Most Important Components in Creating Velocity
This article is about what we at Throw University believe are the most important components in creating ball velocity in over head throwing athletes. This article helps answer a lot of puzzling questions people have, like why does this guy throw with more velocity than that guy? That question gets asked daily in the throwing world and people always try to answer it with responses like "well he is 20 lbs heavier than the other guy or it is just god given talent". Which in a lot of instances those answers are correct but not all of the time. After years and years of observation and research, we have narrowed it down to seven main factors that create velocity.
One major component in creating velocity is the efficiency of the throwers mechanics. The throwing motion is a kinetic chain of energy that starts from the ground and works its way up to ball release. As a thrower you do not want any kinked up chain links in that chain if you are trying to reach your maximum velocity. Having inefficiency in your mechanics is like trying to run a really fast 40 yard dash with a 5 lbs ball and chain attached to your leg, you aren't going to reach top speed. The main inefficiency we see in throwers is having a soft front leg due to lack of strength and bad muscle memory patterns or having limited external rotation (lay back) of the throwing arm or the throwers timing is off and rhythm is out of sync.
Another major component is body height and limb length. The taller and longer your body and limbs are the longer levers you have to work with to create velocity. For example, if I wanted to pop you really hard with a rubber band, would I want a shorter rubber band or a longer rubber band? You obviously want the longer rubber band because it has a longer time to gain momentum and generate velocity. That is the same concept with having a longer body and trying to reach your max velocity. With all that being said, throwers that keep the hand closer to the head during the throw such as quarterbacks or catchers do not utilize their arm length as much as a pitcher would with a 3/4 to low 3/4 arm slot. Quarterbacks and catchers utilize more of their body height to help generate velocity. Having a longer body can potentially give you greater hip to shoulder separation. To back these statements we did a study on the qb's at the NFL combine. We looked at the top 9 qb's with the best velocity in NFL combine history and we looked at the top 9 qb's with the slowest velocity in the combine's history and charted their measurables from the combine. The best velocity group was an average height of 6'4 and a quarter, and the slowest throwers were an average of 6'2. The best velocity groups arm length averaged 32.76 inches while the slowest throwers averaged 32.40 inches, so basically the same length of arms. The study showed that the faster throwers were taller but the arm length was the same as the slower group.
Another important component is body weight. (Force x Mass = Acceleration) is what my pitching coach back in high school would always preach to me. Having more body weight is why you always hear stories of a guy's velocity increasing by 10 mph in one year and it is normally followed by someone saying the guy put on 25 lbs this year. However, there is definitely a point in being a thrower that you could put on too much weight and you might lose some quickness and mobility. But for 95% of throwers gaining good weight while maintaining flexibility and mobility will normally result in added velocity. At Throw U, we also have the research to back it up. We took a list of all the starting pitchers in the MLB with the best average velocity and compared them to the slowest throwing pitchers in the MLB. In this study, we did not use any pitchers that were well into their 30's, it was all young pitchers. The study found that the best velocity groups weight averaged 219.66 lbs while the slowest groups weight averaged 195.8 lbs. On a side note, the faster group was on average an inch taller in height. And on another side note, during the NFL combine study we found the best velocity groups average weight was 227.44 lbs while the slowest velocity group was 219.22 lbs.
Another important component is strength. The more strength a thrower has the stronger and greater force he can apply to the ball during the throw. It is amazing how over the years the velocity in the MLB has continued to rise through the roof. And there are two factors that have majorly contributed to it. One reason is because they are using more relievers now than ever so guys come in for one inning and let it fly. I feel like the main reason is the importance that has been put on strength training. In the 1970's, it has been said by baseball people, such as Tom House, that the average MLB fastball in those days was 85 mph. In the 1980's, it has been said that the average velocity climbed to 88-89 mph. In 2016, Baseball America has an average MLB fastball at 91-92 mph. This is interesting because in the 1970's a pitcher lifting weights was a crazy idea and was very frowned upon. In the 1980's, it was becoming more accepted, but still was not a main component of a pitchers program. Turn the page to now a days and it is rare to find a pitcher that doesn't lift weights. Just like you hear the stories of guys gaining 25 lbs in a year and throwing 10 mph faster you also hear so many stories of throwers that finally hit the weight room and their velocity shot through the roof. Stephen Strasburg is a testament to how strength training can change a throwers career and life. When Strasburg entered San Diego State it has been said that he could bench press 115 pounds only one time, and could leg press only 560 pounds. When he left college, he could bench press 135 pounds 21 times, and could leg press 1,200 pounds. The velocity of his fastball jumped from 91 to 102 miles per hour.
Another important component, and it is one of the most important components, is arm speed. Arm speed during a throw is the amount of time it takes the throwers arm from the cocked position to get to ball release. Arm speed is one of the main reasons why a guy like Pedro Martinez or Yordano Ventura who are short and skinny pitchers can throw upper 90s with the fastball. It is one of the main reasons Stephen Morris and Bryan Bennett are tied for the NFL combine velocity record for ball velocity but they are 10-20 lbs lighter in weight compared to the other fast throwers. This is one of the more god-given abilities of throwers. Gaining more arm speed can be enhanced by certain drills and efficient mechanics but it is not as easy to enhance as becoming stronger or improving mobility. It is more of a natural ability.
Another important component is mobility and flexibility. Having great mobility allows throwers a longer time to apply force to the ball through having longer ranges of motion to create maximum velocity. I will reuse the analogy from our article on external rotation. The analogy is that if you wanted an airplane to gain a ton velocity at takeoff would you want the runway to be 40 yards long or a couple 100 yards long? You would obviously want the longer runway because it gives the plane more time to gain speed. That analogy perfectly correlates to throwers and mobility because if your thoracic spine (mid back) does not rotate well it will be tough to have great range of motion for hip to shoulder separation. Another example would be if your arm doesn't lay back during the throw because you have limited mobility in your shoulder you will limit the amount of time you have to put force into the ball before release.
The last but not least component in creating maximum velocity is arm health. If a throwers arm is injured their body will not let them reach their maximum velocity because the body sends signals to brain that it is in trouble. The brain will subconsciously slow the arm down if it feels like the arm is in trouble. The more healthy and strong the throwers arm is, especially the rotator cuff muscles, the more the brain will allow the body to throw faster.
Conclusion: This article was mainly written to show over head throwing athletes what aspects of creating velocity that they are neglecting during their training to improve velocity. For example you might be a guy who decides to live in the weight room one off-season to get strong, but if you neglect mobility all off season you will be scratching your head when you just got really strong and you are throwing slower. This article was also not written to discourage guys from believing they can reach great velocities if they are naturally missing some of these components. If you are short and you read this and say, "well see I told you I am to short to throw hard" that is completely wrong. This article was written to show you that since you are on the shorter side you need to over compensate for that by improving the other six components. There are plenty of shorter throwers that throw hard. Look at Russell Wilson, Marcus Stroman, Craig Kimbrel they all create great velocity through having strength, great mobility, body weight, arm speed, arm health, and above all they have effecient mechanics for throwing bullets. Website: throwuniversity.wix.com/sports Contact info: Email- throwuniversity@gmail.com/ Phone # - (804)385-1027
