscles work together to slow down the arm after release and keep the arm from coming out of the shoulder joint. (source: Coaching Pitchers by Joe McFarland)

Tips:

  • - Throw hard daily.
  • - Warmup with exercise bands before throwing.
  • - Throw long-toss using different pitching grips.

  • - Strengthen the decelerator muscles
  • - Start using a weighted baseball training program
  • - Stop distance running - do short sprints - find out why



Where did I learn this from?

Brent PourciauBrent Pourciau - certified by USA Weightlifting as a Sports Performance Coach. He has been coaching high school, college and professional pitchers to reach their velocity goals for the past 10 years and he's a badass. I never would have added another 10mph to my pitch.






Suggested Reading
115 Ways to Improve Pitching Velocity


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