The 3-Step Speed Plan

Have you been working hard at improving your mechanics, but growing frustrated by not gaining as much speed as you’d like to? This plan is for you.

For those of you just starting on your pitching journey, this might be new information. For the rest, you’ve probably heard all of this advice before in scattered places, but whenever you have a goal, it’s extremely helpful to have it outlined as plainly as possible for reference. Then when you feel overwhelmed, you can check in with this.

1: Reach your current motion speed potential (+ 2-4mph, estimated)

If you’re learning to pitch, you may not have the confidence to go through your motion as fast as you can yet. Similarly, if you have been pitching a while but recently decided to change your style or fix a major bad habit, you may be operating somewhere around 75% of your former motion speed while you focus on the fixes. The first thing you can do to gain speed is no magic secret; you can simply go faster through your whole motion. Make sure you are accelerating rather than starting your motion so fast that you can’t possibly keep your speed up and end up slamming on the breaks at release.

IMPORTANT: while this may sound simple, it’s imperative that you don’t rush the process. If your mechanics break down when your motion speeds up, it’s counterproductive. You need to speed up very gradually so that your mechanics hold steady the entire time. I encourage everyone to read my article on finding your edge for more information about this very important topic.

2: Know the physics and increase your current speed potential (+ 3-5mph, possibly more)

After you max out the speed potential of your motion as-is, the next step is to increase that potential. How do you do that?

The amount of total energy available to you in your pitch is determined by your push off the rubber. So to increase this total amount of available energy, you need to increase how hard your body is capable of pushing off the ground (for more information about the physics that determine the speed of a windmill pitch, read this article).

How do you make yourself push off the ground harder? Strengthen your legs and core. Imagine how much you’d have to work out if you wanted to be able to lift heavier and heavier objects. You may not think of pitching like that because when you push off the ground the ground doesn’t move, but it’s the same application of force. Joe has shared countless workout videos on these subjects. Pick a few that look good to you and get to work!

Make sure you’ve got solid mechanics from step 1, or else all that energy from your push may get lost along the way.

3. Check in with your forearm fire

All this is for naught if you’ve got a stiff arm, or if you’re relying only on a forced wrist snap; they’re simply not fast enough. If you know your arm whip is a problem, you can work on it separately, in isolation, every time you practice. Try smaller balls if you’re really having trouble, and check out this post and this one for an introduction.