The Miz: How The 105 MPH Star Is Rewriting the Record Books

On June 12, 2026, just one year to the day after his MLB debut, Misiorowski threw the fastest pitch ever recorded by a starting pitcher: 104.5 mph.
In the same game: a one-hit, complete-game shutout, 15 strikeouts, 95 pitches.. a record-setting “Maddux.

Since then, he has gone on to break his own record, throwing a 105.5 mph pitch against the Chicago Cubs. He is pushing the limits of how fast a human can throw a baseball. 

The Real Question: How Does He Repeat It?

The Mis has been breaking records ever since his MLB debut last year for the Milwaukee Brewers. The 6’7” rookie doesn’t exactly scream power when you look at him, yet he is the pitcher all hitters fear when they walk up to the plate. 

But the real question is not just how he throws that hard.
It is how he throws that hard, again and again, with control and June 12 proved it: triple-digit velocity held for a complete game, with command. It’s quite obvious that his power is not the result of big muscles, but something else.

The Difference Is in the Mechanics

Jacob’s secret lies in his flawless mechanics. 

As he winds up on the mound, he has this unique ability to rotate explosively and unleash the ball with record-braking velocity.
This is not some freak, inherited genetic ability, rather a skill, honed over years of practice.

In fact, Jacob didn’t always throw this well.

In high school and college, Jacob produced a lot of raw power, but he wasn’t always able to convert this into release speed, nor was he able to control it with consistency and pound the strike zone.

How Misiorowski Turns Movement Into Velocity

Jacob, over years of training, has refined two key aspects of his pitch.

1) Lead Leg Block

Studies on pitching biomechanics have found that lead-leg braking force is related to pitch velocity, and a 2009 review specifically notes that low lead-leg braking force was associated with decreased ball velocity. 

This is where Jacob has become elite. 

His back leg and stride create forward momentum, then his lead leg catches/brakes that momentum. This stable front side lets the pelvis and trunk rotate violently over the top, transferring energy up the chain into the arm. Just like in a pole vault plant or a block in a javelin throw, the lead leg’s job is not just to stop the body, but convert linear momentum into rotational momentum.

Jacob’s front-side used to be passive, and hence he would leak energy. This manifested in him spinning-off, or his trunk collapsing forward. But now his lead leg firms up when he lands, and this means the hips have something to rotate against. That lets the energy transfer up the chain into the arm, increasing release velocity at exit. 

The second skill Jacob has honed over the years is the perfectly timed, strategic sequence of movements during rotation referred to as; 

2) The Kinetic Chain

“(the kinetic chain).. is a series of interconnected joints and segments that work together to produce movement.”

This ability to harness the kinetic chain enables him to transfer power from the ground up through his body and channel it to his throwing arm. 

How does it work?
As each part of his body moves it creates kinetic energy (energy an object possesses due to its motion), which accumulates as it passes from bigger body parts (think legs, hips, shoulders) to progressively smaller body parts (think elbow, wrist and hand) driving his body faster and faster, just like a whip. 

But the timing of each movement is key. Each body part rotates one after the other, in a perfectly timed sequence so the kinetic energy created can be passed onto the next link in the chain. As he steps out and down the mound, his hips open and begin to rotate towards the plate, while his upper half stays coiled up. Only after the rotation of the hips do the shoulders begin to spin around. This crucial hip-shoulder separation stretches the core muscles temporarily, which then rapidly shorten like a rubber band and whip the shoulders around, transferring energy from the lower to the upper half.  

The result?
As his front foot lands, it locks his body in place and enables him to rotate over the top, unleashing all the power generated in the kinetic chain - just like a catapult.

The wave of kinetic energy surges up through his body, he rotates faster and faster, until he finally unleashes all of this power at release. 
This ensures all of the power he generates during rotation is transferred successfully to the ball and it travels at peak velocity towards home plate.

Why Misiorowski Trains With Tidal Tank

But how does he do this so well, you ask?
Years of quality training means Misiorowski now possesses elite movement patterns, and over time, he has learnt how to rotate efficiently and fully harness his unique anatomy and physiology to pitch as fast as possible.
Jacob has famously been seen warming-up with water bags or water weights.  
But what are these and why does he use them?

Well, they are actually called Tidal Tanks. 

Tidal Tank is a live weight partially filled with water that, unlike traditional weights, is free to move. The water weight reacts to your every movement, forcing your body to instantly respond by actively stabilizing. This unique training stimulus provides an opportunity to train stability, better movement patterns, and elite body-wide control.

That is why Jacob uses the Tidal Tank in his training;

"..Tidal Tank helps me activate my core, feel more stable, and more in-control of my body on the bump.. I think this is really important because I can be more explosive on the back side and transfer that over to the front."

How Moving Water Exposes Every Flaw

You see, to shift the water in the tank, his body has to rotate together in harmony, just like a perfectly orchestrated ensemble. If one link (or, body part) of the chain is out of alignment, or mistimed, the water punishes him and exposes his error.
Only when his rotation is fluid, and he transfers energy from body part to body part like a line of dominos, does the water in the Tank shift successfully. This immediate feedback from the water weight helps him refine his rotation pre-game.

Because of the unique properties of water, and the fact it is free to move inside the Tank, the resistance is applied both during acceleration, AND deceleration.
In other words, it resists both the start, and stop of his throw.

As he begins to rotate, the water lags behind, pulling him backward and making it harder to explode forward and rotate over the top. Then, as he rotates it crashes chaotically against the Tank wall on his arm-side, dragging him even further forward and into rotation, making it harder to brake and stabilize his body during and after release.

Because the water weight makes it both more difficult to generate power and control it after, he is training two unique aspects of his throw at the same time. 

The Three-Part Chain Behind His Repeatable Power

Specifically, the Tidal Tank helps Jacob refine three key aspects of his pitch:

1) Stable base:
As Jacob winds up and loads his back leg, the shifting water in the Tidal Tank destabilizes him. This forces him to sit back into his hips.
This essential movement pattern automatically tensions his hip and leg muscles, creating a stable launch pad for the explosive rotation. 

2) Kinetic chain:
As he begins to rotate his shoulders, he pulls the Tank around towards the plate, but because the water is free to move inside the tank, it doesn’t move instantly, it lags behind.
As a result, the water crashes against the back wall of the Tank dragging his arm side backward. To overcome this unstable drag force, he’s forced to tension his leg, core, and chest muscles, which together contract to help him whip his shoulders around more powerfully as he rotates over the top.

3) Lead-Leg Block:
Finally, as he lands on his front side and follows through, he might want to stop, but the water certainly doesn’t. Hence as the water weight shifts to his arm side, his lead-leg muscles have to work overtime to decelerate the momentum of the water, avoid spinning-off, or worse still, falling over, and stabilize his entire body.

You see, your body will only let you rotate as fast as you can brake. It’s an automatic self-protective mechanism. And Jacob knows this. By building his brakes on the front side, he unlocks more power during the rotation and those formidable release speeds he’s so famous for.