4 Ways To Increase Your Kid’s Pitching Velocity

The kids who throw hard in baseball have a lot of advantages. Maximize your youth player’s pitching velocity.

It often feels like arm strength for a youth pitcher is just about genetics. But that’s actually not true. Check out our strategies for adding pitching velocity.

1. Encourage Healthy Weight Gain to Increase Pitching Velocity

Height and weight obviously matter when it comes to pitching velocity. There’s s kid on my son’s 11U club team whose father was an offensive lineman at Michigan State. The kid’s huge, both in height and girth. The father once told me that his kid already weighs 170 pounds, amounting to 80 pounds more than my son.

It’s unrealistic to think my average-sized son can throw harder than a kid who’s that much bigger, and he doesn’t. But the difference is not as much as one might think.

Currently:

• My son tops out at 53
• The lineman’s son hits 60 plus

My son has always been skinny on top with strong legs and butt. Realizing he had room to fill out, and the extra weight would add to his pitching velocity, I did the following:

• Replaced 2 percent milk with whole milk (the kid loves milk)
• Cooked pasta for him at least twice a week
• Made sure he didn’t skip any meals
• Got him into smoothies

He gained 10 pounds over the winter, and is now more solid up top. While his height is below average, his weight is above average. He’s also throwing harder.

2. Use J-Bands to Add Speed to Your Son’s Fastball

J-Bands should be part of your workout.

J-Bands should be a staple of your workouts. Not only will the resistance bands allow your kid to throw harder, but they’ve been shown to cut down on arm injuries. When used correctly, they encourage elbow and shoulder flexibility, while building strength throughout the arm.

When you go to almost any baseball club nowadays, you’ll see them incorporating j-bands into their drills. You’ll also see them in Major League bullpens. I recommend for younger pitchers, you try use them three times a week for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Try also to limit the number of J-Band drills you do. If your son is anything like mine, he’s not going to be in love with the J-Bands. If I limit the J-Band drills, he can stay focused. However, when I go all out with them, I lose him and waste both of our time.

Get a Door Hook to Secure the J-Bands

I didn’t have any obvious place in my house to serve as a hook for the J-Bands. I started by hooking them to the metal on the bottom of our reclining couch. My wife hated this! It also didn’t provide a good angle for the resistance bands.

I eventually invested in a cheap “door anchor.” This works beautifully. You open a door, stick the anchor through the crack of the door by a hinge, and close the door. And voila, you have a solid hook to attach the J-Bands.

3. Use Medicine Ball Drills to Help Your Son Throw Harder

Medicine balls are great to add explosiveness, which translates to pitching velocity. They also help teach your kid about the rotational movements key for both pitching and hitting.

The key to the medicine ball is finding one that’s not too heavy or too light. For my 11-year old, six pounds was just right.

Try the following drills:

• Over the head and down. Have your son bring the ball up over his head, and then throw it down between his legs as hard as he can.
• Pitching shoulder and out. Have your son bring the ball up to his pitching shoulder and push out across his body, rotating his hips.
• Chest and hold. Have your son hold the ball to his chest, and then rotate his hips, holding onto the ball.

Do three sets of each of these drills with about a minute break between sets. Also, check out the above YouTube clip for additional medicine ball drills.

For more about improving rotational movement for baseball, see The 4 Best Baseball Batting Aids (No. 3 is Free).

Be Cautious with Using Plyo Balls to Add Pitching Velocity

You have to be careful when using weighted balls with younger pitchers. If used incorrectly, you can really mess up their arms. If you’re going to use them, stick with the lighter balls and basic drills.

When your kids get older, they’ll move up to the heavier balls, but for now err on the side of safety.

4. Hire a Private Pitching Coach to Clean Up Your Son’s Pitching Mechanics to Help Him Throw Harder and Avoid Injuries

Chances are your son’s not doing something right with his pitching mechanics that’s affecting velocity. With my son, there was a lot of stuff, including:

• He wasn’t bring back his pitching arm far enough after breaking his hands
• When he released the ball, he wasn’t pulling enough with his glove hand
• He wasn’t stepping far enough down the pitching mound
• His leg lift was too straight up and down, and he wasn’t bringing in his leg to his hip
• He was breaking his hands to soon in his motion

The better your kid’s mechanics, the more he can harness his power. Also, cleaner mechanics guard against arm injury.

It’s not always easy to find a good pitching coach. We started out by having our hitting coach also help us with pitching. He did his best, but he wasn’t a pitching coach.

When my son was 9, a dad from our club at the time recommended a guy who had pitched in the minors and gave private lessons. It was $50 per half hour at an indoor facility. He helped us for a couple months, but then the pandemic came and we lost touch.

This winter, we switched to a young pitching coach at our club for $40 per half hour. It was fine, and he worked him through drills, but he didn’t really drill down to the granular elements of my son’s motion.

If you’re like us, you’ll find you pick up tips from various people along the way, and your son’s motion is a work in progress.

Puberty is Coming

Back to genetics, you also have to remember that you never really know how tall your kid is going to be until he goes through puberty.

Shorter kids can sprout up, and some of the bigger kids will stop growing and end up with average builds. One person told me that you can’t really project how fast your kid will throw in high school until they hit puberty.

So while all these strategies will help increase your son’s pitching velocity, you also have to be patient and wait to see how he fills out. Don’t stress out about velocity! Easier said than done, I know.

HAVE ANY OTHER TIPS FOR HELPING INCREASE PITCHING VELOCITY? LET US KNOW IN THE COMMENTS.

For more on pitching, see:

• Is the Cooperstown Baseball Tournament Safe for Players?
• What You Need to Know About Little League Elbow
• Is the Circle Change Dangerous for Youth Pitchers?
• Are You Too Small to be a Great Pitcher?
• Why I Don’t Let My Son Pitch in Little League
• Pitching and Head Injuries: What You Need to Know
• How to Make Sure Your Kid Isn’t Overpitched in Baseball

For information about the emotional side of baseball, see:

• Should You “Reclassify” Your Kid for High School Baseball?
• What’s Your Baseball End Game?
• How to Manage Your Kid’s Baseball Tantrums and Meltdowns
• 4 Ways to Respond to a Coach Playing Favorites
• How to Stop Being a Crazy Baseball Dad
• How to Be a Good Baseball Dad in the Backyard
• Is It Now Fashionable to Hate On Baseball Dads?
• Are Local Little Leagues Bad for Baseball?

For information on hitting, see:

• How to Get Out of a Hitting Slump
• 4 Best Baseball Batting Aids (No. 3 is Free)
• 4 Hitting Drills You Need to Do Before Every Game
• 4 Old School Baseball Drills You Need to Be Using
• 6 Mistakes to Avoid When Buying a Baseball Bat

For baseball speed drills, see:

• How to Make Your Kid Faster for Baseball

For GameChanger help, read How to Scorekeep in GameChanger’s Team Manager App.