What happens if you stride too short?

How long is your stride? It should generally be about 77% to 87% of your height. For instance, I'm 6'3" and my stride was about 5'5". I'd mark it off in the bullpen with a hash mark, and aim to land in the general vicinity on all my fastballs.

A nice long stride will enable you to throw hard. It also enables you to be more deceptive. That's because the longer you stride, the shorter the distance to home plate you actually release the baseball -- giving the hitter less time to recognize the pitch. This is known as perceived pitching velocity.

For a pitcher, 1 foot = 3 mph perceived pitching velocity. This means that for every foot closer to home plate you release the baseball, it approaches the plate 3 mph quicker to the batter's eye. You can see why it makes such a difference.

Here are some excellent video clips of pitchers with long strides:

• Nolan Ryan
• Roger Clemens
• Curt Schilling
• Tim Linececum