Strengthen Your Pitching Arm

Strengthening your pitching arm involves a combination of proper pitching mechanics, weight and resistance training, and velocity training for maximum results. Developing a personal training program that incorporates these concepts while also observing practices to prevent arm and shoulder injury is the key to strengthening your pitching arm and building throwing durability.

Steps

Learning Proper Pitching Mechanics

1. Perfect your starting stance. The ideal starting stance is a combination of good balance, keeping your shoulders relaxed and squaring your body off to the plate. Before a pitch, your hands should be comfortably at your belt or up near your mid-chest. Keep your eyes focused and your body relaxed.
   • Make sure to hold your pitching hand and wrist deep inside your glove. This hides your grip and the ball from the batter.
   • Standing with your feet shoulder width apart, make sure to keep the spikes of your pivot foot (pitching arm side foot) in front of the rubber and slightly open. Keep your free foot (glove side foot) next to (or slightly behind) your pivot foot.
   • Once you get the sign from your catcher, take a deep breath right before you throw your pitch.
2. Practice sustaining good balance during the leg lift. Make sure to lift with your knee and avoid swinging your foot up during the leg lift. Once up, your lift leg foot should hang loosely and straight down from your knee. Keep your posting leg straight and firmly planted to maintain balance.
   • Make sure your maximum knee height is somewhere between 60% and 70% of your height.
   • Do not allow your body to move forward until your lead leg knee reaches its maximum height and keep your posture upright.
   • Keep your head centered over both your body and your pivot foot for additional balance.
3. Avoid "tucking" your glove. The extra movement produced when you tuck your glove will lead to an inconsistent throw. Maintaining steady glove arm action will produce a steady throw and higher velocity.
4. Release the ball correctly. Keep your head directly over your stride leg and position your throwing elbow so that it lines up with your throwing shoulder. Make sure your wrist is straight and firm behind the ball.
   • Keep your fingers on the top of the ball and hold a flat back position when you release it.
   • Avoid undercutting the ball by trying to impart a side spin and don’t drag your hand upon releasing the ball.
5. Perfect your follow-through. After you release the ball, bring your weight down onto your braced lead leg and make sure your throwing shoulder comes down over the lead leg. The perfect follow-through should finish with a flat back position.
6. Record yourself pitching. The most effective way to monitor and improve your pitching mechanics is through video footage because you can slow down and study the motion of your pitch frame-by-frame.
   • Not even the most experienced instructor or coach can discern the distinct characteristics of a pitcher’s throwing motion with the naked eye.
   • Watch your video footage frequently and examine your pitch for faults that can be improved.

Increasing Arm and Shoulder Strength

1. Warm up before you start training. Your rotator cuff muscles are weaker and smaller than the other muscles in your arm and they will wear out faster without properly warming up before training sessions.
   • Rotator cuff muscles must be strengthened in order to prevent injury, and warming up properly is the best way to start every training session.
   • Come up with a customized warm up and stretch routine that begins every session.
2. Incorporate a long toss program into your training 2-3 times per week. Long tossing is essentially a throwing program performed by you and a partner. Start about {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} apart from each other and make 10-15 throws to warm up. Then move back two or three steps with each throw until you get to 60 feet. At 60 feet, throw until you feel your arm begin to fatigue. This should only take about 10 minutes.
   • During your next training session you will begin exactly the same way, except you will go out to {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} instead of 60. At {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}}, make 10-15 throws (until your arm starts to feel fatigued) and then stop. Work to increase your distance a little at each session.
   • Avoid long tossing at distances over 300 feet, and perform long tossing between bullpen sessions. Do not spend more time long tossing than in the bullpen.
   • Make sure to use a fastball grip during long tossing. Ask your pitching coach to pay particular attention to your angle and release point. To gain maximum benefit from a long toss program, have a pitching coach on hand to supervise the mechanics of your throw.
3. Spend some time weight training. Weight training for pitchers has always been a controversial subject because of concerns that the increase in muscle mass would diminish flexibility. However, many recent studies have shown evidence to the contrary, as long as muscle density is increased, not muscle mass.
   • Focus on lifting lighter weights to increase muscle density. The best upper body exercises for pitchers are dumbbell flat bench presses, incline dumbbells, lateral pulldowns, single-arm dumbbells pulls, hammer curls and tricep rope extensions.
   • Use a stretch cord and three-pound dumbbells. Don't lift heavy weights and limit to two or three sets.
4. Use ten-pound dumbbells for squat jumps and lunges. To perform a squat jump, hold the weights securely in your hand, squat down, and then jump as high as you can from that position. When doing lunges, alternate legs frequently.
   • Don't forget to stretch well before you start training. After training sessions, make sure to stretch again. Always strive to consume a lot of water while weight training for muscle health.
5. Do upper body weight training. On top of the typical arm and shoulder strengthening exercises that all pitchers should be doing, you should also spend time upper body training. Exercises that emphasize pulling motions are ideal for pitchers because they strengthen the upper back.
   • Strengthening the upper back with these types of exercises will result in strengthening the muscles you need to decelerate your arm when pitching.
   • The best exercises for this purpose are bent over rows and pull-ups. When performing them, make a special effort to squeeze your shoulder blades together, then back and down.
6. Integrate medicine ball training into your sessions. Training with medicine balls is another popular weight training technique for pitchers. It is normally incorporated alongside weight training programs.
   • The most popular medicine ball exercises for pitchers are Russian twists, granny throws, rotational throws, med ball slams, and squat explosions.
7. Incorporate a resistance training program into your sessions. Resistance training is one of the best ways to keep your shoulders healthy and to gain strength. Using resistance tubing (also known as Jobe's exercises) and resistance bands are the most highly recommended and effective ways for pitchers to train with resistance.
8. Include a post-training recovery system in your sessions. A major and often overlooked component of properly maintaining arm strength is the inclusion of a good recovery system. Frequently use ice treatments to keep inflammation down.
   • Allow your muscles appropriate rest periods in between sessions so that your arm has the chance to rebuild broken down muscle tissue.
   • Perform simple post-training stretching exercises to improve your range of motion and prevent injuries.

Improving Velocity

1. Perfect your stride. Research suggests that approximately 50% of ball velocity comes from the force you accumulate in your stride. In order to produce maximum velocity, you must increase your stride speed and length. This will help you build your forward momentum and generate an improved pitching velocity.
   • To gain speed and stride length, work on moving your body as fast as possible in a side lunge, going from your back leg to your front leg without stopping or hesitating.
   • Strive for the longest stride possible while still managing to get your head and shoulders positioned over your lead leg when you release the ball.
   • Increase your knee flexion when your foot hits the ground after your stride. The more your front knee is bent after your foot hits the ground, the higher your velocity will be.
2. Work on your delivery momentum. Your lower body (feet, legs, and hips) is directly responsible for the building of momentum in the delivery. By starting your delivery with well-practiced foot movement and leg lifting, you generate your pitch velocity from the ground up, which in turn generates the force needed to propel the ball.
   • This momentum builder is referred to in the industry as the tempo of the delivery.
3. Improve your overall flexibility with frequent stretching. Gaining flexibility in the groin, hamstrings, hips, and lower back is essential and can significantly increase your pitch velocity. Not only will stretching increase your flexibility, but it will also reduce your recovery time after training sessions.
   • Use foam rolls, dynamic stretching, and static stretching to increase your flexibility.
4. Using weighted balls during the off-season. When utilized correctly, weighted balls will definitely increase your velocity. This type of training is called “overload” training and should never be employed during the regular season. Use weighted balls correctly and responsibly, combined with a proper long toss regimen, for best results.
   • Weighted balls should only be used by pitchers that are high school age and up.
5. Develop your own pitching style. It is imperative that you use proper pitch mechanics to prevent injuries, but within that framework you should work on developing a personal pitching style. As long as you are observing proper pitch mechanics, feel free to use a style that is natural and comfortable for you. Marrying these two principles will only serve to increase your velocity.

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