3 Reasons You Are Not Throwing Harder in Baseball

We train a lot of Baseball players at Legion. More than any other sport. We have also helped all of them throw harder – whether they are a pitcher or not.

What is a common theme for every baseball player? More velocity. They all want it. And they should, the harder you throw the better your options of playing down the road are. Chances are, the harder you throw now the better performance you will have. However, many baseball players are holding themselves back - and they don't even know it.

I want to help identify a few things that, if you correct, will allow you to throw that baseball to home plate or across the diamond faster than ever. In the process making your arm feel better too.

3 of the biggest issues holding back baseball players from throwing harder that I have observed over the years are as follows:

1. You shoulders are weak
Bottom line is you are not strong. Throwing does not make your arm stronger and doing band internal rotations for 100 reps will not increase your velocity either.  Throwing will encrease local endurance and technical skill and efficiency but not strengthen. A lot of baseball players need to strengthen the external rotators of the shoulder as they help decelerate the arm during throwing. If you can’t stop the movement you create two problems. One, you will not be able to throw as hard and two, you increase your chance of injury. The saying “you are only as strong as your weakest link” applies here. If something along the kinetic chain is broken it will hamper your performance.

2. You throw way too much
A lot of baseball players are still throwing year round. I do not understand where this came from. This is akin to them running 5 miles in their training - makes no sense. This lends itself to point 1, the more often you throw the weaker your arm will be down the road (little league shoulder is, essentially, too much throwing, by the way).  Throughout the year your arm gets weaker, and this is a natural part of doing an extremely violent movement over, and over, and over again. So why doing even more of it, when it could be resting (resting=recovering) would make sense? However, rest from throwing, not exercise. Exercise will increase the strength and conditioning of all of the muscles and energy systems increasing recovery. There is also great research out there that links increased time throwing (months) with increased prevalence of injury.

3. Improper Lower and “core” training
Many young athletes hate doing legs. This is no surprise – they are hard muscles to train and in the beginning can make your lower body feel like jello and your stomach nauseous. But even worse is seeing athletes do 1/4 squats and leg extensions for the entire lower leg and crunches and situps to the cows come home as their only source of core training. If you can’t properly brace the core and be strong in ANTI-rotation you are limiting yourself in every way. A weak core structure can throw off how the shoulders properly move, how the hips move and how force is transferred.  Also, compound lower body lifts strengthen everything - your entire body - From the ground up. Pitching and throwing starts by creating force through the ground. If you can generate more force from the legs (you need to be stronger and more powerful) in turn you will put less stress on the rotator cuff and also increase your velocity.

Bonus – Terrible posture
Your posture is huge on how well you perform. If you slouch and round your shoulders and lower back for 15 hours a day and do 1 hour of strength training every other day – there are still going to be issues present. Bad posture leads to bad movement patterns and muscular imbalances.  This is something you can focus on every minute of every day and getting this one thing right can increase performance.

Extra Bonus – No Concentration On The Quality Of Their Tissues
I had to add this one too. Many baseball players stretch, stretch, stretch and actually sometimes that is all they do for performance training. Now, stretching isn’t bad necessarily but maybe you are tight for other reasons? Muscles are shut down, fascia and other tissues are tight, lack of ROM because of the combination of everything, or it could be tight because it is the only thing left holding you together. Instead, if added to a balanced program, foam rolling, massage, myo-facial release, essentially anything giving your bodies connective and muscular tissues some love, can increase how well you move around a joint and help increase active range of motion.

Maybe it is in the shoulders (definitely), maybe it is the core, or maybe it is the legs. Chances are, everything needs to be stronger. You probably do not move well. Also when all baseball is done – spring, summer, fall – take a break. Let all the muscles recover. Use this time getting stronger, moving better, and preparing for the upcoming seasons. As an athlete you will be stronger from it and throwing harder.

If you have any questions or would like a free assessment and try our sports performance and personal training contact Bob at Legion via e-mail, bob@legionsp.com, or phone, 610-325-3330.