The worst mistake you can do is listen to the "Internet Experts"! The second mistake you can make is not finding a good pitching coach in your area. It will cost some money but you will save your arm and shoulder in the long run. A Winter's worth of good lessons should increase your speed and get your mechanics in order.

Oh and if anyone tells you to "push off the rubber" to gain speed, walk - no - run away from that person! Your legs are there to balance you and keep your motion stabilized not to "push" off the rubber. You are correct in keeping them strong as once you "post up", you need strong quads to keep the forward motion in check and keep you going throughout the long innings.

The best investment I ever made was seeking the advise of a good pitching instructor for my son. He was a tremendous (and feared) pitcher all through his youth and High School. He has no time for baseball in College unfortunately, but he says the same thing about seeking the advise of one who really knows.

Good Luck.

It is a good thing Lincecum didn't follow the bolded advise.  

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Lincecum mechanics are not as unorthodox as you think. A lot of elements of his mechanics are based on great pitchers including Nolan Ryan and Sandy Koufax. Papa Lincecum contributed as well. Lincecum's mechanics are based on using his entire body to throw and not just his arm. I actually started with the same premise with my eldest son 8 years ago when he was 8 and that premise was to use the entire body to throw. Alan Jaeger believes my son will be breaking 90 mph by next year. He reached 88 mph several times during the spring, so he doesn't have far to go. My son is now 1.5 inches taller and 15 pounds heavier, so we'll see where he is in the fall. BTW, Alan Jaeger works with a lot of current pros, including one that has reached 104 mph.

Getting back on track, a pitching coach that knows what he is doing can perform wonders. One that does not, can destroy an arm.

Type in ,Dick Mills Explosive pitching , follow his advice and you will improve your velocity considerally more than three miles per. hour.

there are many negative mental attitudes and excuses when it comes to change or making adjustments to better one's abilities,such as I can't do it that way,Tim Linsecom's way is suited just for him,grantid i certainly would like to see him use the straight change with his fast ball ,Wow, would he ever have hitter losing their jocks,throwing their bats into the stands or the outfield,so to speak, the straight change is and always has been the best pitch in baseball or soft ball[period] also changing speeds alleviates a lot of strain on your arm,and shoulder and keeps the batters timing off Whitey, Ford was a perfict example,Greg Maddux is a perfict example, keep the hitters off balance and timing and you will be a very successful pitcher, I see pitcher after pitcher with horrible body positions ,arm slots,standing on the crane position too long losing balance, hesitating during their stride, not learning to stride the length of their body at least, opening up too soon, six foot sixers striding so short they fall over to the side for lack of balance, standing up straight at release point and jerking their arm up violently after releasing the ball which does not allow the arm to relax momentarily after release, conseqeuently all of the power and force that has built up during the strong momentum built up during the pitchers delivery towards the catcher forces all of that power to dissipate into the small muscles of the arm and upper body instead of the large muscles of the lower body,follow through properly, let that shoulder get to it's proper forward position,let the arm get to it's proper position at the stride leg knee position so it can momentarily relax and let all of the pitching body power force dissipate into the large muscles of the lower body instead of the smaller muscles of the upper body again one absolutely cannot make adjustments to better one's self if you dwell on negative thoughts, as was mentioned Tim Linsecum's pitching will show you Nolan Ryan and the great left hander who pitched for the Dodgers,,I cannot recall his name , get in on Dick Mills pitching video clips and you will view several video clips which should be very helpful to you,Stay away from the heavy ball drills, the towel drill too much long toss , flat ground drills etc. if you want to improve your pitching warm up properly and get your body and arm ready to pitch then get on that mound and go to work,the mound is where you are going to pitch from in games not on flat ground or by wasting your time doing towel drills, throwing heavy weighted balls etc.

Training must correlate directly to the movements that take place in whatever you are attempting to accomplish. SPORTS SPECIFIC TRAINING GET ON THAT MOUND and WORK, WORK, WORK.

Work at all other positions also and become as versatile as possible then your possibilities of playing regularly as you get into high school, college and possibly professional baseball are enhanced tremendousl.

Work with Dick Mills advice and you will learn to use your body instead of just your arm which will improve your pitching velocity tremendously along with your control.

Let me know if i have been of any help to you

Don Ervin,

My two sons,

I find it refreshing  to acquire different opinions and knowledge from people .

Although I firmly believe a great deal in Dick Mills very knowledgeable out put which comes from highly reguarded scientific resourses etc.I do know that I would be totally out of context to say that his methods are the only methods to follow,His advice on momentum pitching and getting the body to move properly so the arm doesen't do all of the work during the pitching movement towards the target is as good as it can be, I observe throwers over and over who take all day and move like a snail in their body movement to their target, they stutter step, arm hitch,short stride, stand up straight and never finish out into a proper pitching position mainly because they have absolutely no idea of what a proper finish or follow through position is,many of these throwers are in the major leagues, some of them are sitting on the side lines waiting for their arms to recover from surgury because of their faulty throwing or eventually will be.

as far as Nolan Ryan being Tom House's project,I believe Nolan was  Already as highly successful as he could be before Tom house arrived on the scene,correct me if i am  mistaken, although from what i have been told by a friend of mine who pitched forTexas that Tom  did offer him and Nolan some good advice, my friend also told me that when he was there ,due to Tom's methods of long toss and flat ground practice their pitchers acquired and carried around sore arms.

I associate Mills name with Ryan's because ,Mills advocates Nolan's,Lincecum's along with other momentum pitchers in his video clips to demonstrate how momentum pitching should be accomplished,I interpret Mills attitude towards long toss as, as he says too many aspiring young  pitchers spend too much time doing long toss and other things when they should spend more time working on pitching doing bull pens and mound work and as i believe from my past experiences of which as a young player i spent many hours throwing  long distances from the outfield and i am convinced that consequently by doing so it helped my throwing tremendously but i am also equally convinced that had i just been a pitcher and spent more time  on the mound and less time long throwing i would have played minor league baseball as a pitcher instead of an outfielder although i did spot pitch a little, maybe it was for the best since i have a home run record  from one league i played in.Yes, Mills does advocate long toss, but only to the extent of warming up' not as a time consuming practice session.

I clicked in on Alan Jaeger and i agree with you wholeheartedly, he is an experienced and knowledgeable baseball person and i certainly will keep viewing his information as i pick the brains of as many knowledgeable baseball and hockey people as i can so when i teach and coach i can bring to my student's not only what i have learned mentally and physically from my playing experiences but also from the best and most knowledgeable experts in both sports.I do not see the correalation between all the time i spent throwing and now being able to adequetly throw batting practice to our local college summer league players here who play in the Mink league, at age[7],my arm never gets sore throwing 60-100 balls per.day.

It's good communicating with you.

kom_ervin @yahoo.com

This is the worst advise when it comes to throwing or pitching. There are several studies that state that static stretching actually causes a decrease in muscle strength. The best way to stretch a muscle is through use. You could also cause laxity in the shoulder causing possible dislocation.

My son, who learned his routine from Alan Jaeger, begins his throwing routine by 1st running then arm circles (palms up with 3 ball in each hand). This gets the blood flowing. Then he does warm ups with the Jaeger bands. He then begins his long toss. He starts nice and easy slowly going away from his partner making sure to use full form and his hips in each throw. He does use a nice easy crow-hop with each throw. This is when the stretching occurs...As he gets out away from his partner he does look to get the maximum distance, he elevates his throws, looking to comfortably stretch his arm. He can throw well over 300 feet. He's had throws over 320 feet. When you reach the maximum distance is when the real work begins. This is called the pull-down phase. You try to reach your partner on a line meaning you are throwing through an imaginary cut-off man to reach your partner with no bounce. You approach your partner 10 feet with each throw until you reach 60 feet. Many pitchers will begin their warm up at this point or throw a bullpen. My son's fastball is in the mid 80's with occasional 87's & 88's. I have found that the form for pull-downs is very similar to strong pitching mechanics. When my son seems to rush his mechanics or his velocity seems to be off, a few crow-hop pull-downs from the mound seem to fix it and increase his velocity.  In a nutsell, long-toss teaches you to use your whole body to throw.

A pitching coach that knows what he is doing can also spot mechanical flaws and throwing inefficiencies that could give one more than 3 mph.