A question to test your knowledge of pitching mechanics: what do Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez, Mike Musinna, Kevin Brown, Randy Johnson, Greg Maddix, David Cone, David Wells, Curt Schilling and Billy Wagner have in common as pitchers? If your answer is they are all successful major league pitchers, you are correct. Other than that they are as different as night and day. Each represents a type of mechanics that has significant differences than the others. Yet all of these pitchers are successful and most throw in the mid 90's. Anyone who tries to teach or sell a "one size fits all" system of pitching will probably ruin the chances of 5 out of 6 pitchers ever reaching their maximum capabilities.

Recognizing INDIVIDUALITY is the key to reaching your maximum capabilities. Most training programs for pitchers never take into account the different needs of either body type or age or level of expertise. Common sense tells us that the type of training a 10 year pitcher does must be different than a 14 year old or a 21 year old. Or that a 6'5" pitcher has different mechanical needs than a 5'9" pitcher. How does Billy Wagner at 5'10" throw as hard as Randy Johnson at 6'10"? Most training programs for pitchers fail to deal with these facts. Because of this many players will never achieve maximum results.

Here are some pitching "opinions" and the corresponding facts.

Opinion: Heavy upper body weight training reduces velocity and you should only train with light weights.

Facts: It takes up to 60 pounds of force to throw a 90 MPH fastball (how effective are exercises with 3# dumb bells)? This force has to happen in less than 1/10th of a second (that’s the equivalent rate of power of bench pressing 700#). Most exercise programs (Jobes, etc.) were developed for the arm rehabilitation AFTER injury" and not rehabilitation (care to prevent injury). Most doctors know almost nothing about training and physiology.

Opinion: Long toss is the best way to improve arm strength.

Fact: No study has ever proven long toss increases velocity. At least four studies show upper body HEAVY weight training increases pitchers velocity?

Opinion: Hyper-flexing is bad for pitchers.

Fact: Almost all power pitchers hyper-flex. Hyper flexing is vital to developing stretch reflex, storage of elastic energy and increasing the Range Of Motion (ROM) of the delivery.

Opinion: Bench presses have no effect on pitching velocity.

Fact: You really need to understand pitching mechanics and body physiology to see what bench presses and pitching have in common. This is supported by university studies that show bench presses can help increase velocity because they improve muscle groups that are specific to throwing. They also improve the "stretch reflex" and the ability to store and utilize the muscles elastic energy and contract after hyper-flexing.

Opinion: You throw FROM the high cocked position.

Fact: Ninety percent of major league pitchers throw THROUGH the high cocked position. Throwing from the high cock position is the "infielders" throwing motion. The proper arm motion is totally misunderstood by most coaches and "pitching gurus".

Opinion: Counter rotating has no effect on pitching velocity.

Fact: Counter rotating increases the time (distance) that force can be applied to the baseball. The longer the time (distance) the harder you can throw (see Kevin Brown, Billy Wagner). The longer you can apply force to the ball, the faster it will go.

Opinion: Pulling off the rubber achieve maximum velocity.

Fact: Studies show that you must push (better word is "STRIDE") AND pull off the rubber to achieve maximum velocity.

More facts: Most of the training drills that are taught are a total waste of time after you reach a certain level with your pitching. It is impossible to pull the hip around after foot plant to increase velocity. 17 years of research show that there are very specific ways to improve throwing velocity through training and not just mechanics. After as little as 3 training sessions, typical medicine ball training ceases to be effective. Weight training can be more effective than medicine ball training to increase flexibility and rate of force development.

We have spent two years sorting out pitching "fact" versus pitching "opinions" developing SMART POWER TRAINING FOR PITCHERS (SPTFP). The fact is most pitching programs are by former players and coaches giving you their "opinions". Most present these opinions as facts. What’s even worse is their marketing people have told them that they must have a "gimmick" to separate themselves from the competition. Now this gimmick becomes a great new pitching discovery. The best of these programs will give you the fundamentals. But none will show you how to reach your maximum potential.

Over the next several months we will give you some of the facts behind SPTFP. SPTFP grew from our highly successful SMART POWER TRAINING FOR HITTERS program. We found the more we analyzed the mechanics of hitters, the more the more we learned about pitchers (keep weight back, lower body action, stay closed, etc.). We also became very frustrated with opinions and bias being presented as facts. Almost all (same is true for hitting programs) treated symptoms and not the real problems or issues. It would be the same as you wanting to make you car run faster. If you brought your car to the garage specializing in body work they’ll gives it a new paint job, do some aero-dynamic body work. It looks faster and maybe is a little faster (less air friction). But its not the same as bringing your car to a garage that really knows what makes a car go fast. They know that you need to rebuild the engine (bores it out, installs high performance parts), new ignition fuel system, modify the drive train, redo the suspension (corner, hold the road better. Now combine that with your new aerodynamic look and you really do have a faster car.

We started our research by reviewing every pitching book and video we could find. We then scoured libraries for research on pitching mechanics and pitcher’s training. We used this information to develop training programs which are used by hundreds of pitchers. We monitored the results and made changes when new information became available.