Softball Conditioning - Functional Training Increases Throwing Velocity

It's officially confirmed - proper softball conditioning using the right exercises -  functional exercises (aka ''sports-specific" exercises) - increases arm strength and throwing velocity.

I've known a long time that strength training helped to increase arm strength and throwing velocity.

However,  I decided that it would be nice to gather some scientific evidence to substantiate this claim.

After doing some research,  I can tell you that there is no doubt enough studies to show that proper strength training using functional exercises definitely helps increase arm strength and throwing velocity.

To learn more about what is functional training -  the  type of strength training that most elite strength coaches use today with their athletes - click on the link to read a great article about it that I wrote a few  years ago.

If you want to increase your throwing velocity, you should definitely integrate strength training into your training regimen and make sure that you use functional exercises to get the best results.

Some references:

Wooden MJ, Greenfield B, Johanson M, Litzelman L, Mundrane M, Donatelli RA. Effects of strength training on throwing velocity and shoulder muscle performance in teenage baseball players. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 1992;15(5):223-8.

Prokopy MP, Ingersoll CD, Nordenschild E, Katch FI, Gaesser GA, Weltman A. Closed-kinetic chain upper-body training improves throwing performance of NCAA Division I softball players. J Strength Cond Res. 2008 Nov;22(6):1790-8.