Make This Quick Change to Pitch Faster Right Now

By Carly | December 17, 2012 |

There are a number of things a windmill pitcher could be doing—locking the arm, driving through improperly, leaning forward, etc.—that could be keeping her from pitching faster. Pitchers will hear an awful lot about their mechanics during their pitching lessons, but there is one major speed factor that doesn’t get talked about as much…yet, it affects more than half of the pitchers I have seen.

One Thing You Can Change Right Now to Pitch Faster

I’m sure you’ve done all kinds of pitching drills for the different parts of your mechanics. But have you ever done a drill for your intensity? What I mean by that is, have you ever simply tried to pitch faster? I bet you can do it!

More than half—maybe even close to 75%—of the pitchers I work with hold something back by default. They certainly don’t mean to do it, but sometimes, as you have probably experienced, simply focusing too hard on doing everything right can rob you of speed because your natural reaction is to slow down and pay more attention. I have some fun drills that can help you get past this.

Drills for Pitching Intensity

Over the past couple of weeks, Coach Phil has been sharing some of his favorite power drills for pitchers. They focus primarily on core strength and leg drive, two EXTREMELY important factors in gaining the ability to pitch faster. The drills I’m about to share are a little different. They focus more on tapping into speed your body already has, and just helping you bring that out in a pitching situation.

RUN THROUGHS

You may be familiar with walk throughs, which are a popular warmup drill for pitching with good relaxation, flow, and posture. Typically you walk into your pitch taking 4 steps: step, step, load, pitch—all with the rhythm of normal walking. Run throughs are like walk throughs in overdrive!

Start with a normal walk through, but increase the number of steps you take. 8 instead of 4 is a good place to start if you aren’t sure, but whatever is comfortable for you is fine. On the next, go faster. Over the first 3 or so pitches, turn it up to a strenuous power walk. Then over the next 3-5 pitches, gradually turn it up to a run. Make sure you maintain the speed you’ve gained and don’t slow down as you release the ball. Also make sure you start far enough away that you end up roughly at your normal pitching distance.

NO ACCURACY PROGRESSIVE LONG TOSS

Start about 60 feet from your catcher and pitch normally, but with no regard for accuracy. Just try to pitch absolutely as fast as you possibly can. Throw 5-10, then move in and do the same from 50 feet. End up at your normal pitching distance, forgetting about everything else, loosening up, and throwing every pitch faster than the last. The catcher should stand with his or her arms out, not even giving a target. Just enjoy the feeling of letting it go!

 

Posted in Pitching Drills, Power and Speed, Windmill Pitching and tagged , ,

2 Comments

  1. Tracy on November 12, 2014 at 11:14 AM

    Carly,

    Sent Joe an email on how much is too much when trying to incorporate strengthening with pitching when needing to do longtoss or weighted ball AND strengthening drills and then also work on accuracy and movement pitches. For the winter was planning to alternate bwt 3/wk longtoss for 6 weeks followed by a 3/wk weighted ball routine for 6 weeks and then switch back. But also need to work on accuracy and movement and was planning to do that 3/wk inbetween the longtoss. How do you add Joe’s strengthening (also have HS conditioning 3/wk that does not do all the things that are most beneficial) and not overdo and still have rest time and muscle recoop time and not get injured or not improve as doing too much. REALLY need to increase speed 3-5 mph by March and be in command of 4 pitches (fastball, curve/drop, screw/rise and change).

    Tracy



    • Carly on November 14, 2014 at 5:31 PM

      Hi Tracy,

      My recommendation would be to do Joe’s routine INSTEAD of your long toss/weighted ball routines. You’ll see more improvement from his strength training than you will with weighted ball work, which has questionable results (similar to swinging with a weighted bat… FEELS faster when you remove the weights, but actually slows your muscles).

      Then, when practicing for accuracy and movement pitches, do long toss FIRST as part of the warmup. Move back in progressions, then move in for a normal pitching session.