Brent Pourciau, M.S.

🔥 Unlock Your Full Potential with TopVelocity’s 3X Velocity Camp—Now Featuring Our EXCLUSIVE Live & Train Model! 🔥 🚀 Ready to skyrocket your baseball career and throw like you’ve never thrown before? This is not just another training camp; it’s a LIFE-CHANGING experience! 🏠 Why just train when you can LIVE & TRAIN? Our complete training facility now offers HOUSING OPTIONS so you can breathe, eat, and live baseball—all day, every day! What’s in it for YOU? 🎯 World-class training using SCIENCE-BACKED methodologies that have resurrected careers and transformed rookies into legends. 🏋️‍♂️ Gain unparalleled access to TopVelocity facilities! 📚 Tap into a wealth of knowledge from seasoned pros and experts in the field of kinesiology and sports science. 🍏 Nutrition plans tailored just for you—because a great athlete needs great fuel. 💤 Comfortable and convenient housing amenities so you can focus 100% on your training. Bonus Features 📈 Real-time progress tracking and analytics so you can SEE and FEEL the improvement. 📹 Video breakdowns of your techniques to make micro-adjustments that lead to MACRO improvements. 🌍 Join a community of like-minded individuals who are just as committed to excellence as you are. 👉 Secure your spot NOW and take the first step toward a brighter future in baseball! It’s more than training; it’s a transformation! 💥 Want to be a part of this game-changing experience? Visit topvelocity.net/3x-camp and BOOK YOUR HOUSING today! 💥 🌟 Trust the Process. Experience the Transformation. Become the Legend. ONLY with TopVelocity’s 3X Velocity Camp. 🌟

17 years old. Came to Top Velocity as a catcher. Never even thought about pitching seriously… Now Brennan Melancon is sitting 90 MPH after jumping from 85 to 90 in the Top Velocity system. 🔥 This is what happens when athletes unlock elite mechanics, explosive power, and high-level development. Brennan found a whole new future on the mound. If you’re a player looking to increase velocity, develop your mechanics, and maximize your potential, train with us at Top Velocity or join our online programs. 👉 topvelocity.org #TopVelocity #PitchingVelocity #BaseballDevelopment #90MPH #BaseballTraining #PitchingCoach #HighVelocity #BaseballPlayer #VelocityProgram #BaseballLife #PitcherDevelopment #ThrowGas #TopV #BaseballRecruiting

15 numbers predict your son's fastball. Coaches measure zero of them. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ After 1,500+ professional athlete evaluations and a decade of peer-reviewed research, the XGBoost model behind TopVelocity has identified the exact physical traits that predict pitching velocity. Ranked by Feature Importance. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🥇 BROAD JUMP — FI 0.575 Horizontal explosive power. The foundation of the kinetic chain. 🥈 LATERAL BROAD JUMP — FI 0.553 Hip-drive force. The transfer from leg to trunk. 🥉 GRIP STRENGTH — FI 0.494 343 MLB/MiLB players. The hand is the last link. 📖 Hoffman et al. · PMID 19826310 4️⃣ VERTICAL JUMP — FI 0.489 Concentric impulse. The explosive output. 5️⃣ WINGSPAN — FI 0.459 Extension at release. Perceived velocity. 📖 Mercier 2020 · PMID 36809769 6️⃣ SHOULDER ER/IR RATIO — FI 0.420 4× injury risk if < 66%. And mph leak. 📖 Cross et al. 2023 · PMID 35333195 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Your son's coach grades his bullpen. The model grades his potential. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🧠 Free. 60 seconds. No credit card. Run the same XGBoost model used to evaluate MLB prospects on your son tonight. 🔗 topvelocity.org/velocity-calcu… ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 💬 Comment "MODEL" and I'll DM you the direct link. 💾 Save this for the next time someone says "just throw more bullpens." 📲 Tag the dad who's spending $1,000/yr on lessons that don't measure any of this. — Brent Pourciau, M.S. Kinesiology · PhD Health Sciences 20 years · 10,000+ athletes · 100+ MLB draft picks 1,500+ professional evaluations #PitchingVelocity #BaseballTraining #TopVelocity #MLBDraft #D1Baseball #PitcherDevelopment #BaseballRecruiting #YouthBaseball #HighSchoolBaseball #BaseballDad #ThrowHarder #BaseballScience #XGBoost #SportsScience #TravelBall #PitchingCoach #BaseballLife #PerformanceScience #VelocityTraining #BaseballAnalytics

🇧🇸 Chad McKenzie putting up ELITE numbers at TopVelocity. 48 MPH with a 2 lb med ball is high-level rotational power and one of the strongest indicators of explosive pitching potential. This is the type of velocity transfer we see in athletes who are building serious arm speed and elite force production. Chad represents the Bahamas National Team and continues to prove why high-level power training changes the game. ⚾🔥 Most pitchers focus only on mechanics. The best in the world train power, speed, and biomechanics together. That’s how velocity jumps happen. If you want to throw harder, move better, and develop like elite athletes, train with the system trusted by professional players around the world. ➡️ Get started now at TopVelocity.org #TopVelocity #PitchingVelocity #BaseballTraining #MedBallTraining #VelocityTraining

⚾️ HOW DOES YOUR VELO STACK UP? ⚾️ Most players have NO IDEA if they’re behind… on track… or actually elite. Here’s a REALISTIC breakdown of average vs elite pitching velocity by age 👇 (No hype. No ego. Just data.) 🔥 The truth nobody tells you: Velocity gaps DON’T close by “just throwing more.” They close with: ✅ Better mechanics ✅ More force production ✅ Smarter training ✅ Intentional development at the RIGHT age 📉 Most players plateau because they train randomly. 📈 Elite players follow a progressive, evidence-based system. Elite velocity isn’t just genetics. It’s how efficiently you transfer force through the kinetic chain. ⚡️ That’s exactly what we train at TopVelocity: • Mechanical efficiency • Explosive force production • Arm health & durability • Long-term athlete development 🎯 WANT TO KNOW YOUR TRUE VELOCITY POTENTIAL? We built a FREE Velocity Calculator that predicts your projected MPH ceiling based on: ✔️ Age ✔️ Strength markers ✔️ Mechanics ✔️ Biomechanical efficiency Powered by data from: 🧬 10,000+ trained athletes ⚾️ 100+ MLB draft picks In under 60 seconds, you’ll discover: ✅ Your projected peak velocity ✅ How you compare to elite players your age ✅ What’s holding you back ✅ Your custom roadmap to close the gap 🔗 Run your FREE Velocity Report now: TopVelocity.org (Link in bio 👆) 💬 COMMENT: AGE / CURRENT VELO / GOAL VELO Example: 15 / 78 / 85+ 📌 SAVE this post to track your progress 👥 TAG a teammate who needs this 🚀 Then go find out if you’re really elite… or just average pretending. #TopVelocity #PitchingVelocity #ThrowHarder #BaseballDevelopment #YouthBaseball

@jasonkinnard It's minimum because 86% of the energy going through the arm is coming from the trunk so more trunk momentum is key for arm health.

@TopVelocity Thanks. The 2 graphics you posted are the confusion. One shows “0” as vertical and one shows 0 as horizontal. I get that 36 from vertical is greater than 28 and therefore better. But is there a point where too much forward lean is bad? Is 36 from vertical the ideal or minimum?

Stay tall is lying to your kid. The single most cited number in pitching biomechanics isn't velocity. It's not stride. It's not even ground force. It's 36°. That's the forward trunk tilt at ball release in elite pitchers (Fleisig, Barrentine & Andrews — J Biomechanics, 1995). Slow throwers? 28°. Pitchers who've had SLAP repairs? 30°. MLB starters? 36–45°. And every 10° of forward tilt earns ~1.5 mph (Solomito et al. — J Shoulder & Elbow Surgery, 2018). Here's what the numbers actually say 👇 📐 20° tilt at release → ~76 mph ceiling 📐 28° tilt at release → ~82 mph ceiling 📐 36° tilt at release → ~88 mph ceiling 📐 45° tilt at release → ~94 mph ceiling Stodden et al. (2005) confirmed forward trunk tilt is one of only 3 kinematic predictors significantly correlated with velocity in multivariate analysis. That puts it in the same tier as stride length and lead-knee extension. Translation: if your son is "staying tall" at release, his arm is doing the work his trunk is supposed to do. That's how labrums tear. That's how velocity stalls at 78. The fix isn't a cue. It's a video. 📱 Film one pitch from the side 🤖 Upload to MechanicsDNA Mini ✅ Get your son's exact trunk tilt at release — free No credit card. No sign-up wall. 9 checkpoint grades. The same AI used to evaluate MLB prospects. 🔗 topvelocity.org/mechanicsdna-m… (link in bio) 💬 Comment "TILT" and I'll DM you the direct link. Drop a 📐 in the comments if you're filming tonight. Tag a baseball dad who needs to see this. — Brent Pourciau, M.S. Kinesiology, PhD Health Sciences 20 years. 10,000+ athletes. 100+ MLB draft picks. #pitchingvelocity #baseballtraining #pitchingmechanics #baseballdad #baseballparents #travelball #highschoolbaseball #throwharder #pitchinglife #baseballrecruiting #kineticchain #baseballperformance #d1baseball #pitchersbelike #baseballlife #pitchingcoach #velocitytraining #90mphfastball #mlbdraft #baseballmom #youthbaseball #collegebaseball #baseballworkout #armcare #pitchersoninstagram

This is the strength-to-power conversion problem that almost every underdeveloped pitcher hits — and most coaches don't recognize it. The neuromuscular explanation: new max strength often temporarily disrupts motor patterns. The nervous system hasn't yet learned to rapidly recruit those bigger motor units in the explosive, ballistic pattern that pitching requires. The research supports exactly what you did. Chiu et al. (2022) found that explosive power metrics (broad jump, vertical jump, sprint ratios) outpredicted raw strength in projecting pitching velocity. Raw strength creates the engine capacity; power training teaches the body to use that engine at the mound. The Broad Jump in particular — FI 0.575 in our XGBoost model of 1,500+ pro evals — is the best single predictor of who actually converts strength to velocity at the plate. Hunter's story is textbook kinetic chain development done right. Curious where your pitcher sits vs. pro prospects his age? topvelocity.org/velocity-calcu… — free.

How Hunter Went From 90 MPH to 94 MPH. He was in the low 80s, probably topping around 84 miles an hour. He was skinny and weak, so the first thing he needed was a strength accumulation phase. The interesting thing was that his mechanics were actually really good. He moved extremely well, but because of his injury, he just wasn’t able to throw hard. So in the beginning, we really hammered strength development. But after getting stronger, he actually started throwing a little slower than before, and he began to panic. He was like, “I’m getting stronger. Why isn’t this translating to velocity?” The issue was that his body wasn’t used to the new physical capabilities yet. Your body needs time to learn how to use a better engine. So once we felt like he had built enough strength, we transitioned him into a power phase. The focus became turning all that new strength into explosive movement on the mound. It was about learning how to actually apply that force efficiently in the pitching delivery. And once he got into that power phase, something started to click. His delivery began syncing up better, the timing improved, and now he could finally use the engine he had built. That’s when he got a massive velocity jump.

Great framing. The biomechanics research supports the elbow-first pattern for velocity. Werner et al. (AJSM, 2008) found that "forearm flyout" — which occurs more in ball-first mechanics — creates both velocity loss AND increased valgus torque on the UCL. The elbow-first pattern allows the scapula to load properly and the kinetic chain to sequence through the trunk before the arm fires. Ball-first patterns tend to rush arm action, which means the lower half and trunk haven't finished accelerating before the arm is already committed. The nuance you're pointing to — working WITH the player — is correct. But the end-goal should still be optimizing kinetic chain sequencing. "Natural" doesn't always equal "efficient." Curious: do you assess grip strength and lower-half power metrics with your throwers? Those often predict who can tolerate the arm stress from suboptimal patterns. topvelocity.org has a free assessment tool for this.

Every thrower is different. The job as a coach isn't to force every kid into the same mold. It's to understand WHO they are as a player. Their position. Their natural arm slot. Their body. When we stop putting athletes in a box and start working WITH their natural mechanics, that's when real development happens. We should be optimizing throwing patterns by meeting each player where they are, not where some textbook says they should be. Know your player. Know their natural slot. Build from there. 🧢⚾ Shout out to Drew Walsh from @f.a.s.t_developmentsd who does great work with infielders in San Diego and was the originator of this quality content.  #baseball #baseballdrills #baseballtraining #legendscamps #youthbaseball

Hot take: Your broad jump predicts your fastball better than any arm drill ever will. This surprised even me when we ran the XGBoost model on 1,500+ professional evaluations. Broad Jump had a feature importance of 0.575 — the highest predictor in the entire dataset. Higher than grip strength, vertical jump, wingspan, and sprint speed. Why? Because the broad jump measures horizontal explosive power — the exact same force vector you need to drive off the mound and transfer energy through the kinetic chain. Pitchers who broad jump ≥96" average 7+ mph more velocity than pitchers at ≤88". That's a career-defining gap sitting in your lower half. Want to know where YOUR broad jump ranks vs. professional prospects your age? Free velocity analysis → topvelocity.org/velocity-calcu… #BaseballTraining #PitchingVelocity #SportsScience #Baseball

All correct — and the research backs every point. Lyman et al. (AJSM, 2002) showed pitchers throwing >75 pitches/game were 2.5x more likely to need arm surgery. Fleisig et al. tracked youth pitchers over 10 years and confirmed year-round throwing without 4+ months off = significantly higher UCL injury rates. The "poor mechanics" piece is underrated though. When a young pitcher lacks the lower-half strength to power the kinetic chain, they recruit the arm. That's where the UCL pays the price. Addressing body composition, strength, and mechanics early is the actual prevention protocol. Not just rest — though rest matters too. The biggest mistake is parents thinking velocity = good mechanics. They often move in opposite directions. topvelocity.org has free tools to start assessing this properly.

Parent asked me why are so many youth pitchers getting Tommy John surgery? Year-round baseball, early specialization, high pitch counts, throwing too hard too young, poor mechanics, and not enough rest. And sometimes it’s bad luck.

The #1 mechanical factor separating 85 mph pitchers from 90+ mph pitchers isn't arm speed. It's hip-shoulder separation. Research by Stodden et al. (J Appl Biomech, 2005) showed that elite pitchers generate ~55° of hip-shoulder separation at stride foot contact. Below-average pitchers averaged only ~35°. That 20° difference = 5-8 mph of velocity — locked inside your body and inaccessible because the kinetic chain isn't firing in sequence. The sequence is: Lower half → pelvis → torso → shoulder → arm → ball. Break the sequence anywhere and you're bleeding velocity AND loading the arm to compensate. Are you throwing as hard as your body is physically capable of? Find out free: topvelocity.org/velocity-calcu… #Pitching #BaseballScience #KineticChain

Most pitchers never come close to their true velocity ceiling — and they never will without knowing where the gap is. New research from our 1,500+ professional athlete database shows these are the top predictors of fastball velocity (XGBoost feature importance): 🥇 Broad Jump (FI: 0.575) 🥈 Lateral Broad Jump (FI: 0.553) 🥉 Grip Strength (FI: 0.490) 4️⃣ Vertical Jump (FI: 0.489) 5️⃣ Wingspan (FI: 0.459) This isn't guessing. It's the same model MLB orgs use to evaluate prospects. Find out your exact velocity ceiling, percentile rank, and top limiters — free: 👉 topvelocity.org/velocity-calcu… #BaseballTraining #PitchingVelocity #SportScience

100% this. The data is damning: youth pitchers throwing 100+ pitches/day face 3.5x higher UCL injury risk (Fleisig et al., AJSM). The growth plates in a 12-year-old's elbow don't close until ~14-16. You're not building a pitcher — you're destroying one. The arm doesn't fail in the game. It fails months later when no one connects the dots. If you want to know where your kid actually stands physically and what their real velocity ceiling looks like, our free Velocity Potential Calculator at topvelocity.org uses the same XGBoost model built from 1,500+ professional evaluations. Protect the arm. Develop the pitcher.

To the 12U coach who threw a kid 55 pitches Saturday, then 81 more the next day: You should never coach youth baseball again. That’s not development. That’s abusing a 12-year-old arm. Sorry, but you’re part of why arm injuries keep rising.

@jasonkinnard If 0 degrees is vertical, then 36 degrees is leaning forward at release. 28 would be less forward.

@TopVelocity Can you clarify which angle is proposed to be 36? One pic shows it from vertical and one shows it 36 from horizontal. The complimentary angle would be 54 degrees, but which is the goal?

Your fastball is lying to you. The radar gun reads from 50 feet out. But the hitter doesn't stand at 50 feet — he stands at 60'6". And the closer you release the ball to him, the faster it gets to his bat. MLB calls it PERCEIVED VELOCITY. Statcast measures it. Hitters feel it. And almost no youth, high school, or college pitcher is training for it. Here's what the data says: ⚾ A 5'9" pitcher threw 83 mph for 8 years in the big leagues because his 7-foot stride bought him +3 mph in perceived velocity. ⚾ Carter Capps's 100 mph fastball plays as 104.5 to the hitter — because he releases the ball 1.5 feet closer to the plate than the average MLB arm. ⚾ Every single foot of release extension adds 1.7 mph of effective velocity (MLB Statcast, 1,000+ pitch sample). Translation: if you're 5'10" with an 80 mph fastball and a short stride, you're not just throwing 80 — you're throwing 76 to the hitter. But here's the good news. Extension is built on four MEASURABLE physical traits: → Height → Wingspan → Stride length (driven by broad jump) → Horizontal hip drive (lateral broad jump) I built the TopVelocity AI Velocity Calculator on 1,500+ professional evaluations using the same XGBoost model used to grade MLB prospects. In 60 seconds it tells you your radar gun ceiling AND your perceived velocity ceiling — and exactly which physical inputs are leaking your mph. 🎯 Get your real ceiling — free, no card, no commitment. 🔗 topvelocity.org/velocity-calcu… 💾 Save this for the next time someone tells your kid he "doesn't throw hard enough." 📲 Tag a pitcher who needs to see this. — Brent Pourciau, M.S. Kinesiology · PhD-C Health Sciences #PitchingVelocity #BaseballTraining #TopVelocity #MLBDraft #D1Baseball #PitcherDevelopment #BaseballRecruiting #PitchingMechanics #YouthBaseball #HighSchoolBaseball #BaseballDad #ThrowHarder #Statcast #PerceivedVelocity #BaseballScience #ThrowingVelocity #BaseballCoach #TravelBall #PitchingCoach #BaseballLife

@motorprefcoach 🙏

@TopVelocity Brent thank you ever so much for sharing that

The UCL epidemic isn't random. It's predictable. And preventable. I've been studying UCL injuries since before Tommy John surgery was normalized. Here's what the research actually tells us: • Hip-shoulder separation deficits increase elbow valgus stress • Weak hip internal rotation is a documented injury precursor • Overthrowing without proper kinetic chain sequencing is the #1 cause I built a free 19-test Arm Risk Assessment that flags 9 UCL/rotator cuff risk factors using the same protocol developed from MLB research. 5 minutes. Could save your arm career. topvelocity.org/armrisk #BaseballPitching #TommyJohn #ArmCare #Baseball

@wbridgefa If you have at least 55 degrees of trunk extension you can still see the target.

@TopVelocity Stupid question: at 45 he’s not looking at the plate anymore. Am I doing this wrong?