If You Want to Throw 90+....
- Coach Isaac
- May 7
- 4 min read
Walk into almost any baseball facility and you’ll see the same thing:
Bands. Jaeger routines. Weighted balls. Arm care circuits. More bands.
None of those things are inherently bad.
But the problem is most pitchers chasing velocity are obsessing over the wrong body part. The arm doesn’t create most of your velocity.
It transfers it.
Over the last 15 years, research on this topic has become increasingly clear. Hard throwers are typically better force producers, better movers, and more explosive athletes, not just athletes with “strong arms.”
A baseball pitch happens incredibly fast—roughly 0.15 seconds from foot strike to ball release according to biomechanical research from the American Sports Medicine Institute.
That’s not enough time to consciously “muscle up” velocity with the arm alone. Instead, velocity is created through sequencing and force transfer.
Force starts in the ground and moves through the body...
ankles >> knees >> hips >> trunk >> shoulder >> elbow >> wrist >> fingers
This is what’s known as the kinetic chain. When the chain works efficiently, the arm becomes a force transmitter. When it doesn’t, the arm becomes the compensator. That’s where both velocity loss and injury risk tend to increase.
This same concept can be observed in the cracking of a whip - the only man powered object that can break the sound barrier (BECAUSE ITS SO MECHANICALLY EFFICIENT)!
One of the strongest trends in modern pitching research is the relationship between lower-body force production and throwing velocity.
In a 2016 study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, Sgroi et al. found significant relationships between lower-body power metrics and pitching velocity in collegiate pitchers. Athletes with greater explosive power output consistently threw harder.
Similarly, Lehman et al. demonstrated significant correlations between vertical jump performance and pitching velocity, reinforcing the connection between explosive lower-body qualities and ball speed. This is important because vertical jump tests don’t measure arm strength.
They measure force production.
That tells us something critical:
Velocity is heavily influenced by how effectively an athlete produces and transfers force through the ground.
Research from MacWilliams et al. examined professional pitchers and found that harder throwers generated significantly greater ground reaction forces during the pitching delivery.
In simple terms, elite throwers push into the ground harder (NOTE - pushing into the ground. Not "off the rubber" This is a separate article I will write!). That force then transfers upward through the body and eventually into the baseball. This is one reason high-level throwers often appear effortless.
The arm isn’t independently generating velocity. The body is delivering it.
Another major area of research involves rotational explosiveness. A study by Stodden et al. found strong relationships between pelvis and trunk rotational velocities and pitch velocity. The harder throwers weren’t just moving faster with the arm—they were rotating more explosively through the torso. That matters because pitching is fundamentally rotational.
Not linear.
This is also why medicine ball testing has become increasingly popular in high-level baseball development.
Studies have repeatedly shown relationships between rotational med ball throw performance and pitching velocity because both depend heavily on:
rotational force production
sequencing
rate of force development
This can begin to explain why a skinny pitcher can still throw 95+...
A relatively lean pitcher sitting mid-90s while a much larger athlete struggles to break 84.
Why?
Because gym strength alone does not guarantee transferable force production.
Pitch velocity depends on:
force production
rate of force development
rotational explosiveness
sequencing
timing
movement efficiency
Not just muscle size. This is why some bodybuilders struggle to throw hard while explosive rotational athletes often can.
Research into jump metrics helps us create a clearer on velocity development too!
This is one of the most practical findings for coaches. Multiple studies have shown relationships between:
vertical jump
broad jump
reactive strength index (RSI)
…and throwing velocity.
A 2022 study by Ramirez et al. found significant relationships between lower-body power characteristics and pitching performance metrics in collegiate pitchers.
Jump testing reflects:
explosive force production
elastic qualities
rate of force development
—all critical qualities for high-velocity movement.
all of this being said...
The Arm Still Matters
This doesn’t mean the arm is unimportant. Far from it.
The arm absolutely needs to be:
strong
conditioned
resilient
capable of tolerating high force and high throwing volumes
Research from Fleisig et al. and the American Sports Medicine Institute has repeatedly shown the enormous stress placed on the elbow and shoulder during pitching.
The arm matters. A lot. But it cannot do the job alone. If the lower half and trunk fail to produce and transfer force efficiently, the arm is forced to compensate.
That usually means:
increased stress
reduced efficiency
inconsistent timing
decreased velocity
elevated injury risk
Arm care is important.
Arm strength is important.
But neither should exist independently from full-body athletic development.
Same with the arm...STRENGTH IS IMPORTANT.
This is where many training programs fall short. They improve general fitness without improving transferable athletic force production.
Pitchers need:
lower-body strength
rotational explosiveness
single-leg stability
elastic power
coordination under speed
—not just bigger muscles.
This is why exercises like:
med ball throws
jumps
sprint work
rotational power training
force-oriented lower-body lifting
often correlate more directly with velocity gains than endless arm work.
What Pitchers Should Actually Focus On?
Velocity development is incredibly nuanced - and it takes A LOT of different systems to be firing. The point here is we can put all of our eggs in one basket.
If your goal is velocity, training should prioritize:
Lower-Body Force Production
trap bar deadlifts
split squats
sled work
single-leg strength
Rotational Power
med ball scoop tosses
shotput throws
step-behind rotational throws
Elastic Explosiveness
jumps
sprint work
reactive plyometrics
Movement Quality
hip mobility
thoracic mobility
force acceptance mechanics
Arm Capacity
Yes, arm care still matters.
But it should support force transfer—not replace it.
Long toss and workload management
The Bottom Line
If you want to throw 90+, stop thinking about velocity as an arm problem.
It’s a force production problem.
The best throwers in the world:
produce force efficiently
transfer force effectively
rotate explosively
move athletically
Their arm is simply the vehicle that delivers it.
At Lights Out Performance, we train pitchers like athletes first.
Because velocity doesn’t start in the arm.
It starts in the ground.
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