How to Add Velocity to Your Fastball?
Pitching Analysis Transcript
Hello this is Brent Pourciau at topvelocity.net and I’m doing a pitching analysis of Mark and I’m gonna pair him up with Trevor Bauer. Let’s take Mark into his leg lift, Trevor into his leg lift, we can see Mark has done a good job of closing off, he’s really pushing his hip out there, he’s ready to start leading with his hip. Not as much forward momentum as Trevor has but it’s still enough here, I like the position Mark’s in, he’s a young pitcher so in a better position than most are into their lift leg. What we’re trying to do here as hard throwers is to build momentum as early as possible while closing off so we don’t open up during our stride. We want to stay closed through our stride so we can build power because once we open up we pretty much shut down our power production.
We’ll take Trevor into the load, we can see as the lift leg descends he starts to build speed, build momentum that force vector is following that front hip at this point, there’s no drive going on because we can’t drive until that force vector is in line with that front hip heading towards the target. Until that force vector gets linear it’s not a drive, we’re just kinda falling, moving forward, building flexion, staying strong on the drive leg so then we’re prepared for launch. So here’s a perfect load position with hat force vector in line, front leg and shoulders still closed and got some good speed in him to really amp it up and accelerate through the triple extension.
Take Mark into that position you can see his lift leg descending he’s got some movement but looks here like he’s slowing down and we can see it’s because that force vector is vertical. This is the problem, if the force vector is not following the front hip through into your load position then you’re not gonna be able to accelerate because you’re gonna hit a point where you get stuck. You’re gonna get to a point where you should be in the load with that force vector in line and you’re gonna be vertical and now you can’t do anything we can’t come off this rubber, we can’t drive, we can’t get a full stride, we can’t get the hips through, we can’t do anything until this force vector gets in line. If that force vector is late, then it slows us down, we don’t even move into a launch or a drive where we build power when we’re late with drive leg. I’ve seen guys recover – that’s usually really good athletes – but it rarely happens. Trevor as he moves from the load, he’s gonna move easily into triple extension, he really accelerates his stride into front foot, throws the front leg open just before front foot strike, he lands with the hips completely open, full triple extension drive leg, a good foot off the rubber, we can see that this stride built power and we can see it converted to hip to shoulder separation.
Let’s watch Mark, in the next frame he throws the front knee open, internally rotates the drive leg and then lands. What he’s done, he’ snot built power but rotated the hips to get them open at front foot strike so then he can get some type of separation but it’s really not much because it’s gotta be powerful guys. The reason Trevor Bauer created this rotation at front foot strike is the result of power production, he hit an explosive triple extension before front foot strike which puts him a good foot off the rubber, he slammed, he fired, he rotated those hips open with that linear explosive movement at front foot strike. That is the best way to not only build power but to separate those hips to shoulders which is the way to convert that power, with a stable front leg, into torque. Because Mark didn’t build power, he got the hips a little bit open, just through rotating, but it’s not enough, it’s not power driven so we don’t have a coil. It’s like taking a rubber band, to really coil it up and tighten it it eventually gets to a point where you really gotta apply some force to it to coil it up, like a catapult – to get that arm down you really gotta pull it down and hold it down, like a crossbow, a bow and arrow, you have to apply force to coil it up, then it launches into a lot of velocity. Same thing here, if we don’t apply force and just give it easy rotation, it’s not enough to coil the body to really put this in a high velocity category.
Mark’s hips are just barely starting to open, he has a little separation so we don’t see the coil, then he’s gonna move quickly into some poor external rotation and then he’s gonna throw the ball with his front leg standing up because his stride was so short. Mark, you fall apart when you don’t get your force vector in line into your load position and then you ultimately don’t use triple extension and don’t build any linear power though your stride that will pull you off that mound, put you into full stride and get your hips open at front foot strike. That’s really what the 3X approach is about, its’ what will put you in a high velocity category, it looks like you’re in high school which is a perfect time for the program, this proves to you why you need the 3X pitching velocity program. This is all we focus on, this is all we train, to implement these 3X mechanics and to be able to do this is not just through video analysis, not just though doing the drills, 3 days a week through the 3X velocity system, it’s more than that. The strength and conditioning program, you will be able to have the power through triple extension to be able to build an explosive stride like Trevor Bauer here and to put yourself in the high velocity category. Look where Trevor finishes, we can see the shoulders here multiply the force of the hips and we go to external rotation, internal rotation and he finishes with that front stabilisation and forward trunk tilt and you finish completely different. This is a high velocity category and this is a low velocity category so like I said, this is not only gonna take a good understanding in the motor co-ordination around these mechanics but it’s gonna take an explosive, powerful athlete to be able to implement this.
I appreciate you sending the video and I’d love to see you get on with the 3Xpitching velocity program and let me know if you have any questions.
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