10 Medicine Ball Drills to Increase Pitching Velocity

💥 10 Medicine Ball Drills That Will Blow Up Your Pitching Velocity

If you’re looking to throw harder, dominate on the mound, and build explosive strength like a pro — medicine ball training is your secret weapon. These drills are designed to target the exact muscle groups that power up your delivery and sharpen your mechanics.

Whether you're a pitcher chasing 90+ or a coach developing the next ace, these 10 explosive med ball drills will help you unlock rotational torque, lower-body drive, and full-body transfer — the keys to elite velocity.

🔁 1. Rotational Side Throws

📌 Targets: Obliques, hips, core
How to Do It:
Stand sideways to a wall, knees bent slightly. Hold the med ball at your back hip. Rotate your hips and shoulders explosively, slamming the ball into the wall. Catch or reset.

Why It Works:
This drill simulates the hip-to-shoulder separation that elite pitchers use to generate torque. By strengthening rotational speed and control through the core, you create the whip-like motion that fuels higher velocity.

🚀 2. Run & Gun Shotput Throws

📌 Targets: Total body
How to Do It:
Hold the ball at shoulder height like a shotput. Take 2–3 aggressive steps into a crow hop. Fire the ball forward using your whole body.

Why It Works:
This is a velocity builder through and through. It trains linear momentum into rotational acceleration, just like a max-effort pitch. Helps pitchers feel what it’s like to throw with full-body sync and intent — a must for adding MPH.

🔨 3. Overhead Slams

📌 Targets: Core, shoulders, glutes
How to Do It:
Lift the ball overhead, then slam it straight down with your core and hips. Reset and repeat.

Why It Works:
Pitching isn't just about acceleration — it's about controlled deceleration too. This drill builds explosive downward force through your core and shoulders while training you to stabilize and finish the pitch strong, reducing injury risk and improving follow-through speed.

⚖️ 4. Split Squat Med Ball Throws

📌 Targets: Legs, core, balance
How to Do It:
Start in a lunge with the ball at chest level. Lower into a split squat and explosively throw the ball forward.

Why It Works:
Teaches you how to generate power from your back leg and brace on your front leg — critical phases in the pitching motion. Builds lower-body drive, front-side strength, and balance during the stride and landing.

🧨 5. MB Slam to Vertical Jump

📌 Targets: Full kinetic chain
How to Do It:
Slam the ball down, then immediately jump upward. Land soft, reset, repeat.

Why It Works:
Pitching requires full-body explosion from the ground up. This drill combines downward force and upward propulsion, helping pitchers develop the vertical power needed to load the back leg, drive forward, and finish with authority.

💥 6. Supine Overhead Throws

📌 Targets: Core, lats, triceps, shoulders
How to Do It:
Lie on your back, knees bent. Hold the ball behind your head. Throw it forward using your core and upper body. Reset and repeat.

Why It Works:
This isolates and strengthens the core-to-arm force chain used during pitch acceleration. The goal is to teach the body how to produce snap and velocity from the midline outward, which directly translates to late arm speed.

🔨 7. Med Ball Slams

📌 Targets: Core, shoulders, glutes, hamstrings
How to Do It:
Raise the ball overhead. Slam it downward with your whole body. Reset and repeat.

Why It Works:
Slams build hip hinge power, trunk control, and arm speed. They're a key way to train aggressive movement patterns that also teach how to decelerate and recover — vital for pitchers finishing with control and explosiveness.

🔥 8. Squat Press & Throw

📌 Targets: Quads, glutes, delts, triceps, core
How to Do It:
Start in a squat, holding the ball at chest height. As you stand up, press and throw the ball explosively forward.

Why It Works:
This develops ground-force transfer — the ability to convert leg drive into upper-body velocity. Pitchers who can connect leg strength to arm speed see major gains on the radar gun.

🦵 9. Single-Leg Squat with Med Ball

📌 Targets: Glutes, hamstrings, hip stabilizers, core
How to Do It:
Hold the ball, stand on one leg, and squat slowly. Add a slight twist with the ball if needed. Switch sides and repeat.

Why It Works:
Pitchers spend critical milliseconds on one leg — either during lift or finish. This drill builds single-leg control and postural strength, improving mechanical stability and stride direction.

🎯 10. Wall Ball Chest Pass

📌 Targets: Chest, triceps, core
How to Do It:
Stand facing a wall, hold the ball at your chest, and pass it into the wall quickly and repeatedly.

Why It Works:
This trains fast upper-body push and quick arm extension from a strong front side. Great for simulating the final extension phase of your delivery and adding late life to your fastball.

  • ⚾ Why Medicine Ball Training Is a Game-Changer for Pitchers

    Pitching isn't just about arm strength — it's about total-body power, balance, coordination, and timing. Every pitch begins from the ground up, moving through the legs, core, and finally to the fingertips. That’s where medicine ball training shines.

    Medicine ball drills mimic the rotational, explosive movements of pitching while adding resistance and speed. They:

    ✅ Train fast-twitch muscle fibers for velocity
    ✅ Improve rotational strength and hip/shoulder separation
    ✅ Build explosive force from the legs through the core
    ✅ Reinforce proper throwing patterns and sequencing
    ✅ Boost balance and postural control under stress

    Whether you’re looking to light up the radar gun or stay healthy across a long season, med ball training is a proven, powerful tool that transfers directly to the mound.

    🔥 Don’t Skip the Warm-Up & Cooldown — Here's Why

    Before you throw a single med ball, your body needs to be primed and mobile. And when you're done, recovery is just as crucial for gains.

    🧼 Pre-Workout Warm-Up (5–7 Minutes)

    Always begin with a dynamic warm-up to increase blood flow, activate your core, and prep your joints.
    Recommended:

    • Arm circles (20 each direction)

    • Bodyweight squats (10)

    • Walking lunges (10 each leg)

    • High knees (10 each leg)

    • Hip mobility drills

    • Band shoulder activation

    💡 A good warm-up improves explosiveness and reduces injury risk during ballistic drills like slams and throws.

    🧊 Post-Workout Cooldown (5–10 Minutes)

    Once you're done blasting velocity drills, it’s time to reset the body.

    Cooldown should include:

    • Foam rolling: quads, hamstrings, glutes, lats

    • Static stretching: hold each stretch 20–30 seconds

    • Diaphragmatic breathing: 1–2 minutes deep belly breathing

    💡 A proper cooldown improves recovery, limits soreness, and preps you for the next throwing session.

    🧠 Bottom Line

    You can't train like a savage if you don't recover like a pro. Pairing these high-output med ball drills with smart warm-ups and cooldowns is how pitchers get stronger, stay healthier, and throw harder — season after season.


💥 Ready to Dominate?

This isn’t for the lazy. It’s for the athlete who shows up, locks in, and earns it.

👇 Download the exact PDF we use to train:

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