SMART POWER FOR PITCHERS: PITCHING MECHANICS FACTS AND FALLACIES

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.

Fact: 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. But at least four studies show that properly done, upper body using HEAVY weight training increases pitchers velocity!!!

Opinion: Hyper-flexing is bad for pitchers.

Fact: SETPRO was the first to sunderstand and show the difference between HORIZONTAL ADDUCTION or what SETPRO call "SCAPULA LOADING" and HYPEFLEXING. Almost all power pitchers SCAPULA LOAD. SCAPULA LOADING 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: A pitchers arm action is determined by his genetics. Or that a pitcher cannot change his arm action once he has learned how to throw.

Fact: Arma action is a motor skill. And like all motor skills, it is learned. The problem is that 99% of all coaches and pitching "guru's" do not KNOW HOW to teach and train arm action.

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. Counter rotation is also a loading action for maximum rotationa force development.

Opinion: Nothing happens until foot plant. Because you can't generate power until foot plant.

Fact: These have to be one of the two worst statements ever made regarding how to get the body to develop throwing power. This type of coaching advice is why so few pitchers will ever reach their maximum pitching capabilities. Developing power is a continuous process. High speed computer simulations show that the hips have reach maximum rotational speed just before foot plant. What you do BEFORE foot plant is what you will do AT foot plant. This advice is one of the reasons why so many pitchers who try to follow it have no hip action. Which then places greater stress on the shoulder and arm.

Opinion: Nothing happens until foot plant. And pulling off the rubber achieve maximum velocity.

Fact: If nothing happens until foot plant, a pitcher should be able to throw just as hard starting from the foot plant postion as I can from a full winfd up. I don't think so. Studies show that you must develop force against the rubber (better word is “STRIDE”) AND RORATEl off the rubber to achieve maximum velocity.

SETPRO has spent four years doing exhaustive video and computer analysis of the best pitchers in baseball both present and past. This is a high speed computer simulation of Nolan Ryan throwing a 98.6 MPH fast ball.

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 four 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.

A computer generated multi frame sequence of Bartolo Colon throwing a 101 MPH fastball.

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 to 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 spent thousands of hours doing computer analysis of 100 Major League pitchers. We used this information to develop training programs. We then put these training programs to the test. We monitored the results and made changes when new information became available. Over the past two years  this program has been used by 237 pitchers. 194 added 6 or more MPH to their fastball in 4 weeks or less .

Here’s a sample of what they’ve told us.

“My son is a senior and high school and place both football and baseball. He wants to play baseball and college. At the end of this past summer, before his senior year, he was throwing 84 MPH. He started your program this fall while he was playing football. One week after football stopped we went to a showcase in Florida. He was clocked at 91 MPH! But that wasn't even the best part! Last summer he had some movement on his fastball. At the showcases ball movement was exploding. It was absolutely incredible! He was by far the most impressive pitcher there. Two weeks later it was the same story at another showcase of Pennsylvania. Your program has exceeded our wildest dreams!....F. Sloan, Rochester, NY."

SMART POWER TRAINING FOR PITCHERS is totally beyond any other program. Call or email today for more information.