Increasing Velocity: Part II (Cracking the Whip)

Ok, great, so you've decided that maybe there is something you can do to add some UMMPH on to your fastball.  Now what?  You go out and buy yourself a sweet pair of training shoes, get some new workout gear, hit the gym and start trying to squat the house!  Not so fast.  It's not quite that straight forward.  Although, admittedly, squatting might not be a terrible place to start.  So where do you start?  You've got the dedication.  You've committed yourself to the process, but where's a good place to start?  I get the following 2 questions more than any others, in regards to lifting to increase velocity, "If you had to pick one area to focus on, what would it be?"  Or, "what is the most important area to focus on?"

Unfortunately, the correct answer is "ALL OF THEM!!"  But for the sake of this article, I'm going to give my best effort to "prioritize my workouts."  Here is my list, in order of importance, of which areas to key on when trying to maximize your velocity "in the gym."

1.)  Legs (Lower Half)

I have to tell you, this was the hardest one to decide on.  In my true opinion, your legs and your core are equally important.  You can have amazingly strong legs with phenomenal, explosive power, but if you don't have the core to maintain that power, and drive that ball down and toward home plate, it won't matter.  On the other hand, if you have exceptional core strength, but no legs, that core never, truly, gets it's "time to shine."  However, I want us to think, for a second, about the chain of events when we pitch.  I want you to envision, if you will, that your body is like a whip.  The process of pitching baseball starts from the ground. Energy starts in the foot of your "posting leg" and works its way up through your body, exiting out your finger tips and onto the ball.  It is for this very reason, that I chose the legs as my most important area.  After all, they get the whole process started.  If you will conjure up that image of a whip again, think about how the base, or handle, of the whip is fatter to provide some rigidity and support to create that whipping action as the rest of the whip accelerates forward.  Well, we need our "base" to do the very same thing.

2.)  Core

As I mentioned before, strong and powerful legs won't do us any good if we don't have the core strength to harness that, new-found energy.  It is the responsibility of the core (abs, obliques, and lower back) to aid, and support, in the transfer of energy from the lower half to the upper half.  For those physics buffs reading this article, we understand that energy is lost any time it is transferred.  The amount of energy lost will depend on the conductor.  Our goal, by strengthening the core,  is to turn it into a super conductor, limitting the amount of energy that is "lost in transfer" to a minimum.  The stronger the core, the more energy gets transferred!

3.)  Back 

I use the term "back" loosely.  Keep in mind that when I refer to the "back," that fully encompasses the rotator cuff, teres minor, and all the small muscles that surround, and make up, your "scap area."  For this reason, it is hard to put it at number 3, but, to maintain consistency with my reasoning for putting your core at number 2, after you lower half, I must put your back (and all that it entails) behind your core.  "But your rotator cuff is SO important," might be what you're thinking right now, and you'd be absolutely right.  But, for starters, there's more to it than just your rotator cuff.  There are plenty of other muscles that aid in scapular stabilization.  And, while scapular stabilization is going to facilitate faster arm speed, it still won't matter all that much if you haven't, efficiently, transferred that energy from the "base of your whip" up to towards the tip.

4.)  Chest & Arms

My hope is, that by ranking them last on the list, I am not down-playing the importance of any part of the machine, or, I apologize, the whip.  As the adage goes, you're only as strong as your weakest link.  If anything, we need to consider this.  Your chest, front of the shoulder, and triceps are going to be responsible for the acceleration and propulsion of the ball forward, out of your hand.  So, in that aspect, the required strength is a huge necessity.  And, in keeping with the congruency of our metaphor, they must not only be strong, but flexible as well.  Thus, a certain, special attention is called for to develop them to function optimally, creating elongated muscles able to withstand great amounts of elasticity and maintain a full range of motion!  I suppose, if you had to pick one runt in the list, it would be the biceps.  The poor guys.  The pitcher's body never was the popular one at the beach.

I did want to end with one very important note that encircles all of these areas.  I alluded to it a few sentences ago, and that is flexibility.  With out it, none of this really matter after you tear everything off your bones because you can even bend over and touch your knees, let alone toes.  So, that being said, this article was intended to be used, merely, as a general guideline to designing your pitching program.  Like I said, attention needs to be addressed to all areas.  But, if you're looking to "prioritize" your workouts, you can use this information to help, and when in doubt, think like a whip.  After all, Indiana Jones had one!

Increasing Velocity: Part I (The Wall)

"I wish I threw harder!" 

If you are a pitcher, I am certain, without any question of a doubt, that these words have been uttered across your lips at some point.  If you try and tell me they haven't, I'm looking you right in the eye, right now, and calling you a LIAR!  As pitchers, it seems like the notion of throwing 100 mph is engrained in our brains from the first day we toe that rubber, and set our sights on the catcher's mitt.  Well, talk is cheap.  Do something about it!  Right??  Could it be that easy?  I think it's safe to say, that in today's day in age, the concept of gaining velocity, "in the weight room" so to speak, is a generally accepted idea.  So why aren't results the same across the board?  Why do some pitchers gain 8 mph in their first 6 weeks of training, and other don't see any improvement, EVER?  Perhaps, it has much more to do with, actual, desire than most of us realize.  Perhaps, just uttering the words, "I wish I threw harder," won't actually make us throw harder.

The Wall:

If you want to see gains in your velocity, you have to push past "The Wall!"  What is "The Wall?"  The Wall is that feeling you get when you're tired, and you just don't think you have any more.  The Wall is that little voice inside your brain, saying, "OK, That's probably good, right about there!"  Elite athletes know The Wall, and know it well.  They already know how to push beyond it.  That's what got them to the position they are in.  The Wall is different for every sport, and every situation.

For cyclists, The Wall comes when your at the foot of a 3 mile climb, your legs feel like jello, and you feel like your lungs have shrunk to the size of pears.  In the concept of velocity gaining, there are several "walls," like, sore muscles, sore arms, pitch counts, desire, and determination.  The challenge then, in gaining velocity, is to commit to a program, and push through all the "walls" that may be standing in front of you, all while keeping a close watch on, what many pitchers will refer to as their baby, your arm.  The key becomes knowing yourself and your arm, and how much the both of you can handle.  But I can promise you this.  If you are not willing to test your limits, you will never know.

Now, I know there is still the camp out there, we'll call them "old-school," that is adamant, to this day, that there is nothing you can do.  Velocity is something you're born with, you either have it, or you don't!!  I must admit, there is certainly some truth to this.  Can we grab an John Doe off the street, give him a year's worth of training, sit back and watch him blow up radar guns across the land?  No.  There is certainly some natural ability that needs to be taken into consideration here.  But, when speaking on pitcher-to-pitcher basis, is it possible to increase an individual's very own, personal, velocity?  Yes.  Is it going to take a lot of hard work?  Yes.  Do you have to be 100% committed to the task at hand, pushing yourself out of comfort zones, and beyond personal limits you didn't think you possibly could, convincing yourself that what you are doing is worth your time and will pay off in the end??  YES!!