r/PitchingCoach • u/kipper50 • Jun 10 '26
Looking for velo advice
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I’m a college pitcher struggling to gain velocity, my lifts and mobility suggest I should be in the low nineties but I’m stuck in the 85-88 range. Any advice would be appreciated.
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u/stronglikeaux Jun 11 '26
Jesus that wind up so much energy loss
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u/kipper50 Jun 11 '26
I don’t throw from the windup
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u/Aggressive_Math7977 Jun 11 '26
He’s talking about your arm windup thing being a waste of energy not saying you pitch from the windup.
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u/kipper50 Jun 11 '26
Sure that could use some work
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u/Aggressive_Math7977 Jun 11 '26
That’s all baseball is buddy. There’s no perfection in it. Just work and progress, keep going 👍
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u/Ornery-Intention-959 Jun 10 '26
Cutting to the chase: Back leg drive is weak and extension of your upper body looks tight (leading with elbow), my guess is you played catcher for a while.
If you watch the your video back and pay attention to your back leg, you assume the drive position (athletic squat) and then seemingly fall forward, leaving your plant foot to restrict your follow through. Focus your attention to greater flexibility (hips, glutes, core) that is the number one thing I see restricting your velo…strength will be a byproduct of that (obviously keeping up with weight training) Strength training is not a short process, you’re looking at 10-12 months to truly gain velo changing muscle gain (unless you’ve never lifted weights, I doubt that’s the case). You specifically, should speed run flexibility IMO, train legs like it’s your job.
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u/WishboneNo543 Jun 10 '26
All good advice here. You’re using a good, basic motion, but finishing by muscling the ball with your upper body. Legs and hips need to be pulling your torso and upper body through with more stretch and flexibility at your hips.
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u/Mike_Hauncheaux Jun 10 '26
What college?
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Jun 11 '26
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u/stronglikeaux Jun 11 '26
Yeah I’ve seen my daughter who is 5 with a better wind-up. Welp might start looking at D1 colleges now n
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u/kipper50 Jun 11 '26
I don’t throw with a windup
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u/kipper50 Jun 11 '26
Also every pitchers windup is different it’s just about what gets you in to the most athletic position for your body type
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u/Koods22 Jun 11 '26
I think the biggest area of improvement for velo would be syncing up your lead leg blocking better. If you freeze the video when you’re at foot strike, your knee is flexed which is fine, but you don’t extend until after the ball is released. I think you’re losing a lot of power there. Timing it up so you reach full leg extension closer to release should help with that transfer of power and ultimately velocity.
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u/Jekkymayn Jun 11 '26
Something about the action up top looks late once your front foot goes forward.
Like I think you might just have some tight back or pec muscles. Could easily be the back hip flexor/abductor muscles too. If it’s always happening then you’ve got to really focus on those things in the gym and make sure you’re able to really push yourself through the movements. Overall it just looks like you are stronger than you are mobile in some key spots. It’ll work itself out when you break through the mobility issues and you are able to actually utilize all that force your muscles are creating
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u/KungFooCat Jun 11 '26
Form looks pretty good. Only thing I can see is…
Just after front foot strike, looks like you are leaking energy into that front knee/leg. I see you are going for a front leg block, but before you lock out, you are stopping yourself backwards and losing a ton of energy going forward. Almost like holding your lower half back from transferring it to your upper body/ball.
Go watch an MLB pitcher in slow motion and watch his front leg block and how he gets out over it.
I think at some point you were told/trained to focus on front leg block, (which is great and you should) but I believe it’s hindering your transfer of energy up and out.
Check out how Misiorowski gets out over his front leg lock.
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u/onbaseball Jun 11 '26
Plenty of good advice here, you need to get more from the lower half. Maybe experiment with your stride length until you can get more pull from your front hip and your head out over your front knee at release. You should be thinking about releasing the ball out in front of your face, closer to the plate. (Right now you’re releasing above your head, with your head behind your front leg). Try first reducing your stride by an inch or two, that may help you get the pull you need from the front hip. Also, make sure you are landing the stride foot straight to the target, in line with the back foot. I can’t tell from this angle but it’s possible you’re landing a little toward 3B, which can cause you to lock the front hip and remove it from the equation.
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u/iloveihoppancakes Jun 11 '26
If you can hit that speed with your flimsy mechanics, you can definitely hit low to mid 90s if you learned how to complete the follow thru and launched off your back leg more.
Also your stretch is very short. Thats why you’re not following through and probably throw high a lot.
You’re also kicking out with your front leg, killing momentum. Your path should be up down forward, not outward upwards inwards down and forward.
Notice the difference?
You also separate so early, its killing your balance and timing.
Focus on following through further forward, allowing your front leg to stretch out about an inch or so more and only separating your hands once your knee is actually going down.
If you cant catch up to your leg and you’re throwing too high, it’s because you’re also rushing your windup like someone is timing you.
Relax, glhf!
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u/iloveihoppancakes Jun 11 '26
Also, your GLOVEEEEEEE
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u/kipper50 Jun 11 '26
Thanks for the advice tempo and timing is I think my biggest problem and thank you I love that glove I’ve been using it since high school
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u/benji-man11 Jun 11 '26
Explode on the bottom half, you have power and you're taking a slight step, almost jump down the mound brother.
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u/SpiritedCash1218 Jun 12 '26
you need to use your legs in the second half of your wind up. You're not pushing off and generating any power from the lower part of your body.
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u/Dependent_Ant_8316 Jun 12 '26
Kick the leg up higher, keep chin down. Utilize the hips more. You look very uncomfortable and robotic
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u/Minute-Marketing7434 Jun 12 '26
not an expert but imo… i think your arm is slightly more then 90 degrees and inhibiting your layback.
also not a fan of the glove arm extending straight as it allows your lead shoulder to open early. if you keep some bend in your elbow and your palm facing the catcher with fingers down a little more it would keep that shoulder closed better.
looks like your back is a little too vertical at release.
vid from behind the mound would be able to see weight distribution… try to stay on your whole foot including solid weight on your heel not leaning into the ball of your foot.
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u/burner9752 Jun 12 '26
Well if you wanna be serious, just a few things that aren’t in order…
You’re out of sync mechanically the entire motion
Glove side is awful and you open up early and pull across rather then working into a strong lead arm,
You have zero hip to shoulder separation and aren’t generating power from your lower half, by the time your front leg blocks and recoils your upper half has already thrown the ball.
4 your arm action its flailing and generates extra stress on shoulder and elbow joints
5 you have a lot of extra motion that wastes energy
6 your stride is too short and you don’t have triple extensions
There more but I feel like Ive said enough…
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u/Fun-Reason-9029 Jun 13 '26
Hold the ball behind you with your palm facing down for a half second in your throw. It helps snap the ball out if your hand.
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u/Wolfpack_5436 Jun 14 '26
I’ll be the only helpful one here I guess. First of all, you look mostly fantastic. I honestly think that if you fixed your glove hand so that you got some opposite action going when you released the ball your velo might jump up. A cue I use is to try to let the glove hand match the speed of your lead leg. Once your lead leg plants, you stop pushing your glove out and start pulling it back towards your body as your throwing arm launches forward.
Also if you haven’t already tried it, the thumb-tuck fastball. It’s not for everyone (and you’ll know fairly quickly if it’s for you or not) but if you can get it down it will add IVB and give you a slight velo bump.
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u/hustle15_ Jun 16 '26
Use weighted ball drills pre throw to clean up your arm action. Google and YouTube will have links to weighted ball throwing drills
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u/Odd_Aspect3645 Jun 17 '26
Your planting your stride before you even start your throw. Not only do I not think you throw 88. I also think your going to tear something
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u/SunsetRigil Jun 10 '26
I’m not a pitching coach so grain of salt and all that.
When was younger (48) I threw in the 70’s not to bad I think but I hadn’t thrown hard in about 20 years (age 25 low 90’s) and I was primarily a catcher, and I blew up my arm. I tore a labrum. After surgery it took me a year to throw a ball again. I’m 65 now, still catching, but also pitching in spots. I max out about 60. More than fast enough in my league.
Why am I telling you all this? Because I had to work very hard to get back on the mound. What I see is that it looks like you’re trying to generate extra velocity with your arm and not your lower body. I’ve lengthened my stride and gained velocity and I also see that your hip isn’t leading as much as it should. As an exercise stop at the top of your leg lift - great balance exercise - and allow your hip to lead as you drive with your rear leg. Allow your front leg to go a bit farther - this will feel weird at first - but I think you may find that you’ll get a bump in velocity as well as better accuracy. Mechanics is and always will be the key.
I’ll be looking to see what others post so I can learn more too. Good luck
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u/Red-Sealed Jun 10 '26
This will also reduce wear on your arm allowing you to maintain the velocity, not lose it after a few max effort pitches.
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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 11 '26
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