How to gain velocity

by Tommy John III

Awesome question Abe, (in response to a twitter question we were asked).  I get asked this a lot as it seems to be on a lot of pitchers' minds.  The truth is, and this is going to be the case with most discussions about things dealing with the body, there is no shortcut and no single area to focus on.  It all works together.  Just like with weight loss its not just calorie counting, it involves hormone balance, feeding times, fasting, sun exposure, sleep, stress etc.  So that being said let's get into the discussion about what lifts you can do to increase velocity.

First of all, it is hard to take advice on lifts and exercises from some giant, broad shouldered pitching coach who threw 98 when he was in high school or on a pro team because in most instances this guy did very little to acquire this ability.  He was born with it. So there is a genetic component to velocity, fast twitch muscle fiber amount is laid down at birth but this can be altered a bit through the correct training.  

Think about how aggressive and fast the movement of the actual throwing phase of pitching is...it is very aggressive, very fast, high amounts of velocity, and a tremendous amount of effort needed from the pitcher.  So...what I want you to realize is that if you wish to throw with velocity, you must train at an equal emotional level.  In my opinion that is the problem with today's athletes.  Everyone's training is always slow, gentle, delayed, and it in no way mimics the movement velocitys necessary in order to throw a 90 mph baseball.  And then they expect a different result when they compete.  What you need to realize is that training for your sport means you are teaching your body about joint position, muscle length, force absorption and velocity.  You are constantly learning, constantly bringing in information on what adjustments need to be made in order to adapt.  So we need training to become very close to the effort needed to pitch a fastball as fast as possible.  Now this comment needs to be understood more.  I'm not telling someone to go into a training system without training at all and just start moving at fastball velocitys.  But, once the movement in the lift is learned, then yes, the effort is always maximal with no negotiations.  And that is how one needs to train if one wants to get faster in any respect...pitching, running, jumping etc.

Now that HOW to train has been addressed and let me say this and let this sink in....it is always HOW you train that will create the most adaptation, not WHAT lifts you do.  And that is just fact, across cultures, disciplines, sports etc.  How will always trump what.  But let's talk a little about the what in training. In my opinion, in order to generate velocity, it is the brains job to move the hand as fast as possible.  But the hand is connected to the ground through the body.  And this is the reason there is no secret lift or lifts to increase velocity in pitching.  So let's start from the ground up.  Your feet must first be very very strong in order for anything else above them to get stronger.  I would suggest training in bare feet or in flat soled shoes like Chuck Taylors, Puma sprint shoes.  Your feet will be sore at first but keep going and the 4 layers of muscles in your feet will get stronger and  adaptation will take place.  The main area an athlete should focus on in my opinion are the glutes and hamstrings.  In over 10 years of training athletes and the general public it amazes me how weak peoples hamstrings and glutes are.  Even swinging a bat can be improved in regards to velocity of bat speed simply by strengthening the hamstrings and glutes.  Good exercises for these areas are squats, lunges, glute ham machine work, RDL's, dead lifts  and split squats.  But keep in mind what I talked about with effort.  And always use free weights when training.  Your nervous system has got to make more adjustments and corrections throughout every inch of the lift.  Avoid machines whenever you can.  Core strength is the next area on our way up from the ground to the hand.  I know everyone focuses on core and most programs are a joke.  There is too much focus on the abdominals and very little on the back.  I would say do 3 back exercises for every 1 abdominal one.  In 10 years of treating injuries in sports I have never seen an injury caused from weak abdominals.  The abdominals main job or function is to breathe.  I have not done a crunch in over 8 years and I do not have back problems, I play gold whenever i wish with power, and all I do are breathing exercises.  So this is just one example of how the core of your body is trained beyond simple abdominal exercises.   You must keep all 3 sides of your deltoid or shoulders as strong as possible.  Everyone focuses on the rotator cuff and this is an important area but it all coincides with the function of the deltoid as well.  When my father, Tommy John, was coming back from Tommy John surgery in 1974 he did 1500 shoulder moves daily, and his injury was not in his shoulder.  He also never missed a start because of arm problems after that point.  Something to think about.  Lastly, just as important your feet are to velocity, your hands are equally important.  Never ever ever wear gloves when you train.  There are over 4000 nerve endings in the palm of the hands so you want to stimulate these areas when you train.  Plus you are teaching your brain about feel, using your fingertips when you train.  And it is the tips of the fingers that you need utmost control over in order to release a baseball properly at a specific velocity.  When it comes to forearms, the weaknesses come into the extensor side of the forearm or the muscles you use to open your hand.  You must strengthen these with intense focus.  Don't worry so much about the muscles that close your hand, or your flexors.  You will work those with your daily activities.  

I hope this helps.  Find the exercises on your own and apply the methods discussed in this.  There are a ton of programs out there and they all hold great capability, but it's the HOW that separates one athlete from another.  Some things to avoid that take away from a pitcher becoming the best he/she can be: extended periods of static stretching.  Yep. It is possible to over stretch a joint which is occurring out there and there are way too many injuries out there stemming from this cause alone.  Also, cut down the amounts of distance running you do.  This activity will create a weaker athlete.  It messes with hormones needed to build muscle and truly recover, it weakens your heart and lungs.  Now, before you cut out running altogether, I didn't say to avoid sprints or jumps.  And these activities again are more relational to the speeds needed to throw a baseball at top velocity.  

Good luck to you.  Get your spine checked by a chiropractor before doing anything, always keep the prepared body at a higher level of function than the skill body, and eat foods that rot. 

Pitching 101

by Tommy John

I was traded from Cleveland to the White Sox during the winter of 1964-65.  My Dad told me this between classes at Indiana State Univ. 

I NEVER had a pitching coach in the years I was in the minors with Cleveland.  It just wasn't done back then.  I got to the big leagues and had Early Wynn as my pitching coach, Hall of Fame pitcher for Cleveland and the White Sox.  He was a great man but didn't teach anything about pitching or how to get batters out.  As a result, I floundered pitching in 1963 and 1964.  When I had good stuff I might win, but when I didn't there was ZERO chance to win.

 

I arrived in Sarasota, Fla ready to go.  I met Al Lopez the Mgr, and all of the coaches, but the one I really wanted to talk to was Ray Berres, the pitching coach.  Ray was a catcher as was Lopez in the MLB.  Ray didn't put a lot of things on me at first, but one thing he kept saying throwing "stay back, get your elbow up and throw through the ball."  We didn't have a throwing program like they do today.  You got another pitcher and played catch.  I'd hear Ray's whistle.  TJ, get your elbow up, don't rush!  I had no idea what don't rush meant.

Ray Berres

I pitched all the games I was supposed to pitch with the White Sox, but I still kept hearing Ray yell, "don't rush!  Don't rush!"  He could have been speaking Chinese to me for all the good it was doing.  One day upon leaving the clubhouse I saw Ray hitting wedges down the left field line.  He was topping them and hitting them fat.  All the things you shouldn't do in hitting a wedge.  I went over and watched and then I gave Ray my advice.  "Ray, your back swing is so fast I can 't see it.  Take the club back and set it above your shoulders."  So I showed him.  Slow back....Fast through.  I hit 2-3 shots for him.  Ray laughed and said the words that made me instantly a better pitcher.  "That's the way I want you to throw a baseball!"  The big light came on.  He spoke to me in a language I understood, golf!!  From then on I was slow back and fast through.  Kind of simple, but it also taught me that to teach or coach you have to be able to relate in verbiage that the student understands.

TJ as a Chicago White Sox player

Many fans thought that I didn't throw hard, but I threw much harder than they "saw".  I had a long, slow motion that looked like I was just tossing the ball to the plate.  In fact, the pitch was an optical illusion.  Hitters thought the same thing, but my fastball got on them before they thought it was going.  I learned from Gary Peters, another lefty that the object of pitching is to "throw the pitch harder than the hitters thinks or slower than he thinks."  Now days the pitchers just throw as hard as possible.  The real pitching is the Greg Maddox or Jamie Moyer. 

 

Stay in back of the ball and throw through the ball while being in balance.  That was the White Sox philosophy.  Arm up, throw from high to low.

Sounds simple and it is.  I learned this in 1965 and it is true today but just not taught.  Today they pitch to the radar gun and not to get hitters out!!!

Pitcher's beware!!

by Garrett Berger

I have been teaching lessons for over 10 years now and my philosophy is very simple.  Teach pitcher's their mechanics, educate them on what their body does, make them feel what they are doing so they can make an adjustment, and most importantly teach them to become their own coach.

There are a lot of guys out there that are teaching the "art of pitching" to young kids with no background of having played or being educated byt the books they read on their kindles.  Our job as pitching instructors is to teach the player what works best for his body, based upon comfortability, and most importantly to teach the player to become his own coach.  There are a lot of foxes in the pitching hen house, and they are looking to steal your nest egg.

You have to use your head and your gut when choosing a pitching instructor.  There are a lot of instructors out there that sell dreams.  They are in it for the money, and could care less about your son.  Some care about your player but lack the knowledge to get them to a higher level.  Make sure the instructor is giving you good information and giving them something to do on their own. If you feel like they are with holding information just to get you back in the door they probably are.  Make sure they are working on all aspects of pitching meaning PFP's, yes they are important just ask the 2006 Tigers Staff, pick off moves (holding runners on), and situational pitching.

Just because you take your child to a pitching instructor does not mean that he will get better nor will it mean he will be a first round pick!  There is a lot of work and accountability associated with making it to that level and going once a week to a pitching instructor is not going to cut it.  You have to put in the time to get better and most of the time its on your own or with a person that shares the same amount of passion you do for reaching your goals.  This doesn't mean you need to be over throwing, working out too much (yes there is such a thing), or going overboard.  You have to be smart listen to your body and know when you've gotten enough work in that day.

It's time to bring the accountability back to yourself.  Pitching instructors can be great resources to help you make sure you course correct and to help get you on a straight path.  YOU are the one that is in charge of your own destiny.  If YOU want to be a play at the next level act like it.  Put in the work.  Throw away the excuses.

The TJPA is here to help.  We will continue to cross the line for the sake of the player.  We want the purity of the game to start in amateur sports and maintain throughout your careers.  Treat the game with respect and it will respect you back.

Mechanics

by: Garrett Berger

There is only two things you ever need to remember mechanically when you are pitching. Stay behind the ball and stay through the ball. There are a lot of coaches out there that over teach the position. Staying behind the ball allows your legs to get underneath you allowing you to obtain balance. Staying through the ball allows you to reach full extension, which maximizes your pitches chances for velocity and/or movement.

What bothers me the most is the concentration of velocity when it comes to pitching. A pitcher's job is get batters out. Plane and simple. A pitcher's job is not to throw the ball as hard as possible. Some pitcher's may have the ability to throw 95 mph but effectively throw strikes at 88-90. Whats wrong with that? The focus at a young age needs to change. Let's teach how we get batter's out and let's simplify the approach to maximize success.

So how do we achieve this? It's simple. Stop teaching velocity. We want all of our pitcher's to be able to maintain their velocity throughout the game without a major drop in velocity from start to finish. Pitching is a lot like driving a manual transmission car. We need to cruise in 3rd or 4th gear the entire game. When we want to pass someone we kick it up into gear, pass them, then get right back into 3rd or 4th. If we continually pitch in 5th or OD, whats going to happen? Transmission or engine problems are inevitable.

Conventional wisdom would think that we need to throw as hard as we can to get the batter out. However what conventional wisdom doesn't consider is the mental state of the pitcher. If I can throw comfortably in my "comfort zone" why would I consistently try to leave that area just to throw hard? We build confidence in a pitcher by pitching in our comfort zone and then you build velocity from there. There are a lot of instructors and dads that want their kids to throw hard right out of the shoot and what does that accomplish? Sore arms and bruised egos.



The teach we break down to is results. If I am pitching and I throw a strike, congratulations you just accomplished the first step in pitching. Obtaining the first pitch strike. The hardest thing for kids to do is repeat that same delivery and execute strike 2. Let's say that with the 0-1 count you miss your location and now its 1-1. What's your adjustment? Well most instructors would have the player programmed at this point to say well I missed my spot because of my front side or my posture or my head. WRONG. What you did wrong was you threw a ball. What's your adjustment? Throw a strike. What separates a good pitcher from a bad pitcher, is that a good pitcher only takes 1 pitch to make an adjustment. A bad pitcher takes 4 or 5.

You could have the best mechanics in the world but if you can't get a batter out then you can't pitch. Turn in your glove for a bat and hopefully you can swing it! Worked for Rick Ankiel. I'm sure at the amateur level there are much more. We have to teach ourselves to become our own coach. There are very few good pitching coaches out there. We know whats best for our body and it's time we start listening. If you are doing something and it doesn't feel right, do not be afraid to change it. Again it comes down to results. Would you rather conform and do things that don't feel comfortable or would you rather make the change and get more opportunities to pitch and play? Only one person can answer that. Getting batters out is the focus and always should be. Not mechanics. If your mechanics are bad the chances of you pitching long term are few and far between.

The best story TJ every told me was he was going to do an appearance at a baseball facility. They asked him to come in early because they had some fancy machine that had his delivery in it from old video footage. The guys were looking it over and said man TJ your mechanics were horrible how did you pitch for so long? He handed them their money and walked away.

This is where we are headed if we don't change our approach. How does a man that pitched for 26 years, won 288 games, have bad mechanics? Longevity is the key. Longevity in the game is what guys want. You can't pitch for 26 years and not be successful at what you do.

Let's change our approach. Now that I have talked just a little about mechanics or adjustments are simple. If you are ahead of your body and your arm is behind you, tell yourself to stay behind the ball. Again we only have 2 adjustments, stay behind the ball and stay through the ball. If we fly open, we need to tell ourselves to stay through it. Our mind listens to the last thing it hears. If we throw a bad pitch and tell ourselves, "man I just flew open," what's the last thing it hears? So what are you going to do again? Fly open. So we enforce the adjustment not the mistake.

Change our focus and ultimately we succeed. Change our approach and we stay injury free. If we pitch to pitch and not throw to see how hard it is, we will stay healthier longer. Save your bullets. You only get so many.



Happy Pitcher

Long Toss Programs

by:  Tommy John III

I don't think I will ever support a long toss approach.  I don't feel it has its place in a pitchers training and preparation unless he just "feels" like doing it, for reasons of feel not because someone told him it was good for him or he'd get stronger or he'd loosen up his muscles.  That entire article doesn't make any sense.  And what I love is all the research Tom House has done.  Honestly we can find research for anything, and prove anything through data because the truth is the reports will always find what they are setting out to prove and if they don't then they will tweak the controls until it does.  Medicine does it as well as the natural community. So research doesn't turn me on.  And when those guys say that as you expand out to 300 ft. you really increase internal rotation range and external range and stretch the muscles and open up the joint blah blah blah, what the hell do you think throwing it as hard as you can from a mound does?  

Its the effort they are trying to control for at 300 ft.  So control for it on a mound.  Then they say these guys become better athletes trying to make the adjustments necessary to hit a guy in the chest at 300 ft. What about hitting a dime at 60 off a mound at max effort? Pretty athletic.  I do agree 100% with the negative effect the confines of a system of reps and sets does to the human animal.  It keeps you within that range.  Throw til you feel you are done.  Listen to yourself. If your pre game is 100 pitches one day and 35 the next only because you felt ready then so be it.  And the only way to be able to do that is to throw.  

Now, what they never talk about is training. And what sucks is they all group training into one category but the things I've seen or done over the past 9 years you can't really say its training.  Because systems like this restore, regenerate, activate higher brain centers, raise the level of homeostasis, its meditative, spiritual, emotional and its all wrapped into one that if done right then the athlete can go do whatever they want however many times they want to do it.  

If we were outside moving and working with our hands and feet all day then yeah training would be a thing of the past.  But we aren't.  We are all taking advantage of the conveniences of today which is great but its killing us and our minds so we need to reverse that.  And Physical Therapy is out.  It is too comfortable, cookie cutter in that every rotator cuff is treated like they are the same, they rely on new technology which cuts out the integration from the brain to muscle at the deepest sense of it through movement on the Earth or against an object.  

Articles like this aggravate me although if you take everything they say about throwing 300ft and just switch in the word training you've got yourself something that even the best trainers worldwide would agree with.  But I will never say the best way to "train" a baseball player's body to absorb the forces he/she will encounter with their movements is to perform a baseball skill (throwing).  

Throwing is a skill and should be treated as such.  The mound is 60 ft away, that is how that skill should be crafted, polished, re-evaluated over and over, memorized, ingrained and dreamt about in a baseball player's mind.  If you are looking to open up the joint, increase the extension of certain muscles, or increase the amount of force that can be absorbed and created by said muscles then get that person to train emotionally, spiritually, intellectually, physiologically at maximum effort for every move.  Then he/she will be able to do their skill however many times they desire. 

A great follow up study:  Follow all those top draft picks who throw 300 ft. or all those guys that throw the heavy balls and don't let go or whoever they study, follow them and see how many need TJ surgery, or any other surgery and follow and see who's got crazy levels of degeneration in their joints.  Because truth be told if training is done right then the body isn't at the mercy of the sport regardless of the demand.  It is in constant regenerative mode.  And training properly can increase that whether they pitched 30 years, had an infection in their joint, or worked on a computer for a living.  Body will heal some scars over, it may take 60 years but it does it.  And throwing a ball 300 ft. just isn't what the body asked for to prepare it for the forces of life of a baseball player or anyone else.  

Here's my commercial:

Lebron shooting half court shots to improve jump shot

Tiger swinging like Happy Gilmore to improve his driving.

A PBA rolling an atlas stone to increase his performance, or bowling in the Salt Flats 800yds away at 10 pins.

Danika Patrick driving a monster truck or a fighter jet over 1500 miles away to improve.

Pro darts champion throwing at a dart board across a football field.

Why in baseball are we trying to rewrite the way to improve your skill?