The reason this kid didn’t throw hard enough was on purpose.

He just didn’t realize it yet.

I had a kid fly out a weekend ago from Texas. His Dad explained how he was losing confidence and motivation to keep playing so he thought he’d give it one last chance. So they booked a last minute flight and spent the weekend with me.  It didn’t take long to see exactly why he was struggling with velocity and it had nothing to do with genetics, mechanics or arm strength. It usually never does. As

I watched him get loose it was apparent he’d been over-coached on the lower-half. He was doing exactly as he was taught.

I told him to stop throwing. I’d seen enough.

I called him over to the big screen tv and we watched the video I’d taken of him throwing and started by asking him a few questions.

Within minutes it was exactly what I thought.

• He was moving poorly, on purpose.
• His arm was slowing down, on purpose.
• His lower half was out of sync, on purpose.
• He was throwing with all arm, on purpose.

Honestly, I was pumped because I knew this kid would see a jump in velocity really quickly and we’re talking minutes, not months.

1. The reason he had poor form was due to how his lower half was functioning.
2. The reason his lower half was functioning poorly was because of his purpose for moving the lower half.
3. He was pushing from his back foot and delaying his shoulder rotation to try and gain hip shoulder separation.

He thought that’s what he was supposed to do.  Like I said, he had bad mechanics on purpose.

The only thing he needed to change was his positioning of his back foot on the rubber due to his foot structure. (the feet and hips are highly integrated) Once he did that he didn’t have to think anymore, it happened naturally.

Here’s the secret..

• Form follows function. Function follows purpose.
• Whenever you change the purpose behind the movement you automatically change how the body functions to move which changes the form.

What about that? He flew all the way from Dallas to Huntington Beach CA and the only change we made, was his mind. And it worked flawlessly.

1. His velocity jumped from 81 mph to 85 (topped 86)
2. His lower-half suddenly worked almost flawlessly
3. His confidence could be hardly be contained inside the building

And all we did was change his purpose.

You see that’s the cool thing. Once you start with the brain, it’s easy to see night and day changes in the middle of the afternoon.

But, 99% of pitching coaches don’t know this and instead waste time, energy and effort on…

• 6 month weighted ball programs that hardly ever transfer velocity.
• Pitching drills that actually cause more problems than they fix.

I could go on and on but the point is, once you find the cause of the problem the problem most often fixes itself. It’s always something very small that ends up causing bigger problems.  But the biggest problem is…

Most players are moving poorly and throwing slower on purpose and don’t even know it.

Who knows, this might even be you.

If you need help, reserve your spot at one of my 3-Day Core Velocity Programs and learn how easy it really is to throw harder, on purpose!

Trust what you FEEL!

Lantz Wheeler