⭕️Baseball Ratings⭕️

POV: You throw through the target. This might be the most underrated cue in baseball for increasing pitching velocity. That cue is to throw through the target. One of the studies I read was from Tom House. What he said was that 80 percent of pitching velocity comes from the separation you create and the rotational aspects of throwing. The other 20 percent comes from how well you track toward the target and direct energy through it. This is something I made a mistake with. I created a delivery where I would pull off. I was trying to create so much power just from rotation. What was actually happening was that I was leaking a lot of energy off to the side instead of sending it through the target. Yamamoto is one of the best examples of this. I love watching him because when he throws, he doesn’t spin off at all. He lifts his leg and all of his energy goes toward the target. He even finishes by moving forward. Everything he does goes through the target rather than being purely rotational.

When I was in pro ball, even throwing in the mid 90s, I never did this. But I honestly think it’s one of the biggest things that’s going to help me get to 100 miles an hour. One of the most underrated ways to throw harder is to implement cross training. Now, cross training in terms of pitching just means you’ll be using something other than the baseball to throw. For example, you see Yamamoto in the big leagues right now. He attributes a lot of his velocity gains to javelin throwing, and he’s thrown the javelin for many, many years. There’s another pitcher who’s one of the best pitchers in college baseball right now in Japan who’s up to 102 miles an hour and attributes a lot of his success to throwing the volleyball and the volleyball teaching him how to move. For myself, I use a football to clean up my arm action. When you use different implements, it’ll give you a new stimulus. It can clean up a lot of the mechanics that you wouldn’t be able to with the baseball itself. For myself and my training to throw 100 miles an hour, I use all of these implements for my arm action. Now, I have a tendency of forearm flyout where my forearm flies out this way, and so I want to keep it a little bit more directed toward the plate. Some of the best ways to do this is to throw the javelin. Because to throw the javelin far, you can’t be flying out. You need to go straight through. The football as well needs to be straight through. Also, just hitting the volleyball. I love watching volleyball players hit the volleyball because the upper mechanics are so efficient. So if you feel stuck in your training, start incorporating cross training.