Expert: Rick Bundy - 10/27/2008

Question
QUESTION: Hi im 13 years old and i play baseball and i have the fastest arm in my leagues and acuracy...i really want to know this....if i wanted to become professional...wat would be the average velocity of my pitch at my age now?

ANSWER: Ryan:  Thank you for the question.

I have never seen, or been able to find, any statistics that deal with average fastball velocity for your age group.

In answer to your question, if you wanted to become a professional pitcher in the future, your current velocity would not be a determining factor.  In three or four years, it will be one of several factors taken into consideration by baseball scouts. Additional factors will be control, attitude, size, strength, coachability and the ability to get hitters out, much the same things that college recruiters are looking at.

If you have the most velocity in your league, and are able to throw strikes, you are off to a good start.  With the invention of the radar gun, there has been an ever growing trend in youth baseball to focus on velocity.  Player concerns over how hard they throw start to overshadow whether they are getting batters out.

I have heard high school pitchers talking after a game that they hit 89, 91, etc. consistently, this in a game where their team lost and they didn't pitch out of the second inning.

I won't say that professional baseball doesn't rate velocity as important.  The reality is that they do.  They have a large amateur pitching pool to choose from, to obtain a relatively small number of professional pitchers.

It should not be as important to a pitcher how much velocity his fastball has.  What is more important is the difference in speed between his fastball and his changeup, and his ability to throw both for a strike when he needs to.

Hitting is all about timing ~ Pitching is the disruption of that timing.

Even at the very top, pitchers cannot consistently over power hitters.  If they do not have an off speed pitch with which to disrupt timing, hitters will turn around the best fastballs from the high school level to the majors.

I watched Pedro Martinez, in an ALCS game a number of years back, strike out a hitter with three changeups in a row, each one 5-6 MPH slower than the one before, with a little different movement on each.  Three consecutive strikes, the hitter never took the bat off his shoulder.

If you continue to work on your balance, mechanics, and strength, your control and velocity will increase each season as you mature.
Take care of your arm, strengthen your legs.  Throw fastballs and changeups for now, much easier on your arm.  Avoid pitching in stacked up seasons.  By that I mean, if you pitch on your school team and pitch regularly, then go to summer ball and do the same, moving to winter ball with more of the same, you will be putting a lot of stress on you arm.  It needs some down time, at least from pitching.  Play another position and take that pitching break.

Good luck as you go forward.  Take care of that arm.  Baseball is virtually impossible to play with a sore arm, pitching is impossible.

Yours in baseball,

Rick



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hey its me Ryan again...since winter is coming how do i practice pitching still since it will be like snow outside?

Answer
Ryan:

I didn't think about snow.  I live in Tucson, Az.  Snow is just something we see on TV.  Baseball is a 12 month situation here.

In one respect, winter can be a good thing for you, as it will force you to shut your arm down for a few months.  That isn't a bad thing, particularly for a pitcher.

BALANCE:  Do these every other day throughout the winter.

1.  One thing you can work on inside is balance.  The ability to hold your body straight and solid on just your throwing side foot is important.  Work on it out of the stretch, come set, then do a knee lift with your leg(show hitter your back pocket) bringing your knee waist high, your foot relaxed, toes would be pointing down, your hands out from your body, in a relaxed, comfortable position and hold that.  Time yourself so you can chart your progress.  If you can do this in front of a full length mirror, you can check yourself on all the steps.  Times will lengthen over the winter, helping build a solid base to throw from.  

2.  A variation, stand on one foot, reach down with the hand of the leg that is in the air, and touch the floor, ( 3 sets of five). When 3 sets become easy, add an additional set, keep progressing.  These are simply balance improvement, not isolated to the pitching motion.  They are good for the pure balance development.  I think you'll find them to be harder to do, than the first ones.

Towel Drill:  
Set up a chair in front of you, about 7-8 feet away.  If you have a friend to work out with, have them stand in front of you and hold a glove out in front of them for your target instead of the chair.  Hold one end of a dish towel in your throwing hand, come set, go through your motion - stride, push your chest to your glove, try to snap the chair, or glove, with the towel in your throwing hand, follow through.  Reset, repeat.  If you do 2 sets of 10 reps, 2 days a week throughout the winter, it will improve your throwing motion and follow through, you can work on balance at the same time.

Slide step:
Work on your slide step, out of the stretch.  You can work this into the towel drill also, mix up your deliveries from windup, stretch w/no slide step and stretch with slide step.

There are a few things to work on.  If you have access to an indoor area you could add agility workouts for conditioning and coordination.  Depends on what is available to you.

Remember, the best pitch in baseball isn't a fastball, curveball or change up, it's STRIKE ONE!

Good luck to you.

Yours in baseball,

Rick