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Youth Pitcher Exhibits Explosive Pitching Mechanics

Here is a great example of what I consider to be a youth pitcher with explosive pitching mechanics.

This pitcher is 10 years old, 4 ft. 6″ and 68 lbs. and produces mid to upper 50’s velocity.

Many parents and coaches at the youth level spend a lot of time with pitchers so they can throw with good control yet very little time on showing them how to maximize their pitching velocity.

The fact is youth pitchers should be working on velocity first so they fully understand how to use their bodies to produce velocity rather than just their arms.

When youth pitchers begin to focus on throwing strikes rather than throwing with maximum intensity they end up having good control but never seem to gain velocity.  There is a good reason for that.  If the body is not challenged to throw with intensity, then explosive movements will not be trained into their brain and the body.

All movements first occur in the brain.  Thus why having the intention to throw faster can produce a faster pitch.

Velocity is a trained action.  It does not come because a pitcher gets older or bigger.  If the body has not been trained to move fast using explosive actions then the body never learns how to produce those fast movements.

Thus why there are many big and tall high school pitchers who can barely throw above 80 mph.   Many were just trained to move slow.

In fact, moving away from the rubber fast for any pitcher is much more important for producing velocity than trying to gain more strength.

In our High Velocity Youth Mechanics DVD’s we show how we train two (2) 11 year old pitchers.  One is an average size RH who throws 55 mph while the other is a big lefty who throws 65 mph.

The point is that larger pitchers have the advantage because velocity is a function of the pitchers size,  and his movement speed or explosive movements away from the rubber.  Or Mass times velocity equals force.

However, smaller pitchers like Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez who pitched at 5’10 170 lbs could match Roger Clemens in velocity even though Clemens was 6’5″ 240 lbs.  How did Pedro do it.  He moved much faster and more explosively than Clemens.

Thus when parents first start their sons pitching, they would be wise to focus on throwing intensity, fast explosive movements rather than focusing on throwing with good control.

Parents and coaches should remember that throwing with control is a learned skill and is simply target practice…while throwing intensity and explosive actions must be learned early on.

Your son starting out will eventually be able to hit the target if you focus on that while he is throwing maximum effort fastballs.

Do not allow him to slow his body down to gain better control which is what most youth and even high school coaches do.

So have your son throw with good intensity, explosive and fast movements and eventually he will also throw with good control.

But remember – velocity first and ball control second.

Article Source: Pitching.com 

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