Becoming a hard-throwing pitcher in baseball isn't just about arm strength or how you hold the ball, but more so how you position your body and use your legs during the pitch. It takes strength training as well as countless hours of perfecting your mechanics to get up to your maximum speed. While your dreams of being the next Mark Wohlers --- who once threw a pitch 103 mph --- may not come true, you can train to pitch a baseball faster.
From the Ground Up
Pitch speed starts from the ground up. The more strong and stable your lower body is, the more power you'll have behind your pitch. In the pitching motion, you're not only winding up your arm for the throw, but also positioning your lead leg as well as the leg you use to push through the pitch with. To strengthen your lower body, you can perform several exercises, including lunges, squats, calf raises, leg presses and curls.
Twisting
When you see a pitcher throw a fast pitch, you'll notice a lot of twisting in the midsection of his body. This motion gives more force to your pitch and takes reduces on your arms and shoulders. When working on your midsection, focus on strengthening your muscles with crunches and leg lifts or using a medicine ball. Speed training of the torso is important also, because pitching motions are done quickly. While you don't want to injure yourself training, getting your torso used to moving quickly by doing quick reps or even some boxing routines will make your body move quicker and increase speed levels.
Building a Cannon
Strength in your shoulders and upper arms plays a key role in pitching, but not as much for speed as you may think. Only 21 percent of speed comes from the shoulder, and 53 percent of the ball's speed comes from the action of the arm. While this shows that strength is needed to throw fast, you also need strong upper body muscles to protect your body from the stress of the pitch. As a pitcher, you put an incredible amount of stress on your shoulder, elbow and wrist, and without muscle strength, your arm would eventually break due to the repetitive pressure.
No Pain, All Gain
There are many ways to strengthen your upper body, but some can lead to injury --- such as dips, pullups or any exercise in which you can't see your hands at all times like the bench press. You can safely strength train on the field using resistance bands during your pitch, or throwing weighted balls, which give resistance through the pitching motion and strengthen muscles that sometimes get missed in the gym.
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