Pitching 101

Pitching 101

3X Pitching 101 Transcript

Hello, this is Brent Pourciau with topvelocity.net and welcome to 3X pitching 101. Now I’m sure you’re wondering what 3x pitching is. Now 3x pitching is a revolutionary approach to pitching mechanics. This is an approach that I developed as a product of my career and I’ve been coaching it for the past few years and the results have been unbelievable.

How 3X Pitching Began?

Lets’ just start where the motivation of this approach came from. I was in college, had just signed a full scholarship to a junior college and I was a late bloomer. I was pushing myself to try and compete with the completion, I didn’t have a lot of size on me but I was still able to throw pretty hard. What had happened, long story short, my mechanics aware so bad that I tore my rotator cuff at my first game at college and it was bad enough that when my doctors had repaired it they told me that I was never gonna be able to recover from this and I should pretty much do something else. I love the game so much that that completely devastated me at 18 years old and I spent the next 5 years trying to figure out what happened and tried to figure out how to get back to the game that I loved to play. Well, not only did I figure out what happened but I figured out through working with some of the best coaches in the game, both in the strength and conditioning world and in the pitching world. What I found out was revolutionary and that’s what I put into this video, this 3X pitching 101.

Now, in my own career, I didn’t have a great career after that, I played a little Minor League ball. I’m not gonna say that I was a major league player, but what I did was, I far exceeded what the doctors ever said that I would do. They said first of all that I’d never play again and on top of that they said that the reason I’d never play again is that I’d never throw hard enough to play again. Well, I wounded up throwing harder than I’d ever thrown before which was 94 miles an hour and that was the reason I got to play minor league ball at an older age – a lot older age – because it took so long to get back from this career ending surgery. But I retired and I took this approach and I started coaching it and I found out that it not only worked for me but it worked for everyone that I taught it to. The reason that it worked is what I’m gonna cover in this video, this is just a basic video to teach you about the mechanics and the information behind it. This is a complete approach to pitching; this isn’t just your run of the mill, your average pitching 101 video that will just cover the same things that we’ve heard for the past 50 years. This is something that I pulled together, that I took from outside of the game. I took from the Olympic lifting world, I took from the football world, I took from every different sport that I could find that was gonna help me figure this out. My main goal in all of this course was two things, and this was two things that every pitcher desperately needs. -One is injury prevention and two is velocity. Those two together, if you can accomplish those two together, then you are doing something right and that’s what 3X pitching not only did for me but will do for you.

The 3X Pitching Approach

Let’s get into the nuts and bolts of 3X pitching. 3X stands for triple extension, it’s basically triple extension pitching. Triple extension is a component that I discovered in the pitching delivery that I took from outside of the game. I didn’t develop this term, it comes from the Olympics lifting world and what it describes in the Olympic lifting world is the same thing it does in the pitching world and the effectiveness that it has in the Olympic lifting world has been in developing explosive athletes, it has that same effect on a pitcher, it will develop an explosive pitcher. To me, that was what I was looking for, but on top of that, that triple extension combined with another component that was developed by the national pitching association called separation. Those two together will enhance velocity and prevent injury at the same time, it’s really the icing on the cake, the diamond in the rough for pitching mechanics. That’s why I developed an entire approach around it, the results are amazing.

3X Pitching Examples

What we’re gonna do, we’re gonna start in this video and go through some of the hardest throwers in the game. I have a few of them here; I promise you I could have put a hundred more in. In almost every pitcher that throws hard and what I found, that I was on the right track, was that almost every single hard thrower that I found used the 3X mechanics. So these are all perfect examples of the mechanics and they’re gonna help you learn and convince you that you need to implement these mechanics into your delivery today.

So we’re gonna start with a guy who has a lot of hype today, Trevor Bauer and following him is going to be other pitchers like Nolan Ryan, Chapman, Brandon Morrow, Tim Limsicum, Felix Herandez, those are just a few that I picked out. But before we jump into each one of the components of 3X pitching, I want to cover a broader understanding of this approach. If you can just first simply understand that for us to develop more power, to become a more explosive pitcher, this is what everyone wants. The reason I’m using these words like explosive, athletic, is because if we become more of an explosive pitcher we are a harder thrower. Now everyone wants to become a harder thrower because velocity is what gets us to the next level. So, every time I talk about explosive, the end result is always velocity. To really understand how to become more of an explosive pitcher, and to understand 3X mechanics, we need to see it in what I call 2 phases – that would be the simplest way to understand these pithing mechanics.

3X Pitching – 2 Phases

The two phases would be, the first phase would be the stride phase and the second would be the throwing phase. That’s pretty basic, that’s an easy way to understand it. The reason it can be broken down into two phases, and you’ll see with these hard throwers is, that when the pitcher is striding they first start in the stride phase from their leg lift to the front foot – we don’t see the arm doing much. All’s it’s really doing is just getting into position for the throwing phase, but what is occurring in that stride phase which is critical to developing an explosive pitcher, that pitcher is using that stride to develop power. What they’re doing is, the next phase, which is the throwing phase, is transferring that power into the velocity of the ball and that’s when the arm takes action. So, to ultimately just understand this right out of the box, is to understand that the easiest way that you are going to implement these mechanics is you first need to see the pitching delivery in two phases, the stride phase and then the throwing phase.

3X Pitching Components

Now that’s said, we’re gonna move into the 3X pitching components. We’re gonna start here with Trevor Bauer. So let’s take him into his leg lift. I like to stop the pitcher when the leg is descending. So we can see in the leg lift, the importance of the leg lift – or what I call leg lift momentum – is that the reason for the leg lift is first to close of the hips. We can see that he lifts the leg, tucks the knee and the foot back so that he can lead with the hip and that really closes off the hip pivot and you’ll see he’s also closing off the shoulder, looking over his glove side, glove side shoulder. Now, the reason I call it lift leg momentum is because you’re setting up to start building momentum, it can also take effect to where your lift leg can add some added weight or inertia to the beginning of your movements or you movement towards your front foot which would add or enhance your momentum. That’s why you’ll see pitchers with really high leg lifts – they’re almost trying to over use the lift leg to get as much momentum, as much inertia out of it, or to create as much inertia with it through their stride phase. But I don’t like to get too crazy with the lift leg because the problem is that when runners on base are in trouble, the lift leg becomes the problem. So I’d like to put my focus on the drive leg.

The lift leg to me should just be a nice level lift, closing off the hip pivots and then following with the shoulder pivots. The reasons it’s important to close off these pivots, the hip and shoulder pivot, and why all hard throwers do it really well is because once this knee flies open, once this front foot opens up to the target, our power has stopped. We can’t generate power when this front leg is open, it’s just the way our bodies contorted at the point it’s almost impossible to generate a lot of power. So hard throwers know, the longer I can keep my hips and shoulders closed, the more power I can build through the stride phase. We’re just gonna walk though all these other pitchers along with it so that you can see that it’s not just one pitcher doing it, it’s tons of pitchers, hard throwers who do these exact components or mechanics. There’s Brendon Morrow. In his lift leg position, Chapman in his lift leg position, you can see they’re all the same – closing the hips off and they’re also getting their weight inside their drive leg foot as soon as possible, that’s critical as well. Here’s Tim Limsicum. He does it probably the best, Felix Hernandez and Nolan Ryan. He’s already in that position, he’s an example of someone who uses more of a high leg lift, you can see how that kind of changes the dynamics almost to the end of the stride.

Let’s just jump back to Trevor Bauer here, let’s take him to the next component, the next component is the load. You’ll see what they’re doing is their loading their weight on their drive leg but as they’re doing that their hips are moving forward. The reason that their hips have to be moving forward while they’re moving into the load position is what’s called the force vector. This is not a component of 3X pithing mechanics but it’s a critical part of the load. The force vector takes us into the whole understanding of how force is generated, or how power is generated to the stride phase. Now, in the stride phase there’s only one part of the body touching the ground and that’s the drive leg foot.  So this is our only opportunity to generate power or force, so I call this force production.

For us to generate as much force production as possible through our drive leg we have to have a bit of flexion in the drive leg at this component because our next component is gonna involve of course what? Extension. So we need a little flexion in this component because when we start to drive and push off that drive leg we are doing that to generate as much force or force production through this drive leg into the ground because we know as much force as we apply into this ground, that wherever there is an action there is an equal and opposite reaction so those ground reaction forces will then fire back up into our bodies and that’s how we generate power into the stride phase. But the reason for the force vector, the reason it’s critical to have the force vector in line with your front hip in the load position is because that is the angle of force. So if our force vector is not in line and our force vector is vertical where our ankle to knee is up then where is our force going? Our force production is now driving us vertical, we don’t move vertical as pitchers so that’s not a good thing. That is why we have to have our force vector or our line of force in line with our front hip because that then allows us to accelerate and guide that force to the target. That’s the purpose of the force vector and its very critical and you’re gonna see as we move into these other pitchers that they’re all lining their force vector into the load position.

So here’s the load for Brandon Morrow, we can see the ankle to knee line with the front hip and he’s out off the mound and he’s gotten his hips out – his force vector wouldn’t have gotten in line if he didn’t do that, it would look like he was breaking his knee if his hips weren’t moving forward to line up with the load to line up that force vector. Here is Chapman doing the same thing, here is Tim Limsicum doing the same thing, here is Felix Hernandez doing the same thing and here is, of course, Nolan Ryan doing the same thing. You’ll see that Nolan Ryan has more momentum in his lift leg, so that lift leg is flying open way earlier, even though he’s able to stay loaded and keep his force vector, keep his force vector in line. A lot of athletes can do that with a big leg lift.

Let’s go back to Trevor Bauer as we move into the key components of 3X pitching which is called triple extension and separation. Now, the National Pitching Association said that eighty per cent of velocity comes from your ability to separate your back shoulder from your back hip, but what the hardest thing to do is to implement that, a lot of the question I show do we do that? Well, that’s called triple extension.  If we can achieve this triple extension which is the extension of the ankle, the knee and the hip flexor before our front foot lands then what have we done? We have opened, we have extended the back leg, opened the back hip, or started opening the back hip before our front foot land landed, which is then when our front foot lands and stabilises then that’s going to push back on our left hip and when our weight settles forward on that front leg, as we can see here, our hips completely open to the target. It’s an explosive opening of the hips that no human could create without using ground reaction forces. That opening of the hips – that explosive firing open of the hips – if the shoulder stayed in line and closed, that would create optimal hip to shoulder separation and that’s what we can see here with Trevor Bauer – back leg extended, front leg stable, hips open to the target, shoulder closed and in the cocked position. This would finish the first phase of the delivery, the stride phase and we can see at this point not only do we have what called core torque but that is also the result of a full stride which triple extension allowed him to hit and an explosive stride which allowed him to achieve triple extension before he had landed with some good momentum and speed into that front leg which fired the hips and generated the torque.

Before we move on from there, let’s take it in to see some of the other pitchers doing the same. So we see that triple extension of the drive leg before that front leg lands and then we see the slamming of those hips and the shoulder staying closed and we see that torque in Morrow here. So let’s move on to Chapman, same thing, he gets that triple extension before that front foot lands, the hips fly open the shoulder stays closed, we get great core torque. Here we go, same with Tim Limsicum, we get full extension before he lands then he settles, slams, exceptional core torque. Sam thing with Felix Hernandez, triple extension before he lands, settles, exceptional core torque. Nolan Ryan, because of that lift leg, he gets triple extension just at front foot strike which still works and once he settles, those hips slam, he still has good hip to shoulder separation. This is a stockier guy so we don’t see as much range and motion, but he’s still doing it very well and because he’s stockier, he’s even more explosive with that range and motion.

Let’s go back to Trevor Bauer as we finish here. If you’re able to hit this in your delivery, you’ve put yourself in an elite category of pitchers – this is the essence of 3X pitching. The purpose of me developing this program is to get you to be able to get to this position or these components in the delivery. It’s not easy; it’s very intense and that’s why I’ve developed my entire program around it. It just doesn’t take seeing or watching this video to be able to go out and implement this. What it does take, it takes strength and conditioning that’s gonna develop, train you to have the explosive power in your body to hit these mechanics, along with the motor co-ordination to implement it, or to use that power in your body to hit these components. That’s why you need a program like the 3X pitching velocity program that you can find at topvelocity.net. You’re not going to be able to do this without a program that’s built to train you across the board to be able to implement these mechanics.

So from here on out we’re gonna fly through the rest of these mechanics, if you do this right everything else is gonna work great. The next one, what’s gonna happen is that power is now in the core, this is how we transfer power to the ball, that power converts to core torque using the stretch shortening cycle, that then launches the shoulder and chest forward, we get that good forward trunk tilt while the arm stays relaxed and now that converts to shoulder torque or external rotation. We can see it’s moving up the body, the next component is early internal rotation, that front leg stable, almost extended but with stabilisation. The rest of the components were that chest thrust, external rotation, internal rotation, elbow extension and stabilisation is going since front foot, but it’s also very important that you’re finishing strong with an almost extended front leg. He is in a high velocity category in this position here and the only reason he was able to get in this position was because of everything up to 3X or triple extension and to separation. You gotta understand that you’re wasting your time trying to get into these components without implementing all the ones before. It’s just like any sport, think of a sprinter, if a sprinter had a bad first step then he’s gonna finish just as bad – it really affects how he finishes his sprint. The same thing for pitching, if you’re unable to get into those beginning components well or correctly or quickly or fast or explosive enough, then you are not going to find yourself in these components at the end.

That finishes the 3X pitching components or pitching mechanics, let’s just go and see all these other pitchers finish from 3X. Brandon Morrow, we can see his chest thrust external rotation, internal rotation elbow extension, not as great a front leg, it’s stable but doesn’t have that good extension, but he’d probably enhance his velocity if he desired. Chapman who’s the perfect example, chest thrust, beautiful external rotation, internal rotation, elbow extension where he’s releasing that ball perfectly above his head, over his front foot but above his head as he finishes the pitch. He’s like one of the perfect examples along with Linsicum, elbow, chest thrust, external rotation, internal rotation, elbow extension, front leg stabilisation. Then into Felix, same thing, and then into Nolan, same thing.

In Conclusion

So, the point, like I said of showing you all these hard pitchers is so you can see, grab an example, find one your hard throwers and you’re gonna see each one these components being used in their delivery. These components, I’ve discovered them, I didn’t make them up. I found them and I discovered them and I taught myself to use them to enhance my velocity and prevent injury and it works and it’s worked with the thousands of pitchers that have used my program that I coach through my program. If this is something that you feel like you need in your career and that you really need a program like this and you want to learn more about it, there’s so much more to it – there’s the strength and conditioning, the nutrition, the recovery, like I said, this is a fully loaded velocity program – then I highly recommend that you go to topvelocity.net, check out the program. I also have an eBook there where you can learn more about 3X, you can sign up for the newsletter and also you can send in your video for free analysis and I can see if you’re hitting these mechanics in your delivery.

So head on over to topvelovcity.net today either put in your email or contact me and send me your video and let’s get started. Let’s help you and get you to where you need to be in your career, reaching your velocity goals and dominating at this game. I appreciate you watching 3X Pitching 101 and I hope that this helps.