By Josh Boggs

 

This has become a theme with the throwers I’ve been working with in-house at Prime Performance and is a very common question I receive on twitter. I’ve had several athletes tell me bicep pain is the worst pain they ever have when throwing. So, I shall try to some potential reasons why, from a movement and mechanical perspective, your bicep hurts and potential ways to correct the issue.

Why Bicep Pain Is Bad

Plain and simple: it HURTS. BAD. It also is a likely precursor to bigger issues, namely in the elbow and shoulder. Because the bicep is a muscle, it’s highly likely the bicep isn’t going to be what eventually tears or breaks. Eventually it’ll likely be either a UCL tear from the poor deceleration pattern that’s likely an issue or, because of where the bicep tendon attaches in the shoulder, it becomes a labrum issue. Needless to say, not something you want. Simply put, bicep pain is something to address, not put off. read more

By Coach Kyle Nelson of  Cornerstone Baseball

Pitching is different than almost every other skill in baseball. It is not a reaction. The pitcher is in total control. He decides when the ball is thrown, pitch type, pitch location, and pitch velocity.

Everyone else reacts to the pitcher.

Because of this, we often forget that pitcher practice needs to simulate the game as much as possible. This article will give you five ways bullpen sessions can become more game-like:

1.) Mix wind-up and stretch
The most important pitches a pitcher makes each game will come from the stretch. The ones under the most pressure, the ones that matter the most will come out of the stretch. read more

By Josh Boggs

Velocity is all the rage nowadays. Everyone seems hell-bent on throwing as hard as they possibly can. It seems every pitcher in the MLB throws 95+, so If you want to join that illustrious group, you’d better be doing the same. With that being said, there are some differences in what the radar gun reads and what the hitter sees. Essentially velocity has three different categories: Actual, Perceived, and Effective.
Actual Velocity

This is the easiest to understand of the three categories. Actual velocity is simply the reading on the radar gun. Although, just to clarify, the reading on the radar gun, especially at ballparks, is the
velocity of the baseball at or near pitch release and not in front of home plate as some have suggested to me. While the reading on a radar gun can be beneficial, understand it does not tell the whole story of velocity. To do that, we need more context.
Perceived Velocity
This is where things get a little more interesting (and fun). Perceived velocity can vary from actual velocity because of essentially two factors: 1) A pitcher’s stride and 2) A pitcher’s release point. read more

By Mental Basics of Baseball Have you ever been on the mound and found yourself in a rhythm where your pumping the zone full of strikes and everything seems to be going your way? If pitchers could find this “rhythm” or “zone” more often wouldn’t that be great?

 Well there are a few things you can do to find your rhythm more often.

THROW STRIKE 1

The first component of finding your rhythm is strike 1. You’ve got to get ahead in the count. It’s hard to find a rhythm if your constantly behind and trying to battle back into an advantageous count. Make it a point before each new batter to focus on the idea of throwing strike 1.

 WORK DELIGENTLY

The next piece of the puzzle is to work diligently. I don’t want you to think “fast”, but rather “faster’. Be intentional after each pitch-whether it was good or bad- to get the ball back from the catcher, toe the rubber, get your signal and go back to work. I see a lot of young pitchers take way too much time in between each pitch. They get the ball, rub it down, take off their cap and wipe their forehead, walk around behind the mound, or do a variety of other things-and then toe the rubber and start over. read more