What's up guys Coach Madden yougoprobaseball.com here with Brent
Pourciau Top Velocity we're in his house right now and in fact I made a video a
while ago called the nine pitching velocity killers and then Brent came
like a little bit later maybe what how many was it ten maybe was yeah I'm only
going on one out of you man so he made ten pitching velocity killers
both great videos yeah but then you were like I'm coming back at you yeah I said
I'm doing 11 velocity killers you jerk but this video right here we're gonna
talk about pitching velocity leaks where guys are leaking their velocity and
we're gonna make this a little bit fun we're gonna have a competition I'm gonna
give you one leak he's gonna give you a one leak we haven't talked about this we
don't even know what we're gonna talk about we're just kind of Seuss please
stop yelling right now but in all seriousness this is gonna be some good
stuff because at the end of the day if you're if you're creating energy and
then losing it you're not getting as much as you can out of your kinetic
chain and that's what we're trying to do as pitchers we're trying to create
energy from the ground transfer through our kinetic chain and get it out through
the ball and remember this could go into mindset this could go into what you ate
I mean we could be here for a long time so do we want to stick with mechanics on
that what you want
all right Brent's gonna win this let me start with the first pitching velocity
leak and the first thing that I see and the probably the biggest one that I see
is the front leg you might in my opinion I see so many guys when they land
they're leaking out forward this way or out this way they're getting too much
rotational energy in there and they're kind of leaking out that way so that's
the biggest thing that I see as far as the leak goes for me when I see that I
like to work on and I want you to elaborate on this before you get into
your league too but what I see with that is it's either a lack of obviously how
we're using our rotational and linear energy one could be a strength issue not
strong enough to brace up or mobility issues so those are the three things
yeah can you elaborate on that no I mean I think you nailed it I think
it's I mean one thing I would probably say even more than strength issue it's a
power issue because it's strength just says you can you can hold a force it
doesn't see how quickly you can hold a force and we know in the front foot
lands you got point one point two seconds and you can't have any
any movement because studies show high velocity pitchers don't have any lead
any movement so you got to catch it immediately and that's power so now
there's a time to when you create your force and that that's what power means
means or what they call rate of force development how quickly do you turn that
force on and you see a lot of guys who are when they get in here and they brace
up that knee comes back it tracks back and they go this way but you don't have
to be straight do you know at the end of the day it's just it's it's just getting
energy of the ball and of course you got to create it and that has to do with you
creating it and it has a high correlation of velocity the more you can
extend it but it just it's how hard you want throw yeah I mean you have to say
if I did get more extension before release I would have thrown harder
because that's what the studies show okay what do you got number two oh I'm
gonna go back leg so you know we get this a lot when guys come to the leg
lifts and they start moving they collapse that leg right they collapse so
like why is that a problem collapsing the leg is because the legs stay strong
in external tation think about when you squat we squat here nobody squats like
that right so let your wattage in CrossFit fails on anything so that if we
go here then we anti rotate we lose stability I'm not stable here and then
we just we collapse and then we try to overcompensate so that's a big one
collapsing back leg is huge okay now let me ask you this and you can elaborate on
this I would I talked about as far as back leg goes I think differs a little
bit from what how you speak about it for me I call it the angled corkscrew so I
actually do want to be inside of my back foot slightly and I think that you have
to have good hip mobility to do this to create that I don't want to collapse it
I want to create that angle and then kind of corkscrew out spurt the foot
towards you yeah so what I was just saying is you're right I don't
you'd be in 20 rotated it is better to be externally rotated but yeah you can
keep it inside your knee you just need to be exercising rotate so that is a
good point awesome awesome this so this would be
number three right pitching velocity leak number three what I see is guys who
lose their energy with their upper body so they leak out energy this way they
don't block off okay and I'm interested to hear your thoughts on this because I
don't think I've ever seen a video where you talk about this I'm sure there is
one I just haven't seen it what I what I like to teach my guys is when they
separate to be 45 degrees closed off for more this way with their arms but then
when they unwind they want to block that energy off so they can get finished more
linear this way if you've got a guy who just spins out and flies out the way I
like to think about that is all your energy is going this way it's almost
like you're running if you were running with a flag if I'm running this way with
a flag the flag is gonna be going that way if I'm pulling all my energy out
this way all my energy is gonna go this way my arms gonna fly out and I'm gonna
be leaking my energy that way that's a great one glove side is a key one
studies show that low velocity pitchers have more left to right movement with
their glove sides high velocity pitchers are more they just turn it over
typically and and then it the energy is really coming from somewhere else so
you're right if you're using this to create injury in their energy it's
usually rotational energy and it's flying it off and taking your energy
somewhere else that's a huge one really good one you're up no more so here we go
I'm gonna talk about that the posture let's talk about posture and head in the
head position right so if either way if my head gets too far this way my head
gets too far that way if my head gets too far this way if I head gets too far
that way it kind of goes along with what John's talking about leaking or pulling
across your body this is your posture this is the balance of where you are so
I have to really keep this over my mike my trunk over my hips and like like the
whip all moving balanced towards the target and once I let this head go here
where do you think my Energy's going you know that election that's why you see
sidearm pitchers they start moving like a regular pitcher and then their head
starts doing that and that's where we go i'm--you're where if I start leaning
this way then you know that I'm flying off this way or if I want to start early
and then everything transfers early so to me the head the posture is huge to
prevent a big loss energy and in all directions I always say the best place
it needs to be is just behind your front hip so just behind it not all the way
back here because that could slow me down right or not in front of it not
over my my belt buckle not over my but just int balance just
behind my front hip and then it's all about riding all that energy towards the
target at the end of the day we're athletes we should be athletes we need
to be athletes and you got to be able to use your body the right way and that's a
great one I like that number five I'm glad you're
keeping up with the numbers here we're gonna track the number five what I got
for you is let's talk about the separation from the lower body and upper
body I see a lot of guys when they start pitching and maybe this is not so much
of a leak but just not getting as much as they could have right yeah so when
they when they're driving out their shoulders are moving with their hips and
I see this a lot with especially younger guys high school age guys even some
college guys you'll see that too obviously they're not throwing as fast
because they're not getting the separation that they need hip to
shoulder separation you want to have more separation between your lower body
and your upper body and like I said before I like to tell my guys to
separate at 45 degrees or more closed off so now you've got this upper body
already closed off as you start moving down the mound and once you get used to
that timing of separating the lower body to the upper body you're gonna be able
to create more energy or get more out of the energy that you're creating to put
it through the baseball so that's number five you got anything to add to that no
I think you know that sounds pretty good you got number 66 right now here we go
so we should get into the arm path I think the arm path is gonna be key too
so just like we want to separate just like we want to pull hips and shoulders
apart we've got to be careful with this and we get into the arm path if we
overdo it we exaggerate the tips I'm giving you it could throw off the timing
and really hurt your arm so you got to be careful when you start playing with
the arm path stuff but just like wanting to separate the hips and shoulders we
have to take the elbow and we have to load the SCAP or pull it back and get it
you know is me not trying to overdo it but get it nice and tight and pull it
behind the shoulder because just like pull in the hip and shoulder apart gives
you more time to create energy pulling the elbow away from the shoulder gives
you even a little bit more time to load the arm and carry that energy forward so
and there's a study that also showed that they compared Korean pitchers to
like I think American pitchers and one of the key things that Korean
pitchers then they through slower than American pitchers on average in the
study the one key things that they weren't doing as well as they weren't
it's called horizontal abduction pulling the elbow behind the backs cap loading
there so like I said be careful with doing that because it can go it can go
bad if you go too far and get too aggressive with it but it is a key point
so if you're if you're cocking the ball here and then you start cocking it here
you know it's a leak you're losing energy cocking it out here than if you
were cocking it a little bit more behind your scalp and you'd get more separation
as well right it will add even even if you're here and you've got good
separation with your shoulders you'd be better if you were more Scout loaded
SCAP loaded yeah cool another one seven seven who knows seven no I did six okay
so for this one I'm gonna talk about flicking the wrist here all the time
you gotta flick that wrist to get the backspin and get maximum velocity right
I disagree and I don't know where you stand on this but if you're coming
through and you're trying to stay straight behind that ball and flick like
this you're gonna be losing a lot you're gonna be leaking a lot you're not gonna
be getting as much as you could how I see the wrist working is we're going
from supinating which is kind of this position with the wrist to as I get to a
release point I'm turning it over and pronating it
through a release point so that's kind of the flick of the wrist if you will or
how I think you should work or how I used to feel it working was coming
through it and getting extension not only with the wrist but the shoulders as
well so getting the extension with the front shoulder and then coming through
it so my extension with the wrist coming over and and pronating is how the wrist
should really work in my opinion what you think about that guy yeah I think as
I add to it is like everything's action reaction so the action is what's
happening when you're turning your shoulders and your cocking your arm it
actually throws force in what's called supination which is the thumb going back
so you're actually trying to resist that force right so you cock the arm and you
turn and this wants to swivel against that movement and you resist it so what
is the the action of resisting a supinated forced pronation so that's why
you gotta be careful like trying to point the ball to second base you got to
be careful like if you're doing this long arm
you might be preventing that good supinated resistance which fires all
that good pronation that john is talking about
so think action-reaction what's the action the action is to resist
supination to then turn and also to to resist external rotation because that's
what you're trying to do you don't want your arm to keep spinning around and
that's going to create the reaction of internal rotation pronation right so
just be careful when you're playing with your arm that you're not not allowing it
to do that to create that nice efficient release of the arm movement but because
that was gonna affect velocity and it'll really start to mess with injury you
like it it could start causing inflammation so where should they be so
if their guide and they heard their pitching coach always saying point it
back to the second base where actually should they start where's that personal
preference or so it works best this way if you're an early arm cocker which is
all based on when your front foot lands if your front foot lands and you're
already up you're an early arm cocker if your front foot lands and you're still
coming up you're in a late arm cocker so if you're an early arm cocker you want
to be more pronated because then that helps with the scalp loading because see
if I'm supinated now I'm externally rotated so I want to pronate to help
with the scalp loading if I'm an early arm cocker because I wouldn't want to do
this and then land and I'm already open if I'm a late arm cocker I don't want to
be more pronated because them arms gonna drag so I can be more supinated if I'm a
late arm cocker because my arms late to get up and it's going to apply the force
later back on the arm so you can be more supinated you just gave me another one
so I'm good for at least one more round okay I think we could nitpick and keep
going so I think we're on eight I don't know why I'm remember the numbers but
hip extension right so you know guys we won up just like you're talking about 45
degree with the trunk well make sure it's in the hip the hip needs to counter
we need a counter into this hip to flex to allow for extension and also delay
rotation it does two things it delays rotation and gives us more flexion to
create extension so if I'm this guy just lifting and I'm already showing my back
hip like right out of the gate I'm losing all that energy that I could get
in delaying rotation because then we'd have to create faster rotation lay
and I'm getting more flexion so now I can power through the glute the
hamstring the lower leg more extension and we know that's ground force if I'm
separating that's more energy up the chain that's a great one that's great
and you see that a lot a lot too with with young pitchers how do you use the
king of the hill to work on that so the king of the hill is a coaching aid to
tell you how well you're creating force and when you're creating force so if you
don't know the king of the hill it's two sliding plates that the only way we can
make it bang is if we push hard enough against the plunger in a direction back
towards second base so if it bangs it means we got linear meaning we got the
force vector which is the ankle to knee down and we pushed back towards second
base and ultimately we want to hear that bang just as we're landing if I hear it
after landing it was too late I drove too late we have to hear it just before
we land that popped that bang off the king of the hill and it gives us that
good feedback that we pushed hard enough because you can crank it to make it
harder and we pushed at the right time at the right angle and you sell the king
of the hill on your website and so do you I sure do and I'd like to take this
opportunity to let you know that I have a two-year-old he's gonna be going to
college one day here soon I like to close and I like to feed him as well so
you guys make the decision I got an eight year old and a five got cut and
they're girls haha
what uh what number are we on nine all right number nine nine pitching velocity
leak I'm gonna talk about the guys who when they when they come down the
mountain and they're getting high with the shoulder it's almost like they're
their star fishing as they get down and the shoulder is higher than you know
they're Cup they're coming out of that SCAP load position and they're getting
too high see a lot of guys doing that and I think it might be a missed
coaching cue because you hear all the time get your arm up get your arm up get
your arm up and I see that and it just look they look jammed up and it's not
smooth it's not fluid and those guys typically don't throw very hard and if
they do they're putting themself at at risk to get injured so that's a big one
as far as leaking velocity or an order just putting yourself in a bad position
and jamming yourself up and not be able to being able to create as much as you
possibly could got anything on that well I think the same thing on you're gonna
mess with that action reaction to really coil in the arm you're fighting against
allowing it to naturally do that that's where you got to be careful but that's
thing that's a great one perfect number ten ten huh you're gonna
you're gonna kick yourself that you didn't think of this one alright front
foot strike where do we land do we land close good one we land open right okay
here's the thing and this can get crazy if you're if you're a big rotator I
would suggest you not be in but if you're a big polar and rotator you're
gonna do better landing more clothes because it's gonna give you more to
range or more angular distance to cover to create speed so if you're a puller
and you land here you don't have much time you're gonna be like right so and
I'm not promoting you being a nova rotator but just know if you're leaking
velocity if you're landing too much to the open side if you're a driver you
could probably land more to the open side but still the studies show if you
take your back foot and you drill a line to the target from the middle of your
foot to the target you want to land about six seven inches inside that and
because we drive in the front foot you're technically going to be toe to
heel and you want to be 20 degrees closed why is that because because what
you're doing is you're landing that slightly across your body is because
your your femurs connect and they actually kind of like dogleg into your
hip sockets and they they're out here so we have to actually bring the foot
across our hip so one more hips open they stabilize towards the target if I
land it if I went just straight and line and then tighten my hips up now I'm
shooting off to the on-deck circle so landing you know that seven inches
across 20 degrees as I Drive through well my hips open up now I'm locked down
to the target and everything can accelerate towards the target so you're
leaking if you're going open I mean at the end of the day the more open you go
the more velocity or losing that's a good one
I am kicking my heart this is my last one this is all I got right here
so if you got another one you know I'm conceding victory okay so think of your
last one here my last one is the some guys call it the pulldown or that for me
I think of pitching as the linear energy then the rotational energy and then that
last linear piece and then blending it all together but I see a lot of guys
they either don't get that last pulldown at the end or they're kind of already
into it as they get into their front leg so that's a huge one you're losing it if
you're already into it obviously you don't have it and then guys who are
finishing way too tall they just they're not getting as much out as they could if
they can get that get onto that angle that we were talking about earlier so
that's that's my number 11 you got anything to add to that one man I think
I'm the one I'm thinking about might be exactly what you were talking about in
the beginning to get the front leg more extended that was the other one I
thought about but I mean I could say this tell me you might go along with
what you're talking about because what you're talking about is getting the
trunk more forward right because that is a big piece but the studies show it's
not just about getting the trunk more forward which it is but there's more
it's getting them they are more laid back so that's gonna be my last piece
watch this go for it so why do they why do we lay back the arm right why does
the arm lay back a lot of people say it's to create that plyometric effect
right it's like cranking on the the catapult yank it back and all that
muscular fires it well that has something to do with it but more
importantly and I guess it kind of goes into you what you were talking about
when we let the arm lay back at the right time typically right when the
trunk squares up not any later where it gets out here if the elbow gets in front
of the trunk it's too late if we get the arm laid back right when the trunk
squares up now it's gonna give us all this time to push the trunk forward
before release so the arm laying back is actually a mechanism to allow the trunk
to go farther forward to put more energy in the ball and that's like the whip as
I Drive the handle of the whip forward that's going to carry more of the body
the whip which is where most of the energy is that's going to go up to the
end of the whip so that's what we're doing with the arm so if I get the arm
to lay back just when the trunk squares up now I can carry the the trunk more to
the target before the arm in 20 rotates potentially getting more
energy into the ball which is a huge velocity leak because you see a lot of
kids just wanting to stop their trunks or the arms are late and it kills all
that velocity that they can get up the chain it's great great points that's all
I got for you so I concede victory to you
congratulations now we're gonna happen again though you
still own me on YouTube appreciate it speaking of we got four tips that we put
together for you guys really good stuff to instantly increase your pitching
velocity if you want to watch that video it's a great stuff I definitely
recommend you do it's the first link in the description click it put your first
name and your email we'll shoot that video over to you right away start
working on it because you're gonna see some results from it thank you so much
for watching good job because they'll come up and
they start moving down the mound and this back leg is kind of really straight
let me ask you something if you were going to try to jump as high as you can
would you jump with a slight bend in your leg or would you really get down
there and explode up you don't want to get down or get into your legs and
explode up Bend those legs