Relationship Between Pitch Velocity and Physical Fitness in Elite Baseball Pitchers

The purpose of this study was to determine the key physical conditions needed for a pitcher by studying the relationship between pitch velocity and a set of selected physical fitness variables. Seventeen baseball coaches and experts were recruited to recommend and select key variables determining pitchers’ physical fitness. After a three-round inquiry, 16 variables were identified. Internal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s α reliability) was 0.826 and the content validity ratio was 1. A total of 27 male elite baseball pitchers (22.97±4.01 years old), who came from Chinese professional teams, were tested by the 16 variables selected and their pitch velocity was determined after warm-up. The correlations between pitch velocity and the other 15 variables were computed. The coefficient of the correlation among pitch velocity and max distance long toss, jump lunge with load, and shoulder internal rotation was 0.628 (p<.05), 0.369 (p<.05), and -0.312(p<.05), respectively. A follow-up regression analysis found that three variables explained 42.9% of the pitch velocity variance. The pitch velocity was moderately related to their max distance long toss and somewhat correlated with jump lunge with load and shoulder internal rotation.