The Role 'Intent' Plays In Throwing Hard And Increasing Pitching Velocity

A few months ago, Baseball Intellect (www.baseball-intellect.com) wrote a nice article about intent and how it applies to throwing harder and increasing pitching velocity. Intent is defined as how hard one is trying to throw the ball, and it is a major and often overlooked factor in producing velocity.

You often hear about relievers, especially closers, "letting it loose" because they can throw to their max almost every pitch, while starters must pace themselves so they can last 6+ innings. This relates to intent. But another area where you'll see a pitcher's intent vary is when a pitcher returns from injury.

Baseball Intellect provides a nice video analysis of Brad Penny's return from an injury and highlights the role intent plays in his comeback and subsequent drop in velocity. The article also points out 5 key areas in the pitching delivery where a pitcher can maximize intent and throw harder.

Do you throw with intent? Click here to finish reading this article...

Comments

[Jeff (Corsairkid)]

That side by side video was really neat to see what they are talking about. It makes a lot of sense!

[Thijs (from the Netherlands)]

One of the possible disadvantages I see in throwing with many intent (like the right gif-image on the baseball-intellect page) is that it's much harder to field a ball coming back from the batter, especially with the extra hard fastball. Because your not in a good fielding position and maby even mis the moment of batcontact.

On the other hand you will receive less balls back in the field.

Nice article!