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Question/Answer 2003 |
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 001. I coach college baseball. I found your flyer when I returned to my office this summer. I have been reading everything on your web site since then. I also attend many college baseball coaches conferences. Last January, I was in Orlando, FL. A long-time pitching expert stood at the podium and said that he had taught pitching wrong for the past twenty-two years. Then, he told us how to correctly teach pitching. Without ever mentioning your name, he told us basically everything that you have written in your book and question and answer files. Don't you get tired of these wannabees stealing your hard work? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My purpose is to eliminate pitching arm injuries. I cannot get to every pitcher in the world. I need these guys to steal my stuff. I have known about this guy's plagiarism for years. He convinced a former great major league pitcher to quote me almost verbatim. Another wannabe even emailed me that when I put my book on the web site that he can use whatever he wants and that is not plagiarism. They have no ethics. They steal for profit. It is up to the consumer to investigate. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 002. Thank you so much for replying I know you are busy. My daughter had thermal capsular shift surgery. Her surgeon said she had a frayed labrum, but no tears. He thought he would have to tack it, but, after the scope, he felt it was not necessary. It has been since August 15. What would be the average time to start back? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- She had pain in the front of her shoulder. This means that she permitted her pitching arm to go behind her acromial line. She needs to correct her pitching technique and start a training program. To start, I recommend the first 60 Days of my Adult Pitchers Training Program. I know that it is for overhand baseball pitching, but it will still give her the skeleton, ligament and tendon strength that she needs. Coach Beach will have to help with the proper pitching mechanics. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 003. I recently went to the doctor for a checkup on my throwing elbow. I had been having problems for a long time (3-4 years) with the elbow and wanted a specialist to check it out. I underwent an anthrogram MRI and it revealed I had a severe tear in my UCL. Surgery was necessary to repair the tear. I originally tore this ligament 3-4 years ago and it was misdiagnosed as a sprain. I went on playing baseball and throwing with the pain for 4 years. I am now a Sophomore in college and have hit 90 mph. My question is, if I undergo this surgery and performed the 10-12 months of rehab, what are my chances of throwing harder? Is the tear in my ligament preventing me from throwing harder? If I hit 90 mph with the tear, should I gain velocity with a new elbow? Is this reasonable thinking or just wishful thinking? My doctor said my situation is unique in that I tore the ligament 3-4 years ago in my prime developing time and have waited till now to have surgery. Any insight would be appreciated. I'm trying to decide if the surgery is worth it. By the time I'm fully recovered, I'll be 21 years old and way behind many players my age. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ulnar Collateral Ligament replacement is a simple, very effective surgery. Surgeons drill holes in the humerus and ulna bones where the original UCL attached. Then, they thread a portion of the tendon from the Palmaris Longus muscle through those holes and secure the ends. Nine weeks later, osteoblastic activity closes those holes around the new ligament and everything is as good as before you stretched the UCL during adolescent pitching, which eventually tore it as an adult. Some UCL replacement pitchers do throw harder after surgery. However, I believe that whether they throw harder after surgery and whether they reinjure other medial epicondyle tissues depends on whether they learn how to correctly apply force. Obviously, the former way they applied force injured the pitching arm. They have to change and they have to undergo the proper rehabilitation program to recover the lost bone density and strength. My 280 Day Adult Pitchers Program accomplishes both goals within one year of the surgery. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 004. My son, who was eleven years old at the time, on numerous occasions threw in excess of 100 pitches during one game. I believe at one time he exceeded 120. I've read and watched many experts say that for this age children should be limited to less then 60-70 pitches per game. My question to you is: How many pitches is to many? If his coaches continue to abuse his pitching arm will he indeed do irreversible harm to his shoulder and/or elbow? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Research evidence irrefutably demonstrates that adolescent pitching interferes with the normal growth and development of the growth plates of the pitching elbow to varying degrees. At the very least, youth pitchers suffer from premature growth plate closure. At the most, they pull the ossification center for their medial epicondyle off the shaft of the humerus or require that surgeons remove the head of their radius. Without doubt, youth pitching at any level causes some limitation to their adult abilities. Empirical evidence indicates that youth pitching permanently stretches the shoulder and elbow ligaments. After shoulder surgery to tighten the permanently stretched gleno-humeral ligaments, Jim Morris increased his release velocity from eighty-eight to ninety-eight miles per hour. After elbow surgery to tighten the permanently stretched ulnar collateral ligament, several professional pitchers have increased their release velocity. I recommend that youth pitchers practice their pitching skills for no more than two months per year. I recommend that youth pitchers under thirteen years old complete my sixty day Pubescent Pitchers Training Program and my Sixty Day Adolescent Pitchers Training Program before they competitively pitch. I recommend that youth pitchers do not competitively pitch until they are thirteen years old. I recommend that youth pitchers do not pitch more than one inning per game. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 005. I am writing to ask you about Eccentric Contraction and its role in the pitching motion, and more specifically around the glenohumeral joint. I have tried out your technique to the best of my ability in practices this winter and I am finding it very difficult to "lock" my upper arm to my torso, or eliminate all external rotation of the GHJ while at the same time preventing becoming too stiff to the point of being unable to throw. However, when I relaxed a bit, my arm seemed to be able to externally rotate but then rotate more powerfully forward than I was able to before. I was then reading up on eccentric muscle loading and what was happening seemed to make some more sense. It seemed to me that the initial tension in the internal rotators, namely pec major allowed the stretch shortening cycle to kick in. The force from my legs seemed to be "transferred" into elastic energy stored in my right Pec, and then released into the pitch and my upper arm began to slow and forearm acceleration began. Was that your rationale for telling people to maintain GHJ angle, to ensure proper energy transfer from the lower to upper body, as opposed to allowing the forearm to "fall back" and create forearm bounce? Or am I totally wrong. If I am, where in the pitching motion should you take advantage on the stretch-shortening cycle or should you at all? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Muscles apply force only when they decrease their length. When muscles stay at the same contracted length or they increase their length, they can only resist force. Therefore, there is not such thing as an eccentric muscle contraction. Sarcomeres either contract or they don't. When one sarcomere in the sarcomere chain that makes up myofibrils contracts, that myofibril either applies or resists force at that length. When more sarcomeres in the sarcomere chain contract, that myofibril either applies or resists force at that different length. Whether the contraction is concentric or eccentric has nothing to do with sarcomere activity, it has to do with how the contracting sarcomeres influence the movements of the bones to which they attach. Therefore, I propose different nomenclature. Rather than concentric muscle action, I prefer mioanglos joint action. Mio is Greek for shortens. Anglos is Greek for angle. This means that the contracting musculature moves the bones to which they attach closer together. Rather than isometric muscle action, I prefer isoanglos joint action. Iso is Greek for same. Rather than eccentric muscle action, I prefer plioanglos joint action. Plio is Greek for lengthens. This means that the contracting musculature resists forces that moves the bones to which they attach farther apart. Mioanglos joint action drives the baseball toward home plate. Plioanglos joint action decelerates the pitching arm. The ability of the plioanglos muscles to safely decelerate the pitching arm to a stop determines how powerfully the mioanglos muscle operate. I do not recommend that pitchers externally (outwardly) rotate their humerus to the point where the forearm lays back horizontally. While a horizontal forearm would appear to maximize the length of the driveline posteriorly, it stresses the external (outward) rotators, i.e., the infraspinatus and teres minor muscles, beyond safe limits and contributes to an upward movement of the baseball during the forearm acceleration phase. I have a technique that I have never and probably never will discuss to safely maximally lengthen the elbow extension and forearm pronation ranges of motion. I reserve this technique for those who have completed my 280 Day Adult Pitchers Training Program. Without my personal guidance, I worry that pitchers will injure themselves. With regard to you 'locking' your humerus with your thorax, you must make certain that your forearm does not move backward or downward from your ready position. I recommend that you not relax, but strongly maintain the relative positions of your humerus and thorax during the forward movement of your body. Only when your elbow approaches the point at which it can no longer move forward do you start your forearm pronation snap action. If you permit the inertial weight of your forearm to move your humerus behind your acromial line, then you will unnecessarily stress the humeral attachment of your subscapularis muscle. You should only use your pectoralis major muscle isoanglosly. The 'locked' humeral-thorax angle completely transfers the one hundred and eighty degree forward rotational force of the shoulders to the humerus. When the elbow of the pitching arm points toward home plate, pitchers should also simultaneously maximally extend their elbow and pronate their forearm toward home plate. It is the combination of lengthening the elbow extension and forearm pronation ranges of motion that maximizes the force application of the pitching arm. I analogize ski jumpers with baseball pitchers. At the top of the slide, ski jumpers coil their body for a maximal vertical jump action. At leverage, pitchers coil their pitching arm for a maximal elbow extension, forearm pronation action. When ski jumpers precisely time their uncoiling vertical jump, they maximize their potential jump distance. When pitchers precisely uncoil their pitching arm, they maximize their potential release velocity. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 006. Please explain the difference between No Stride and Wrong Foot. I watched the video I shot during my visit and you had a young man demonstrate both and I discern no difference. What am I missing? We will begin with the Pickoff Position Leverage Throws. Once my son gets the arm motion down, we will add Pickoff Position Transition Throws. Once he gets that motion down, do we add No Strides or Wrong Foot? I have decided to teach him the screwball before the curve because it is the easiest to learn, the easiest to throw and the least taxing on the arm. And, 12 year old hitters won’t know the difference between a 12 year old’s screwball and his curve. If he can locate his fastball inside and outside, up and down and mix in a screwball, he will be successful. When he gets the arm action down pat for the screwball, the curve should come easier. I will honestly apprise you on the results. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As soon as I can find time, I am going to update the exercises in the training program to include my new No-Stride throws. With my Wrong Foot throws, pitchers pendulum swing their pitching arm up to driveline height without raising their front foot off the ground and then step forward with their rear foot. Then, when the rear foot contacts the ground, they forearm accelerate through release. With my No-Stride throws, pitchers also pendulum swing their pitching arm up to driveline height without raising their front foot off the ground. But then, instead of stepping forward with their rear foot, they powerfully drive their entire rear side forward. However, before their rear foot contacts the ground, they forearm accelerate the baseball through release. My most recent baseball throwing sequence is: 1. Pickoff Position Leverage throws. 2. Wrong Foot Leverage throws. 3. No-Stride Leverage throws. 4. No-Stride Transition throws. 5. Set Position Transition throws. The curve is easier to learn than the screwball. But, I would simultaneously teach both. The key is to learn how to drive the forearm inside of vertical with pronation rather than outside of vertical with supination. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 007. I've been reading your on-line book and a lot of the Q and A's. I'm having trouble visualizing the forearm extension exercise that I copied from one of your Q and A's and pasted below. Your words: "The proper start position for the forearm extension exercise has the pitcher facing the mirror with his shoulders level and his upper arm at the same height with his elbow slightly ahead of his acromial line. The forearm is nearly vertical. The angle between the forearm and the upper arm is not less than ninety degrees, nor much greater than ninety degrees. The proper end position for the forearm extension exercise has the pitcher facing the mirror with his shoulders level and his upper arm at the same height with his elbow slightly ahead of his acromial line. The forearm lays backward such that from the side view, it is also at shoulder height. The angle between the forearm and the upper arm is not less than ninety degrees, nor much greater than ninety degrees. The exercise consists of pitchers gently lowering their forearm backward and downward without any other change in body or arm position. When pitchers have gently laid their forearm backward and downward as far as they can, they gently return their forearm to the start position and repeat the movement." OK, I'm good with everything except the part about the laying of the forearm back to horizontal, while keeping the angle not less, nor much greater, than 90 degrees. Does this mean, if looked at from above, the upper arm and forearm would look like an "L", with the forearm pointing somewhere between 1st and 2nd base(for a right handed pitcher). If that's it, I can see where some stretching exercises are in order! I injured my elbow a few years after college pitching too much batting practice to my old high school team, and didn't pick up a ball for several years because of the pain. I never had it examined, because my playing days were over I thought. I eventually started playing a little, doing conditioning exercises to strengthen my elbow and shoulder. I never regained my old velocity (I don't mean to brag, but I had a gun as a catcher), but I could still throw harder than most guys who had started playing in these amateur leagues. I was catching and playing the infield a lot, but then the value of a guy who could throw strikes with a little heat became apparent. The problem was, I got hooked on the position and have been trying to teach myself to be a pitcher ever since. The old catcher's "snap throw" by the ear doesn't translate well to any pitching mechanics I have ever seen, but I'm always willing to learn. I've had a lot of success with the way I do things, but I know I could be better. Baseball and golf are my hobbies, and I spend money on pros to teach me golf, so why not baseball? Trouble is, there are a lot of different theories on pitching. And I'm not really worried about myself, but because of my past and present, I'm asked by a lot of friends to work with their sons as pitchers and catchers. I know what tell the catchers, but I really worry about telling the pitchers something that not only won't help them, but could even hurt them. That's why I'll be sending you an order for your video, and hopefully some of these questions I have will be answered. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You must have gotten that quote from a very early question and answer file. I stopped using that exercise a long time ago. I prefer not to correct my question and answer files. I want readers to understand that my pitching motion and program is a work in progress. However, you should read my book and the latest question and answer files for my most recent ideas. I recommend that pitchers keep their shoulders level and their upper arm at shoulder height. When they start driving the baseball toward home plate, I want pitchers to point the front shoulder of their acromial line toward the glove-side batter. When they start their forearm acceleration phase through release, I want pitchers to point the elbow of their pitching arm at home plate. This means that I want a full one hundred and eighty degrees of shoulder rotation. Before they accelerate their forearm through release, I want pitchers to wait until the elbow of their pitching shoulder points toward home plate. Now, we get to the heart of your question. What should the pitching forearm do and when? Until pitchers complete my 280 Day Adult Pitchers Training Program, I recommend that they pendulum swing their pitching arm parallel with their acromial line toward second base up to the driveline height just about the ear. From the side view, I want the forearm forty-five degrees behind vertical. From the rear view, I want the forearm inside of vertical. I want pitchers to 'lock' their forearm with this angle to their upper arm and 'lock' their upper arm with their body as it rotates one hundred and eighty degrees forward. When the pitching elbow reaches as far forward as possible, I want pitchers to straight-line drive their forearm, wrist, hand and fingers toward home plate. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 008. I still can't put 12-6 spin on the curve. I put more like 2-8 or 3-9. The ball comes off of my index finger properly, but by ulnar flexing and pronating, I am spinning the ball more on a vertical axis than a horizontal. I have no difficulty spinning the screwball properly. What am I doing wrong? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can get a 12-6 horizonatal spin axis with the screwball? I have never had a pitcher learn the correct screwball spin axis before he learned the correct curve spin axix. Instead of pronating your forearm, you are supinating your forearm. Supination causes your forearm to move outside of vertical. You are probably also pulling your elbow downward. You have to keep your elbow up and pronate your forearm horizontally. You cannot permit the hand to move downward. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 009. I am not supinating my forearm. I ulnar flex my hand so that the ball comes off of my hand when my index and middle finger are pointed at home plate, which means that the ball is spinning with a horizontal axis, but the axis runs from home to the pitcher's mound and not from 1st to third base. Suggestions? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Curves have the horizontal spin axis when the stripe that we draw across the four seams spins vertically. Some say that the spin axis is twelve o'clock to six o'clock. You are describing a spiral. The spiral spin axis occurs when pitchers place spin along the side of the baseball rather than across the top of the baseball. This means that you are pulling down the side of the baseball rather than driving your fingers horizontally through the top of the baseball. This means that your forearm is outside of vertical and not horizontal. This means that you start with your forearm circling outward, which is the description for supination. Supination happens in the forearm, ulnar flexion happens in the wrist. They are unrelated. You can do both without interfering with the other. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 010. My son has analyzed your video, the video I shot down there, watched me throw the curve and solved my problem. I was too vertical with my hand; my forearm was not inside of vertical enough. He is demonstrating what appears to me to be the correct arm action. Not bad for 12! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I agree with your son. You have to keep your forearm horizontal to throw my pronation curve. Tell him to keep up the good work. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 011. In your video, the screwball delivery his quite similar to all other pitches up to the ear level. You want the elbow at 90 degree or so and propel the ball with a straight trajectory; no forearm fly out, no drop of the elbow under the shoulder. You were the only RHP that I knew in Major Leagues that threw an effective screwball. But, Juan Marichal, my idol, also threw a screwball. He extended his elbow past his head well above the shoulder. Doesn't this maneuver dampen acceleration stresses on the elbow? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have recently decided that, like my pronation curve, I now recommend that pitchers have their forearm inside of vertical at leverage. I now define leverage as the position of the pitching arm when the acromial line is perpendicular to the driveline toward home plate. I also now define the moment when pitchers start moving the baseball toward home plate as the 'Ready' position. Without high speed film, we cannot know what the relationship was between Mr. Marichal's elbow and shoulder. I do recall that he dramatically leaned toward his glove side, which gave the mistaken impression that he elevated his upper arm above his head when all he really did was lower his head and lay sideways. Mike Cuellar did the same thing and neither of them achieved the horizontal spin axis of my true screwball. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 012. Is the ACROMIAL LINE the alignment of the shoulder before forearm acceleration? Concerning Marichal, the information I gave you about shoulder/elbow relationship was from Larry Jansen, his pitching coach in the 60's. I have a photo of Marichal throwing his screwball. When the ball passes his head, it is straight, although he leans toward his glove side, but not dramatically. His elbow is way up, at 1 o'clock. Don't you think he would have been tipping if he really leaned that much? Do you think that opening the landing leg about 6 inches to the left on the screwballit helps the follow-through? Everything equal, what would be the difference in break and speed between a 4-seam screwball and a 2-seam with the same arm speeds and release? You say 10 mph, but is there something else than the grip for that speed gap between these pitches? Marichal had only one speed on his screwball. He said he wouldn't not changeup on his screwball, unlike Cuellar who had at least three, clipping the inside/outside corner. I know your approach on changing speed which is a grip change (4-seam/2-seam), but how finger-pressure acts on the screwball. With the typical curveball, the more pressure from the middle finger and the thumb, bigger break and slower is the curve. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The acromial process is the lateral-most aspect of the scapula bone. Therefore, the acromial line is the line that passes through the two acromial processes on outward to both sides of the body. The acromial line describes the position of the shoulders throughout the pitching motion. It is anatomically impossible to raise the elbow higher than the shoulder. Therefore, the only way that anybody can get his elbow higher than his head is to dramatically lean his entire body to his glove-side. That lean significantly decreases the length of the driveline. Juan raised his front and rear legs high off the ground. It was like he was doing a cartwheel. He lost a great deal of rotational force with his leg actions and body lean. The reason pitchers must step to the glove-side of the line from their rear foot towards home plate is to make room fot the rear leg to step straight forward. It has nothing to do with the type of pitch. With four seams contacting the air molecules, the baseball decelerates twice as much as with two seams. Therefore, if pitchers convert sufficient horizontal speed to rotational speed to decrease the two seam screwball to ten miles per hour less than their fastballs, then the increased surface friction of the four seam screwball will decelerate twice as much to twenty miles per hour less than their fastballs. What these great pitchers say and believe that they did does not usually match scientific evidence. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 013. I was trying to make it far more complicated than it is. I don’t yet have perfect 12-6 spin axis, but I am throwing what I think is your curve, pronating my forearm and ulnar flexing my hand. I can’t tell you how excited I am about it. It has been bugging the hell out of me. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Congratulations. With me watching every throw, demonstrating and making continuous suggestions, it still takes my kids several days to learn to pronate rather than supinate their curves. I recently designed a teaching tool that appears to help. I have a wheel from a small children's wagon on a one-half by five-inch bolt through it and one end of a twelve inch two by four. I attached the other end of the two by four to the edge of the picnic table at my pitching research & training center with the wheel vertical. I have my guys sit on the bench with their pitching elbow on the table and their index and middle pitching fingers horizontal behind the wheel. Then, I have them pronate their forearm and ulnar flex their wrist to drive the lateral side of the middle finger through the top of the wheel. I tell them to get the wheel spinning as fast as they can with their middle fingers brushing the top of the wheel. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 014. My sixteen year old son has spent hours reading your book and watching your videotape. Now, he wants to attend your eight-week summer training program. He is finishing his Sophomore year of high schoold. What is the possibility of his enrollment? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your son sounds like just the type of kid with whom I like to work. I plan to take the first eight high school juniors and seniors who send in their two hundred dollar ($200.00) deposit and sign my lifetime partnership agreement. In this agreement I agree to work with him throughout his high school, college and professional careers to make him the best pitcher he can become. I do not yet have eight young men who have sent in their deposits and signed the agreement. For further details, please click on my Pitching Instruction icon. The first step is for you to provide an address to which I can send my materials to you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 015. I work as an education specialist at the Imaginarium in Anchorage Alaska. I am developing a lesson on the physics of flight and how Bernoulli's principle and Newton's third law work to create lift in birds, planes and helicopters. I want to use the example of a curveball and knuckleball to demonstrate the principle, but I am having a hard time finding good diagrams of the airflow. Could you help me or suggest any sources for this information? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How coincidental that I should receive an email from Anchorage, Alaska when a young man from there recently joined my forty-week training program. In my Instructional Videotape, I draw diagrams that explain the Magnus and Marshall Effects of Bernoulli's Fluid Flow Principle on why various spin axes cause baseballs to move differently. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 016. I am a 5'11" 170 lb., 33 year-old former division I right-handed pitcher who still plays in two local amateur leagues. I used to throw in the low to mid-80's. I used to do a lot of long tossing back then, which seemed to help my velocity. But, in my second year out of school, I injured the front of my pitching shoulder in a game where I threw 165 pitches. Since this injury, I have never stopped pitching. After a couple of years, if I warmed up sufficiently, I could usually throw without any pain. However, I generally have not thrown with as much velocity, and I am usually quite sore the next few days on the front of my shoulder, near the area of the biceps tendon. This soreness or inflammation does not dissipate with exercise, but would generally be gone with rest by about the fourth or fifth day, so I was always able to take my next start. But, it got to the point that I could not throw much between starts and still feel pain-free on the day I was to pitch. I felt pretty sure that my inconsistent and sometimes reduced arm strength was the result of not throwing often enough, but when I would try to throw more, my shoulder would rebel. I saw a couple of orthopedists, both of whom said my X-rays were normal. Neither doctor did an MRI, but one thought it might be tendonitis, while the other thought it might just be general muscle weakness along with some scar tissue from my previously-described injury. They recommended conservative treatment, including the "throwers ten" light dumbbell and tubing exercises and doing two or three long toss sessions per week. I also tried some heavier weight training on my own. But, using these conventional methods, I obtained only mixed results. So this past fall, I decided to revisit the materials on your website. I had read some of it about a year-and-a-half ago, I guess, and I honestly was not sure what to think about it. I thought that you made some very good and logical points, but the information was so academic and unorthodox in both doctrine and presentation. You were still teaching the 'head pat' forearm position, etc., and you did not have any illustrations or photos, so I found it difficult to visualize and understand fully. But, upon revisiting your site, I printed out and read a number of sections, including the revised sections on your pitching motion and pitcher's training program. I also read the entire 2002 Q & A section. It convinced me that I had to buy your videotape, which I did. With the tape to go along with your free book, I now have a much better understanding of your principles and how I am supposed to apply them. The only significant suggestion I have to improve the tape, which you have doubtlessly heard by this point, is that you need to emphasize the kids who are the very BEST at doing the drills, the ones who do them as closely as perfect as possible. Perhaps you could use even slower motion than 1/2 speed at times and include VERY SPECIFIC video analysis about what they are doing right and wrong, even if pertains to only a particular segment of your pitching motion. In fact, I have embarked upon your 280-day adult pitchers program. I am currently on day 36 (although I have missed two days, so I should be on 38). Some guys I play ball with think I'm crazy when I tell them I am throwing a six-pound shot put around every morning. But, whatever anyone else thinks, I know that your program has been quite successful for me thus far. I would have never thought that I could throw with full intensity on so many consecutive days without having significant shoulder problems. Especially after the first week or so, any discomfort from the day before almost always dissipated completely after I got going, although there have been maybe 2 or 3 days where I felt some weakness after completing the day's program that lingered somewhat into the next day. But overall, things have been going very well. Of course, much of the soreness problems I experienced previously had to do with too much reverse rotation and bringing my arm laterally behind my body. But the pickoff leverage and transition throws have really helped with these flaws, although I always have to keep reminding my self to keep my driveline as straight as possible and snap my forearm with pronation, hard and straight. It took a little while to get comfortable holding the ball in my glove and breaking my hands with the ball on top and the hand underneath. Your pronation curve technique has also helped tighten the spin and break on my curveball, which was sometimes too soft. I am having more of a problem getting as tight a spin and as horizontal a spin axis on the screwball. But your Q & A answers suggest that this is a relatively common problem early on, so I'm not discouraged. But even those troubles have been somewhat of a blessing in disguise. I always threw with a kind of high-three-quarters arm slot and, while I could get a two-seam fastball to move okay laterally in on right-handed hitters, I have always had trouble throwing a fastball that really had sink to it. But in working on your screwball, I recognized that, when I did not have the thumb side of my hand facing enough towards home plate, I sometimes unintentionally imparted more of a spiral spin axis, as you describe for the true sinker in your videotape. Thus, I have started to be able to be able to throw the sinker on purpose, with the visualization that its sort of like a two-seam fastball that you "lock" in your hand and throw with kind of a "one-half" screwball hand and wrist position. Does that sound like an accurate description? I think the pitch really has some promise. So I just wanted to drop you a line, mostly just to say thanks. I do have a couple of questions at this time, though, relating to the iron ball exercises. I am obviously still on the six-pound iron ball, but will soon be moving up to eight pounds. I believe that you said somewhere in your 2002 Q & A that when a pitcher graduates to the eight pound ball and beyond, that iron shot puts have too large a circumference to do the exercises properly, so you have to use lead balls. I am not sure where to get lead balls, and, I know you have answered this before, but what is the name of a supplier, and where and how can I contact them. But I also have another concern. You cautioned that because lead is poisonous, a pitcher should put tape on the outside of the ball and be careful not to put your fingers in your mouth while or after doing the exercises. But, is it really even safe to handle lead balls every day? I'm just thinking about the problems that people have reported just from having lead-based paint on their houses. Couldn't physically handling lead on a daily basis create at least a long-term risk to one's health? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I produced this videotape under the duress of readers demanding a videotape. I only had digital videotape of my 2002 forty-week clients at the end of their second training cycle. Therefore, your criticism of their lack of perfect technique is valid. However, I had no choice except to wait until June to make the videotape. Readers convinced me that seeing anything was better than waiting. This is the reason why I will redo this videotape this coming June and I will sell it to those who bought my first attempt at twenty-five percent of its cost. I have already taken six hundred feet of high speed film at five hundred frames of sixteen millimeter film. I plan on taking at least fourteen hundred more feet of highly-skilled pitchers. That will be super-slow motion. You will not believe what you can see at five hundred frames per second. I intend to do extremely detailed and specific analysis of how I recommend pitchers apply force and perform my training exercises. I am pleased to read that you can train every day without undue discomfort. The key is to drive your forearm inside of vertical. I tell pitchers to forwardly rotate their shoulders until their acromial line points toward home plate and then, extend your elbow and pronate your forearm. I have some significant new stuff on this that I will show and explain in my next videotape. I am still learning the best way to teach my kids my new pronation curve technique. Most of my kids would first permit their forearm to move outside of vertical and pull their elbow downward. Then, after they gained some strength, they learned how to keep that elbow up and drive their forearm horizontally. I have a couple of mid-year students. With one, I started him with only my pronation curves. With the other, I started him with only my true screwballs. I am keeping both using my pickoff position leverage throws for fifty-four days. I am trying to determine whether learning my pronation curve or true screwball forearm technique shows them how to properly drive all pitches with the forearm inside vertical. My eight, ten and twelve pound lead ball supplier asked me to deal with requests. Therefore, if your want these lead balls, you need to purchase them through me. I have sent a couple of sets, but I do not recall the costs. If you are interested, I will check into it again. It seems like it was something like one hundred dollars total. We use athletic tape on our lead balls, but I also tell pitchers not to lick their fingers. I also tell them to wash their hands after they train. Nevertheless, I have concern and I make sure that they have concern and know the hazard. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 017. I live in Canada and cannot get a job in the United States while I train with you for forty weeks. Could I train with you for the eight-week summer session/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I do not offer my eight-week summer program to high school graduates, only high school juniors and seniors. However, because Canadian kids cannot work in Florida, unless they have some way of working without a work permit, the only way I can help them is through the summer program. Nevertheless, the eight-week program only scratches the surface. It teaches only the minimum skill and does not include any training cycles. You will not become the best pitcher you can be in eight weeks. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 018. When doing your 280 day program, at what distance and at what level of intensity do the pitchers throw? How does this change as the weeks go on? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- During every day of my 280 Day Adult Pitchers Training Program, I have my pitchers throw from the pitching mound to nets that are sixty feet six inches away. We start with my pickoff position leverage throws at whatever maximum intensity pitchers can correctly perform the proper forearm pronation action for the four basic pitches. The baseballs do not have to reach the net. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 019. In the summer of 2001, I came back from not paying baseball for a whole year. I played Legion ball that summer and experienced the worst pain I've have ever felt in my arm. I was able to play at my first practice and that was it for the summer the pain was unbearable. It was a pain in my brachialis and lower portion of my bicep near my elbow. After I would throw the ball, I was hardly able to lift my arm. It would be shaking and very weak. I sat that summer out and came back in the fall to tryout for my college team. Once again, I experienced this pain in my bicep. I threw trough it and eventually it went away but would come back every once in a while. Since I was having these arm problems, my coach wanted to red shirt me. I did not want to red-shirt, so I did not play. Then, I came back that summer to play summer ball. I experienced this pain all over again until about 3 weeks later and it went away and I was then throwing 85-90 mph. The coaches were very impressed and asked me to come back out for the team this year and I did. There was about a month break between summer and fall ball. When I came back in the fall so did this excruciating pain. It lasted again for about three weeks and then went away. It came back from time to time and I just thought my arm was over worked. This was not just arm soreness, but pain, so it was always on my mind. When this Christmas was nearing the pain was almost completely gone. I went home for Christmas and continued to throw and long toss and my arm was fine the whole break. I just got back this past Monday and threw my first bullpen of the spring on Tuesday after experiencing this pain on Monday. Although on Tuesday the pain was not bad at all and I was able to throw at 100%, afterwards I thought my arm would fall off. Yesterday, I came out and threw and couldn't, it hurt so bad I had to stop. Today, I threw at practice all the way back to about 200 ft and it was fine but as soon as I brought it in and tried to throw hard form 60 ft, it was extreme bicep pain. In the fall, I had a MRI and arthogram done and they found that I had bursitis, supraspinatus tendonipathoy, as well as a slight avulsion tear in the anterior portion of my corocoid process. They said these things could be causing the pain, but were not definite causes. I've been to quite a few doctors and even seen the trainer at my school and they have no idea what is wrong. I'm tired of having this nagging pain that comes and goes as it pleases. I finally told my coach I have to find out what is wrong before I play I m seeing a different doctor tommorow and hopefully he will be helpful but who really knows. If you would please let me know what could be the cause of the extreme bicep pain I m having. I'm also very tender in my brachialis and forearm muscle. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your problem is how you throw. The pain tells you that you are throwing wrong. Unless you like pain, you must change how you apply force to your pitches. The 'traditional' pitching motion causes your pitching arm to have to try to catch up with the body as it circles outward. This places tremendous unnecessary stress on the brachialis. The brachialis muscle attaches to the coronoid process, so that is the cause of the coronoid process problem. The supraspinatus problem results from the 'high guard' position that causes you to reverse forearm bounce your pitching arm. If by the forearm muscle, you mean the bundle of muscles that arise from the medial epicondyle on the elbow of your elbow, that results from the forearm flyout that the 'traditional' pitching motion promotes. The answer lies in not taking your pitching arm laterally behind your body, in not starting your body forward and starting your pitching arm backward at the same time, in pointing your forearm upward just before you start accelerating your upper arm forward and more. You must stop using the 'traditional' pitching motion. You should read Section IX of my Coaching Pitchers book for the pitching motion that I recommend that does not place unnecessary stress on your pitching arm. My program has fixed numerous pitchers with worse problems than yours and improved their abilities as well. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 020. I did not mean to sound overly critical about your students who acted as models for your pitching exercises in your video. I would wholly agree that it was better for you to produce some sort of video sooner rather than later, even if it was not entirely what you may have wanted in every respect. It was enough to get me going and understand the direction I should be headed, although I will be ordering the updated version when it becomes available. Also, I am inclined to order the lead balls from you sometime in the near future, although I still have some concerns about handling lead every day. Even if I put athletic tape on, there are going to be days where it is wet outside and the tape may not stay on very well. Furthermore, I have not constructed a rebound wall, so the ball gets dirty from landing in the area of my yard where I do my daily throwing. Given my circumstances, do you think that it would be unduly detrimental to wear batting gloves while doing the lead ball throws? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wearing batting gloves is a good idea. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 021. I've been a big fan of your work for quite some time and thank you for all your insights. We had a great response to your interview on our site and we'd like to approach you about two further projects. We recently ran another expert interview and compared him as the hitting version of you. We're pursuing a follow-up where he and hopefully you will give your insight about the specifics of what current players are doing the right things and the wrong things. We're also starting a national radio show and would love to have you on as a guest if you're interested. I'm also interested, on a personal note, if anyone from your West Texas A&M teams went on to a pro career. I was a student just after you left there and regret not getting the chance to meet you at that stage. Perhaps you could have saved me two rotator cuff surgeries! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I do not recall the gentleman, but then, I am old and forgetful. I am always ready to help people understand baseball pitching. As you may know, I started professional baseball as a shortstop and my original high-speed film work was of me batting. Therefore, I have some definite ideas about the Physics of hitting. I would be happy to contribute to your national radio show. I know of two West Texas A&M pitcher with whom I worked who professionally. We would have had more had it not been for spending the fall practice season building the baseball facility rather than coaching and if I had had the three years to which they agreed before I went there. But, I outed a pedophile athletic director and I had to go. They caught him a year later and fired him. He now works for the former president at West Texas who became the Chancellor of the entire A&M system. I would definitely have saved you from two rotator cuff surgeries. Nobody that I have trained and continued to use my program has ever injured themselves. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 022. All training is highly specific. I totally believe that. But, I also believe that weight training (lifting, squatting, ect) makes you more powerful and can only help your playing in every aspect. A former pitching great even says in his book that genetics, training and mechanics determine velocity, but weight training helps you retain it. When I workout, I get the same feeling and more endurance when throwing a baseball as I do with your wrist exercises. So, therefore, I feel weight training can help pitching though there is more to it of course. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am glad to read that you totally believe that all training is highly specific. Unfortunately, you make several comments that indicate that you do not believe that all training is not specific. Lifting, squatting and so on have nothing to do with pitching. You will not become a better pitcher because you can lift or squat more weight. I submit that these activities may well harm your ability to pitch. Mr. former pitching great has no scientific basis for saying anything. Nevertheless, while I agree with him that genetics, mechanics and training are critical, for pitchers to become the best pitchers that they can be, you need much more. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 023. I would you compare screwball spin velocity (rpm) versus a typical curve ball with same arm speed? I think that the screwball speed is a bit slower than the standard curveball. Should we settle for one release point with a pitch (ex. screwball) or vary it for different result? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I know of no way to precisely determine the spin velocity of pitches. The only way to estimate whether one spin velocity is faster than another is the suddenness of the movement. Both my Pronation Curve and True Screwball move dramatically. Therefore, I believe that they both have very high spin velocities. My Pronation Curve has significantly greater dramatic movement than the 'traditional' curve. Since there is no such thing as a 'traditional' screwball, I can only compare my True Screwball with the 'traditional' curve. My True Screwball moves significantly more dramatically. With regard to four and two-seam curves and screwballs: I wrote my pitch sequences for major league pitchers throwing to major league hitters. For college pitchers, if they can throw my four seam Maxline and Torque Fastballs, my four seam pronation curve and true screwball and my two seam Maxline Fastball Sinker and Torque Fastball Slider, they will be very successful. For high school pitchers, if they can throw my four seam Maxline and Torque Fastballs and my four seam pronation curve and true screwball, they will be very successful. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 024. In terms of building arm strength are your wrong foot and pick off throws as good as throwing the traditional way? What is the scientific basis for this? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Until pitchers learn how to properly apply force to achieve the proper spin axis and horizontal velocity with the forearm pronation releases, everything else is a waste of time. The key is proper pitching arm drive and release technique. Pitcher can do bicep curls all day long with hundreds of pounds and they will not be better or stronger pitchers. All training is highly, highly, highly, highly and so on specific. Pitchers must get strong in the perfect technique with their pitching arm first. My pickoff position leverage throws teaches pitchers how to properly drive and release my Maxline Fastball, Pronation Curve, True Screwball and Torque Fastball. Only after they can do these skills perfectly should pitchers move on to my wrong foot position leverage throw. Then, only after they can do these skills perfectly should pitchers move on to my no-stride leverage throws. Then, only after they can do these skills perfectly should pitchers move on to my no-stride transition throws. Then, only after they can do these skills perfectly should pitchers move on to my set position throws. Then, only after they can do these skills perfectly should pitchers move on to my wind-up throws. To start with the entire throwing motion so completely complicates the learning process that pitchers have no idea what they are doing with their pitching arms. We need to isolate the critical elements and perfect them before we add confounding variables. This may not meet the needs of teams, but it meets the needs of the pitchers. While, as they learn how to properly drive and release my pitches, I simultaneously strengthen the pitching arms of my kids, the emphasis is always on motor skill acquisition. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 025. I'm not surprise to learn that spin velocity is related with the suddenness of the movement. Just a thought though, three former great major league pitchers had as good as possible sharp, late breaking traditional curves as you can find. I think they accomplished it with great spin velocity. Maybe they were exceptions, but still. Now I'm working on your pronation curve. Can you throw it as hard as your screwball? I'm having problems with the grip, but even more with the ulnar flex and pronation movement. Because I start with by hand inward (forearm bent inside, like you teach in the video) and I have to get it the other way (outward), I feel like I'm squirting the ball instead of throwing it. Could it be my release point which by the way I'm not sure? Finally, what makes you call your pronation curve a curve? It sure breaks with his horizontal spin axis like a 12-6 screwball, but not like a curve. Your True screwball and Pronation curve looks to me as the same pitch rotation wise. The way you talk about your pronation curve is like a totally different pitch than the true screwball. By the way, every time we talk about the sinker in ML we refer to the sinking fastball. Is there such a pitch admitted as a reverse breaking ball in ML? Your true sinker, which on your video you qualify as your most effective pitch, is surely not a fastball following the major league standard. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I agree that those gentlemen threw nice curves. However, I have guys that throw better. Because we pronate rather than supinate the forearm, we can achieve much higher spin velocities. To throw my pronation curve, you must keep your forearm in. To learn the release, you should stand within thirty feet of your net, you should bend your elbow as tightly as possible, you should stand use my pickoff position leverage throw technique, you should reach your pitching hand backward as far as possible with the elbow pointing toward home plate and you should simultaneously extend your elbow and pronate your forearm. Take care not to 'slam' your olecranon process into its fossa, but rather, make sure that you keep your elbow high and slightly bent. You must finish your abbreviated throw with your pitching arm horizontal, your palm facing away from your body and the whole arm moving laterally. The idea is to horizontally 'brush' across the top of the baseball as your fingers move from inside to outside over the baseball. When you learn the proper forearm drive and wrist, hand and finger release action, you will throw my pronation curve as hard as your strength permits without any unnecessary stress or stain. My pronation curve and true screwball have nearly identical horizontal spin axes. However, while they break dramatically downward, they have entirely different release appearances and deceptions. If I had known about my pronation curve when I pitched, I would have been unhitable. I presently teach my true sinker as a two-seam maxline fastball with a sinker circle-of-friction on the top, forward aspect of the baseball. I also presently teach my pronation slider as a two-seam torque fastball with a slider circle-of-friction on the top, forward aspect of the baseball. I determined that teaching these pitches as part of the screwball and curve releases caused more confusion than benefit. Nevertheless, my guys appear to have adapted well and throw high quality maxline fastball sinkers and torque fastball sliders. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 026. I read through your free online book, but there are a few things I don't understand. For example, in your maxline pronation curveball grip explanation, you say to tuck the thumb under. Doesn't this reduce control of the ball? I feel really awkward when I hold it like you say to grip it. The way I grip my curveball is I take the same grip as yours, but I line the thumb along the inside of the lower horseshoe. Will your grip with the thumb tucked in have better results than mine with the thumb kept straight? Also, in the curveball release, I want to clarify what "powerfully ulnar flex and pronate my wrist" means. I'm also confused as to why you say to not learn the changeup. I've read a lot of articles on pitching and many say that a fastball is only good with an equally good changeup. Can you explain why a changeup isn't necessary? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I teach pitchers to 'tuck' their thumb with my pronation curve because I do not want the thumb to impede the spin velocity. At release the thumb has to move away from the baseball and permit the lateral side of the middle finger apply force to the baseball. If the thumb remains in contact, it will decrease the spin velocity. When we throw our iron balls and we practice the new release action for the pronation curve, we remove the thumb from the ball entirely. We rest our thumb on the first phalange of the second digit (index finger). The key to my curve is the horizontal action of the middle finger from inside to outside. Ulnar flexion moves the little finger closer to the side of the forearm. Pronate the wrist is an extension of forearm pronation when the radius bone crosses over the ulna bone in a reverse or outward rotation of the forearm. Changeups are not related to fastballs. Changeups are related to the velocity of the pitching arm. Fastballs are almost as fast as the velocity of the pitching arm. Because when we apply spin to baseballs, we convert some of the horizontal velocity of the baseball to spin velocity. Therefore, all non-fastballs with high spin velocities are much slower than the velocity of the pitching arm. Therefore, all non-fastballs are changeups. It makes no sense to me to throw a changeup with no spin velocity, hence no movement. That is a slow fastball easy to hit. Most changeups are only five to ten miles per hour slower than fastballs. I prefer to throw changeups that dramatically move, preferably downward. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 027. In response to a question about Juan Marichal (number 012 in your 2003 Q&A) you wrote, "It is anatomically impossible to raise the elbow higher than the shoulder." Is this correct? I am sitting at my computer with my shoulders level and I am able to raise my hand above my head, with my elbow next to my head above my ear and thus well above my shoulder. It is my understanding that this arm/shoulder position in the overhand throwing motion is not good for the shoulder. Yet you wrote that this position is anatomically impossible. Can you please clarify the issue for me? I recently had a debate with a colleague about the tennis serving motion. As a teaching step, he was inducing this position (serving elbow and upper arm near the head) in his students as they learned the serve. I said that this was harmful to the serving shoulder. Am I on solid ground here? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The lateral-most aspect of the scapula is the acromial process. The head of the humerus articulates with the glenoid fossa of the scapula. The glenoid fossa lies immediately below the acromial process. When we abduct (laterally raise) the humerus without upward rotating the scapula. The head of the humerus butts up against the underside of the acromial process. The only way that you can raise the elbow higher is to upwardly rotate the scapula. Since the acromial process defines the shoulder, that does not qualify as raising the elbow above the shoulder. All you are doing is upwardly rotating the scapula after you have maximally abducted your humerus. When we pitch, the pectoralis major muscle is a primary fixator muscle. Since antagonistic muscles cannot simultaneously contract, the muscles that upwardly rotate the humerus cannot contract. Hence, pitchers cannot raise their elbow higher than their shoulders. And, neither can tennis servers. The injury potential for those who try to raise their elbow above their shoulder is that they will rub the attachment of the supraspinatus muscle against the acromial process. In 1978, I gave a lecture that named this phenomenon, 'supraspinatus impingement syndrome.' Nobody is ever on solid ground when they make statements and do not understand the scientific reason for what they are saying. But, that makes you no different than 99.99999% of the coaches out there. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 028. I read over parts of your book again, and I think I was not understanding your instructions. Since I'm not aware of the meaning of pronation (I probably should have looked it up), I thought you meant with the curveball to follow through, with the ball rolling over the top of the pointer finger, and with the knuckle curve roll over the middle finger. From what I read again in the book and in the FAQs you're saying, by pronation, to throw the maxline curveball the opposite way like a screwball? You mention how this is much safer, but I can't illustrate in my mind what you are saying to do grip-wise. The picture I have in my mind now is of the ball rolling over the top of the middle finger. The spin of the ball is now going counter clockwise? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The first thing that you have to get out of your mind is that you release curves over top of your middle finger. The middle finger must always remain above the baseball. Pitchers place the lateral side of their middle finger horizontally against the horizontal top seam of the four seam orientation of the baseball. The middle finger points toward your glove-side. During release, pitchers drive their middle finger through the baseball and end with their fingers pointing to your pitching arm side. Pronation is when the radius bone on the thumb side of the forearm rotates inwardly toward and crosses the ulna bone on the little finger side of the forearm. I want pitchers to keep the pitching forearm horizontally inside of vertical throughout the pitch when the forearm ends horizontally outside of vertical. I recommend that pitchers master this release with my pickoff position leverage throws before they try any other body action. The spin axis of my pronation curve is horizontal. The top of the baseball is moving forward. Lay people refer to this spin axis as '12 to 6.' ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 029. I am writing you in regards to my son. He turned 13 years old in October 2002. This year, in little league baseball, he threw on the average 73 miles per hour, as clocked by one of our town policeman. His grandfather seems to think that you might have a chance to look at him. A pitching instructor, visiting for a tournament commented on how much potential he had and that he could add another 8 miles per hour if he used his legs and hips. As his mother, I would feel bad, if I never gave Nick the opportunity to see how far he could possibly go. His grandparents live in Zephyrhills for the winter. They said he would try to speak to you, personally, within the next couple of days. I have a ticket on hold for my son to go to see you. This would be the only reason for this trip. Would it be possible to let me know if there's a chance you could look at him? He would be missing a week of school and he's traveling a long way. His grandfather also told me that I would need about 1 month to warm up his arm, as he has not thrown a ball since September. There is a lot to take into consideration to get my son there, which we're willing to do, if you could see him. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I recommend that thirteen year old pitchers not practice pitching for more than two months per year and that they do not pitch more than one inning per game. He could practice my 60 Day Adolescent Pitcher Training Program. It is free to download on my web site. I do not work with any pitcher until their growth plates have completely matured, usually by the time that they are high school juniors. Please contact me at that time and please do not let overly zealous pitching coaches ruin his pitching arm before it matures. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 030. My son is a sophomore in college and he just called to say that he is experiencing bicep pain. I do not know if it is sharp or a dull pain. I do know they have changed his mechanics and I caught him over X-mas break. The change in mechanics was minor. They had him break of the hands quicker at the top of the vertical part of the windup to allow him to let his arm catch up with his body. He displayed a remarkable increase in velocity and pinpoint location with all pitches. I was going to suggest he long toss, but I don't want to risk injury. I did tell him to get to the trainer and not mask the injury. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Biceps brachii pain results from forearm flyout. The biceps brachii is trying to prevent his olecranon process from slamming into its fossa. He is also trying to powerfully extend his elbow. With his biceps brachii contracting to prevent injury and the triceps brachii contracting to powerfully extend the elbow, something has to give. Antagonistic muscles cannot contract at the same time. The biceps brachii loses and tears. This is not unusual for the 'traditional' pitching technique. If they want to truly permit the pitching arm to catch up with the body, they should advise him to get his pitching arm up to driveline height before he starts his body forward. However, I am sure that they are teaching him the 'balance position' which necessitates that pitchers start their body forward even before they start their pitching arm backward. Forgive them, they do not know any better. Nevertheless, they will destroy his pitching arm. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 031. A few days ago you replied to my email about the excruciating pain I was having in my bicep. I got the results to the 3 phase bone scan I had done back today and I was told I have a stress reaction in the distal part of my humerous. Is there anything I can do to speed up the process of recovery? How long do you think it will take for something like this to heal? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You had 'a stress reaction in the distal part of your humerus?' What does that mean? The distal part of your humerus is your medial epicondyle. Stress reaction? Does that mean that the bone density in your medial epicondyle has decreased? Does it mean that you have injured some muscle or connective tissue associated with the medial epicondyle? Recovery will never occur as long as you keep throwing the baseball the 'traditional' way. It is how you throw the baseball that causes your pain. You cannot wait that away. It will be there when you start to throw again. You cannot rehabilitate that away. The only true rehabilitation is throwing and how you throw injured the tissue. You have to change how you apply force to the baseball. If you do not change how you throw, it will never recover, it will never heal. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 032. My son just called and said that he worked on getting the arm at driveline height and he found he was going forward to soon. He said working on that allowed him to do "what he calls burying the thumb" at release and had no pain. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 'Burying his thumb' at release is a nice layman way of saying that he pronated his forearm. However, I worry about him pulling his elbow down and/or across his body. These are also serious pitching flaws that can injure his pitching arm. Nevertheless, I am glad to hear that he has no pain. Pronation is a good thing. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 033. I think I understand what you mean with the curveball, but am I right that it sounds more like the traditional screwball delivery? Also, isn't 12-6 rotation spinning forward? What I thought you meant by horizontal rotation is the ball is rotating either left to right or right to left, but 12-6 rotation is north to south. Is north to south ball rotation what you consider horizontal rotation? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When pitchers throw my pronation curves, the palm of their pitching hand face inward at the start of the release and face outward at the finish of the release. When pitchers throw screwballs, the palm of their pitching hand typically face outward at the start of the release and face outward at the finish of the release. Therefore, I do not believe that my pronation curve release sounds like the traditional screwball release. I am not aware that the coaches of the 'traditional' pitching motion teach screwballs. With the extreme forearm flyout that the 'traditional' pitching motion teaches, they cannot teach screwballs. When the baseball has a horizontal spin axis, it spins vertically. When a baseball has a vertical spin axis, it spin horizontally. The key is understanding the word 'axis'. The earth spins on a nearly vertical spin axis, so it spins horizontally. Please don't talk about left to right, clock-wise or counter clock-wise and north to south. For my pronation curve and true screwball, the top of the baseball moves forward toward home plate and the bottom of the baseball moves toward second base. For my Maxline Fastball and Torque Fastball, the top of the baseball moves forward toward second base and the bottom of the baseball moves toward home plate. This definition does not change depending on whether the pitcher is right or left-handed or whether you stand on the first or third base side. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 034. The result of my son's X-Ray of his right arm this January is that his right olecranon looks just like the left one. The doctor gave him his okay to return to a throwing program that stretches across 10 days and is very specific. As far as other exercise goes, stay away from push ups, etc., and stay away from pitching this year. My son is a fine hitter and base runner and will enjoy being a position player this season. The doctor says that my son can go back to working on his strength more next summer, but that, as an athlete, he has to be the one that pays attention to what all the adults are doing to help him in his different activities and keep track of how much total work he is getting. The doctor played college baseball, coached a Little League World Series team, has served as an Olympic doctor, has helped many athletes and gives pretty good advice. But, it certainly helped to have the additional information you provided, it provided a valuable additional perspective on what was going on. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have never heard of the ossification center for the olecranon process pulling away from the shaft of the ulna, so I was not seriously concerned for its safety. However, your son could still have damaged the attachment of the triceps brachii to the olecranon process. I agree that it is best to wait until the growth plates have fully matured. However, I do not agree with your son returning to a throwing program that stretches across ten days that does not change how he applies to his pitches. I do not believe that your doctors credentials enable him to design a specific training program/ When we communicated earlier, I recommended that he changes how he applies force to the baseball. The 'traditional' pitching motion exacerbated this situation and will continue to place unnecessary stress on his pitching arm that will either diminish his performance or injure his pitching arm again. I again recommend that you wait until his growth plates have matured and then, he should start my 280 Day Adult Pitchers Training Program. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 035. A stress reaction is an early stress fracture. I had a bone scan and it shows inflammation in the bone (distal humerus). The bone is not cracked, but it is inflamed and weak and gets sore easily. Is there anything I can take or do to recover faster? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By distal humerus, do you mean the medial epicondlye? So, a stress reaction means that the bone has not broken, only inflamed? Does weak mean that you have decreased your bone density? The only way for bone to lay down new bone is to appropriately apply stress to it. Therefore, I recommend that you forget about the 'traditional' pitching motion that is destroying your pitching arm and start my 280 Day Adult Pitchers Training Program. However, I prefer that you stay at the first six day training level for thirty days. Then, if you have no discomfort, you can continue my program. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 036. I don't mean to sound like an idiot or take up your time with trivial questions, but I tried using your pronation technique, and I don't think I did it right. Maybe if I tell you how I throw the curveball now you could possibly tell me what is wrong with it. During the delivery, I like an inverted T, but instead of both arms pointing down, the pitching forearm is pointing up. I know you said to keep arms horizontal, so I'll start doing that now. As I follow through with the pitching arm, it stays at 90 degrees, then widens in angle and comes down across my body. The wrist snaps downward, and the ball comes out rolling over my index finger. As for your way of throwing, I can't figure how to have my palm facing second base, then how to get the middle finger to go through the ball and make the palm face home plate. Should the arm stay at 90 degrees or decrease/increase in angle? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I advise that pitchers keep the forearm of their pitching arm horizontal from leverage through release and deceleration. I do not want the elbow bent at ninety degrees. At leverage, I want the forearm tightly against the upper arm. I never want the pitching arm to come across the front of your body. The upper arm must always remain at shoulder height and never move inward. The side of the middle finger drives through the baseball, the baseball does not roll over any finger. At leverage, the palm of the pitching hand should face your head. During release, the palm rotates outwardly until, after release, it faces away from your head. Throughout the forearm acceleration phase, you should always try to keep your forearm horizontal. The elbow angle moves from tightly bent to almost fully extended. You must take care not to 'slam' your olecranon process into its fossa. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 037. The bone is not broken, only inflamed. They tell me it could crack, if I keep throwing. Should I take some time off or just try you motion ASAP? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The physiological stress of a break in a bone stimulates osteoblasts to lay down new bone tissue to heal the break. However, without a break, only physical stress stimulates osteoblasts to lay down new bone. Therefore, if you want this bone to get stronger and increase its bone density, you have to judiciously apply stress to it on a daily basis. However, you cannot apply this stress in the same way that caused the problem. I recommend that you do the first week of my 280 Day Adult Pitchers Training Program for a month. You must apply force precisely as I describe my exercises. You can never go back to the 'traditional' pitching motion. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 038. I'm 16 years old. My question is I don't know which position I should throw from because I'm really good at both 3/4 and sidearm angles. But, I need to know if you could tell me how to throw a slider, screwball, knuckle, or like a combo pitch like curve-fastball sliding-fastball. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I answer some of these questions and many, many others in my Coaching Pitchers book, my Instructional Videotape and my Question/Answer files. However, I do not teach knuckleballs or curve-fastballs. But, I do teach my Torque Fastball Slider that sounds similar to your sliding-fastball. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 039. I just got back from pitching tryouts in which I topped out around 83. I have never thrown past 70 in my life. Besides a hard training workout, your free book, especially Section IX, was a huge boost. Literally overnight I went from 70 to 83 using some of your simple adjustments. Now, I have an on beat delivery that is ripping out fastballs with ever increasing accuracy. Your stuff worked and others didn't. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for the update. After I finish with my present forty week group and take more five hundred frames per second high-speed film, I will have much more new stuff that will help even more. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 040. Thanks again for the advice. My son had video taken of his delivery and he did find he was dropping down and coming across his body when not pronating. Now, he says he is back on track with his 2 seam having the tail and sink it always had and feeling effortless. He also said that he has a better change and feels more extended in his delivery. Thanks for your wisdom. You do a great service. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You are welcome. Let me know when he wants to learn my pronation curve and true screwball and lose that changeup. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 041. Good crop of letters for the new year. I see I am not the only one who struggled with the curve. I think it is MUCH easier to learn the screwball. Yesterday, when Josh and I threw together for the first time, he had power and a nice spin axis on the screwball from pickoff position, but struggled with the curve. He will get it, but the screwball just feels more natural and comes out of the hand more easily. He has talked about visiting you. What stage are you and your students in now? What would you recommend that he, as a 12 year old, see your guys doing? I know you won’t coach him, but would you or one of your students watch him do the exercises to make sure he is doing them correctly? I’ll sign a release of liability if that is your fear. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The reason why pitchers learn the proper driveline for the screwball more easily is because they do not try to supinate their forearm. The reason why pitchers do not learn the proper driveline for my pronation curves is because they try to supinate their forearm. I believe that it is more difficult for pitchers to correct an erroneous technique than to learn a technique that they have performed incorrectly for years. Therefore, I prefer to start with my pronation curve. However, I can understand the logic of learning the screwball first, especially with young pitchers. I had two pitchers join this forty week group after New Year. I started one with my pronation curve and the other with my true screwball. They both have some college experience and appear to be closely matched as motor skill learners. We will see who learns better. I have no problem with youngsters watching my guys throws their baseballs with my pickoff position leverage, no-stride position leverage, set position leverage, set position and windup throws. I have concern that over-zealous fathers might believe that their adolescent son should try to use wrist weights and/or weighted balls of any kind. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 042. I am glad that my 10 year old son is able to possibly have a future in pitching because his father was lucky enough to stumble across your site a year ago. It's nice to see some rationality in regards to your expertise. I've enjoyed your site and am glad that people are beginning to understand your motives. You probably know about this blurb at www.acmebaseball.blogspot.com/ but I thought I would send it to you anyway. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, January 06, 2003 Red Sox, freethinkers? Boston is going against the grain again, somewhat. I came across this snippet about them on The Sporting News' site: "The Red Sox are reshaping their minor league pitching policies and will sound out Mike Marshall, a pitching consultant and an original thinker who was one of baseball's most durable relievers. In 1974, Iron Mike appeared in 106 games for the Dodgers; five years later, he worked 90 games for the Twins." If they are able to get Mike Marshall aboard, then Boston is truly paving a new path for a Major League franchise. For those of you who don't remember Mike Marshall, the relief pitcher, check out his career numbers. Now that you've refreshed your memory, do you know what he's done since? Probably not. Most don't because his philosophies and teachings have largely gone against baseball's training methods and beliefs. I won't profess to having read everything he's written, but I've read enough to know that the man understands the mechanics of pitching. If baseball as a whole would start adopting his philosophies and methods concerning pitching, then we probably wouldn't see the amount of injuries that occur now. Wouldn't it be something if the four man rotation made a comeback?! Utilizing his training methodology from adolescence to pro ball, the four man rotation is more than a possibility. Suggested reading on this subject can be found at Mike's site, www.drmikemarshall.com. Should Boston be able to convince Dr. Mike Marshall to help them out, then talk about progressive! In one off-season they will have hired the youngest GM in the game (Epstein), a sabermetrics guru as special consultant (Bill James) and a renegade pitching consultant (Dr. Mike Marshall). Yes, you are reading correctly, the title is doctor. If you take the time to look at his site and peruse his credentials you'll start to understand the magnitude of his help for the Red Sox organization. They are starting to look like a team with a vision and a plan to make that vision a reality. Boston could really, really be an interesting club over the next few years with the addition of Dr. Marshall. Mike has been a pitching consultant since 1975, which by the way, was in the middle of his pitching career. He has been a consultant to several players over the years, but to my knowledge he's never been hired by a Major League team. Hats off to Boston! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you for taking the time to email me and for taking the time to send me this article. However, since I have never, to my knowledge, talked with anybody associated with the Boston Red Sox with regard to training their pitchers, I do not know what to make of this. In any case, it does make for interesting reading. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 043. Thanks, but you did not answer my question. Will you watch him to make certain he is doing them correctly? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Until he is a junior in high school, that is your job. However, that you do not feel qualified is my job. I am taking high-speed film that should help you to feel more qualified. I plan to have my second version Instructional Videotape ready in June. I had my video guy set up a studio in my office, so I can work on it any time. However, I do have to wait for this forty week group to become more skilled and I want to film my professional players just before they leave for spring training. Nevertheless, I assure you that you are more qualified that just about every pitching coach at any level. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 044. Should I have my son perform the same exercises with the Torque driveline as he did with the Maxline, except that for Torque, he should use the third base pickoff position rather than the 2nd base pick off position? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At twelve years old, the only torque driveline pitch that your son should practice is my torque fastball. Because pitchers should throw this pitch in front of the shoulders while they are rotating, they need to stand with their shoulders and feet at forty-five degrees to the driveline. I call this pickoff position, the first or third base pickoff position, or more simply, the Torque pickoff position. Why are you worrying about this in January? I would think that you would want the two months that your son practices pitching to coincide with the baseball season. Please do not destroy his pitching arm before it has a chance to mature. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 045. That's all he'll practice from the Torque delivery. Now, I see the advantage to using the Maxline delivery as his primary pitching method. I think your greatest discovery is the no-stride position. He hasn't done it yet, (we've only worked a couple of days using pickoff position leverage throws), but I had to make sure I understood it, and it almost forces you to throw strikes! Most hitters he will face are pitching arm side pull hitters, meaning most of his pitches will be directed to the first base corner or side of home plate. Should he use the Maxline delivery from the pitching arm side of the rubber (as you suggest when directing pitches to the third base side of home plate) or from the glove side of the rubber and direct the pitches straight ahead? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pitchers should throw their maxline pitches to the pitching arm side of home plate. At twelve years old, if he can throw these pitches anywhere in the strike zone, he will be unhitable. I still wonder why you are practicing in January, does not his season occur during the summer? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 046. Be careful. You almost complemented me. Seriously, I wondered yesterday, not to be morbid, but what happens to parents and to kids when you are no longer around. I hope you are around another 50 years, but you need to train coaches as well as players so that your wonderful teaching can continue. And not just as you are doing, but really training coaches in clinics, etc. To be sure that he is doing the exercises correctly, to be sure that I am training him correctly, I have questioned you for about two years now, I got the first video tape you sent out, and I came to your facility, watched, questioned and learned. I feel more qualified than probably anyone in the US other than you to train kids how to pitch. I still would like you to watch my son throw if he and I can swing a trip over there to make certain that he is doing everything correctly because I have taught him correctly. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I did not mean to almost compliment you. I meant to say that you do know more than any pitching coach anywhere. You are performing your parental duties well. I do not worry about how much longer I will be able to help parents, I worry that parents do not understand that it is up to them to make certain that youth coaches do not destroy their sons' pitching arms. I plan to make an Instructional Videotape that will make me and the wannabe pitching coaches obsolete. I again ask why your son is practicing pitching in January and February. Wait until a couple of weeks before his season begins and do not go past two months of throwing. I am sure that whatever you have him doing is fine. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 047. If we wait until a couple of weeks before his season, he will still only be doing pickoff leverage throws. You had OK'd his practicing in October, November, December, IF he occasionally only did the pickoff leverage throws. We chose instead to put the balls and gloves on the shelf. We have started now, with pickoff leverage throws. I hope to have worked up to set position by the time his season begins in March, so that, when he does pitch, it will be with the Mike Marshall method. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The two month limit prevents youngsters from putting too much stress on their growth plates. I have no problem with practicing only the pickoff position leverage throws to learn the proper release actions occasionally throughout the year. I want him to only learn the 'feel' of the pitches. However, if he moves on to the other practice positions and/or tries to throw them as hard as he can, then he is placing too much stress on the growth plates. Please do not practice the no-stride position leverage throws, the set position leverage or the set position throws until two weeks before the season. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 048. A player on my 12 year old team just broke the ulna on his throwing arm near the wrist (where the muscle attaches to the bone?) in a non-baseball related activity. The doctor said he could resume playing in April after the cast comes off. However, my recommendation to the parents is that he sit out the entire Spring season and follow an appropriate rehabilitation program. What is your recommendation? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The pronator quadratus muscle is probably the muscle to which you refer. While pronation is critical to the throwing motion, the growth plate at the distal ulna is not a major contributor to the pitching motion. However, the flexor carpi ulnaris muscle attaches to a nearby carpal bone. Still, except for bone density loss and atrophy of the ulnar cortex, I would not expect any residual effect from this injury. You called this young man, player, rather than pitcher. Therefore, I assume that he is a position player. Nevertheless, I recommend that all twelve year old baseball players and pitchers do not practice throwing for more than two months per year. If he plays in the spring and during the summer, that would exceed my recommendation without regard for this injury. I have a 60 Day Adolescent Pitcher Training program on my web site that he could follow. He would have to adjust the number of fastball repetitions to include the number of non-fastball repetitions that I recommend. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 049. Like many parents out there, I have a son who plays youth baseball and likes to pitch. What is the best way to condition and strengthen his arm? I have heard many ways. What is your thought on this? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I recommend that, until the growth plates in the pitching arms of youth pitchers have completely matured, 1. they do not throw baseballs for more than two months per year, 2. they do not pitch competitively until they are thirteen years old and 3. they do not pitch more than one inning per game. I have written a 60 Day Pubescent Pitcher Training Program for youth pitchers up to thirteen years old. I have written a 60 Day Adolescent Pitcher Training Program for youth pitchers up to thirteen years old. Parents can find these training programs and my free Coaching Pitchers book on my web site at drmikemarshall.com. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 050. Have you discontinued your pickoff position transition throws? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As you know, I am constantly revising the exercises that I use to train my pitchers. When I find, after several weeks of experimentation, that an exercise does not achieve its designed purpose, I make an adjustment. For now, I have eliminated the pickoff position transition throw exercise. For now, as my baseball throwing exercises, I use my pickoff position leverage throws, my no-stride leverage throws, my set position leverage throws, my set position throws and my windup throws. As my wrist weight and iron ball exercises, I drop the windup throws. After I put together the second version of my Instructional Videotape, I will make the changes to my Coaching Pitchers book. Every day, I feel closer to finding the best way to teach pitchers how to perform the pitching motion that I recommend. The last two months have been very productive. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 051. We are working pickoff positions until a few weeks before the season when he will need to be able to pitch from set and/or wind up. Then, I'll have a whole new series of questions. We are following your pubescent program and, as I saw you doing, I am asking and noting any arm discomfort. He has had none. I won't destroy his arm. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have no problem with occasional, moderate-intensity pickoff position leverage throws to learn or maintain the proper forearm release action for my four basic pitches. However, I want minimal stress. Also, he will need to master my no-stride leverage throws and set position throws. You know that I do not recommend that twelve year old pitch competitively. You know that I do not recommend that any adolescent pitches more than one inning per game. While the ligaments in his elbow and shoulder gradually stretch and while the growth plates in his pitching arm prematurely close, your son will not complain of discomfort. Unless you take bi-lateral X-rays with which we can compare the closure rates of the pitching arm against the non-pitching arm, unless you periodically take bone density measurements of the medial epicondyles of both arms and unless an expert takes quantifiable measurements of the laxity in the ligament of the elbow and shoulder, we will not know what if any damage youth pitching has done to your son. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 052. How do you put such nice, perfect stripes on the baseballs? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I hold the baseball between my thumb and middle fingers in the middle of the two short seams. I take a wide, black marking implement and I carefully draw the lines. Actually, I require each pitcher to own their own baseballs and make their own markings, including their initials. However, I do provide the four gallon bucket. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 053. I don't know what you call the flaw, but my son has a tendency to begin a pendulum swing, but quickly raise his forearm up to leverage before his upper arm was in the proper position. I found yesterday that the transition throws helped me help him to correct the problem. Any reason not to keep doing transition throws as a means of teaching the proper pendulum swing? Have you also eliminated your wrong foot throws completely? I love your new no-stride throws. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To raise the forearm to leverage before the entire pitching arm has pendulum swung up to driveline height is a serious flaw. That is the reason why I eliminated the pickoff position transition throw exercise and the no-stride transition throw exercise. Your son must learn to fully and freely pendulum swing his pitching arm up to driveline height. My three movement deltoid wrist weight warm-up exercise teaches this very well. However, he is not ready for the wrist weights. Nevertheless, he could do this exercise without the wrist weights. Presently, I do not introduce the transition into the throwing motion until the start of my fourth training cycle or one hundred and fifty-six days into the forty-week training program. Until then, we only throw from my leverage position. I want pitchers to 'feel' where they need to get their pitching arm before they start their body forward. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 054. As we are soon to enter our season, what changes should we make with the wrist weights? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Six weeks prior to competition, I reduce the number of wrist weight and iron ball exercises to totals of twenty-four repetitions, which is one-half of the base number of repetitions and increase the number of baseball throws to seventy-two. Three weeks prior to competition, I combine my Maxline and Torque workouts into one workout, but I keep the total repetitions at twenty-four and practice forty-eight baseball throws and twenty-four baseball pitch sequences. Throughout the competitive schedule, I recommend that pitchers continue the combined workout on a daily basis. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 055. I am a 57 year old with a 14 and 11 year old. I played ball into college. I had limited ability, but enjoyed the game. I was lucky in that my dad did not coach or give a hoot whether I played or not. He worked 12 hours 6 days a week. I did most of my playing in vacant lots. If genetics have any say, my kids will be no better than I was. I am President of our local Little League and feel like I am surrounded by alligators. The dad's are nuts. We are turning kids away from a great game. I have been coaching and a board member for 5 years. It has been a war, but we have reduced team rosters to 10 or 11 and bat the bench. I have finally gotten us to use a pitching machine for the 9 and 10 year olds once a week. The damn fools want to develop pitchers and none of us are smart enough to do it. I have tried to get a limit of 2 innings per game for pitchers. It passed the board. The coaches are in rebellion and I am fixing to go to war in 2 hours at our board meeting. It will be ignorance on my part arguing against ignorance on their part. I am thinking of starting my own kids league. I would like to get back as close to sandlot ball as possible. When I was 10, the pitcher's job was to get it over where I could hit it. If he couldn't, we got someone else. Last year, I spent Saturday afternoons at the Little League park. I set up a pitching machine. Kids showed up and chose teams and captains. All I did was run the machine. They umpired. They made out the line-up. The captains settled problems. How would you set up a kids league? Little League age. Heck what would you do with Babe Ruth age kids? Baseball is the most fun to play if you give kids the chance to PLAY it. I played ball. I know hitting. I can still hit. Never could run or throw. I hated pitchers. Didn't want to pitch. Just wanted to make their lives miserable. However, I have tried my best to learn as much as I can about pitching mechanics. The info is confusing. Who is right? I haven't read any of your stuff. I plan on it. I am of the opinion that throwing a lot at 80 % on flat ground is ok for kids. Pitching any off the mound is probably not good. Most kids have bad mechanics. Fixing it is hard. Hard on my knees. Most coaches are ignorant and most won't or can't do anything about it. Therefore, we don't need to be letting kids pitch unless it is to just get it over where someone can hit it. Please give me advice on setting up a local kids league that stresses sandlot type ball. Do you know of anyone who has done this? I feel my job on the Little League Board is to make sure that the kid who is below average gets his parents money's worth. They sure are not, but I am trying. My last opinion is that organized sports of all kinds for kids are awful. Soccer is the one exception around here. The dad's don't have a clue about it. It won't last. When the kids who play soccer have their kids, it will be the same as the rest. After saying this, my kids want to play. I know that they will likely be in organized ball. What reading would you recommend concerning pitching. I will do my best to learn and pass it on the other coaches. If you would like to attend our Little League Board Meeting, I could work you in. However, half of them would wind up telling you how to pitch, a third would dose off and the other third would listen. Guess what percentage of the vote we get on matters that matter. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You have the right idea. Youth sports are for the kids, not just to play the games, but to interact as kids. They should make up line-ups, umpire and settle disputes. Pitchers should throw pitches that batters can hit and so on. That day that you simply operated the pitching machine was wonderful. You have my admiration and, I suspect, the admiration of those kids as well. On my web site, I provide my Coaching Pitchers book for free. You can read it, copy it, send it to others and so on. In Chapter 12, I write what I believe youth baseball should be. I also have an Instructional Videotape in which I show why youngsters should not pitch competitively until they are thirteen years old and should not pitch more than one inning per game. Chapters 04 through 11 also provide this information. If, after these parents learn the facts of how much they are hurting their children, they still do not want to change, then you should provide an alternative league as I recommend. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 056. In chapter 25, from your research findings, you knew that you did not have a "straight driveline through release" with your screwball. Please explain how you improved the straightening of your driveline through release on your screwball if that is what you did to get the increased strike percentage out of it. Also, if you can direct me to where I can find the explanation of how the driveline stays straight from leverage to release in your book. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In 1971, I took high-speed film of my pitching motion. What I saw shocked me. I never realized that I had late forearm turnover and considerable forearm flyout. I decided that I needed to have my hand facing outward at what I now call my 'ready' position, which is the when the pitching hand first reaches driveline height. That resolved my late forearm turnover problem. Then, to resolve my considerable forearm flyout problem, I decided that I had to drive my pitching hand as far inside of vertical as possible. Without these two flaws, I found that I could drive my screwballs straight toward home plate. Without the wasted force that I used to correct for those flaws, I also improved the quality of my screwballs. In Section IX, I discuss my pitching technique. I also have an Instructional Videotape that shows my pitching technique. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 057. A couple of questions from an adult position player who has studied your book, tape and question forums and is three weeks into your 280-day pitcher's training program: 1. When the training program specifies screwball or curveball repetitions, should a position player eliminate those parts or perform them maxline or torque? 2. Just to be clear: do you want to eliminate that position we see in famous pitchers where the elbow fires forward and the hand drops below the elbow? I get the impression you want a "locked and blocked elbow and shoulder joint" as the torso rotates around, with the power supplied by rotation and a straight forearm snap with pronation? No elbow firing forward and the hand blowing back? 3. I am not dragging the arm across the chest or "blowing the elbow forward" in the training program because it is my impression that is what you advise. I am getting just a little light biceps tendon soreness. Is this normal as develop strength and adapt to the motion or perhaps a signal I am performing something incorrectly? 4. For a catcher or an infielder, why not just catch it, swing to driveline height and then step with the wrong foot and fire away? Why bother with the correct-foot step? My arm already feels better with just the rudimentary ability I have developed to create a straighter line with my arm. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Position players need only my maxline and torque fastball techniques. 2. When pitchers have their pitching forearm vertical just before they accelerate their upper arm forward, their forearm bounces downward. This reverse forearm bounce places extra and unnecessary stress on the inside of the elbow. I recommend that pitchers pendulum swing their pitching arm up to driveline height to where their forearm is at a forty-five degree angle behind vertical as seen from the side view. Then, when they start their upper arm acceleration phase, I recommend that they roll their forearm inwardly to a maximal elbow flexion position at 'leverage', which is when the acromial line is perpendicular to the driveline toward home plate. 3. Biceps brachii muscle soreness indicates that you have forearm flyout. This means that rather than driving your pitching hand as far inside of vertical as possible, you are circling your forearm outside of vertical. 4. I recently discontinued using my wrong foot transition exercises. I found that pitchers did not take the time to use a full pendulum swing, rather they lifted their forearm almost straight upward to driveline height. Now, I do not introduce the transition until my fourth training cycle after pitchers demonstrate that they can use the proper pitching arm action from the leverage position. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 058. After looking at my pitchers when throwing traditional curves or sliders using freeze frame of a digital camera( still not as good as your high speed camera), I'm seeing no supination until after pronation has completed. It appears that pronation is occurring from release to " follow through". If this is true, what is the difference between this and your pronation curve? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I suspect that you are misinterpreting supination and pronation. Supination occurs when the radius bone moves away from the ulna bone. This happens when pitchers release curve over top of their index finger. That is supination. Pronation occurs when the radius bone moves toward the ulna bone. This happens when pitchers rotate their thumb to point downward. Immediately after pitchers start their upper arm acceleration and their forearm circles outward, pitchers supinate their forearm. Immediately after pitchers release their pitchers, pitchers pronate their forearm. If their curves move toward the glove side of home plate, then their forearms were outside of vertical, which means that they supinated their forearm. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 059. I am currently a pitching coach at the high school level and have been for three years. This year, I have encountered the problem of my top 3 pitchers also being position players. What do you suggest for these players the day after they pitch? Should they take infield? Play normal position? This would be in terms of say, a 75 pitch count. My concern is their play in the field the day after, as far as how many throws are made pregame/game time. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Until these pitchers tell you that they are experiencing stiffness and/or soreness that is interfering with their ability to take infield or outfield practice or make the throws that games require, I would let them participate at usual. However, if they do complain, please let me know where they have stiffness and/or soreness and I will advise. Rather than a pitch count, I recommend that young pitchers only pitch twice through the lineup. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 060. I have been a silent lurker on your site for the past four years, and am currently a top-rated pitching prospect with a major league organization. I have had success at every level, but it seems that every two-bit rookie league coach tries to "change my mechanics". This usually results in me being "labeled", and you know how that goes. My beef is that I want to have a long career in the major leagues, which usually equates to being injury free. I do not worry about the techniques that I have emphasized from the pages on your site. I worry that I will be labeled as uncoachable, and the host of other b.s. that goes along with being involved in pro ball. I receive constant backlash from my peers and coaches due to my social habits (which include not drinking and reading books without pictures), but basically motivates me to put up increasingly better numbers against better competition. One of the worst stigmas I have received the past few years has been that I am lazy because I do not believe in long distance running as a training tool. (Especially after serious back injury as a college freshman) Is this something that I should continue to expect from people along the way? How did you cope with being a successful "renegade"? I hold your teachings in the highest regard (I cringe every time I see a kid with forearm flyout/elbow bounce back), and would like some feedback as to what to do. It is rather discouraging to be 22 and have studied throwing and pitching more than "pitching coaches" twice my age. Not that I am an expert, but I do read a ton, and experiment extensively. Guys look at me like I am from Pluto when I bring up words like olecranon and acromial line. I have to go home to work out sometimes, I got lectured in spring training last year regarding the "specificity of my training". They think I am going to blow my shoulder out with wrist weights and similar exercises. Oh, we had mandatory change-up percentages last year! Less than 20% led to demotions from the rotation to the bullpen. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to my world. If you have read 'Ball Four', then you know that pitching coaches treated me the same way. I was 'moon-man', 'egg-head", 'college boy' and other similar attempted insults. However, I just ignored them and kept getting batters out with intensity and joy. My kids have the same problem. We will not overcome this problem until more pitching coaches steal more of my pitching technique. Until then, I tell my kids to tell pitching coaches that want to change something in their motion to say, that you I tried that with another pitching coach and your injured your elbow, shoulder, back or whatever seems appropriate. Since these guys have no idea what they are doing, they cannot determine whether what you say is true. But, don't try that with me. I know what technique causes what type of injury. Incidentally, I was involved in a serious car accident when I was eleven that left me with chronic back pain. Therefore, I too had to take care with my running. I found that I could jog long distances with little bouncing and not lifting my knees too high. However, I could not sprint without jeopardizing my lower back. I would be remiss if I did not extend you and invitation to my pitching research/training center in Zephyrhills, FL near Tampa. If your organization spring trains in Florida, why don't you plan on stopping in on your way. Lastly, only you are responsible for your athletic success. Do not permit anybody, including me, to force you to change what you believe works best for you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 061. My son plays ball for a college team. As a catcher, he throws everyday. After a weightlifting injury (to his forearm), he was asked to continue throwing (by his coaches) even though the forearm was in pain. His forearm is now swollen, there is much pain in his arm, his index finger and middle finger is numb, his wrist hurts when throwing and his elbow is now hurting. Can you tell me what kind of injury is causing all this? How should he handle this? What kind of anti-imflammatory meds should he take? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Numbness in his index and middle finger indicates irritation to the median nerve. If he hooks his wrist, then he probably irritated it in the wrist area. He could also irritate it in the elbow area. Unfortunately, you did not tell me where in the elbow he is experiencing discomfort. If it in the inside of the elbow, then he probably has reverse forearm bounce, most catchers do. He should stop bringing his throwing arm up to his ear with the baseball pointing forward. He needs to pendulum swing his throwing arm up to ear height with his forearm forty-five degrees behind vertical from the side view. Then, when he starts his elbow forward, he needs to drive the baseball inside of vertical straight toward his target. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 062. I would like to take advantage of your medical knowledge concerning movement of the arm. If I refer to my medical dictionary, supination occurs when pitchers end up with the palm facing up. Throwing a slider and getting the hand under the ball cause supination. All other pitches i.e., palm down, inward or outward on release are pronation with the late one (outward) being a full pronation. It make sense too me that when a pitcher twist his arm (doorknob slider), supination occurs which could be devastating on the arm. Also, even with a correct delivery (elbow even with shoulder, no lock), if the pitcher cocks his wrist (like a curveball) while throwing a slider, injuries could (will) happen although pronation is involved (inward)? Bottom line, when you refer to the basic curveball and slider as involving supination, I do not understand. Maybe you could clarify this for me once for all? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With due respect for the authors of your medical dictionary, supination is when the radius bone rotates away from the ulna bone and pronation is when the radius bone rotates toward the ulna bone. The palm faces upward during supination when pitchers stand in the anatomical position, not when pitching. Pitchers should pronate their forearm when they throw torque fastball sliders. Pitcher should never, never supinate their forearm. While throwing a football is similar to throwing sliders, I would never recommend that baseball pitchers throw footballs as a general means of training to throw baseballs. However, throwing a football with a downward spiral angle might help pitchers to learn how to pronate their torque fastball slider releases. Pitcher should throw my torque fastball sliders with the same pitching arm action as when they throw my torque fastballs. To permit pitchers to achieve the circle-of-friction on the top, forward aspect of the baseball, pitchers offset the index and middle fingers of their pitching hand to the pitching arm side of the baseball such that they impart the spiral spin axis to the baseball. Pitchers must never, never supinate their forearm or 'bang' their olecranon process into it fossa. I do not teach my torque fastball slider until my kids show me that they have mastered the proper releases for my torque fastball and maxline pronation curve. I also do not teach my maxline fastball sinker until my kids show me that they have mastered the proper releases for my maxline fastball and maxline true screwball. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 063. The throwing arm path you describe seems to be the least restrictive of any path one could take on an overhand throw. Does this come from your understanding of the physiological make-up of the body and how it safely operates the arm through an overhand throw? My current understanding of the arm path you have described is as follows: you pendulum swing arm with palm facing body then the palm turns facing out not back. What follows next is the forearm driving inside of the elbow with pronation taking place after release? If you can address whether this path is based on the physiological findings on how joints safely work through the transitions up to and through an overhand throw? It seems to me you have found a way to make an overhand throw with the same characteristics of an underhand throw. The underhand throw is the safest way to hurl objects with the least amount of injury due to the joints staying intact. One thing comes to mind, you say to brush the little finger and the ring finger on your thigh as you come out of the glove. Which is precisely what fast pitch softball pitchers do after release. Most fast pitch softball pitchers can pitch doubleheaders as well as split doubleheaders and even tripleheaders without injuring the arm. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My recommendations come from my interpretation of Newton's three laws of motion and my knowledge of applied anatomy. Physiology refers to how the various systems of the body operate to maintain homeostasis. I use my knowledge of physiology to develop my interval training programs. At the start of my pendulum swing, I prefer that pitchers have the palm of their pitching hand facing forward. At forty-five degrees behind vertical downward, I recommend that pitchers gently supinate their forearm such that at my 'ready' position, the palm of their pitching hand faces away from their body. I believe that my baseball pitching motion is the safest, most powerful way to throw baseballs. Any similarity between any aspect of my pitching motion and how softball pitchers pitch softballs is purely coincidental. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 064. I am fascinated with the impact a great pitching coach can have on a baseball team. All baseball publications focus on the players. It would be nice to read about the leadership and coaching as well. The impact of general managers, heads of Scouting and Development, Managers, Hitting, Fielding, Base running and Pitching coaches. There should be an owner in baseball willing to pay you quite a bit of money to be a pitching coach in Major League Baseball given the impact you could have. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I would accept an opportunity to teach the pitchers in an affiliated professional organization only if I could effect the technique and fitness adjustments that I believe would maximize the possibility of their success and to show that no pitcher should ever suffer a pitching arm injury. I have no doubt that these pitchers would achieve their potential. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 065. I play high school baseball and I am 15 years old. to get ready for the season I threw and hit over the winter. Just last week or so of practice, I have been experiencing I cant be sure if it is pain or soreness in my triceps muscle or the back of my arm. I pitched in a scrimmage last week when it was about 35 degrees outside and I am wondering if I did something then. Do you have any guess as to what might have caused this sudden pain? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 'Pain or soreness in my triceps muscle or the back of my arm' is not a very definitive description. Is it high behind your shoulder? Is it low near your elbow? If it is high and up inside of your arm pit, then it is probably your teres minor muscle. Discomfort in the teres minor muscle means that you pull your pitching arm across the front of your body such that you have only the teres minor muscle with which to decelerate your arm. Practice intensity never equates with scrimmage intensity. That is, scrimmage intensity is much greater and you should expect discomfort. However, if the discomfort results from improper technique, then you will never get rid of it. If you were one of my kids and I knew that your technique was good, I would tell you to do a blood flow intensity workout the next day. In your case, I would tell you to do the same, but take it very easy and you have to stop pulling your pitching arm across the front of your body. The ambient temperature was irrelevant. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 066. Please elaborate on the rolling forearm inward thing. I think that is what I am missing. Sounds like a cool move. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At present, I do not permit my kids to throw with a transition until the start of my fourth training cycle or one hundred and fifty-seven days into my two hundred and eighty day adult pitchers training program. I want them to master the proper pitching arm action for my four basic pitches; maxline fastball, maxline pronation curve, maxline true screwball and torque fastball. All through these one hundred and fifty-seven days, they have practiced my three movement deltoid wrist weight warm-up exercise, the first phase of which replicates my double pendulum swing start to my pitching motion. Adolescents can perform this exercise without wrist weights. Consequently, my kids reflexively pendulum swing their pitching arm up to driveline height with their palm facing outward and their forearm forty-five degrees behind vertical as viewed from the side. This leaves it to them to only learn how I recommend that pitchers move their pitching arm from the 'ready' position at the end of the pendulum swing to my 'leverage' position when their acromial line is perpendicular to the driveline toward home plate. It is critical that pitchers do not start to rotate their forearm prior to the start of their upper arm acceleration phase. This causes 'looping' followed by circle out followed by forearm flyout. Instead, pitchers must wait until they start their upper arm forward. At this point, what they do varies with the type of pitch. When throwing my maxline true screwball, pitchers rotate their forearm outwardly (pronate) such that their palm faces upward and maximally bend their elbow. The inertial force of the baseball and their forearm will hyper-supinate their forearm. This should be a good thing. Unfortunately, if pitchers permit the hyper-supination of their forearm to take the forearm beyond the elbow, it will lead to circle out and so on. Conversely, if pitchers limit this hyper-supination to no farther than their elbow, then, after they have moved their body ahead of their stride foot and have rotated their acromial line to point toward home plate, they have properly positioned their pitching arm to simultaneously maximally extend their elbow and pronate their forearm through release. It is critically important that pitchers drive their hand and baseball in a straight-line toward home plate such that their forearm moves horizontally throughout the forearm acceleration phase and through the deceleration phase. For awhile, I had my kids use the same forearm and hand position to throw my maxline fastball. However, I found that they can use my forearm and hand position for my maxline pronation curve and torque fastball just as well and it permits for greater visual deception to the hitter. When throwing my maxline fastball and maxline pronation curve, pitchers rotate their forearm inwardly (supinate) such that their palm faces downward while they maximally bend their elbow. The inertial force of the baseball and their forearm will again hyper-supinate the forearm. Again, if pitchers limit this hyper-supination to no farther than their elbow, then, after they have moved their body ahead of their stride foot and have rotated their acromial line to point toward home plate, they have properly positioned their pitching arm to simultaneously maximally extend their elbow and pronate their forearm through release. It is again critically important that pitchers drive their hand and baseball in a straight-line toward home plate such that their forearm moves horizontally throughout the forearm acceleration phase and through the deceleration phase. When throwing my torque fastball, pitchers also rotate their forearm inwardly (supinate) such that their palm faces downward while they maximally bend their elbow. The inertial weight of the baseball will again hyper-supinate the forearm. However, in this case, pitchers should permit the inertial force to circle their forearm to slightly outside of their elbow. During this movement, pitchers should rotate their palm to a palm-up position. Then, after they have moved their body ahead of their stride foot and have rotated their acromial line to point toward home plate, they have properly positioned their pitching arm to arm-wrestle the baseball toward their glove side. The circle of the elbow extension, forearm pronation action of the pitching arm during my torque fastball is much larger than with my maxline true screwball, maxline fastball and maxline pronation curve, but it still is forearm pronation. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 067. I recently purchased materials from another pitching coach. Would you please discuss the rights and wrongs of some of the things that he says. 1. He says that throwing starts with the feet. He says that pitchers should take one step back and balance on the ball of their right foot, with their weight on the ball of their right foot. 2. He says that pitchers should not raise their left leg higher than horizontal, but toward their center of gravity (stomach). 3. He says that, then, pitchers should land on the ball of their left foot. 4. At this point, he says that pitchers should have both arms are in a flex-t-shoulders in front of elbows in a slight flex position. 5. From this point, he says that when the landing leg hits the ground, pitchers should delay their upper body rotation until they move their body ahead of their landing leg. 6. He says that this is very similar to his hidden velocity technique. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This pitching coach wannabe is simply trying to reword my pitching motion and claim it as his. He is a plagiarist. 1. I recommend that pitchers shift their body weight from their front foot to the rear foot while their pendulum swing their pitching arm up to driveline height. He is trying to eliminate the 'balance position' that he recommended for the past twenty-two years. 2. I recommend that pitchers do not raise their front leg. When pitchers raise their front leg, they alter their center of mass. The center of mass of pitchers is at their umbilicus, which is the technical term for belly button. The stomach is several inches higher than the umbilicus, but this guy does not know that. 3. I recommend that pitchers land with their front foot in the same manner that they would when they take a step forward while walking. If pitchers land on the metatarsal/proximal phalange articulations (ball of the foot), then they will unnecessarily stress the plantar fascia of the foot, cause their center of mass to move upward and teach pitchers to pivot like ballerinas. Pitchers should keep their center of mass level and moving smoothly forward, just like when they walk. 4. I recommend that when the pitching arm reaches driveline height, pitchers should have their forearm at forty-five degrees behind vertical as viewed from the side positions. I cannot and do not want to make heads of tales of, "At this point, your arms are in a flex-t-shoulders in front of elbows in a slight flex." 5. I recommend that, to move their entire body ahead of their front foot, pitchers step forward with their rear leg off the pitching rubber along a straight line toward home plate. Several years ago, as a way to increase the length of the driveline, I invented my 'stride leg drive' concept. He has simply and unashamedly stolen this concept. 6. As a result of my 'stride leg drive' concept, I simultaneously invented my 'hidden velocity' concept. Again, he has simply stolen another of the many concepts that I created. From a research integrity point of view, this person is despicable and beneath contempt. He is the worse kind of thief, one who steals ideas and claims credit. He should have absolutely no credibility. If he simply acknowledges from whom he received these ideas, then he could use them with honor. Nevertheless, I am glad that he and the others steal my ideas. They will force the bone-heads pitching coaches with the affiliated teams to stop harassing my pitchers and maybe we can begin to eliminate pitching arm injuries. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 068. Why do you teach the four seam pitches before the 2 seam? Is there any difference in arm action between the 2 and four seam pitches? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At present, I not only teach my four seam maxline and torque fastballs before I each the two seam fastballs, I no longer teach two seam fastballs. Because they have the Magnus Effect of Bernoulli's fluid flow principle to help the fastballs maintain their release height, I prefer four seam fastballs. Remember, I recommend that pitchers release all pitches at the same driveline height. Further, I have stopped teaching my four seam torque fastball during the first and second training cycles. Before I teach my torque fastball, I want to make certain that pitchers no longer pull their pitching elbow across the front of their body. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 069. What does, “This means that rather than driving your pitching hand as far inside of vertical as possible, you are circling your forearm outside of vertical” mean? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I recommend that pitchers drive the baseball in a straight line toward home plate. To accomplish this, pitchers must not take the baseball laterally behind their body. Unfortunately, the 'traditional' pitching motion teaches pitchers to take the baseball laterally behind their body. Consequently, before they can straight line drive the baseball toward home plate, pitchers have to return the baseball to the pitching arm side of their body. The lateral movement of the baseball generates centrifugal force that results the forearm circling outward toward forearm flyout, which means that the forearm is outside of vertical. Until pitchers stop taking the baseball laterally behind their body, they are doomed to suffer forearm flyout. To prevent forearm flyout, I recommend that pitchers do not take the baseball laterally behind their body and that they drive their forearm as far inside of vertical as possible, even to the point that they feel as though they are driving their forearm horizontally inside of vertical. Proprioceptively, they may feel as though their forearm is horizontally inside of vertical when they are actually near vertical. However, if they feel as though their forearm is vertical, they will actually be outside of vertical. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 070. I have more questions about what this other pitching coach says. 1. He says the reason there is so many pitching arm injuries is because there is too much throwing off the mound and not enough on flat ground. 2. He says that any kid any age can throw because all pitches use the same muscles but differ in angle. 3. He says that Asian pitchers can throw more pitches then American pitches because they don't throw off the mound as much as American pitchers. 4. If he now uses your pitching motion, how did he 'sustain' the career of a hall of fame pitcher? 5. How has he helped some present day major league pitchers? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. When pitchers throw for distance off flat ground, they have to elevate the angle at which they release their pitches above the angle at which they release their pitches off the pitching mound. That does nothing to help them pitch. And, unless they throw with entirely different mechanics, it does nothing to prevent injuries. 2. Adult pitchers injure their pitching arms because they place more stress on the pitching arm than it can withstand. Either they are not properly training to withstand appropriate stress or they inappropriately apply force. Adolescent pitchers injure themselves for these reasons and also because the growth plates cannot withstand even appropriate stresses for very long. Therefore, whether adolescent pitchers release all pitches the same is irrelevant. The only relevant fact is that they are stressing open growth plates. They should never throw weighted baseballs. Such ignorance should be legally actionable. 3. I do not know whether the statement that Asian pitchers can throw more often than American pitchers is verifiable. But, if it is, I am sure that it has nothing to do with throwing off flat ground. 4. Over the one hundred and thirty years of professional baseball, some pitchers have succeeded with improper pitching motions. These men are considerably stronger than the average man with specific gifts. When adolescences and normal men try to use the same pitching motion, they suffer irreversible injuries. The hall of fame pitchers seriously injured his pitching arm in the last major league game he pitched. 5. The fact that he now uses my pitching motion could explain why one of the present day major league pitchers that you mentioned has lengthen and straightened his driveline. He gets to work with these pitchers because he duped the public with his books and videotape for many years and is well-known. In our free enterprise system, we let the buyer beware. I understand that he made almost three-quarters of a million dollars of his material before he stole me pitching motion. I think that he should return that money to the people that he defrauded and pay for all the surgeries that he caused. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 071. What is vertical that you want pitchers to stay inside of? Do you mean that the pitcher's hand is closer to the pitcher's head with the forearm angled toward the head? Is the pitch is then released by accelerating and pronating the forearm from close to the head to full pronation at shoulder height without locking the elbow? Is outside of vertical most easily seen when pitchers bend and lean toward the glove side and have their hand well away from their head and their elbow almost fully extended as they throw the ball down and across their body? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Vertical is straight up and down. I want the forearm inside of straight up and down as far as possible. The pitcher's hand would indeed be closer to his head with the forearm horizontally angled inward. Horizontal is when one end of the forearm is at the same height as the other end of the forearm. I also want the shoulders level, which is also horizontal. Pitchers should not lean to their glove-side or toward their pitching arm-side. Pitchers must never, never pull the elbow of their pitching arm across their body or downward. Pitchers must keep the elbow of their pitching arm at shoulder height and slightly ahead of their acromial line throughout the upper arm and forearm acceleration phases. Pitchers forearm accelerate their pitching arm through release with a simultaneous elbow extension, forearm pronation action with the inward rotation of the shoulder insuring that they do not 'lock' their olecranon process into its fossa. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 072. I recently read an article that stated a present day star major league pitcher is throwing harder then before because this other pitching coach told him that he is bending at the waist and not using his tall frame to his maximum. I know that, on your videotape, you said one of your pitchers was throwing like was a 5 feet pitcher and not his 6 feet height. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am glad to hear that this pitching coach wannabe stole my 'stand tall and rotate' concept to help this outstanding present day major league star pitcher. I did notice the change in his motion. It will not be much longer when these plagiarists will steal everything they can and my pitching motion will take over and we will eliminate pitching arm injuries. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 073. I read this article and thought that I would like to read how your would answer the same questions. The doctor is a member of the Association of Professional Team Physicians. 1. What causes Little League elbow? Dr.: The problem with young pitchers is that in many cases they're either throwing too hard too often or trying to build up their endurance too quickly. In my practice, I see many adolescent players with arm problems, and 90 percent of the time it can be linked to some sort of a sudden change in the intensity or duration of activity. For instance, a player will suddenly make his mind up that baseball is going to be his preferred sport. So he goes from playing with a high school team to playing on two summer teams plus his high school team. And now he's playing twice as often and throwing twice as much. I've also seen this affliction in cases where a player changes leagues where the pitcher's mound is farther from home plate or the mound is elevated. Sometimes it's a change of coaches that's the cause. And the pitcher ends up with a sore arm. The way baseball has taken over as a year-long sports focus has resulted in an accompanying increase in arm complaints. Marshall: Little League elbow results from the traction stress of the critical pitching muscles that attach to the ossification center of the medial epicondyle of youth pitchers with open growth plates. 2. What age group is most affected, and how? Dr.: Generally it's pre-high school players, anywhere from ages 10 to 15, with the peak incidence in the 12- to 14-year-old age group. Little League elbow is a process of damage to the joint surfaces. Pitchers' elbows at that age, as are most of their joints, are immature, so they have open growth plates and something of a tenuous blood supply to those growth plates. Little League elbow involves an overload on the medial side of the elbow, so that the ligament attached to the growth plate starts to pull away. And on the other side of the elbow there can be a compressive phenomenon that can cause a condition called osteochondritis dissecans, in which damage is followed by poor blood flow and small areas of bone death. When you see those components together -- some elongation of the ligament structures and perhaps some changes in the growth plate on the medial side along with some bony debris and damage to the outer half of the elbow -- now you're looking at the true definition of Little League elbow. In some circumstances we'll see a significant avulsion of the medial elbow with a several-millimeter separation. It's typically an acute injury when the ligament gets pulled off like that. More often, the affected elbow will become sore and maybe show just a little extra widening of the growth plate as compared with the unaffected, nondominant arm. Comparison X-rays may be necessary. Marshall: Little League elbow occurs only in youth pitchers with open growth plates. Because adolescents biologically mature at different rates, bi-lateral, mid-ulna to mid-humerus X-rays are the best way to determine when their growth plate mature. In general, the growth plate of the medial epicondyle matures around sixteen years old. 3. What are the symptoms? Dr.: Typically it's a gradual onset. Generally the elbow is sore to the touch and may have some swelling. It especially hurts when the player throws the ball. The growth plate can traumatically separate when someone falls on the arm awkwardly, but that separation can also occur as a result of just one hard throw. In that case, there's a sudden onset of pain and the player feels something give way in the elbow. Pain may be associated with catching or locking. The elbow will obviously feel better after being rested. In cases of osteochondritis dissecans and associated loose bodies in the elbow, the player may have some locking, catching, persistent swelling and/or loss of movement in the elbow. Marshall: With regard to Little League elbow, youth pitchers complain of an aching in their medial epicondlye area. When physicians apply inward pressure to the medial epicondyle, youngsters experience greater discomfort. However, the growth plate of the medial epicondyle is not the only location of discomfort from youth pitching. Youngsters experience discomfort from the head of their radius bone colliding with the end of the humerus bone, from stretching and/or tearing in their ulnar collateral ligament, from irritations to the fascia covering the ulnar nerve groove, from the end of their olecranon process colliding with its fossa and more. 4. How is Little League elbow diagnosed? Dr.: A clinical exam will often provide as much information as an X-ray will, but more often than not, we combine our clinical exam with an X-ray. The X-rays often show some of the bony changes that take place and help us to make a more complex diagnosis. Marshall: Physicians should apply inward pressure to the ossification center for the medial epicondyle and they should take bi-lateral, mid-ulna to mid-humerus X-rays. Youngsters complain of discomfort with the pressure and the growth plate for the medial epicondyle on the pitching arm appears wider than for the non-pitching arm. However, the beginnings of pre-mature closure of the growth plate of the medial epicondyle of the pitching arm can confuse the diagnosis. 5. How is it treated? Dr.: We ask the patient to ice the elbow. Rest is obviously a big part of the treatment, and on rare occasions we may splint the elbow to assure rest. But we don't like immobilizing elbows too long because they often will get permanently stiff. The most important parts of treating Little League elbow are 1) helping the player understand why the problem exists and explaining in detail what's happening and 2) allowing him to continue range-of-motion in the elbow but avoid throwing. Anti-inflammatory medication will make the elbow feel better but doesn't speed up the healing process. The injuries with the growth plate are treated similar to fractures. Typically the recovery time is going to be six weeks or so for minor problems to as much as three months for the more significant problems. Some players have the luxury of being able to be designated hitters, and typically I'll let them do that once they can show me they have full range of motion in the elbow and I'm convinced that if they landed on their elbow they're not going to re-aggravate it. They can shag flies and take grounders, but throwing is the main limitation. Marshall: We should treat Little League elbow in the same way that we treat Osgood Schlatter's disease. That is, youngsters should stop throwing until the growth plate for the medial epicondyle of their pitching arm completely matures. They will have plenty of time after that growth plate matures to learn how to properly apply force to their pitches and properly train to become the best pitcher that can be. 6. How long is it before the player can start pitching again? Dr.: It depends. If he has a growth plate separation or it looks like there's some damage, we'll rely on the normal healing process, which is going to be a minimum on four to six weeks, and we base this on clinical findings such as tenderness, the integrity of the ligaments, and muscular strength. We then try him on a return-to-throwing program. We usually put him on a short-toss, long-toss program to allow him to gradually build back his arm strength. He progresses to an on-the-mound throwing situation. It's not until he's gone through all those steps that he's allowed to go back to pitching. Marshall: When the bi-lateral, mid-ulna to mid-humerus X-rays show that the growth plate of the medial epicondyle of their pitching arm has completely matured. 7. Is surgery ever necessary? Dr.: On the medial side, if the growth plate gets separated by more than about four millimeters, reattaching it surgically is sometimes advocated. If the patient has loose bodies, that becomes a surgical situation for sure. The majority of these injuries are treated conservatively, without surgery. Marshall: Unfortunately. When the ossification center of the medial epicondyle shifts from its proper position, even when physicians reattach it, the chances are that the ulnar groove in its posterior aspect will not develop as it should. Consequently, the movement of the ulnar nerve during the pitching motion results in irritation and numbness in the little finger and the lateral one-half of the ring finger. 8. How is the injury rehabilitated? Dr.: We generally start the patient on a strengthening program as soon as two weeks after the injury has been diagnosed, not only to benefit the elbow but also the shoulder, forearm and hand. Many times the exercises can be done at home after a couple of explanations, but most of the time the patient will benefit from going to a physical therapist a few times, maybe more if he has complicated problems such as loss of movement or ligament stiffness. Marshall: Nobody can rehabilitate the pre-mature closure of the growth plate of the medial epicondyle, the stretching of the ulnar collateral ligament and/or the malformation of the radial head. Youth pitching permanently deforms the pitching arm. 9. How can Little League elbow be prevented? Dr.: For a pitcher, prevention is two-fold. No. 1 is to not overload the arm by having him throw too much. In Little League, there's always one pitcher who's best on the team, and the tendency is for the coach to put him out there every chance he can. So we try to limit young pitchers to no more than seven innings of competitive pitching in a week. We also give them pitch counts: Adolescent pitchers shouldn't throw more than 80 to 100 pitches per week. But if a kid starts a game and has a couple of rough innings and gets up to 80 or 100 pitches in five innings, well, now the seven-inning stipulation is obsolete. And we ask pitchers not to throw competitively between games they pitch. They can play at another position. They should also have an exercise routine to keep their arm strength up and build endurance. No. 2, throwing curve balls and sliders puts a tremendous load on the elbow, so we try to keep youngsters throwing just fastballs and change-ups before they get into high school. We also emphasize good form. Obviously the worse your mechanics are, the more likely you are to have an injury. When your starting a sport, you're not efficient with your movements, and there's a big learning curve involved in throwing efficiently. Until you learn the mechanics and build up your arm strength and endurance, there's a higher incidence of injury. If this condition is caught at the early stages, it's invariably a self-limited problem. Some kids and coaches drive harder than others, however. If the coach is telling the kid, "You're supposed to have elbow pain; it's normal," that kid is liable to get himself hurt before he realizes he's in trouble. Marshall: I recommend that youth pitchers do not throw baseballs for more than two months per year, do not pitch competitively until they are thirteen years old and do not pitch more than one inning per game. Whether they throw fastballs, curves or whatever else, they will stress the growth plate of the medial epicondyle. Therefore, it does not matter what pitch they throw, it only matters that they throw. Nevertheless, when youngsters throw curve with the 'traditional' pitching motion, they do place considerable unnecessary stress on the inside of their elbow. After their growth plates mature, they can still permanently deform their pitching arms, but it will not be as a result of interfering with the proper growth and development. Pitchers with completely ossified bones deform their pitching arm as a result of using the 'traditional' pitching motion. 11. What are the long-term implications if this condition isn't allowed to heal? Dr.: On the inside of the elbow where the ligament attaches, even if that pulls away from the growth plate and then is allowed to heal by itself, there may be a knob there and a tendency to develop tendinitis down the road. The really worrisome problem, though, is if the player develops damage to the growth plate on the outside of the elbow. Those problems sometimes don't get better with time or will lead to an arthritic process in the joint. Loose bodies are the long-term result of chronically damaging that growth plate on the outer part of the elbow. If a kid really has an interest in trying for a college scholarship and a major league career, he has to keep in mind that he can't go from playing weekend baseball to practicing every day with two teams without risking injury. Parents definitely have a major role in prevention. Some parents push too hard; if they see some talent in their kid, sometimes the dad will have him throwing more at home than he's supposed to and trying to teach him a curve ball. Parents have to be careful not to have their own aspirations delivered through their child. Marshall: One hundred percent of Little League pitchers deform their pitching arm to some degree. Whether the deformation is a couple of months of pre-mature closure, which decreases the length of the humerus or removal of the hugely deformed radial head depends on the amount of proper and improper stress that they place on the growth plates of their pitching arm. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you for sending me this article. I enjoyed giving my answers. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 074. Let’s talk Torque Fastball. When I pronate my forearm, my hand goes with it, just as when I supinate my forearm, my hand goes along for the ride. You explain that the hand supinates for the Torque fastball while the forearm pronates. I don’t understand how that is possible. Does the hand supinate milliseconds before the arm pronates? I just want to be clear on how to teach this because this will be my son’s primary pitch. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have decided to stop teaching the torque fastball to my kids during the first two training cycles. Off the top of my head, I think that I will stop recommending my torque fastball to youth pitchers of any age. You will have to make my maxline fastball your son's primary pitch. We have to eliminate elbow pull. I just finally got tired of watching pitchers pull their elbow across the front of the body. They must learn to keep their elbow securely 'locked' slightly ahead of their acromial line. They must also learn to keep their elbow at shoulder height throughout the pitching motion. I also got tired of watching pitchers pull their entire pitching arm down to their waist. Now, with my pickoff position leverage throws, to show pitchers how to drive absolutely straight forward from leverage through deceleration, I teach my true screwball first. After they master that motion, I teach my maxline fastball. After they master that motion, I teach my pronation curve. On all these pitches, pronation is the key. Pitchers cannot pull their elbow across the front of the body when they focus only on pronation. Try it. When you pronate the forearm throw its full range of motion, you cannot pull your elbow across the front of your body. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 075. Please direct me to the part of your book that discusses Motor development, Learning and Skill Acquisition. In particular, anywhere in your book where you discuss motor unit firing pattern and how to teach it in order to keep people operating through the right sequencing of their pitching movements. Next time you update your book, is it possible to set up a table of contents on your web page for easy reference. For example: Chapter 22 - pages 1 - 15 "Acromial line" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- According to the Table of Contents I have in my Coaching Pitchers book file, Chapter 34 discusses Motor Learning, Development and Skill Acquisition. I am sorry, but I do not have time to provide either a glossary or a topic index. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 076. Last night, my son and I practiced pitching a bit. I asked him what he felt good about and what he was struggling with. He felt good about the screwball, but was still unsure about the proper arm action for the fastballs. We then studied your video and the video that I shot while visiting. From your video, we slow-mo'd the left handed young man who really pronated his forearm with his shoulder driving behind it. You commented to copy this fellow's technique. The light bulb went off in my son's head. We then watched the iron ball, wrist weight exercises and throws of the Torque Fastball. Because I have been advising my son not to pull his arm across his body, he noted that on every throw, your guys pulled their arms across their body. We watched one of your guys from the video I shot, while visiting, fly his forearm out while throwing the curve. I guess the point is that even guys training with the Master have flaws. I think you are dead on emphasizing the screwball and Maxline fastball. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You are right that the kids on my Instructional Videotape did not perform my pitching motion precisely as I recommend. That is why I criticized much of what they did. However, the videotape did show how we train and I discussed what I recommend that they do. That videotape was the best that I could provide at that time. This June, I will make a better videotape. However, even though I will more carefully screen how they perform my wrist weight, iron ball and baseball throws, I have no illusions that my kids will perfectly perform what I recommend. This is why, for many years, I refused to put out an Instructional Videotape. I know precisely what I want my pitching motion to look like, but without having a virtual pitcher to demonstrate it, I did not and do not have anybody to demonstrate every pitch absolutely perfectly. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 077. I have some questions. 1. What angle do you want the shoulders at during the release of the ball, or thereabouts? My right shoulder seems to be higher than the left. 2. How much time do you want between one exercise and the next in the training program? 3. How fast does the arm swing backwards happen? 4. I am having biceps tendon pain at the point of insertion. I have confirmed that forearm flyout isn't happening through use of videotape. 5. Who was the best catcher you ever threw to, on balance, considering his ability to work with you on game calling, receiving skills and throwing ability? What are the qualities of a good catcher in terms of working with the pitcher? Do you want a cheerleader, a confidant, a co-strategist or just a person to make sure the ball doesn't go to the backstop? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. I recommend that pitchers keep their shoulders level. If pitchers lean to their glove-side, they decrease the length of their driveline and lose their balance to that side such that they pull the baseball to their glove-side. 2. When the athletes feels recovered and ready to proceed. 3. Pitchers should permit the pendulum swing to occur with a minimal of muscle involvement. 4. During the forearm acceleration phase, the triceps brachii muscle powerfully contracts. If pitchers have tension in their biceps brachii muscle either residual from lack of fitness or to prevent forearm flyout, then they will injure their biceps brachii muscle. 5. I want catchers to sit in one location, where the center of their body is on the first base side one-third of home plate. I want catchers to smother, rather than block pitches in the dirt. I want catchers to give one sign for all fastballs, one sign for all breaking pitches and one sign for all reverse breaking pitches. Without regard for base runners, I want them to always give four signs with a variety of ways to determine which is the 'live' sign. To get to the pitch that they are going throw, I want pitchers to wipe above the waist to add one to the 'live' sign or wipe below the waist to subtract one from the 'live' sign. In general, catchers sit still, catch or smother the baseball and smile. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 078. I've recently been rereading your instructions on throwing the pronation curve, but I seem to feel more stress on my arm from the pronation than from the supination. I'm probably doing it wrong, so I'll explain what I derived from your instructions. I'm right handed. First, when I windup, I have my glove arm bent 90 degrees with my arm horizontal and my elbow aiming towards where I want to throw. My throwing forearm is at 90 degrees with my upper arm and vertical to the ground with the palm side of my hand facing my head. As I follow through I move inside of vertical (move hand closer to head than away from body), and lower the forearm so it is at a 3/4 slot. Then, with the "C" my hand makes with the ball almost vertical, I pull my pinky finger side of the hand away from my body so the "C" is pointing away from my head. Am I doing it correctly? I don't think I am because I'm sure my grip is correct, yet the ball seems to come over my middle finger rather than my index finger. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To learn how to properly release your pitches, you should use my pickoff position leverage throws. My starting instruction is to have your elbow maximally bent with your forearm horizontally inside of vertical. From this position, you horizontally drive the baseball straight forward through release and deceleration. You must not 'lock' your olecranon process into its fossa. You should keep your elbow and forearm above shoulder height throughout the motion. Only after you master the release with this exercise, should you add any body movement. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 079. I believe I understand the pickoff leverage technique. I have one question about the forearm, however. The forearm starts how bent against the upper arm, but when I throw do I straighten out the arm and throw horizontal to the ground? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To maximize the force that pitchers apply to their pitches, they must maximize the distance over which they apply that force. The critical aspect of the pitching motion is the forearm acceleration through release. My pickoff position leverage throws isolate the forearm acceleration through release. Pitchers must perfect the forearm acceleration for each of my pitches before they add any more variables. I recommend that pitchers start with the forearm acceleration through release technique for my true maxline screwball. When pitchers are in my pickoff position, they should have their rear foot ahead of their front foot with both on the glove-side driveline for the feet. They should stand tall with their shoulders level. Pitchers should stand with their pitching arm pointing at home plate with their elbow slightly bent and above their forearm. Whether they have their palm facing upward or downward depends on which pitch they are practicing. For my true maxline screwball, they should have the palm of their pitching hand facing upward. For my maxline fastball, they should also have the palm of their pitching hand facing upward. For my maxline pronation curve, they should have the palm of their pitching hand facing downward. For my torque fastball, they should have the palm of their pitching hand facing forward. To prepare for my new pickoff position leverage throws, pitchers should draw the baseball straight backward without moving their elbow while they shift their body weight to their glove-side leg and raise their pitching arm-side leg slightly off the ground. Throughout this exercise, pitchers should keep their elbow pointing toward home plate. At the moment when the baseball passes closest to their head, pitchers should have their forearm as close to their upper arm as possible. To maximize the elbow extension range of motion, my new leverage position requires pitchers to bend their elbow joint as tightly as possible. While pitchers draw their pitching arm backward, they should also raise their front arm to shoulder height out front and point it at home plate. The backward path of the baseball must be precisely horizontal. After the baseball passes the head, the additional distance backward that the forearm achieves increases the pronation range of motion for my forearm acceleration through release technique. However, pitchers should keep their elbow pointed at home plate to insure that they do not take the baseball outside of their elbow. To start the throw, pitchers should shift their body weight from their glove-side leg to their pitching arm-side leg as they step straight forward toward home plate. The forward movement of the body and the inertial weight of the wrist weight, iron ball and/or baseball and the pitching forearm should cause a slight recoil. I call this, the 'supination recoil'. This 'supination recoil' maximizes the pronation range of motion for my forearm acceleration through release technique. After the foot of their pitching arm-side leg contacts the ground and my 'supination recoil' maximizes the pronation range of motion, pitchers should simultaneously pull the forearm of their front arm straight backward and forearm accelerate their baseball through release straight forward. Pitchers must make certain to keep their elbow slightly bent and above the horizontal driveline of the baseball. The elbow must never, never move below the driveline height of the baseball and never, never move across the driveline. The forearm must remain at driveline height throughout. After the throw, the forearm should remain at driveline height with the palm facing outward. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 080. My 13 yr old has soreness in his (right) pitching arm just above the elbow. In layman's terms if you bent your arm and placed the base of your thumb on what I call the funny bone the end of the thumb would be about 2 inches up the arm from the funny bone. When I press down, there seems like there is bone from the inside part of the arm. So the sore area is right above the elbow. It only hurts when he pitches and throws a baseball. It does not hurt shooting baskets or hitting, etc. He said it did not hurt when I pressed down on it but it hurt when I let go. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The funny bone is the Ulnar Nerve that passes in a groove on the posterior surface of the medial epicondyle. To permit his humerus bone to continue to grow longer and wider, the growth plate of the medial epicondyle of your son's pitching elbow is wide open. We do not want to do anything that interferes with the appropriate growth and development of his pitching elbow. This discomfort might be an indication that you are. When you press on the medial epicondyle, you compress this growth plate. When you release the pressure, the growth plate returns to its normal position. The reason that your son experiences discomfort only when you release is because when it returns to its normal position, the irritated growth tissues stimulate their free nerve endings, much like when a doctor presses on inflammed appendix. This discomfort is the same as the discomfort on the front of the bone of the lower leg just below the knee, the growth plate for the tibial tuberosity to which the quadriceps tendon attaches, also called 'Osgood Schlatter's Disease'. The remedy for Osgood Schlatter's Disease is to minimize stress to that area until the growth plate matures. The same remedy goes for your case of 'Little League Elbow'. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 081. About a year ago I started to warm up and I noticed a pain on the inner part of my elbow. I have gone to doctors and they have said that I have a rather odd x-ray. They notice an unusual form on my elbow They still don't know what it is. I have now had this problem for about a year and 2 months. I have problems straightening my elbow. The pain only comes when I try to straighten my elbow. After I pitch my elbow can not be straighten at all. Only to about a 120 degree angle. With my elbow straightens out again but not as much as my left elbow. I have rested my arm for about 3 months and the pain has decreased and my elbow becomes more straighter. But, the doctors have not yet told me what is wrong with my elbow. I am 16 years old, and started pitching about 6 years ago. I do throw hard almost in the 90's. Do you think that might be related with my injury? Do you think you might know what is wrong with my arm. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At sixteen years old, the growth plates in your elbow should be completely closed. Therefore, I do not suspect growth plate difficulties. Discomfort on the inside of the elbow indicates the medial epicondyle. However, the inability to fully straighten the elbow indicates the olecranon process and its fossa. That you cannot straighten your elbow the day after you pitch, but it gradually goes away indicates that you irritate the hyaline cartilage in the olecranon fossa and it swells. Therefore, you must immediately stop slamming the olecranon process of your pitching forearm (ulna bone) into the olecranon fossa of your pitching upper arm (humerus). To learn how to stop slamming your olecranon process into it fossa, I recommend that you practice my pickoff position leverage throws. You must never, ever fully extend your elbow and you must pronate your forearm. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 082. I was trying some wrong foot leverage throws with my son. Since you emphasize pronation, I emphasized it to him. It seemed like he may have been pronating before he released the ball. Is this a problem? Would I be better off just having him get used to throwing with your style in the beginning as I believe you say that the arm pronates naturally anyway. This was the first time we did this so he is very new to it. I had him throw the ball at half speed. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I recently discontinued using my wrong foot leverage throws. I recommend my pickoff position leverage throws. Pitchers should strongly pronate their forearm before, during and after they release their pitches. He must learn how to drive the baseball straight forward without any upper arm circle out/forearm flyout. He should never supinate his forearm. You must take great care to not permit him to 'lock' his elbow. He has to learn how to inwardly rotate his shoulders, keep his elbow slightly bent and pronate his forearm. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 083. Have you ever commented on what you think happened to those major league pitchers and players who could no longer control their throws and would wildly release balls in many different directions? If so, direct me to the place to read it. If not what do you think? Were they taught motor skill learning wrong at some time in their career and it eventually, slowly mixed up their motor unit firing pattern causing the release to lose direction? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The gentlemen you mention and others displayed late forearm turnover. Consequently, when under pressure, they lost the ability to control the reverse forearm bounce and their throws got away from them. Then, with the additional stress of where they were going to throw, they became more and more confused. When they understand why this is happening and what they need to do to correct it, this is not a difficult problem to fix. Unfortunately, their pitching coaches have no clue. I recall a young man asking me about this problem. I answered that he needed to straight line drive his throws from my 'ready' position through his deceleration toward home plate. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 084. I note that in the wake of the (possibly) ephedrine-related death, a former major league pitcher weighed in with an op-ed in today's New York Times about how players will do anything to gain a competitive advantage. I'd guess that most of the major media outlets would be interested in your views. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I guess that those major media outlets were not interested in my views, nobody called me. Nevertheless... When baseball players do not understand how they should perform their skills to become the best that they can be and do not understand how to train to become the best that they can be, they will resort to all kinds of nonsense to try to keep up with those more talented. I believe that the problem lies with the non-existent research and development departments in professional baseball. Without thoroughly understanding Biomechanics, Exercise Physiology and Motor Skill Acquisition, their coaches cannot provide the players with the information that they need to become all they can be and accept whatever that is. I strongly oppose the use of any ergogenic aids. But then, I also do not believe that acupuncture, transidental meditation, plyometrics and so on offer any help. When my kids arrive for my forty-week program, I lay out precisely what they have to do to become the best pitcher that they can be. I tell them that food supplements, mega doses of vitamins, creatine and so on only make for expensive defecate. To become pitchers, they need to learn skills and train chronically and intensely. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 085. My son and I will start the 60 day pubescent training program as he turns 10 in May. Do you suggest video taping the training periods so we can go back and look at the technique later especially with my untrained eye (all I know is the traditional throwing motion), and see if we are following your recommendations? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am about to update my 60 Day Pubescent Pitchers Training Program. As before, I will emphasize motor skill acquisition with a minimum of stress. However, I will recommend that youngsters spend their first sixty days using my pickoff position leverage throws to learn the proper grips and releases of my maxline true screwball, maxline fastball and maxline pronation curve. I understand that this does not prepare them to pitch competitively, but I am training pitchers and if they master their grips and releases before they add total body action to their techniques, then they will perform better in the long run. I am going to have first and second year pubescent pitcher training programs for ten and eleven year olds and first and second year adolescent pitcher training programs for twelve and thirteen year olds. I do recommend that you videotape your son pitching on the first and last days of his annual sixty day pitcher training programs. I also recommend that, on or near his birthday, you have mid-ulna to mid-humerus X-rays taken of his pitching and non-pitching arms. I want you to know precisely when the ossification centers for his olecranon process and lateral epicondyle appear and when they and the ossification center for his medial epicondyle completely matures. When you have these X-rays, ask me to explain how you can also use them to determine your son's biological age. We will conduct our own individual growth and development study. I would be very interested in these findings. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 086. I read your book last year, and I have been poking around the 2003 Q&A today. I never pitched, and I wasn't good enough to make my high school's baseball team, so I read your site more out of interest than necessity. I am 24, married, and for the time being have no kids, but eventually that will change. I would love for them to be able to enjoy baseball without worrying about injury, and hopefully they will be better that I was so they can get to play more (assuming they want to). Anyway, on to a few questions: 1. You recommend severely limiting the amount of pitches young children throw. How does playing catch factor into this equation, especially when they are very young, in the 3-9 age range? Is this the same as throwing, or because it is done with such low effort is it ok? I look forward to being able to mess around with my kids, but I don't want to screw them up. 2. Are there any non-baseball activities that mimic pitching and would be of concern to monitor (like throwing a football, or serving in tennis, etc...)? I know your views on specific training (I don't know if I used the correct term, but the idea that squats don't help pitching, pitching helps pitching). But, aside from limiting throwing, are there any regular children's activities that I should keep an eye out for (to a reasonable degree obviously, kids will do what kids will do)? 3. Someone once told me that a former major league pitching star pitched so long without injury because he had the perfect mechanics "for his body". I would think that since everyone is different in regards to their physical makeup that such a concept would make sense, but I am not sure that I buy it. Are there one or two types of motion that all pitchers should use, or will they vary from person to person (and if so, how much)? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Until the growth plate of their medial epicondyle completely matures, I recommend that youngsters do not throw baseballs for more than two months per year. a. I have no problem with ten year olds throwing a total of forty-eight pickoff position leverage maxline true screwballs, maxline fastballs and maxline pronation curves every day for sixty consecutive days . However, I would not permit them to competitively pitch. b. I have no problem with eleven year olds throwing a total of forty-eight pickoff position and no-stride leverage maxline true screwballs, maxline fastballs and maxline pronation curves every day for sixty consecutive days. However, I would not permit them to competitively pitch. c. I have no problem with twelve year olds throwing a total of forty-eight pickoff position, no-stride and set position leverage maxline true screwballs, maxline fastballs and maxline pronation curves every day for sixty consecutive days. However, I would not permit them to competitively pitch. d. I have no problem with thirteen, fourteen and fifteen year olds throwing a total of forty-eight pickoff position, no-stride and set position leverage and set position maxline true screwballs, maxline fastballs and maxline pronation curves every day for sixty consecutive days. I would permit them to competitively pitch. However, I would limit them to one inning per game. 2. I have no problem with youngsters throwing footballs during the two months that they learn the skills of football. have no problem with youngsters serving tennis balls during the two months that they learn the skills of tennis. 3. There is only one pitching motion that insures that pitchers of all ages and strengths can learn and train to pitch without the possibility of pitching arm injuries. You can find it in my Coaching Pitchers book, Section IX. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 087. One of my pitchers has soreness in the triceps near the elbow, could you tell me what is causing this? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When pitchers complain of discomfort in the back of the elbow above the olecranon process, it means that they are banging their olecranon process into its fossa and irritating the hyaline cartilage of the fossa. If this is correct, when he gently straightens his pitching elbow all the way out and, then tries to hyperextend his elbow, he should complain of discomfort. He also may not be able to fully extend his elbow. Pitchers must never, never band their olecranon process into its fossa. This means that they are dropping their elbow under their torque fastballs, curves and/or sliders and pulling their elbow downward and across the front of their body. They have to keep their elbow at shoulder height and slightly ahead of their acromial line throughout the forearm acceleration and deceleration phases. They must not pull the pitching arm across the front of their body. They must always keep their elbow slightly bent. When they pronate their forearm, the entire pitching arm should similarly rotate such that the forearm remains at shoulder height and the elbow is above shoulder height. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 088. I was given your name five minutes ago and I am looking up your website now (how did we do it before computers?). Do Major League teams allow you to work with there players on an individual basis? My son is one and I am asking for "me". There is no use going into it if you answered No to the question. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Major League teams hire players to perform their professional services. While they have 'coaches' to help improve these services, individual players can seek help elsewhere. I never received any advice from any professional coach at any level that helped me become a better pitcher. Unfortunately, I could not find anybody anywhere else that I felt could help me either. Therefore, I used my bachelor, master and doctoral degrees to learn how to help me become the best pitcher I could be. Luckily for your son, he can go to someone who knows how to teach him what he needs to do to become the best pitcher he can be. Me. I work with anybody who wants to become the best pitcher that they can be. However, it requires several years of hard work. There are no shortcuts. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 089. I have some topics that I would like to clarify with you: Four seams fastball are considered by most pretty much straight pitches. I know I can get by pronating and holding the ball slightly off center to the left good tailing movement in RH hitter. By doing the opposite, wrist supination and off center to the right, I can get the ball to sail away from RH hitter. 1. My question: since 4-S FB are effective high, could they be used low also. I've got much better control with my 4-S than the 2-S. I've been told that fastballs are effective at all for quadrants. 2. Down and in is the most dangerous spot to throw especially against LH batters who pull the ball. You can't stay away all the time when it's low. I remember seeing RHP throwing at RH batter curves and sliders low and in, in most case for strike called. They we're throwing at the hitter but the ball came back to catch the inside corner. What do you think of coming low inside to hitters? 3. I'm trying to solve a mystery: the backup slider. From a pitcher perspective, it's a mistake although some pitchers have thrown that pitch intentionally. The hand slide under the ball because of a low elbow or to much wrist angle. Bottom line, how can that pitch go the other way when the wrist and the elbow is supinated. There's physics that I don't understand. A former major league catcher said that the backup slider was his most difficult pitch to hit. He thought the ball was going both way after leaving the pitcher hand. He was popping it or hitting shallow fly ball to LF. Nobody so far was able to explain me that weird rotation, perhaps you have some idea. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. The key to deceiving batters is to have all pitches leave the pitchers hand at the same take-off angle. I recommend that pitchers drive all pitches straight forward to the top of the strike zone. That way, my four seam maxline and torque fastballs cross home plate at the top of the strike zone, my minus ten mph maxline fastball sinker and torque fastball slider cross home plate in the middle of the strike zone and my minus twenty mph maxline pronation curve and maxline true screwball cross home plate at the bottom of the strike zone. 2. Because the baseball moves into their bailout, glove-side pull hitters like minus ten mph pitches that move downward and inward to them. Unless you mix it in after the proper minus ten mph maxline fastball sinker and the proper four seam maxline fastball, don't throw it. My pitch sequences recommend that pitchers throw minus ten mph pitches down and in to glove-side and pitching arm-side spray hitters. You can find this discussion in Chapters 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28 of my Coaching Pitchers book. I will update my recommendations this summer, but the present recommendations contain this basic strategy. 3. Never, ever permit your pitching hand to slide under and your pitching elbow to drop under any pitch. You will slam your olecranon process into it fossa. In time, that will not only ruin your pitching, it will also deform your pitching elbow. To throw my torque fastball slider, pitchers stand on the pitching arm side of home plate and spiral the baseball toward the pitching arm side of home plate. This permits my torque fastball slider to 'slide' as much as seventeen inches toward the glove-side of home plate and still be a strike. If, instead of driving my torque fastball slider toward the pitching arm-side of home plate, pitchers mistakenly drive it toward pitching arm-side batters, then the pitch could possible move back over the pitching arm-side of home plate. However, because they introduced a pitching arm-side lateral drive component to the baseball, the spiral spin has to overcome that lateral force before it can move toward the glove-side of home plate. Usually, it does not and the baseball hits the pitching arm-side batter. It is possible for pitchers to redirect the driveline for the rear leg toward the pitching arm-side batter such that they do not introduce a lateral force to the pitch. In this case, the baseball could move toward the glove-side of home plate as much as seventeen inches. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 090. As I was looking through the programs you offer, I didn't see where you would have the major league pitcher fit into the program. Should they work from your video? The team's orthopedic surgeon just cleaned up my son's labrum and reattached it in three places. His rotator cuff is strong. My son has worked hard to get that strong since his surgery eighteen months ago on the rotator cuff. I am going to present all the information I have to my son today. I am often laughed at because I do think all the time about how he can get the most out of this precious gift and priceless chance to be a Major League ballplayer. The team orthopedic surgeon told me that my son must find out why, if it is mechanics or whatever, he has needed surgery twice. Does your program work with mechanics or strengthen the whole package? Please, I really am serious and not a wacko mom. A writer on a baseball web site gave me your name. He knows my son and he thinks you could be of great service to him and his career. What do you think? I'm not trying to be really secretive of my son's name because with very little checking you would find out. I am being protective and looking for him and I don't want to cause him any repercussions from his team. I just know that another major league pitcher is now out of pitching with two surgeries, another pitcher has had 3 surgeries and he was a first rounder the club let go and another pitcher has had three surgeries and it is looking very bleak for him and he was a first rounder who has thrown very few minor league innings in the 6 seasons he has had. WHY? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To injury-proof pitchers and retrain their force application techniques requires forty weeks. For active professional pitchers, that requires two off-seasons. This means that they will pitch one year with half of the training program and before they have fully incorporated the force application techniques into their motion. That is very difficult. Therefore, I do not work with professional pitchers. However, your son is different. Before he returns to professional baseball, he needs to complete the entire forty-weeks. He could try to do this on his own, but it would not work nearly as well as when I work with him every day. I have absolutely no doubt as to why these young men have injured their pitching arms. Their coaches require them to use the 'traditional' pitching motion. I also have absolutely no doubt that if these young men complete my forty-week training program and master the force application techniques that I teach them, then they will become the best pitchers that they can be. It is very telling to me to have the team orthopedic surgeon say that your son has to find out why he has required two surgeries. Clearly, he knows nothing about force application. Clearly, the team's pitching coaches know nothing about force application. Clearly, your son has to take control of his pitching career. If he follows the team's instructions, then he can kiss his pitching career goodbye. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 091. If you are changing the 60 day pubescent training program, will you place an update on your site? In the current program, you have them make their throws from the pickoff position using the maxline fastball, maxline curve, torque fastball and screwball. Then, on day 31, you introduce the wrong foot throws. In reading the 2003 Q&A, in answer #82, you mention that you are discontinuing the wrong foot throws. In your response to me earlier, you list only three pitches to be used in the new training program the maxline true screwball, maxline fastball and maxline pronation curve. The only change I notice is not learning the torque fastball. Will you eliminating the wrong foot throws and the torque fastball from the 60 day pubescent program, are these going to be the only changes? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When I have finished with the Exercise Physiology course that I am teaching at Saint Leo University, I will update the training programs on my web site. I plan to have the changes completed before the start of the June/July sixty days during which I recommend that youngsters complete my 60 Day Pubescent/Adolescent Pitchers Training program. I am eliminating my torque fastball from my Pubescent/Adolescent training programs. After pitchers complete the first two training cycles of my 280 Day Adult Pitchers training program, I will reintroduce it and torque fastball sliders and maxline fastball sinkers. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 092. Our 15 year old noticed pain in his right elbow last year during football season when he played a baseball tournament on the weekend. No specific throw or event caused the pain. Since he was currently playing the quarterback position, we stopped him from pitching at all, thinking that the change from throwing a football and pitching was too much. The pain ceased and we thought everything was okay. Later on in basketball season he started to notice incomplete extension in his elbow, and we went to the doctor. Doctor did an MRI and reports that my son has joint effusion, no loose body, osteochondral defect, lateral condyle, no fluid under the chondral flap. It does show most of the capitulum with avascular changes. On examination, the elbow has incomplete extension, lacking about 10 degrees of full extension while the opposite elbow hyperextends about 5 degrees. There is full flexion, supination and pronation, no crepitus, no clicking, locking or catching, no real warmth, not tender to palpation. No ulnar nerve symptons. Normal skin color and turgor. Radial pulse intact. As a note, his dad never let him throw curve balls until he was 14, and then only limited them. Always very careful about incorrect motion, and duration of pitching. We are heartbroken because we tried to be so careful, and this still happened. We have stopped all sports requiring throwing, and are allowing him to be dh on his high school baseball team only because he bats left. The doctor prescribed anti-inflammatory medication and rest, he is to avoid heavy loads, and any repetitive motion with his elbow. We understand that my son may never be able to pitch again, and will possibly always have pain. Yet, we have also been told that there is a possibility that this lesion can completely heal, allowing him to go back to playing shortstop. We would like to know your opinion, and mainly like to know if you have seen this kind of injury before, and the results that were experienced and seen. We are basically searching for encouragement for him. He is not a quitter, and has expressed to us that he would begin training with his left arm if he has too. He just loves the game that much. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When the depth of their olecranon fossa decreases, pitchers lose their extension range of motion. When pitchers 'slam' their olecranon process into its fossa, the hyaline cartilage becomes irritated, swells and thickens. The 'traditional' pitching motion teaches pitchers to 'slam' their olecranon process into their fossa. Unless your son is delayed in his rate of skeletal maturation, the growth plate for the olecranon process closed at or near his fifteenth birthday. Therefore, he should not be damaging the proper growth and development of his olecranon process. However, unless your son is accelerated in his rate of skeletal maturation, the growth plate of his medial epicondyle is still open as are the growth plates for his humeral head. Therefore, I have no problem with him not throwing until the growth plate for his medial epicondyle closes. For him to return to pitching, he has to stop using the 'traditional' pitching technique. Section IX of my Coaching Pitchers book explains how he should apply force to his pitches. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 093. My son has been playing baseball for 11 straight years. We sometimes play 2 or 3 leagues a season. He's been pitching for in school for 2 seasons & now in his 3rd. He is almost 15 years old & always has been the best pitcher, & the best batting stats on all his teams. He's going pro, I'm sure of it! Since he & I just moved to this town, we saw your place on the road in Zephyrhills. I'm interested in improving his pitching. Would like to further discuss this with you in person. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I disagree with a fifteen year old pitching as much as you indicate that he is. I have an eight-week high school Junior and Senior pitcher training program that starts the first Saturday in June. We train every day for fifty-six days. He and I become lifetime partners in our pursuit to make him the best pitcher that he can be through college and, hopefully professional baseball. We train every day from 10:00AM until 11:30AM. We welcome visitors. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 094. On behalf of our baseball team, thank you for your valuable time and your consideration in instructing our visiting group of young men. Regardless of who may or may not recognize your methods, I know that your system is clearly and completely superior to conventional approaches. Your work is absolutely revolutionary, and your record of performance as a player, a student, a teacher, a coach, and especially as a thinker, is unique and impeccable. You are not only the father of your children, you are also the father of modern pitching and modern throwing mechanics. Time will make believers out of your doubters, and time will bear me out on this issue. Pitching texts other than yours can be thrown away, with no regrets or second thoughts. I was honored that you personally demonstrated your techniques for us, much to the amazement of some of your resident pitching trainees! Our thanks to those young men as well, for their tolerance and their astounding demonstrations of Marshall pitching and the related training exercises. It was my most significant day of learning in my 37 years of involvement in baseball, which began, interestingly, in 1967, when I was a guest of the Briggs family, sitting in their field box as you pitched for the Tigers. I thoroughly enjoy your approach to teaching. You are a delightfully frank, entertaining, and caring man. Keep planting the seeds. I look forward to seeing you and learning more from you very soon. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was my pleasure to give boys something to think about. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 095. I've figured out the pronation curve as well as the screwball. Could you tell me what part of the pronation curve your trainees struggle with? I understand its delivery, but I don't think I comprehend the fastball delivery. When you explained the leverage throws you said to keep your elbow in front. You also said to keep it and the forearm above your shoulder. I can't see how anyone could get speed and power out of their arms with such a small area to move your arm if you can't lower your elbow below your shoulder. The only way I see it is if you lower the shoulder as you follow through. I guess my issue is I can't really picture how you want pitchers to deliver the baseball. If I'm starting from the "stretch" position (no windup), and the plate is towards the south end of the park, then I have my body facing west. With my elbow bent, is my horizontal forearm parallel with the front of my body? If this is so, how do I deliver the pitch so the elbow leads the pitching arm? Or, do you want the horizontal forearm pointing towards your head with the below pointing away? I guess if you could explain this I would have a better idea. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Everybody with whom I have worked has difficulty with the idea of driving their forearm horizontally inside of vertical. They all want to circle outward. I have to place their body in a position that will not permit them to circle outward, my pickoff position leverage throws. But even then, they will try to cheat with their feet. They want to face the target and drive the baseball in front of them. I have to continually adjust their feet back onto my maxline driveline for their feet. They also want to reverse rotate their torso and point their elbow behind them. I have to continually remind them to keep their elbow forward and only move the baseball behind them. I also have to continually remind them to keep their forearm horizontal. I also have to continually remind them to drive the side of their middle finger through the top of the baseball. If I do not watch them carefully, they will flip the baseball over the top of their index finger. Lastly, I have to continually tell them to focus on pronation. I want their forearm to powerfully pronate before, during and after release. After release and deceleration, I want their forearm at shoulder height with the palm facing away from their body. It seems as though my pronation curve technique goes against all instincts. It certainly goes against all common sense logic. I have no doubt that if I had not followed Newton's three laws and the reality of applied anatomy, namely how critical the pronator teres muscle is to pitching, I never would have discovered this pitch. One hundred and thirty years of baseball pitching did not discover it. While it is frustrating to get the 'feel' of my maxline pronation curve, after pitchers do, they have the best curve that they could ever throw and without jeopardizing their pitching arm.>br> The problem that you are having with my maxline fastball is the same problem that pitchers have with learning my maxline pronation curve. It defies your common sense logic. Cast your doubts aside. Follow Isaac Newton. Straight-line force application is the answer. Pronation is the answer. If you have truly mastered my maxline pronation curve and maxline true screwball, then you are driving your horizontal forearm inside of vertical. You must do the same with my maxline fastball. Keep your shoulders level. In my new leverage position, keep your elbow maximally bent. Start with your palm facing upward and move the baseball straight backward. When you release my maxline fastball, make certain that the spin axis is horizontal turned slightly forward on the glove-side of the baseball. When pitchers pull their forearm downward or across their body, they do not add more force to their pitchers, they add more unnecessary stress to their arm and decrease the consistency of their releases. Straight-line line force application is the answer. To achieve the maximum distance over which to apply force, pitchers should forwardly rotate their shoulders until their acromial line points toward home plate. To achieve the maximum force that they can apply to the baseball, pitchers should delay their forearm acceleration phase until their elbow points toward home plate. Pitchers should remain at my new, maximally supinated forearm, maximally flexed elbow joint leverage position until their elbow points toward home plate. Then, just before their rear foot contacts the ground as far ahead of their front foot as possible while keeping their body under control and their center of mass in a straight-line toward home plate, pitchers should maximally extend their elbow and maximally pronate their forearm. If they have mastered how to impart the precise spin axis that each of my pitches require, have completed my injury-proofing forty-week training program and have followed my pitch sequences in highly-competitively games for a couple of years, then they will be the best pitcher that they can be. May they all have the surprise that I had to find themselves at the top of the baseball world. If not, they will have had one hell of a journey. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 096. I am interested in your video and I have read much of your free book. Thank you for that service. Does your video demonstrate the actual full-body pitching motion from start to finish? I assume it does, but before I buy I want to make sure. Thank you for being so passionate about protecting young arms. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Version one of my Instructional Videotape precisely follows my Coaching Pitchers book. It shows everything that I discuss in my book. I prefer to break the pitching motion down into its critical elements, but it does show the full-body pitching motion. However, I recommend that you teach or learn my pitching motion through my pickoff position leverage throws and so on. All who purchase this video will be able to purchase my second version at twenty-five percent of its cost. I will have my second version out this summer. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 097. How often should my fifteen year old son be pitching a week? I only want what's best for him in his pitching career. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Until the growth plate of their medial epicondyle has completely matured (in equated maturers, this happens at sixteen years old), I recommend that they do not train for pitching with set and windup positions for more than two months per year, do not pitch competitively until they are thirteen years old and do not pitch more than one inning twice per week. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 098. What side of the rubber should right-handed and left-handed pitchers stand on the rubber? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To take advantage of the pitching angles, all pitchers should stand on both sides of the pitching rubber. I call the side of the pitching rubber that is on the pitching arm-side of the pitcher, the 'maxline side.' I call the side of the pitching rubber that is on the glove-side of the pitcher, the 'torque side.' In my pitch sequences, pitchers throw my maxline fastball, my maxline torque fastball, maxline fastball sinker, maxline pronation curve and my maxline true screwball from the maxline side of the pitching rubber and my torque fastball, torque maxline fastball and torque fastball slider from the torque side of the pitching rubber. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 099. My boys have been pitching since early ages. What should we do now? Should I have them examined by an orthopedist? Is it too late to use your program (has too much damage been done)? If it's not too late, would you suggest any modifications to your training plan that might best help for such cases? Some potentially useful background information: My oldest will turn 12 this month. He is maturing early and currently is about 5'8" and 140 pounds. He has never complained of any arm/shoulder pain or admitted any pain or soreness when asked (before, during, immediately after, or a day or so after pitching in a game or practice session). He started pitching at 6 (8U league, 42' pitching distance). They had a 3 inning limit in the 8U league. At 8 he pitched in LL, usually about 3 innings or less, once or twice a week. I started keeping detailed pitching stats (innings, #balls, #strikes, #batters, etc.) when my oldest son was 9 (11U league, 48' pitching distance). He pitched to 80 batters (15.3 innings) that year, never more than 3 innings in a single outing. He pitched 32.7 innings as a 10 year old (11U league again). There was one complete 6 inning game at the end of that season, but he usually went 3 innings or less per outing. Last year at 11 (13U league, 54' pitching distance) he pitched 80.67 innings over a 4 month period (34 innings in the last month alone - I know, I'm cringing too). My middle son is 9 (10 in June) and has pitched the last two seasons. He had a 3 inning limit in his first season. Last year he did not have a 3 inning limit, but surpassed 3 innings 2 times at the end, or near the end, of the season. Both boys play other sports in the fall, winter, and early spring (either football and basketball or soccer and basketball depending on the son and the particular year) and usually get a complete break from pitching for about 5 months. Okay, that's the background. I don't have all my data with me at the moment but was able to pull the info from websites/emails that I did have handy. I'm looking for advice on where to go from here. Should I go to an orthopedist to determine the extent of the damage, whether or not its reversible, and suggestions on what to do in the future? If so, do you have recommendations/advice on how to present my request to the orthopedist? What should I ask/mention ahead of time to make sure the orthopedist can accurately detect/measure the damage? I expect that their patients usually come to them due to pain/injury, not prevention or detailed diagnosis of their bones and connective tissue in their joints. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When I release the second edition of my Instructional Videotape, I am going to ask the parents of youth pitchers to join me in a nation-wide research study. I will ask that parents have both of their son's arms X-rayed from the middle of their forearm to the middle of their upper arm from the anterior/posterior view with the elbow extended and the lateral view with the elbows flexed within one week of their son's birthday every year from ten years old until sixteen years old and send me copies. I will assess these X-rays and tell the parents the biological age of their son and whether I can verify any changes in one arm versus the other. I do not need to know with which arm their son's pitch. You may be the first parent to join this study. We cannot undo the past. However, we must not compound the potential problem. Therefore, I recommend that, until the growth plate of your sons' medial epicondyle completely matures (in equated maturers, this happens at sixteen years old), they do not train for pitching with the set and windup positions more than two months per year, do not pitch competitively until they are thirteen years old and do not pitch more than one inning per game twice a week. I believe that the pubescent/adolescent years offer a great opportunity to expose youngsters to the vast range of sport and recreational activities that we have in this country. After their growth plates mature, they can choose in which sport activities they want to specialize and, after they are done competing, they can choose in which recreational activities they want to specialize. A lifetime of healthy, injury-free activity is the measure of success, not how many games they won. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 100. I think I have your instruction on the delivery of the baseball correct. What I'm deriving from your explanation about the pitching arm is the elbow is maximally bent with the forearm on top of the upper arm. Then, the elbow leads the arm forward, and when the elbow begins moving straight towards home plate, the forearm comes up so the arm angle is 90 degrees. Then, the forearm pronates, or rotates horizontally to the left. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At no time did I ever say, 'the forearm comes up so the arm angle is ninety degrees.' That is common sense logic. It is wrong and you have to get that idea out of your head. I said that pitchers must keep their forearm horizontal from leverage through release and through the deceleration phase. They must keep their shoulders level and keep their forearm horizontal. Pitchers have to learn how to maximize the elbow extension and forearm pronation ranges of motion. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 101. Pursuant to our discussions and your recommendations, we abandoned the curve and the torque pitches for now. My son has been throwing a two seam screwball/sinker and the pitch is wicked. I had him go to two seams because 12 year old fingers get a better grip on the two seams across the top v the four seams and the grip is not as awkward. As he gets confidence with this pitch, we’ll return to the 4 seam True Screwball. I probably won’t reintroduce the curve to him until next year unless he asks about it again. His 4 seam maxline fastball is excellent. He is now winding up and working from set position and he is not reverse rotating AT ALL. I am very proud of him. I have not videoed him yet, but I will to check the arm action. To my naked eye, he looks good. I’m sure I’ll find some flaws when I slow it down. He is bringing the right side of his body around nicely. We have not abandoned the knuckleball. He has fun throwing it and I am thinking that we will use the sinker/screwball as his “change up” and the knuckler as his strikeout pitch. He throws it very well, with good control and movement thanks to his rotation of his right side. It’s all about making pitching fun and safe and thanks to you I think we are doing both. One question: We are using the maxline motion for all pitches. Should he stand on the pitching arm or glove side of the rubber? He will target the glove side corner of the plate most often. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It all sounds good. It is just as I envisioned father and son pitching relationships. This is what we need across the country. At his age, he should throw all maxline pitches from the maxline or glove-side of the pitching rubber. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 102. A pitching coach wannabe says pitchers cannot push off the pitching rubber because they can't do that going down a hill (pitching mound)? Also, when I asked him about your pitching ideas, he said that you had very good ideas, but no one has the perfect mechanics or the "answer". ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The idea that pitchers cannot push off the pitching rubber because they will be stepping down a one inch per foot downward slope is silly. You can push off downward with much greater slopes without difficulty. However, I recommend that pitchers walk off the pitching rubber. They should step forward with their front leg and, when it contacts the ground, they should step forward with their rear foot. I believe that it is okay to walk down a one inch per foot downward slope. I do not know which is more disturbing, his admission that he does not know the perfect pitching mechanics or that the does not believe that there is such a thing as perfect pitching mechanics. If he disagrees that I know the perfect way for pitchers to apply force to their pitches, that is one thing. But, to say that there is no perfect way for pitchers to apply force is another thing. That is like saying that there is no perfect way to lift a heavy box off the floor. There is a mechanically and anatomically perfect way to perform every human movement. I believe that I know the perfect force application technique is for pitching. Otherwise, to advise pitchers on how to pitch would be fraudulent. I would think that he believes that I have good ideas. He steals my concepts. Even if it is intellectually deplorable, plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery. It is not a bad thing to give credit where credit is due. In fact, it makes one look honorable and magnanimous. He needs to learn to say, 'Dr. Marshall says, ....' ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 103. Over the last two years, I have communicated to you re my now 13 year old son. He first experienced an elbow growth plate separation and then, when starting back after 6 month rest, had a shoulder growth plate separation during long toss (did not pitch at that point). The conclusion was that he likely had injured his shoulder earlier too. We then sat him out for a year, likely causing some atrophy, but had him swim some for his school team. During the time off he had substantial growth of long bones (charts show him at 6'7" - 6'8" at maturity) and significant muscle imbalances occurred. His right shoulder seemed lower, etc.; had a leg length discrepancy, etc. When he came back his throw looked funny. He kind of pushed the ball and would not release the ball extending his throwing arm forward. I think the shoulder injury was significantly more painful then the elbow and the push was out of fear of that pain he experienced. He has gotten better and better with training and also significant stretching through Pilates, which corrected a lot of the muscle imbalances, corrected the leg length issue, etc. 12-14 year olds are tough to deal with during these growth spurts. Mechanically he is looking better and better but sometimes cuts off (does not extend on the delivery), not extending his throwing arm to the catcher. His velocity is significantly below where it was as an 11 year old-- at 11, 67 miles per hour; now, two years later, 61. I am curious of your observations. The doctor that has handled him has significant experience with kids and professional pitchers and says his growth plates are back where they belong. The significant difference between how he threw when came back and started throwing again and how he use to look made me think there may have been some muscle injury at the rotator cuff or something. Your comments would be appreciated, and if he had a rotator tear and no longer has any pain is he capable of becoming a dominating pitcher again. He is throwing with a professional rehab pitcher who says that sometimes the injury makes them go further then they would because they are more serious and focus more on mechanics, proper warm-up, and work ethic. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Without knowing his skeletal age, I would not put much credibility in those future height predictions. Does your or his mother's family have people of that height? The growth plates in the elbow mature earlier than the growth plates in the shoulder. The growth plate of the lateral epicondyle of equated maturers matures at fourteen years old, the olecranon process at fifteen years old and the medial epicondyle at sixteen years old. The growth plates in the shoulder do not mature until nineteen years old. These are the reasons why until the growth plate of their medial epicondyle completely matures, I recommend that youth pitchers do not pitch for more than two months per year, do not pitch competitively until they are thirteen years old and do not pitch more than one inning per game twice a week. However, even after the growth plate of the medial epicondyle completely matures, it will be three more years until the growth plates of the shoulder completely mature. That is why I do not permit sixteen to nineteen year olds to complete more than the very beginning level of my forty-week adult pitchers training program. That stretching program is the latest of a never-ending series of fitness scams. Do it if you want, it will not make any difference except to your pocketbook. He is only thirteen years old and he has already suffered two serious growth plate injuries and you are still training him to pitch? Enough. Leave the kid alone. Within a week of his birthday, get bi-lateral elbow X-rays from mid-ulna to mid-humerus A/P view extended and lateral view flexed. Send me copies and I will tell you when he can start throwing again. Otherwise, swimming is great. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 104. Two questions: 1. How would like to know why lateral forces work against a slider on the pitching arm side of home plate when the RHP stands on the right end of the rubber. There's not much lateral force that would negate the slider side movement. If the pitcher would have been throwing on the left edge of the rubber, it would have make sense to me but not from that position. 2. Since on your video and your books there's no reference to the torque fastball-slider (I imagine it's a new approach from you), and that it breaks as much as 17 inches away from RH batters, could you provide me more detail on the mechanic, grip, and release? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Pitchers should stand on the pitching arm-side of the pitching rubber and throw my torque fastball slider toward the pitching arm-side of home plate. The spiral spin axis of the pitch places the circle-of-friction on the top, front surface of the baseball as it moves toward home plate. The force generated by the air molecules colliding with the spiraling seam of the baseball will push the baseball downward and the seams on the pitching arm-side of the baseball rotating downwardly generates greater pressure on the pitching arm-side of the baseball to move it toward the glove-side of home plate. 2. On my Instructional Videotape, I included my pronation slider as a type of breaking pitch. I now consider the pitch to be a type of two seam torque fastball. Pitchers should throw a torque fastball with their fingers along the loop near the two narrow seams and release the baseball such that the circle-of-friction continuously spins on the top, front surface of the baseball on its way toward home plate. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 105. On your next videotape will you be doing allot of examples and exercises? Also will there be a section showing the correct mechanics throwing off a mound? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The major improvement between my first and second Instructional Videotapes will be the quality of the demonstrations. For my first video, I had to use subjects who had only recently finished my second training cycle. This time, I have plenty of digital videotape of subjects who have completely my full forty-week program. Additionally, I am taking five hundred frames per second film. This means that, during the maximum velocity phase of forearm acceleration through release and deceleration, the pitcher's hand will move only slightly more than three inches between frames. You will see what happens during that over four feet of movement during this phase that you have never seen with videotape. Lastly, I designed my first video to parallel my Coaching Pitchers book. This time, I will design my video to teach parents how to teach their youngsters and interested pitchers how to perform these skills. Consequently, those with the first video will have considerable information and video that I will not include on my second video. All interested parties should want to own both. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 106. I am currently playing in an under 16's baseball team in Australia. I've been playing for 2 years and have recently taken a liking to pitching. My coach has me on third base and the 3rd relief pitcher. I can throw a pretty good fastball 2 out of 3 times, and I can throw very wired curvy underarm and side arm curve balls and screw balls. Though my throwing is unpredictable and I have a slow windup. I was wondering if you could tell me how to throw a nice (non weird) curveball and a slider. And is there anything I can do about my accuracy? Don't get me wrong on that. I practice everyday at school and at least an hour a night when I'm at home. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section IX of my Coaching Pitchers book describes how I recommend that pitchers apply force to their pitches. If you continue to throw underarm and side arm, you will never become the best pitcher that you can be. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 107. I read in the 2003 question and answer that you no longer use the wrong foot exercises anymore. Why is that? Also, is there any other changes you have made that you discussed in your videotape and book? Also, I am preparing for spring training using your wrist weights and iron balls exercises, but my question is can I also lift weight (for general fitness and strength) and do your exercises? And my last question is; in your videotape you said the torque slider should be thrown with a supinated wrist action (like the four seam curve wrist down sharply angled and fingers pronated on release). But, how is this possible when you have to supinate the wrist? I thank you sir for your answers and I was wondering can I pick your brain and have a phone discussion with you sometime if you are available sometime? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- While my wrong foot throws do lengthen the driveline, they have a different pitching rhythm than I want for my set and windup position throws. Instead, I am now using no-stride leverage throws. I will include them in my next Instructional Videotape and my June update of my Coaching Pitcher book. If I felt that other weight lifting would help pitchers, then I would have recommended them. I now say that my torque fastball slider is a torque fastball that pitchers throw with the circle-of-friction on the top, front surface of the baseball. I do not have time to talk with readers on the telephone, please email me with your questions. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 108. I have read through your Ebook and love it. I have two serious pitchers in the family. My youngest is a high school junior right-hander and is throwing in the low eighties. My oldest just finished four years of college baseball as a left handed pitcher with great success. He knows how to win games, but is only 5' 8" and throws in the low eighties. . His younger brother is 6' 1". Life is tough. Anyway, I want to buy your video, and will gladly send in a check or MO. But I wanted you to know about an online credit card system that is very easy to sign up with, and only charges about 2.5% on all transactions. From experience, I can tell you your video sales will double or triple giving people the credit card option. It takes minutes to sign up, and a short while to get verified. I cannot remember how long. It is really worth it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you for the information. However, my position is that I do not want anybody to buy my Instructional Videotape on impulse. I want them to have to go to their bank and get a cashier's check. I want them to make a serious commitment to learn the material. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 109. I am sending you an article that I found on the Internet. It describes how a well-known pitching coach wannabe told a present-day major league pitching star how to release his pitches closer to home plate. I wonder where he got that idea? I hope that the leeches learn how to give credit where credit is due with your work when they take it and attempt to use it as their own. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unfortunately, if I include the article here, everybody could figure out about whom the writer is talking. I prefer not to name names. I am not at odds with anybody. I assume that their motives are honorable and greed does not drive them. I want to eliminate pitching arm injuries. I don't even mind that he has stolen my mantra. I want to believe that it is true. Until we eliminate all pitching arm injuries at all ages, I will keep on. To accomplish this, I need pitching coach wannabes to steal my stuff. If they get it right, I don't mind. Unfortunately, they do not understand what I recommend. They look at my stuff like a menu at a Chinese Restaurant, they take something from column A, something from column B and so on. Consequently, they end up with a mess. My program is fully integrated. That is, you cannot take my 'stand tall and rotate' concept and still permit forearm flyout. Pitchers will continue to injure their pitching arms. This well-known pitching coach wannabe recently told a major league pitching star that if he 'stood tall and rotated', then he would release his pitches closer to home plate. That is wrong. My 'stride leg drive' concept enables pitchers to release their pitches closer to home plate, not my 'stand tall and rotate' concept. If you are going to steal my stuff, you should make certain that you understand it. Now, this major league pitching star is announcing that he is releasing his pitches five to seven inches closer to home plate. He is not. He is releasing his pitches higher, but not farther forward. And, he still has extreme forearm flyout. This well-know pitching coach wannabe also told the sports writer that a six foot tall major league pitching star releases his pitches as though he were six foot four inches tall. That is just silly. Unless this major league pitching star has four inch lifts in this spikes, he can only release the baseball as though he is six feet tall. The pitching coach wannabe tried to discuss my 'stand tall and rotate' concept, where I say that six foot four inch pitchers who bend forward when they pitch, throw as though they were five feet four inches tall. However, this technique cannot make anybody taller than they are. This well-know pitching coach wannabe also said that two other major league pitching stars released their pitches closer to home plate than yet another major league pitching star even though they were shorter. The only way that anybody can determine how far in front of the pitching rubber pitchers release their pitches is to use a five hundred frame per second high speed camera from the side view with a known measure in the frame. He does not have any scientific basis for this claim. He made this up. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 110. Thank you for the hospitality and patience today. It was very insightful to see what you are talking about. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As is anybody who wants to visit, you are always welcome. Come again and as often as you want. As is always the case, we did not have enough time to cover all your questions. However, if you keep Newton's three laws of motion as your guide, you will never go wrong. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I include this thank you note to show that anybody is welcome at any time to visit my pitcher research/training center. On this day, I welcomed gentlemen who work with the well-known pitching coach wannabe whose comments I discussed in the preceding questions and answers. They came loaded down with video cameras and questions. I permitted them full access to my research/training center and my kids. I answered their questions for two and one-half hours. I showed them high-speed film that I had recently taken to show the proper releases of my pitches. After I left, they kept my kids demonstrating for their cameras and answering more questions for two additional hours. I just hope that the next time this guy steals my stuff, he gets it right. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 111. I recently emailed the well-known pitching coach wannabe and asked him to comment on what you teach. Here is his response. "Thank you for your email. Mike has some good stuff. He doesn’t, however, have all the answers he says he does. None of us do! Be careful with anyone who tells you everyone else is wrong." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- First and foremost, I do not say that 'everyone else is wrong.' I never mention names. I only discuss concepts. Concepts are either right or they are not. I am surprised to read that he admits that he does not know what he is doing. At least, I assume that is what he means when he says, 'none of us do.' I would appreciate it if he would state in what way what I recommend pitchers to do is wrong. Apparently, he agrees with my 'stand tall and rotate' recommendation. He takes credit for it. Apparently, he agrees with my 'hidden velocity' concept. He takes credit for it. I know what I know and I know what I don't know. I continue as I always have to research what I don't know. For example, while I know what I want, I am still bothered with how I teach my torque fastball and torque fastball slider. But, I am working on it. I guess his latest mantra is; 'he may not know what he is doing, but then, nobody else does either.' If I were a parent of an adolescent pitcher, I would not be comfortable with this attitude. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 112. I have been reading your website material and although I don't visualize all of it, I have seen enough to believe that you are absolutely correct. Many years ago I experienced most of the errors first hand. In 1968, I was a second round draft pick while at a major baseball university. I had a very live fastball in the 90's. Instead of signing, I went to a well-known college summer league and I hurt my elbow. I say "hurt my elbow" because that was all anyone understood even though you could hear it rattle from twenty feet away. Despite that, no one thought to even send me to a doctor. I pitched with it the following season and compensated for the irritation in the elbow. I had an average college pitcher season. Nothing like what I had my previous year. By chance, I was in in the training room one day soaking a sore ankle and was watching the team orthopedist injecting the knees of the football players. I rattled my elbow and asked if there was anything he could do. He set an appointment and scheduled me for surgery during the summer session. I had broken off a very small piece of cartilage but it had been ground up into many small pieces and spread throughout the joint. The operation (which today would have been a very routine arthroscopy procedure) left a five inch scar, but corrected the physical problem. In my senior year, I had a good college year with several shutouts, and was drafted, but in the lower rounds. I was not interested in signing because I did not feel that I had major league stuff anymore. It is only in recent years that I discovered that the change in my pitches was a result of my changed delivery as I favored my elbow. It seems obvious now, but I didn't notice it then, nor did anyone else ever mention it. For the last couple years, I began to study the part of the pitchers throwing action that I believe you would refer to as the "drive line" and have observed that the same errors appear at all levels from youth leagues to major leagues. There are many strong kids who muscle the ball up to the plate with very poor mechanics resulting in limited ball movement, poor control and I suspect considerable strain on the arm. It appears that few coaches are paying any attention to the last 2 hundredths of a second where all of the meaningful work is done. That is why I am intrigued by your work. I had first read it at my home out-of-state, but now I am staying in nearby you helping my parents for a while. I would very much like to visit you and see what you are doing. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My pitcher research/training center reside on the corner of Hwy 301 and Vinson Avenue on the south side of Zephyrhills. From where you are, you take 275 north to I-4 east. You exit on Hwy 301 north. After twenty miles, you pass under a light on Chancey Road. Remaining on Hwy 301 north, you go about one-half mile to Vinson Avenue, which is only on your left or the west side of the road. Until June, we train from 10:00 to 11:30AM every day. Starting the first Sunday after the first Saturday in June, we will start training at 9:00AM. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 113. I would like some clarification on the maximally bent elbow. Lets assume we are throwing a maxline fastball. When the hand is in the leverage position, I picture the ball to be within an inch of the throwing side ear. When you say that the forearm has to be horizontal, I assume you mean horizontal to the ground and not the upper arm. I am interested in the position of the hand at the leverage position. Is the hand at almost a 90 degree angle to the wrist, which would have the palm facing toward home plate and the ulna side of the wrist perpendicular to the ground? Or is the Ulna side of the wrist parallel to the ground at the leverage position. It seems when I try to do it as you describe there is a danger of throwing a reverse side arm pitch because I do not see how you can throw the maxline fastball with the forearm horizontal to the ground and release the ball with a horizontal spin axis and the middle digit behind the baseball. If you could clarify I would appreciate it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 'Reverse side-arm pitch.' What a great description. That is exactly what I want you to try to do. What you don't know is that you can't do it. But, it is what you want to try to do. As a result, you will drive the baseball, your hand, your forearm and your upper arm in a straight-line from leverage through release and through the deceleration phase. Make certain that you do not 'lock' your elbow. You must keep your elbow slightly bent and pointing upward with your forearm pronating and your upper arm inwardly rotating such that your acromial line points toward home plate. The hand position at leverage for my maxline fastball resembles the hand position at leverage for my maxline true screwball. The difference is that, whereas with my maxline true screwball, pitchers drive the top seam forward to achieve a horizontal spin axis, with my maxline fastball, pitchers drive their middle finger vertically through the center of the baseball to achieve a horizontal spin axis with the glove-side of the baseball slightly forward. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 114. We are discussing my younger son going to Florida this summer for the eight week camp. Is there any way to get a 22 year old into the 40 week program? He has completed his four years of college eligibility, but does not want to stop pitching. Now, I do not want to sound like a groupie or go overboard, but I have completely gone thru your old book, and about halfway thru the new one. Also, I have read about a third of the letters up into 2001. Both of my boys have completed a couple days of exercises, and one throwing sessions so far. Also, we have had a whole lot of discussion. I have never seen them so excited about pitching, other than talking about a game. In just a couple of days, they have totally bought into your system. They find some of the mechanics to feel somewhat strange, just as you say. But, they also find it to feel wonderful. My older son is just blown away. He has been pitching for fourteen years. My younger has just started his varsity season, one start, one win, so he is not able to incorporate everything at this time. But he is overwhelmed with the leverage position, and keeping the elbow in front of the acromial line. Today, he threw one pitch from the old position, and he said he hated it. It felt awful. Of course, he cannot get totally horizontal with the forearm yet, but fairly close. The 22 year old, just going slow and trying to get the feel of the mechanics, threw 67 mph with no effort whatsoever. First day. His top speed with the old mechanics was 79. Unbelievable. Of course, he has not learned to accurately couple the front foot drive with forearm acceleration. No rhythm yet. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have two openings remaining for my eight-week summer training program for high school juniors and seniors. The first two to get their two hundred dollar deposit in, get the spots. If you are truly interested, I need to mail you my materials. I need your address. I have worked with college graduates, but the problem lies with their opportunity to master their pitches in competition before they pitch professionally. I will not use one of my twelve housing spaces for a college graduate, but he could get his own housing and I will train him. I prefer not to refer to my book as the old book and the new book. Rather, it is all one book that is evolving. The 'old' book is obsolete. Read the new book. This June, I plan to make the new book obsolete. Each forty-week group teaches me how to teach the next group better. Then, I see how the new group responds to my new teachings and if they work, I update my book. Consequently, my book is one forty-week group behind what I am presently doing. My latest question/answer file provides the very latest of what I am doing that I feel I have sufficiently research to pass along to my readers. If your twenty-two year old has pitched with a different force application technique for fourteen years, then he will take awhile before the motor units that he uses to pitch with my force application technique similarly mature. At this stage, radar guns only hampers learning. He should wait until after he has completed my forty-week program and pitches in high-quality competition for a few months. Even then, he will still add to his release velocity with ongoing competitive pitching. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 115. My son who currently is a senior at a division 1 school had shoulder surgery last June. They repaired a torn labrum which had I believe to be a type 2 SLAP tear. He has done his rehab that has been given him by his doctor and also trainer at the University and has followed it religiously. He started throwing in December as per their instructions and has tried, but still cannot throw without pain in his shoulder or his bicep. In order to try to get him to keep pitching, they have changed his delivery to one of side-arm which seems to alleviate the pain somewhat, but it is not working as he is still hurting and has no velocity on the ball. Before surgery he was throwing regularly 87-89mph occasionally topping out over 90mph. He really wants to pursue an opportunity in baseball but is very discouraged by his lack of healing after all these months. I have 3 questions that I hope you could answer for me. 1. After this type of surgery, is it too soon for him to be put in the pitching rotation yet? 2. While I know that I haven't given you a lot of information about the surgery, do you think that maybe he should consider having someone else look at his shoulder as the team doctor has pronounced him fit to pitch even though it seems to me that if he's hurting as much as he says, there may be still something not right in there? 3. Would you consider working with someone such as my son who has no college eligibility left, but still wants to play pro ball. If you are receptive to that, then I would like to come to see you with my son and discuss it more after his school is over this year. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I recently learned that twenty-three of twenty-four pitchers at a premier Division I Baseball School had had at least one surgery on their pitching arms. Also, a mother of a major league pitcher recently told me that a well-known orthopedic surgeon told her son after his second surgery that the son that he had to find out why he needed surgeries. The problem is much worse than I thought and I thought that it was terrible. It appears that almost every pitcher that goes to a Division I major baseball program or signs professional eventually requires surgery. This is ridiculous. No pitcher should ever require surgery. For the coaches to tell your son to throw side-arm shows that they have no clue. He will never be the pitcher he should be with the side-arm pitching motion. Until he learns how to correctly apply force to his pitches and properly trained his pitching arm to withstand the normal, appropriate stress of pitching, he should not pitch. He definitely should not start. Pain in his biceps brachii indicates that he circles his upper arm outward and permits his forearm to flyout. He inappropriately uses his biceps brachii to prevent his olecranon process from slamming into its fossa. Concurrently, he tries to drive the baseball toward home plate with his triceps brachii. The triceps brachii contraction tears the contracted biceps brachii. Antagonistic muscles should relax while the agonistic muscles contract. If the shoulder discomfort is in the back, then he pulls his elbow across the front of his body. Pitchers must learn to drive their pitches in a straight-line toward home plate, this includes their upper arm and forearm. They must not pull or drop their elbow. I will not use one of my apartments to house your son, but if he wants to find his own housing, I would agree to work with him every day for two hundred and eighty days starting the third Saturday in August. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 116. I have enjoyed your book and hope to observe your training sessions someday. My son seems to have been born with baseball in his veins. I am concerned about the programs offered to him. His love for baseball diminished last year in a kidsports environment with a poor coach. This year, he is enrolled for the first time in Little League and several local men who have seen him play have suggested the Babe Ruth baseball program. I would like him to enjoy baseball to its fullest and progress as a player without injury. Do you have a suggestion for which programs to allow the children to participate in? Most programs seem so irresponsibly uneducated. Sort of the bicameral "beef up" mentality. At what age do you begin accepting children into your 60 day program? Even if my son were never to become "a pitcher", the knowledge and discipline in biomechanics could only help, I think. He seems to be a quick little shortstop right now, but loves to play everywhere. I have a background in physiology, nutrition, chiropractic and sports medicine and have worked one season with a minor league pitching coach with injury prevention and re-hab. Interestingly, I was asked to treat the low backs and ended up with all the pitchers' shoulder issues. I share many of the concerns you outline in your book. The prevention of athletic injuries in youth is paramount. For this reason, I will be giving a lecture tomorrow to our local Little League coaches. I would like your permission to quote your book. I will suggest that all these coaches read the free book you have online. If you have any suggestions for me, either as the mom of a little baseball enthusiast, a sports physician wanting to specialize in baseball, or general guidance, I'd be appreciative. Again, your book is great, can't wait to see the video. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You may quote my book. You may show my Instructional Videotape. You may do whatever it takes to stop parents from permitting uninformed youth coaches from destroying the pitching arms of youth pitchers. If you have read my materials, then you know that I recommend that, until the growth plate of their medial epicondyle completely matures, youth pitchers should not train for pitching for more than two months per year, do not pitch to batters in game conditions until they are thirteen years old and do not pitch more than one inning per game twice a week. My recommendation to the parents of all youth pitchers is that they become the pitching coach of their sons. I am working hard to give them the tools that they need. My Coaching Pitchers books is a start. My first Instructional Videotape provides more information. My second Instructional Videotape will provide more precise information. I will not stop until all parents feel competent to coach their youth pitchers. This summer, I will rewrite my 60 day pubescent and adolescent pitcher training programs. I will start with a ten year old pubescent pitcher training program, then an eleven year old pubescent pitcher training program, then a twelve year old adolescent pitchers training program and then a thirteen year old adolescent pitchers training program. The fourteen and fifteen year olds should continue with the thirteen year old program. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 117. How tightly should pitchers grip their pitches? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To achieve maximal movement, pitchers should spin all pitches as fast as they can. This requires very tight grips and powerful finger action through release. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 118. I am still reading letters. I finished 2000, 2003, and am working on 2002 now. My head spins, but I take frequent breaks. In the interest of debate, I have some questions. Going in, I realize in a battle of wits with you, I am unarmed. Within the 2002 letters, you said in a couple different places, the following: "The body does not add to velocity, but it can take velocity and consistency away" and ".... I want a powerful forward rotation out front where the trunk rotation adds power to the pitch." On the surface, these look to be a little contradictory. You do seem to be consistent in not wanting any forward bending or 'crunching' of the trunk. It would seem that due to rotational inertia, either rotating vertically as you teach, or horizontally, as you dismiss, could add velocity to a pitch. I do understand that by crunching with horizontal rotation, the driveline would be negatively impacted. But, would there not be a gain in velocity by combining the horizontal and vertical rotation of the body? On a semi-related topic, you teach that pitchers should remain tall throughout the delivery, with as little rear leg drop as possible, but still with a strong rear leg drive. You further have written that this gives a straighter drive line to the plate. Also, if I understand correctly, you seem to say that the driveline of the 'tall' pitch is harder to hit, all other things being equal. It would seem to me that a lower release point would be more beneficial than a high release point for one reason: The slightly above horizontal angle of a batter's power swing. Just look at the hypothetical extremes: If baseballs are released from a height of eight feet above plate level, and pass through a thirty inch strike zone at various height points, it would seem that the average batter, with an average, slightly above horizontal power swing, would be able to connect with a large percentage of these pitches "on the screws". The downward path of the baseball would approach the upward path of the bat. If baseballs are released from ground height, and pass through the same thirty inch strike zone as above at various height points, the ball path would, in this hypothetical of course, have to have an upward path. Unless, of course, the ball was thrown so slow as to start the downward path of the parabola. This would put the path of the ball at cross planes to the path of the power swing. If the batter desired to swing his bat on the same plane with the ball, in order to apply the greatest force, he would have to swing downward, hitting the ball on the ground. Is this reasoning off base? After the many hours spent reading your material, these are about the only things that I cannot 'get around'. Well, also the screwball, but that is probably because of gross ignorance. I simply do not understand yet. Once again, many thanks. Even if I did not have two boys, I would find your information fascinating. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Because some later answers disagree with some earlier answers to the same questions, readers have asked me to edit my early Question/Answer files. I prefer to leave all questions and answers as I gave them. My point is; when I learn a better way to recommend that pitchers apply force to their pitches, I will change my recommendation. Every year that I teach a forty-week group how to pitch, they teach me better ways to teach the next group. That is why I update my Coaching Pitchers group and my pitcher training programs after the last group leaves. Therefore, I recommend that readers start with my most recent Question/Answer file and work backward. Hopefully, the more recent answers clarify my pitching motion better than earlier questions. When I say that the body does not add to release velocity, but it can take away from release velocity, I am saying that the center of mass of the body has to remain at the same height relative to the ground and move straight forward. Pitchers should not lift their front legs, they should not bend their rear legs, they should not reverse rotate their hips and shoulders beyond the acromial line pointing toward home plate, the shoulder should not lean to the glove or pitching arm sides. I want the body to simply, smoothly walk forward off the pitching rubber with the rear foot moving close to the ground in a straight line. I want the front foot to step straight forward to the glove-side of the straight line that the rear foot will follow, land just as it would during a walking step and push back toward second base when the rear leg moves ahead of it just as it would during a walking step. To maximize the driveline length and the power of shoulder rotation, I want the acromial line on the front side to point toward the glove-side batter when the pitching arm achieves driveline height and I want the acromial line on the rear side to point toward home plate when pitchers initiate the forearm acceleration phase. Because I consider the shoulders part of the pitching arm, not the body, I do not consider these concepts as contradictory. I tell pitchers to imagine that they have a steel rod running through the top of their head vertically downward. Like an ice skater, they can spin faster when they keep their body vertical. If they bend at their waist, they cannot spin or if they do, they will spin with a wobble. I tell pitchers that their spin axis should be perpendicular to the vertical rod, but that they should tilt that axis of rotation forward relative to their height. I recommend that pitchers drive all pitches straight forward relative to their spin axis straight toward the top of the strike zone. However, five foot eight and one-half inch tall pitchers, like me, cannot tilt my spin axis as far forward as six foot eight and one-half inch tall pitchers. Without consistency in their driveline angle, pitchers will never have consistent command of the strike zone. I agree that, when they stand tall and rotate, six foot eight and one-half inch tall pitchers release their pitches at a greater down angle than five foot eight and one-half inch tall pitchers. However, when considered over fifty-four to fifty-two feet, the advantage is minimal. To equate the competition, they should adjust the height of mounds to permit us short guys to have the same downward driveline angles. In 1968, they lowered the height of pitching mounds relative to the height of home plate from fifteen to ten inches, but they keep the slope the same. That was supposed to give hitters a better chance. I was already lowered five inches. I think that they should have outlawed tall pitchers. They would have achieve the same result. I recommend that pitchers release all pitches at the same downward angle. However, in reality, gravity strongly influences the path that baseballs follow. When pitchers throw pitches at reduced velocities with spin axis that drive baseballs downward, the key to success is that baseballs leave pitchers hands no higher than horizontal to the ground. You suggest that hitters with upward arcs in their swings will have an advantage with pitches that have greater downward release angles. I suggest that hitters with upward arcs in their swings have a 'loop' in the movement of the center of mass of their bats that makes them susceptible to my four seam maxline and torque fastballs and they have to time their loop just right to have any chance with my four seam pronation curves and four seam true screwballs. I loved to pitch to batters who try to lift the baseball. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 119. I coach a 10 year old coast little league team. I have a player on my team who is a very gifted athlete and a natural pitcher. The kid would like to pitch as I would like to have him out on the mound for at least a couple of times a week. I keep my pitchers to a maximum of 50 to 55 pitches per game to prevent injuries to their arms. The parents of this child have informed me that they do not want their son to pitch because they are saving his arm. I have never had to deal with something like this in the 8 years I have coached little league or Babe Ruth. Will it help a child not to pitch at all and save there arms till they get older? I have talk to many pitching coaches in the area and have received the same answer from all so far which is to get better and gain the correct mechanics you have to pitch. Of course, you do not want to over do it but you do need to throw to gain confidence and muscle memory. If you have a different view on this please let me know as I am not sure of how to deal with this. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Until the growth plate of the medial epicondyle of his pitching arm completely matures, I recommend that he not practice pitching or throw for more than two months per year, I recommend that he not pitch against batters in games until he is thirteen years old and I recommend that he not pitch more than one inning per game twice a week. If he is not a delayed maturer, the growth plate of his medial epicondyle should mature when he is sixteen years old. At that time, he can start my adult pitchers training program. However, he cannot go beyond the introductory phase until he is nineteen years old when the growth plates in his shoulder completely mature. The 'traditional' pitching motion destroys powerful major league pitchers arms, what do you think that it does to tender, growing pubescent and adolescent arms? Even if the youth pitchers used my pitching motion, the stress on their growing bones could not tolerate the normal, appropriate stress of pitching for more than two months per year. I agree with the parents. Even more, I would teach my youth pitcher at home with my sixty day pubescent pitcher training program and not permit them to pitch at all until he is biologically thirteen years old. I will have the new version out in June. If you want to know what you are doing to the pitching arms of the pitchers on your team, please read Chapter 9 of my Coaching Pitchers book and/or order my Instructional Videotape. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 120. You now say you want pitchers to simply walk off the mound with their lead leg. Does this mean that you no longer teach pushing with the rear leg as you start the pitching motion? Also, with this new technique of walking off the mound, does this cause problems with the ball getting to the ready position too early? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When you walk, you push off your rear foot. I do not want pitchers jumping forward, I want a smooth, controlled stepping action. It is critically important for pitchers to get their acromial line pointing toward home plate with the pitching arm in front before they forearm pronation snap their pitching arm through release. Therefore, I want the rear hip facing forward almost immediately after pitchers step forward off the pitching rubber. Walking off the pitching rubber makes it allot easier for pitchers to maintain their forearm in leverage position and delay their forearm pronation snap action until the acromial line of their shoulders points toward home plate. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 121. I guess what I don't understand about your teachings. If you don't think a pitcher should pitch against batters until they are thirteen, what should I do about pitchers for my team which are 10 & 11? What is the difference of facing batters or just throwing to a catcher? What do I do about fielding a team if they can't throw for more then 2 months a year when the season is 3 months long? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ten and eleven year olds should not pitch competitively. They will permanently deform and limit the skeletal structure of their pitching arms. For them to throw to batters with the purpose of getting them out greatly increases the stress that they apply to their immature skeletons. Obviously, I disagree with the organizers of your youth baseball program about what is best for the participants. I would have youngsters throw 'cookie' fastballs to their own team members and I would limit the season to two months. See Chapter 12 of my Coaching Pitchers book. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 122. My son, a 6'5" 220 lb HS senior pitcher who signed with a college in November. He has always had a great workout regiment in the off season. With running, plyos, weights, and resistive band work with the Frappier Acceleration strength program he has seen a nice growth curve in the last 3 years. With age comes wisdom. He has noticed in his notes and charting that there is drop off in most strength areas that occurs during the season, and that he has to back up to get back to speed on max's and reps. I'm sure this is regular, but he is having a hard time finding an in-season weight program that will help maintain his overall strength for the season. What do you think? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I would credit the normal growth and development from late adolescence into adulthood for his strength improvements. The training procedures that you mentioned have little, if anything, to do with pitching. To improve his ability to pitch, he must train specific to the skills of pitching. I know of only one such program. You will find it in Section XI of my Coaching Pitchers book. With my 280 Day Adult Pitchers Training program, he will increase the strength and size of the bones, ligaments and tendons directly related to pitching specific to the baseball pitches that he must master to injury-proof himself and become the best pitcher that he can be. After he does that, my in-season maintenance program is easy to follow. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 123. My son is 14 1/2 and broke just above the wrist (apx 2") while snow boarding. He was just released to go back to baseball today but found his arm (wrist area) hurt when swinging the bat. What types of exercises can he do to strengthen this area? He wants to get into weight training also he is 6' tall and 135 pounds. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- That snow boarding is dangerous. What bone did he break and where? How long has it been since he broke this wrist? In equated fourteen and one-half year old adolescents, the growth plates of the distal radius and ulna are wide open. His height and weight indicate that he might be a delayed maturer. During his convalescence, the bones and muscles have atrophied (gotten weaker). He needs to start easy and gradually stimulate the osteoblast cells in his bones to lay down new bone and the myofibrils in his muscles to build new myosin and actin protein filaments (hypertrophy). I would have him start by swinging a broom handle and gradually build up to a baseball bat. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 124. My son is a 14 yr old and pitches for my AAU Team. He is having a difficult time throwing a curve ball correctly. I have showed him many times and he has trouble with the concept. We do the "curve ball drill" were he turns sideways and tries to feel the ball as it comes-off his fingers. Do you have any suggestions? Also, what is a acceptable pitch count for his age group and days of rest needed? Lastly, who should give signals to the pitchers at this age, coach or catcher? What is a simple signal system that has worked for you? Other coaches are stealing my signs. Don't want to make it too complicated for the kids. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have described how pitchers should learn my new pronation curve release technique several times in my 2002 and 2003 Question/Answer files. I will include a thorough explanation and demonstration in my next Instructional Videotape. Until the growth plate of their medial epicondyle completely matures, I recommend that fourteen year old pitchers pitch no more than one inning per game twice a week for no more than two months per year. Pitchers should decide what pitches they want to throw. Catchers give a 'live' sign, that is, the first, second or third sign in a series of three. If the 'live' sign is one, but pitchers want to throw the two sign, then they add one by wiping their glove across their chest. If the 'live' sign is one, but pitchers want to throw the three sign, then they subtract one by wiping their glove down their leg. Obviously, catchers have to vary their 'live' signs. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 125. In your book, you mention the first step is a trigger motion and both front leg and hands go up from keeping the arm going laterally. But, isn't the front foot taking a step back the trigger mechanism? Also I think I have a way to teach the slider and torque fastball. The way I throw it is to pre-set the pitch and when you do the pendulum swing instead of a vertical swing it should be slightly 90 degrees and the same position should be during transition and upper arm lock? What do you think? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Trigger actions initiate movements. The trigger action that I chose to initiate my set position motion is slightly raising both hands. I did not do this to keep the pitching arm from going laterally behind the body, I did it to initiate the set position pitching motion. Anything after the trigger action is part of the movement. I am working on a new way for pitchers to properly learn the torque fastball arm action. Thus far, it seems to be working. When I am confident that it works and their are no negative side effects, I will discuss it. With apologies, but your suggestion does not address the issue. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 126. You say that all training is specific. But, it is proven weight training (squatting-rowing-bench press) can help your speed and coordination in sports. Weight training has nothing to do with throwing a baseball, but it can help the muscles you use to throw a baseball. Of course, bad pitching motion creates greater stress then good pitching motion, but you will be that much more stronger and so will your muscles if you weight train. My point is, I don't see how weight lifting can hurt you! In a former major league pitching star's book, he says that weight lifting doesn't help velocity (he says it genetics), but it helps sustain velocity and energy. I believe through his 30 some odd years he proved it! What do you think? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is not proven that weight training that is not specific to a sport skill can help speed and coordination in sports. Weight training will only help your ability to do that specific weight training, nothing else. It will not help the muscles you use to throw a baseball. The former major league pitching star has no scientific basis for what he says. It is all anecdotal nonsense. His thirty years of pitching does not prove that weight training helps velocity. Please stop using anecdotal information to verify scientific principles. They are irrelevant. The rooster always crowing before the Sun rises does not prove causation. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 127. I'm an Anatomy & Physiology teacher at the high school level and also happen to be one of the girls fast pitch softball coaches. After reading about the Medial epicondyle with regards to how it is injured throwing a baseball on your Q& A page, I am interested in finding out how it is injured when pitching in fast-pitch softball. Is there a distinct difference in the manner in which it is injured? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have not researched precisely how athletes pitch fastpitch softballs. Off the top of my head, I suspect that the pitching arm involves the Biceps Brachii rather than the Triceps Brachii. I am sure that they use the Pronator Teres for some pitches. But, I do not see the forearm flyout problem that unnecessarily stresses the Ulnar Collateral Ligament in baseball pitchers. However, to increase their forearm acceleration, I do understand that softball pitchers slap the elbow of their pitching arm against their hip. This action could apply considerable stress to the medial epicondyle area. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 128. You missed my point. Weight training doesn't help you to throw a baseball, but it strengthens the muscles you use to throw a baseball. How could it not? Now, if you use poor mechanics, of course, it will harm you, then proper mechanics will. What scientific theory do you have to say the former major league pitching star success is? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I did not miss your point. The only way that pitchers strengthen the muscles that they use to throw baseballs is to throw baseball. No other training strengthens the muscles to throw baseball or helps in any way. I am not in the business of trying to figure out why major league pitchers have or do not have success. I research the proper way for pitchers to apply force to pitches and the proper way to strengthen the bones, ligaments and tendons to withstand the stress that pitchers apply to them. Please stop looking at what major league pitchers did or do. No researcher could ever quantify all of the variables that contribute to success or even qualtify whether they had success. I suppose, by definition, if a pitcher is a major league pitcher, that means success. However, that would not be my definition. I would measure success in terms of what percent of the best pitcher they could be that each pitcher became as the measure of success. I have no idea how to quantify that. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 129. If you want your pitchers to forearm snap their pitches and you want your pitchers to throw their pitches as hard as possible, how do you teach your pitchers not to fully extend their elbows? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Forearm pronation and upper arm inward rotation enables pitchers to outwardly and upwardly point their elbow out of harm's way. For pitchers to master this action takes proper lower intensity practice and strength development. If you watch my guys in my Instructional Videotape, you will see that they all readily master this skill. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 130. You have your pitchers point their acromial line at the glove side batters box while in the set position. For a right handed pitcher, has there been any problems with umpires calling balks because of this position. I'm not an expert on balks but it is my understanding that you cannot turn the left shoulder toward first base. Pointing the acromial line toward the glove side batters box could be construed as a balk under this scenario. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In my set position, pitchers stand with their rear foot angled toward home plate on either of my drivelines for the rear foot that are perpendicular to the pitching rubber on the three and one-half inches on both sides and with their front foot angles toward home plate to the glove-side of the driveline for the rear foot. If we draw a line from the tip of the rear foot through the tip of the front foot, I am certain that this line would pass behind the glove-side batter. Fortunately, how pitchers stand in their set position has nothing to do with balks. Umpires call balks when, at the beginning movement of their pitching motion, right-handed pitchers forwardly rotate their acromial line toward first before they reverse rotate their acromial line and throw to home plate. They consider this action as pitchers attempting to deceive the base runner into thinking that they are going to throw to first base. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 131. I have a very athletic 13 yr old boy involved in all kinds of sports. Baseball is his favorite. He plays shortstop and used to pitch allot (I curtailed that drastically last year after reading your info). My son wants to participate on the school track team as a shot putter. This would take place while baseball is also going on. Would this create too much stress on the right (throwing) shoulder to shot put and throw a baseball in the same season? He did injure his right acromioclavicular ligament in a wrestling match last year and missed part of baseball. What would you advise, go ahead, shot putting would not put undue strain on the shoulder as far as baseball goes, or no, too much stress on a 13 yr old rapidly growing shoulder? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- During the open growth plate years, youngsters should learn the skills of as many activities as possible. However, they should not stress these growth plates with either too much stress or prolonged stress. I recommend that youngsters not perform high-intensity activities, such as pitching for more than two months per year. I think that wrestling is an excellent sport with marvelous skills. However, it is possible for youngsters to receive too much stress. Youth wrestling should reward skill, not strength. Even when all youngsters are chronologically thirteen years old, they can be biologically fifteen year olds. Biological fifteen year olds are too strong for biological eleven, twelve, thirteen and fourteen year olds. Shot-putting is another fine activity. I believe that the junior high shot weighs six pounds. While I would never permit an open-growth-plate youngsters to throw a six pound shot with the baseball pitching motion, the correctly-taught shot put motion should be fine for two months per year. However, I would carefully monitor the youngsters for medial epicondyle and humeral head discomfort. Simply place your thumb on the bone on the inside of the elbow and the top front of the shoulder and press firmly. If, when you let up, the youngster winces with pain, then he has inflamed his growth plates. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 132. I have recommended your web-site to a number of youth coaches and parents of pitchers. Most recognize your name as a player and are interested in what you have to say. At least one parent of a very talented youth pitcher also decided to considerably limit his son's pitching. At a minimum I believe your perspective is starting to generate some discussion among those involved in youth sports. I would love to see your research and opinions start to be discussed at the national level of Little League and other youth baseball organizations. Many youth coaches are unwilling to change their practices, unless of course the rules regarding innings pitched and pitch counts are changed. At a minimum, if the Little League organization would acknowledge that there is scientific evidence that young elbows and shoulders can be injured easily, and rules are instituted requiring that the parents of pitchers be informed of these risks, that would get parents involved and I think reduce the incidence of serious, permanent injury to young players. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I only care about the youngsters and giving parents the information with which they can decide what is best for their children. Youth sports organizations have had my information for years. I first brought it to Dr. Creighton Hale's attention in 1967. While still a professor, he demonstrated that, to get to the Little League World Series, teams had to have almost thirteen year old youngsters with fifteen year old biological maturities. He later became the Director of Little League Baseball. Do not expect change from the top. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 133. After throwing for about 15 to 20 minutes, I feel like I want to eat candy or something that has sugar. The thing is I eat food with sugar a lot, so I don't see why I would have this craving for sugar after throwing. I run for my school's track and cross country teams, and I only get this craving for sugar after pitching. Do you know why I would feel this way? Also, sometimes when I throw hard my forearm has a tingling sensation. What would be causing this? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To resynthesize the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) required for the myosin cross-bridges to attach to the actin binding sites and initiate muscle contraction, muscle fibers have to metabolize muscle glycogen and/or muscle triglycerides. When they have insufficient levels of muscle glycogen, they put out a call for their master to consume large quantities of glucose. Since candy is a monosaccaride, it provides glucose. I recommend that you find other sources of glucose that do not destroy your teeth. Read the nutritional information on the back of food packages. Start with packages of rice. With regard to tingling of the pitching arm: Tingling typically indicates that you are irritating a nerve. If the tingling is in your little finger and lateral one-half of your ring finger, then you are irritating your Ulnar Nerve. This means that you have severe forearm 'flyout' that causes you to 'slam' your olecranon process into its fossa. You have to stop reverse rotating your acromial line past home plate, stop taking the baseball laterally behind your body and start driving your forearm as far horizontally inside of vertical as possible with a powerful forearm pronation action. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 134. Thank you for my visit to your training facility. I truly enjoyed meeting and talking with you and your players. It is one thing to "talk" on the telephone. Or exchange emails or posts. Something else again to actually be there and see what you do in person. I'm still not convinced that the mechanics you teach are the mechanics that will give the player the best chance to make it to the highest levels of baseball. 10 years from now, who knows? But I am convinced that your training methods show that what most baseball people do for training a pitcher is woefully inadequate. I am also in total agreement with your instructional methods (especially your backwards chaining approach to teaching that you use). As an aside, I was talking with Collegiate Baseball News and he told me that you, I and four others are doing articles for an upcoming series. That should be "interesting" to say the least. Also I saw a post/email on you web site that I believed referred to my visit that said that I work with a well-known pitching coach wannabe. I do not have any affiliation/connection with that person. More so if anything, the opposite is true. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My apologies for including you as a member of the group with which you came. I have no idea or care with whom you affiliate. I drew my mistaken conclusion because you arrived with someone that I knew was from his group and you had not independently contacted me about visiting. I did not know that I had two different pitching coach wannabe groups visiting on the same day. The Collegiate Baseball articles should be interesting. I want to make it very clear, I have never read your stuff and will not and I have never read his stuff and will not. Under no circumstances would I want anybody think that what I have read has in any way tainted my research or what I recommend. You are always welcome. I greatly enjoyed our discussions. I am not in the market for disciples, I prefer collegial debates. Once we can agree on the scientific principles that guide our search for the proper way for pitchers to apply force to their pitches, we can discuss how we should satisfy those principles. There is only one mechanically and anatomically perfect way for humans to lift heavy boxes off the floor. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 135. I have developed a baseball training aid for pitchers or anyone wanting to throw faster or farther. I have read lots of your pitching mechanics and learned a lot. Thanks. But anyway, I have something that can develop speed/strength for anyone regardless of age. And it'll do it rather quickly and safely. Would you be interested in seeing one of my prototypes? I promise, it isn't rubber bands or anything lame like that. This is real, variable speed, movement specific exercise that could help you teach pitching even better. And help the students learn faster while getting stronger. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I do not use facilitators. The only way to learn how to pitch is to pitch. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 136. After purchasing your video and reading your free book, I have started your 280 day adult program. So far, I feel that everything has been going very well. However, I have a question. It was my understanding that you formerly taught that the position of the forearm on the maxline fastball at release was at 90 degrees vertical or slightly inside of vertical, emphasizing that it should never be outside of vertical. With that, I could easily see that when a pitcher releases a maxline fastball with an essentially vertical forearm and his wrist turned slightly outward, the pitch would have a horizontal spin axis, angled slightly toward the plate on the glove arm side, creating a small circle of friction on the glove arm side that moves the ball toward the pitching arm side. Now, however, you seem to be emphasizing that from leverage through release on a maxline fastball (and other pitches --but I'll stick with the ML fastball here) the pitcher's forearm must be horizontal in toward the head, inside of vertical. And yet you still say, I think, that the maxline fastball should still have the same angle horizontal spin axis and circle of friction location. I guess what I don't understand is how a pitcher can have a truly horizontal and inside of vertical forearm release position and still create a truly horizontal spin axis upon release. Won't the horizontal/vertical orientation of the spin axis essentially correspond to the position of the forearm upon release, assuming an essentially straight wrist? That is, when a pitcher's forearm is vertical, it seems that the ball will be released off the tip of middle finger with a completely horizontal spin axis, with the spin axis angle "tilting" towards vertical as the forearm angle at release moves towards horizontal. Thus, throwing a four-seam fastball using a "traditional" sidearm motion, with the forearm angle at release being essentially horizontal and outside of vertical, you get, on a right-handed pitcher, a vertical spin axis that turns in a clockwise direction when viewed from above. Under Bernoulli's law, this spin causes the air pressure on the glove arm side of the ball to be greater than on the pitching arm side, thus causing the ball to move in towards the pitching arm side. I would think that, a right-hander, using a forearm angle at release that is truly horizontal and inside of vertical would result in what is essentially a vertical spin axis going the other direction, i.e., going counterclockwise when viewed from above. This would tend to make the ball go towards the glove-arm side, making it a torque pitch. I would acknowledge that with a horizontal forearm inside of vertical at release, some amount of tilt towards a horizontal spin axis could be achieved by flexing the wrist toward vertical (ulnar flexing, I think) at release, but I can't seem to get my wrist to ulnar flex more than about 45 degrees from straight. What am I missing? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I do want the maxline fastball to have a horizontal spin axis slightly turned inwardly. Please try to throw my maxline fastball with a vertical spin axis. You cannot do it. Nevertheless, on all pitches, I recommend that pitchers forearm accelerate their pitches with their forearms horizontal and powerfully pronate (turn their thumbs downward) through release. You have to suspend 'common sense' logic and try it. Forget about having your forearm vertical. Try to keep your forearm horizontal and powerfully pronate your forearm through release. Before you make any adjustments, wait until after you see how the baseball spins. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 137. Thank you for creating an update page it helped tremendously. I've also listed a segment from an article at ESPN.com by Tim Kurkjian on a promising young pitcher. "What's not to like? He is big and strong: 6-foot-5, 225 pounds, with legs that resemble the great Tom Seaver's and with height that gives him leverage. At 22, he is refined. He pitched at a big-time program at a major university. He worked independently with a well-known pitching coach wannabe, a former pitcher and pitching coach. Two major league pitching stars swear by his teachings, which stress, among other philosophies, letting the ball go closer to home plate." Reading things like this gives me more confidence in the inventor of such pitching philosophies, or should I say proven and quantative research. I'm more and more thankful that my son and I have chosen to invest in your video and training program. My son may never be another promising young pitcher, but with your program he will become the best his ability allows. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- They have no shame. I continue to learn and I will include the new stuff in my Coaching Pitchers book as I find time. I am glad that the Recent Updates file helps. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 138. My eight year old son played in a baseball tournament ten days ago. It was a two day tournament and he pitched eleven innings. He had not previously practiced other than throwing the ball around the yard. He has had some soreness in his upper arm and elbow since then. I am concerned that he is not improving although his dad thinks he is fine. What should I do? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I cannot imagine an eight year old pitching eleven innings in two days. What the hell is the matter with the tournament organizers and you and his father? I would not permit an eighteen year old with completely mature growth plates to pitch eleven innings in two days. Eight year old boys have very, very immature skeletons with growth cartilage throughout. The stress of pitching can pull ossification centers away from the bone completely. I have no doubt that he has seriously irritated growth plates in his shoulder and his elbow. I have no way of predicting long-term growth and development damage, but he will have some. At the very least, these growth plate will prematurely close and stunt their growth. He is not fine. He must stop this stupidity at once. I recommend that, until the growth plate for his medial epicondyle completely matures, he not even train for pitching for more than two months per year, that he not pitch in games against opposing team batters until he is thirteen years old and that he does not pitch more than one inning per game twice a week thereafter. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 139. What do you think of Jeter's slide the other night? Don't you think he should have slid feet first? If he's out, take it in! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With the single exception of stealing home, base runners should always slide feet first. It is not only safer, but it is also faster. At home, base runners do not need to stay on the base, they can touch the base as they slide by and roll out of harm's way. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 140. My son and I discussed your program as an option for him next year and he was very interested. But we did have some additional questions. What is a typical workout schedule during the week (hours per day). What are the facilities like? Do you have any pictures? What is the average cost of utilities? How many students are in your forty-week programs? My sons problem has always been control, plenty of arm and ball movement but lack of control, can you make changes that last? My wife was not real happy that our son would consider walking away from a scholarship in order to take more lessons. She thinks he has reached his peak and having half your college paid for is great. David and I think he can go to the next level but he just missing something, so far he has really pitched competively very little. High school record of 2-1 and so far in college only 3 innings. This will be a real tuff decision for him to make and I'm just collecting as much information as possible to help him. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have two duplexes on site at my Pitcher Research/Training Center. I place three young men in each apartment. We train from 9:00AM until 11:00AM every day. For the remainder of the day, the young men work and/or attend local community colleges. I charge ten dollars per day for coaching and ten dollars per day for a furnished apartment with free cable and unlimited long distance. However, they have to pay their share of the electric bill, which amounts to about a dollar a day. My 280-Day Adult Pitcher Training Program injury-proofs pitchers and shows them how to develop the skills that they will need to pitch at their highest levels. However, it is up to him to learn those skills. No college or professional program will do either for him. In fact, college and professional programs destroy pitching arms. When he finishes my program, he will know what he has to do to become the best pitcher he can be and he will know at what level of baseball he will be able to have success. No pitcher who has turned down a scholarship to attend my program has ever not received that same scholarship or better after he completed the program. College coaches prefer more mature players and, certainly, prefer pitchers who have improved their skills since they last offered them a scholarship. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 141. YOU SELF RIGHTEOUS SON OF A GUN. How dare you talk to me like I am an idiot. I asked you a question, I did not asked to be lectured. My son actually pitched nine innings, not eleven. The tournament allowed pitchers to pitch five innings per two games. Since we have never had a child that could pitch we assumed that that was fine. Not everyone is aware that pitching can cause serious problems. He is a child that constantly has a ball in his hand so it was natural for him to throw the ball. We are not allowing him to pitch the ball until the pain subsides. I just wanted to know if I need to seek medical advice but I see your medical advice is to sit behind the computer and judge before you know all of the facts. I sure hope your bed side manner is better with your patients. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am sorry that you took my information as a lecture. I intended only to inform you of the great danger in which that the tournament organizers had placed your son. However, it is the responsibility of parents to protect their children. You do share the blame. Nine innings instead of eleven innings does not lessen the offense. Your indignation does not bother me. However, I prefer that you turn it to never permitting your son to do this ever again. You see, ignorance is not an excuse. Use your anger to go after the tournament organizers. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 142. Thank you very much for taking the time to answer so many questions from so many people. I know this takes a lot of your time, and I am grateful. People like me have no other source for advice. My son is 5' 11" and 13 years old. He has the bones the size of a 15 year old with the muscles of a 13 year old. He has not over-pitched, and has not pitched at all since last spring. Until this year, he has only thrown straight fastballs. This year, I've been trying to teach him your maxline fastball, since this seemed to me to be easier to master. He has begun to experience pain for the first time. The pain is on the outside of the elbow and slightly to the rear of the elbow. He also has pain in the outside of his upper arm, about 3 inches or so above the elbow, in the middle, maybe slightly to the rear toward the triceps. It's approximately in the location of the muscle that tightens when someone makes an extremely tight fist. He says the pain goes away after he stops throwing. He will bring his hand slightly behind his acromial line, but not severely, and pulls his elbow across his body. Obviously, I need to continue to work on him throwing in a straight line. Any other suggestions? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Biological thirteen year old boys have the ossification centers for their olecranon process and lateral epicondyle, but all growth plates are wide open. If you want, you could take X-rays of both his arms from the middle of his forearm to the middle of his upper arm from both the anterior/posterior and lateral view within a week of his next birthdate, then I will examine them and tell you whether your son is a delayed, equated or accelerated maturer. The size of the bones do not indicate biological age. The discomfort that your son is experiencing on the outside, slightly to the rear of his elbow indicates that he is 'banging' his olecranon process into its fossa. He needs to strongly pronate his forearm and continue to forwardly rotate his shoulders. These two actions move the elbow to point outward and upward and prevents this injury. The discomfort on the outside, three inches above his elbow indicates the attachment of the Brachioradialis muscle. The Brachioradialis muscle decelerates the forearm pronation action. While we do not want this discomfort to become unbearable, this is a good thing. Basically, I am only concerned that he might be 'locking' his elbow out straight. With my maxline fastball, pitchers should focus only on the forearm pronation action. Forearm pronation should stop him from pulling his elbow across the front of his body. He has to stop that. After they release the pitch, I also tell pitchers to put their pitching hand in his rear pocket. To teach the proper pitching arm action for my maxline fastball, I assume that you are using my Pickoff Position Leverage Throws. Until he perfects the pitching arm action with my Pickoff Position Leverage Throws, he should not practice any pitch with any other of my exercises. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 143. I had my son checked out and he is fine. Yes, I will monitor his pitching from now on. He is a very talented little boy and I do want his arm to last until he is older. It is difficult when your kid is the one the team depends on but I now know of the dangers. Angry, upset and in a panic was how I felt yesterday. I in no way intended to put my child in danger, sports are not that important. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am on your side in this matter and I do not want to unnecessarily alarm you. However, during late childhood, pubescence and adolescence, excessive physical stress can permanently alter the normal growth and development pattern of the skeletal system. A single episode may not cause a significant difference, but the effect will not appear until much later in the form of premature closure of an growth plate. I am trying to start a nationwide research project of the pitching arm skeletal development of youth pitchers. To participate, parents of youth pitchers need to have X-rays taken of both arms within a week of their birthdays. We need the X-rays from the middle of the forearm to the middle of the upper arm from the anterior/posterior view and the lateral view both maximally flexed and extended. If parents send me copies with their email address, I will read the X-rays to determine whether the youth pitcher is a delayed, equated or accelerated maturer and whether youth pitching has negatively influenced the growth and development of their pitching arm. I would very much like your family to participate. Together, we can keep his pitching arm safe. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 144. I'm very excited to finally find your web site and look forward to talking to you about your 280 day training program. I've heard allot about the program and I know where contact you for personal training, but I do have question. Where do you stand on steroids do they help in any way? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anabolic steroids are very dangerous. They will alter your normal growth and development pattern. But, more importantly, you do not need them. You can get the results that you want with commitment and properly-directed effort. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 145. I sent you my article about a major league pitching coach wannabe because it was a more accurate account of his views than I could recite during our interview, and for your opinions on what he had to say. I watch pitchers more closely than ever and see a lot more present major league pitching star-type throwing than Marshall Plan. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I hope that my discussions of the few biomechanical statements that you attributed to this gentleman satisfied your needs. The fact that you see more present major league pitching star-type throwing than what I recommend explains why so many require surgery and/or spend time on the disabled list. No pitcher that I have fully trained has ever suffered a pitching arm injury, much less required surgery. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 146. I'm 13 years old. My dad has told me tons about you about when you were a pitcher. Then, he told me you had become a doctor which impressed my even more. My question to you is do you keep in touch with your teammates over the years? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My parents did not have the money to help me attend college. Therefore, I designed my own version of a work/study program. I worked as a professional athlete during the spring and summer quarters and attended college during the fall and winter quarters. Of course, I needed a school that used the quarter system rather than the semester system. From the fall quarter of 1960 through the spring quarter of 1978 with one year off to play winter baseball, I earned my doctoral degree while I played professional baseball. Due to a requirement that, to earn a doctoral degree, students have to enroll in three successive quarters, I had to skip spring training and the first two months of the 1978 season. From time to time, I hear from a few teammates, but very few. We all have families and lives after baseball. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 147. I recently had Tommy John surgery performed by Dr. James Andrews (Feb 4) and am recovering from it. I'm following the rehab protocol, but it was brought to my attention that you had a person who works out with you that you brought back in eight months following a different rehab program. Before surgery I topped out at 92 MPH (6'3 210 lb Lefty) and am looking for the best way to rehab so I don't have the same injury again as well as I throw harder. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My 280-Day Adult Pitcher Interval-Training Program does rehabilitate pitchers from Ulnar Collateral Ligament replacement surgery much faster than Dr. Andrews' protocol. In addition, my program corrects the flaw that caused the injury in the first place. If you are interested in training with me, please send me your telephone number and a good time to call you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 148. I am a longtime fan of yours since I was a child as you were one of the first true relief pitchers to which I became acquainted. I am now a 39 year old attorney as I write this letter. I want you to know, I purchased an autograph of yours from a private signing so my motivation here is not to secure a free autograph. I have heard much in the autograph world about how you would not sign your name. Some say it is you are against hero worship, some say it has to do with a dislike for collectors, others say you feel that there are much more important people in this world than baseball players. (I would tend to agree if that is your view, as the surgeon who just performed a subacromial decompression on my right shoulder is my hero right now.) I would appreciate it if you could take a moment to set the record straight. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I gave photograph post cards to the kids. I told them that their parents, grandparents, teachers, police, firemen among others are far more important in their lives than I. I never give autographs to collectors. However, at one hundred dollars per autograph, I signed five hundred items last year for a sports memorabilia guy. Now, if they want my autograph, collectors can buy it. If the sports memorabilia guy wants me to do it again, then that means that more collectors want my autograph. If he does not want me to do it again, then I am through with it. Autograph collectors can fax the sports memorabilia guy at (941)697-1855. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 149. On your website, when people click on your links, it would be helpful if each link opened in a new browser window. It will keep people at your site longer to evaluate your services. My boys are only 3 and 1 1/2 so, it may be awhile before I email you. To open the page in a new window, your HTML code the address should read: target="new">. This will cause a new window to pop open so that people can read you Q &A and credentials in that new window. When they close the window, you main page will still be there. You need to add the target="new" for each link you want a new window to open. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With little effort, you have severely exceeded my website knowledge. I have no idea what a 'new browser window' means. To permit readers to move anywhere on my website, I am attempting to put links at the end of every file. I have no idea if that line is on my website. I know that I never wrote it. This is a one man, as cheap as is possible, website. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 150. I agree with you that other people are much more important than baseball players, or any athletes in general. I knew you did the private signing for someone. The only thing I would offer, is perhaps if you did one in the future, you could charge more and see that a good portion of the proceeds go to a local charity. Before I attended law school, I worked for This Week in Baseball. It was interesting, but the pay was poor and it was not very intellectually challenging. My girlfriend at the time encouraged me to follow my dreams and shoot for law school. Growing up the some of blue collar parents, it seemed unattainable, but I persevered and did well. Today I am heavily involved with Pro Bono work, the Bar Association, the Ethics Committee and many other legal related committees. When I have the chance to speak to youngsters whose dream of getting out of a life of poverty is to play ball, I try to help them see that athletics can also be a means to get an education. Then they always have a Plan "B". ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unfortunately for me, I was not a part of the million dollars per year baseball player generation. I did the work to make my autograph worth something, I need the benefit of it to give my Coaching Pitchers book away. My website is my pro bono work. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 151. I am currently a freshman in college and a member of the baseball team. I have been looking for information regarding pitching on the internet, basically because I have a thirst for knowledge when it comes to the game of baseball. I am writing to tell you that your website, including your book, is the most comprehensive and informative website I have ever seen on the topic of pitching. Kudos on a job well done, and thank you for the undoubtedly countless hours you spent gathering, organizing and writing this information; it will give me months of reading and learning enjoyment. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And, it only took me forty years to learn this material. Thank you for your kind words. Since, after my 1967 season with the Detroit Tigers, I took my first high-speed film of myself pitching, I have devoted my academic life to the elimination of pitching arm injuries. I am in the process of my annual upgrade of my Coaching Pitchers book. When I finish that, I will start work on my second Instructional Videotape. I have taken much more high-speed film that will make what I am talking about much easier to understand. I know what causes pitching arm injuries. Now, I have to get the baseball world to listen. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 152. I had just finished a project and was doing a little surfing on the web before I turned in and I came across your site. I read through your site with great interest. However, I probably am not the typical visitor that your website gets. I have no interest in pursuing a career in pitching, and while I have a son (4 yrs), I will be quite content to be able to play catch in the driveway w/o putting out the neighbor's window. I was blown away with the wealth of information that you offered. I am a huge fan of the game though, as I get older, I appreciate the baseball of the 70s which I grew up with more and more every year. I grew up in Northern Wisconsin and, of course, followed the Brewers religiously. I remember the following: 1. You were one of the best RPs in the game, yet I could never get a current (late 70s) card of you. I seem to recall that one year you lead the league in saves. However, Topps did not issue its standard "Fireman League Leader" card. I always found that odd. 2. Reading about you in "Ball Four", it struck me odd at the time, that someone would try to apply any sort of college training to the game of baseball. 3. I think that you were close to signing with the Brewers around 1983 or so. I could be mistaken about this. So why do I write to you? I studied Electrical Engineering in college, and took a ton of math courses (Even Tensor Calculus!). I loved Science and the absoluteness of mathematics. When I finished college, I ended up working for a publisher of religious material, which had absolutely nothing to do with my field of study, or so I thought. In my industry, science is often treated like voodoo, or some sort of parallel dimension that does not have any effect on the world we exist in. Hand-Waving takes precedence over Scientific processes, and people would rather flock to charismatic posturing than scientifically postulating the what and why of spiritual issues. It also baffles me how people can somehow think that they can comprehend entirely what they describe as an infinite Being. I found your "work in progress" approach very refreshing. Many of the writers in my field, have written themselves in a corner, by "having" all the answers at 40 years of age. I know that they will want to write more material, but,if you have already answered everything, what is the point. They are so afraid to contradict or re-evaluate positions that they took early in their career. It would be so easy for them to say, "Look, I was off base, I didn't understand my data at that time" or "I have done further study, and refined my conclusions", but they do not. I hope that this email does not seem inappropriate. I apologize if it does. I felt compelled to tell you that your approach to pitching was something that I could relate to, and actually has helped me immensely to stick to my guns, and back what I find to be right by scientific thought, even though I have no intention of pitching. Your information and approach has more value than throwing an effective screwball. I get the impression that you are honestly more interested in helping people than in making a few bucks, and for that I commend you. I can relate to a person having nuggets of valuable information, only to be scoffed and questioned, because it might go against arbitrary traditions. I also get the impression that your feedback seems to be more positive than negative, I hope that it is. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts with me and your kind words. I disagreed with Cy Burger, president of Topps, about how he treated baseball players. As an eighteen year old, I signed with Topps for twenty-five dollars. For that, he felt that he could print my picture on his cards for as long as he wanted. I challenged him and stopped him from printing my picture after the 1977 season. That is why Topps does not have a picture of me for the 1978, 1979, 1980 or 1981 seasons. He could no longer boast that he had a complete set of cards for those years. In order to roll back free agency, the owners threw me out of professional baseball in June of 1980. After I helped settle the 1981 strike, Joe Torre let me pitch for him. When the Mets fired him, they released me. They said that my 2.60 earned run average showed that I could no longer pitch major league quality baseball. The Milwaukee Brewers never contacted me about working for them. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 153. I was advised take a look at your website by a local sports physiotherapist. I was blown away by it! I began reading some of your material and wondered how I could apply some of this information to my players that I coach. I'm a 3rd year Human Kinetics student at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada. I have a passion for motor development and growth and found your information quite fascinating. As I mentioned, I am currently coaching U-18 Premier boys division up here in BC. I focus mostly on our pitchers and was overwhelmed by the amount of throwing injuries that they have. I've taken it upon myself to do some research in this area at my university, but have had trouble coming up with a good source. I just wanted to let you know that your work is truly amazing and I plan to read your book to its entirety. One more thing. Is your video worth purchasing? Does it summarize your book or is there any 'different stuff' in there that would be of use to me? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am in the process of my annual rewrite of my Coaching Pitchers book. Give me a few weeks. My Instructional Videotapes provides moving pictures of what I write. It is very much worth your time and money. And, when I finish my second version, you will be able to add it to your collection for only twenty-five percent of its purchase price. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 154. My 13-year old son had a follow-up visit with his doctor. He reviewed the X-rays and MRIs of his elbow, which my son injured two years ago. There are some small "loose bodies" and a deformity of his radial head. The doctor recommended that my son consult pediatric orthopaedic surgeons to discuss arthroscopic surgery to remove the loose bodies. He didn't think anything could be done for the radial head and said my son should consider giving up baseball. Although he said a pediatric specialist may offer a different course of action that may be able to help repair the radial head. I know you address this issue in Chapter 10 of your book. Do you have any recommendations on rest, therapy, strength training, surgery, etc. that may allow a thirteen year old to continue playing baseball? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- These injuries and deformities are permanent and ongoing until the growth plates completely mature. All that he can do now is to do nothing to make the situation worse. He has to stop pitching and throwing. After the growth plate of the radial head completely closes, he might find someone willing to surgically remove the deformed growth. However, I have no knowledge of anybody having done this surgery. You and he have my condolences. This is why I am so adamant about no more than two months per year, no pitching in competitive games against opponents until thirteen and no more than one inning per game twice a week. Prevention is the only answer. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 155. My 12 year old son started to complain of elbow pain. He was diagnosed by an Orthopedic Doctor to have an inflamed growth plate. The Doctor only had x-rays taken of his throwing arm. He was told to ice it twice a day and is taking anti-inflammatory medication. When he complained of the pain, I had him stop throwing and has not thrown since (about 1 1/2 weeks). He experienced pain only when he threw the ball and not when he swung a bat. I want to get another opinion about the injury. Do you recommend seeing a Sports Medicine Doctor? What is your advice for the rest of this season? The season is just starting. What can he do to help his recovery? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I assume that his pain is on the inside of his elbow. This would indicate the growth plate of his medial epicondyle. The medial epicondyle is a very critical baseball pitching structure. When it becomes sore, it means that it cannot withstand the stress that your son places on it. Even this seemingly minor injury will permanently alter its growth and development. It will close before the same growth plate in his non-pitching arm. This is called 'premature closure.' That means that his pitching arm will be shorter than his non-pitching arm. The only remedy is to permit the growth plates to completely mature without any further stress that could alter its remaining growth and development. I have no idea whether your son is an accelerated, equated or delayed skeletal maturer. At twelve years old, if he is an equated maturer, the ossification center for his olecranon process should have recently appeared. If it has not, then he is a delayed maturer. If the ossification center for his lateral epicondyle has also already appeared, then he would have the maturation pattern of a thirteen year old. I recommend that he does not throw until next year and not competitively pitch until the growth plate of his medial epicondyle completely matures. Please read my new Research Study file and join me. Together, maybe we can find a way for your son to pitch again, but without injury. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 156. MY DAUGHTER IS 12 1/2 YEARS OLD & HAS BEEN WINDMILL PITCHING NOW FOR ALMOST 3 YEARS. SHE HAS NEVER HAD ANY PROBLEMS UNTIL WE CHANGED HER PRE-MOTION THIS YEAR. SHE WAS COMING STRAIGHT FROM HER HIP STRAIGHT UP INTO HER WINDMILL AND HAD NO PROBLEMS WHATSOEVER. NOW SHE IS BENDING DOWN AT THE WAIST ALMOST TOUCHING HER ANKLES THEN EXPLODING UP INTO HER WINDMILL. SINCE SHE HAS STARTED THIS SHE HAS PULLED THOSE MUSCLES IN HER SHOULDER BLADE AREA 2 OR 3 TIMES. SHE PULLED THEM AGAIN LAST WEEK. CAN YOU PLEASE TELL ME THE NAME OF THOSE MUSCLES? THE AREA THAT IS CAUSING HER PAIN IS BESIDE HER RIGHT SHOULDER BLADE (THE LOWER PART OF HER SHOULDER BLADE) & ALSO BELOW HER SHOULDER BLADE? DO YOU THINK IT COULD BE CAUSED FROM HER NEW WINDUP OR FROM THROWING A CURVEBALL? WHAT CAN I DO TO GET HER HEALED UP PROPERLY & QUICKLY AND TO PREVENT THIS FROM HAPPENING AGAIN? ALSO, THE ORTHOPEDIC DOCTOR SAID SHE HAS MILD SCOLIOSIS AND SCHEURMAN'S DISEASE. BUT I READ THAT WINDMILL PITCHERS ARE OFTEN MISDIAGNOSED BECAUSE OF THE OVERDEVELOPMENT OF THEIR RIGHT SIDE FROM PITCHING OVER & OVER AND THEY NEED TO DO MUSCLE STABILIZATION EXERCISES TO BALANCE THOSE MUSCLES OUT. I NEED TO KNOW WHO YOU THINK IS RIGHT AND IF YOU KNOW AN EXPERT I CAN TALK TO ABOUT THIS. I KNOW YOUR EXPERTISE IS IN BASEBALL. CAN YOU PLEASE HELP ME? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You are correct, I have studied baseball pitching as it effects only adolescent males. That does not mean that I cannot diagnose what muscle your daughter has injured. However, I do not know the skeletal growth and development pattern for adolescent females. Nevertheless, I have to assume that while adolescent females skeletally mature earlier than adolescent males, they still have open growth plates at twelve and one-half years old. That is always my first concern. You must make certain that she does not apply greater stress than those growth plates can withstand without prematurely closing and permanently deforming her arm. I believe that she has irritated the attachment of the Latissimus Dorsi muscle to the inferior angle of her scapula. I do not know the normal skeletal growth and development pattern for the scapula. I would expect that, as a broad flat area of bone, this portion would ossify early. I would expect that the coracoid process, acromial process and scapular spine would have growth plates. But, I do not know. In any case, she is applying greater stress to this attachment than either the bone and/or the attachment can withstand. Because this portion of the Latissimus Dorsi depresses (pulls down) the scapula, the new bending forward technique that is recently started would increase the distance over which this muscle has to apply force. Therefore, I would attribute this pain to this new motion. However, I think that the new motion is good. The problem lies in the skeletal maturity of the inferior angle of her scapula. I recommend that she greatly reduce the intensity with which she pitches with this new motion until the discomfort goes away. I have no scientific research on which to rely to talk with you about a growth plate in that region. And, while I do not see this as analogous to medial epicondyle injuries in adolescent males with baseball pitching, I would err on the side of caution. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 157. My son is the victim of playing year-round baseball since he was eight years old. I thought I was being very cautious in monitoring pitch counts, days of rest, etc. But obviously, that is not nearly enough precaution with a youngster. I did a lot of reading and study, but didn't come upon your work until about a year ago when it was already too late. Can I ask you one hypothetical question? My son will (and already has) stop throwing. I assume he can continue to hit as a DH. He doesn't have pain when he throws now. My question is, do you think it is possible that he can resume throwing in a couple of years in order to play a position like first base? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If your son has not and does not have discomfort from pitching, then you could work with his pitch releases using my 60-Day Pubescent and Adolescent Pitchers Interval-Training Programs. However, I would carefully follow my other guidelines about not pitching competitively until he is thirteen years old and only one inning per game twice a week. At sixteen biological years old, the growth plates in the elbow mature. At nineteen biological years old, the growth plates in the shoulder mature. When his growth plates mature, we no longer have to worry about injuring his growth plates. Then, all we need to worry about is how he applies force to his pitches and whether he has sufficiently trained his pitching arm to withstand the stress of pitching with the proper technique. I recommend that, within one week of his next birthday, you have X-rays taken of both of his arms from mid-forearm to mid-upper arm from the anterior/posterior view and lateral view. Then, you can determine his biological age and whether the growth plates in his pitching elbow are closing earlier than the growth plates in his non-pitching arm. If you send copies to me, I will gladly examine you and give you my evaluation. With that information, we can better decide what is best. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 158. I stumbled onto your site through research concerning the pronation of the pitching motion after release. My son who is a lefty and 12 years old had some digital pictures taken of him while practicing pitching. Anyway, the thought that he was naturally throwing a screwball and possibly injuring his arm motivated me to do the research. I will tell you that he has worked very hard mastering the mechanics in the instructional videos I purchased from a pitching coach wannabe. Working hard on 2x4 drills on balance in the mirror, etc. Also, working on the hand break that will bring the ball out of the glove with the fingers on top of the baseball, then downward and back toward second base and up to the "high cock" position (elbow at shoulder height and arm forming an "L" position with the palm of his throwing hand facing toward the second base position) at landing (of the front foot). I do not know what his control would have been like or his pitching mechanics since this is all he has known from the beginning, but I will say that he has had very good control and he plays AAU baseball and does very well. I have been involved with all the teams that he has played on and will say that he has never been abused (to my knowledge) by throwing too many pitches (30 pitches/two innings a game). Also, although several pitchers at his age and level of competition are throwing curves, he has never experimented with the pitch and will not but does throw a circle change, two seam, four seam and split finger fastball. After reading and trying to understand as much as I can I will say that I am very concerned about him pitching now and the possible damage he may have done to his arm. His health and well being do come first with me and knowing what I just read has me feeling ill. I'm visiting your area April 13-16 and I'm hoping I can pick up your training video at the same time. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I hope that you learned that the 'forearm pronation' that the videotape happened to capture your son performing is normal. It is not only normal, it is mandatory, even to be promoted. When pitching coach wannabes teach youngsters to 'supinate' the forearm, wrist, hand and fingers to throw their curves, they are subjecting the youngsters to olecranon process and fossa injury and Ulnar Collateral Ligament rupture. My 'pronation curve' protects these structures and provides for a much higher quality pitch. I am not certain what you want me to do with these pitching instructions, but I will take them one by one and give you my evaluation. 1. 2x4 drills on balance in the mirror: A major cause of injury to the Subscapularis muscle attachment on the inside, front of the shoulder is the 'balance position.' I recommend that pitchers move their pitching arm to driveline height BEFORE they start their body forward. In this position, the pitching arm does not have to try to catch up with the body. 2. Hand break that will bring the ball out of the glove with the fingers on top of the baseball: A major cause of late forearm turnover that leads to pitchers making a 'looping' motion behind their head that leads to forearm flyout is starting the baseball out of the glove with the fingers on top of the baseball. I recommend that pitchers start the pendulum swing of their entire pitching arm with their forearm 'supinated.' This means that their thumb points away from their body. 3. Then downward and back toward second base: I recommend that pitchers 'pendulum swing' their entire pitching arm with their forearm pointing downward and backward toward second base. I designed this action to prevent pitchers from taking their pitching arm laterally behind their body. 4. Up to the "high cock" position (elbow at shoulder height and arm forming an "L" position): A major cause of injury to the Supraspinatus muscle on the top of the shoulder is 'reverse forearm bounce' that the 'high cock' position creates. I recommend that pitchers 'pendulum swing' their pitching arm downward, backward and upward to driveline height such that, from the side view, their forearm is forty-five degrees behind vertical. I call this, the 'ready' position. Immediately after pitchers reach the 'ready' position, they start the olecranon process on the tip of their pitching upper arm forward. Therefore, to prevent 'reverse forearm bounce', I recommend that pitchers 'lock' their forearm with their upper arm and I recommend that pitchers 'roll their forearm inward.' This action maximizes the length of their pronation range of motion and minimizes the shoulder joint inward rotation action. 5. With the palm of his throwing hand facing toward the second base position) at landing (of the front foot): Another major cause of late forearm turnover that leads to pitchers making a 'looping' motion behind their head that leads to forearm flyout is having the palm of the pitching hand face second base immediately before the upper arm starts forward. I recommend that pitchers have the palm of their pitching hand face away from their body. Until the growth plate of their medial epicondyle fully matures, I recommend that youth pitchers do not pitch or train to pitch for more than two months per year, do not pitch against opposing batters in game situations until they are thirteen years old and do not pitch more than one inning per game twice a week. However, in those two months, they can practice learning my Maxline Pronation Curve, Maxline Fastball, Maxline True Screwball and Torque Fastball releases with my Pickoff Position Leverage throws. I have some concern about the split finger fastball placing too much and unnecessary stress on the muscles of the index finger and inside of his elbow. You and everybody else is welcome to visit my Pitcher Research/Training Center at any time and I can arrange to have my Instructional Videotape available. I have to go get them from my video guy. He is in charge of mailing them. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 159. My daughter has played softball since she was seven years old. Three yrs ago, she was throwing sidearm (a no-no) and heard a pop. Her elbow has caused her pain ever since. The doctor says Ulna collateral ligament strain and wants to perform Tommy John surgery. Yet, it appears that Tommy John is performed for medial collateral ligament strains. Can it be done for either injury? And is it just as successful for either one? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Medial Collateral Ligament of the elbow and Ulnar Collateral Ligament of the elbow are the same ligament. Because the knee also has a Medial Collateral Ligament, to avoid confusion, doctors now call the Medial Collateral Ligament of the elbow, the 'Ulnar Collateral Ligament'. However, 'Tommy John' surgery typically replaces a ruptured Ulnar Collateral Ligament, not just a strained UCL. You did not tell me your daughter's present age. Also, if she suffered this injury three years ago and she has continued to throw softballs, even with pain, that does not indicate a rupture to me, maybe an incomplete tear, but not a rupture. If she is looking to seriously play softball for years to come and her growth plates have completely matured, then she should have the surgery. It is a good surgery that is usually very successful. However, after she heals, she needs a quality rehabilitation program that strengthens her throwing arm and teaches her how to correctly apply force. Contact me when she is ready. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 160. My daughter just turned seventeen. The injury occurred when she was fourteen years old, but it is not ruptured. I believe it is a torn ligament. Does that type of injury, which does not seem to want to heal completely, constitute this type of surgery rather than a rupture? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At biological sixteen years old, the growth plate for the medial epicondyle completely matures in males. At biological nineteen years old, the growth plates for the shoulder completely mature in males. On average, females mature two years earlier than males. Therefore, unless your daughter is a delayed maturer, I expect all growth plate to have completely matured. Therefore, I can set that concern aside. When athletes tear their Ulnar Collateral Ligament, it may heal, but is will always be stretched. Stretched UCLs do not provide a solid foundation from which to throw. Therefore, when the growth plates of youngsters have matured and they have UCLs that do not heal or are even severely stretched, I recommend the UCL replacement surgery, commonly known as 'Tommy John' surgery. However, I remind you that she will need a quality rehabilitation program that not only strengthens the throwing arm, but also teaches her how to correctly apply force. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 161. Last year, at the age nine, my son played his very first year of baseball. He pitched the regular season and pitched for two different All-Star teams becoming the most feared pitcher in our area. He has an incredibly strong arm, but toward the end of the second All-star tournament I could definitely see a decline in his speed and he complained of minor pain. I have since learned of the harmful effects of Little League pitching and have decided not to pitch (or catch) him at all this year. The Little League coach has decided to abide by our wishes but feels we are over-reacting. The fact that he is not pitching has spread through our community like wildfire and everyone is wondering why I won’t let him pitch mildly, even just 1 inning a week as the coach suggested. I really don’t want him to pitch until he’s 16, maybe “mildly” at 14. My questions are: 1) Do you thinks I am over-reacting? 2) Could the reason he was so strong his first year pitching be due to the fact that he had never pitched before then? And 3) Have there been many cases of Little League injury with pitcher’s throwing under 40 pitches a week? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you have had time to read my responses to similar questions or watched my Instructional Videotape, then you would know that I do not think that you are over-reacting. I think that you are acting as a responsible parent in the best interest of your son. You are doing the right thing. At nine years old, the growth plates in your son's pitching arm are wide open. Two critical ossification centers, the olecranon process and lateral epicondyle, have not even appeared yet. He threw hard until the started to irritate these cartilaginous growth plates. If he continues to pitch, he will cause these growth plates to prematurely close, thus permanently shortening their length, or worse. The number of pitches per week is not the way to determine how much stress immature growth plates can withstand before they suffer irreparable, permanent damage. There is simply no way of knowing. I recommend that, until the growth plate of their medial epicondyle completely matures, youngster do not train or pitch for more than two months per year, that they do not pitch in games against opposing batters from the windup or set position until they are biologically thirteen years old and do not pitch more than one inning per game twice a week. When they are biologically sixteen years old, the growth plate of their medial epicondyle completely matures. I am trying to conduce a national study. I invite parents of youth pitchers to get X-rays of both arms from mid-forearm to mid-upper arm from the anterior/posterior and lateral views within one week of their birthdays and send copies to me. I will read them and tell you your son's biological age and whether the growth plates in his pitching elbow differ from the growth plates in his non-pitching arm. Together, we can keep his pitching arm safe and make certain that he has a chance to become the best adult pitcher that he can be. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 162. You have said the prior to the growth plates maturing, kids should not perform the "wrist weight" exercises. Could you explain what those are? Therapists have said my son should use a 3-lb weight, hold his forearm flat to a table and raise his wrist and curl his wrist for several reps. Another exercise is the wrist roll contraption that has a weight attached to a strap that you roll up and roll down. Are these "bad" exercises? Are there any exercises he should be doing in the next year or so while he is not throwing? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My Wrist Weight exercises are very intense and apply considerable stress to the pitching arm. For adults with mature growth plates, they are perfect for strengthening the pitching arm to perform repetitive, powerful pitching motions. However, for youngsters with immature growth plates, they will over-stress and prematurely close those growth plates. The wrist curl exercise that you describe trains the muscles the flex the wrist. These are the muscles that attach to the medial epicondyle. This exercise will stress the growth plate of the medial epicondyle. However, with only three pounds and no high-speed movement, such as with pitching, I doubt that it will cause any harm and may strengthen those muscles somewhat. Nevertheless, I do not believe that it is worth the risk. And, it certainly has nothing to do with his injury to the head of his radius. The wrist roller exercise is similar in that it trains the muscles the flex the wrist and fingers, the muscles the extend the wrist and fingers, but, more than either of them, it trains the muscles that abduct the humerus bone to horizontal. Again, without any high-speed movement, I doubt that will cause any harm and may strengthen these muscles somewhat. Nevertheless, I do not believe that it is worth the risk. And, it certainly has nothing to do with his injury to the head of his radius. I would not spend any of my money on this rehabilitation program. Have your son rake the yard, dig a hole, sweep the floors and so on. He will get as much, if not more, out of it and it won't cost you money. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 163. There's a good story in USA Today "Sports Weekly", in the issue on the newsstands this week (dated April 9-15). In the story titled "SPECIAL REPORT: Are youth leagues hurting pitchers' arms?" the reporter presents ASMI's information on pitch counts, curveballs, growth plates, and other factors. I thought you might be interested in finding this article. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for the heads up. If I may, I would like to take a moment to give you my thoughts on youth pitching. In Chapter Seven of my Coaching Pitchers book, I discuss the biological appearance and closure ages for all the ossification centers and their growth plates in the pitching arm. 1. The ossification center for the olecranon process does not appear until pubescent males are biologically eleven years old. 2. The ossification center for the lateral epicondyle does not appear until pubescent males are biologically twelve years old. 3. At thirteen biological years old, the growth plates for the trochlear and capitular ossification centers at the distal end of the humerus mature. 4. At fourteen biological years old, the growth plate for the lateral epicondyle matures. 5. At fifteen biological years old, the growth plate for the olecranon process appears. 6. At sixteen biological years old, the growth plates for the medial epicondyle and radial head matures. 7. The growth plates for the distal radius, distal ulna, greater tuberosity and humeral head do not mature until nineteen biological years old. During the deceleration phase of the pitching motion, the radius bone moves away from the capitular end of the humerus. At the end of the deceleration phase of the pitching motion, the radius bone rebounds back and collides with the capitular end of the humerus. I have no idea how many times this has to happen before the radial head starts to inappropriately enlarge. During the acceleration phase of the pitching motion, the pronator teres, flexor carpi radialis, palmaris longus, flexor carpi ulnaris and a portion of the flexor digitorum superficialis severely pull on the ossification center of the medial epicondyle, which attaches to the shaft of the humerus via a growth plate. I have no idea how many times this has to happen before the ossification center of the medial epicondyle begins to prematurely close or pulls away from the humerus or fractures or whatever, but it happens thousands of times every youth baseball season. To throw a curve, the 'traditional' pitching motion teaches pitchers to 'supinate' the forearm, wrist, hand and fingers. I know that when pitchers of any age 'supinate' their wrist to release any pitch, during the deceleration phase, their olecranon process will collide with its olecranon fossa. I have no idea how many times this has to happen before the olecranon process starts to inappropriately enlarge, prematurely close, fracture or whatever and/or before the hyaline cartilage of the olecranon fossa calcifies or whatever. In my doctoral dissertation, I found that 6.5% of chronological fourteen year old males were biologically twelve years old and 22.9% were biologically thirteen years old. Adolescent males mature at different rates. One rule does not fit all. The worse part of this entire discussion is that everybody, including myselfe is guessing. I have not done a research study of this problem. You have not done a research study of this problem. Neither of us can say with any scientific certainty, how many pitches it takes to permanently alter the pitching arm of youth pitchers. In Chapter Nine of my Coaching Pitchers book, I provide the research of Dr. Joel Adams, who conducted the only study that approaches scientific certainty and he found that 95% of the youth pitchers in his study permanently deformed their pitching arm. Until the growth plate of their medial epicondyle matures, I recommend that youth pitchers do not throw from the set position or windup for more than two months per year, do not pitch against opposing batters in competitive games until they are thirteen years old and do not pitch more than one inning per game twice a week. Yet, I do not know that this might still permanently deform their pitching arms. Because I know that you have no idea what will happen to the youth pitchers who do what you say, I have not and will not read what you recommend. I am trying to initiate a study of the growth and development of the pitching arms of youth pitchers. I am asking parents of pubescent and adolecent pitchers to take X-rays of both of their son's arms within one week of their birthdays from mid-forearm to mid-upper arm for the anterior/posterior and lateral views. I will examine these X-rays and tell them their son's biological age and whether I can see any evidence of the growth plates in their pitching arms maturing any differently than the growth plates in their non-pitching arm. Together, maybe we can eliminate growth plate injuries and help their son's reach adulthood with non-deformed pitching arms. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 164. I have read your information, many articles and you may have just saved my son's arm for the majors. You see he is a ten year old lefty with a great fastball and good location. We had a pitching instructor help him and he really emphasized arm health, then he discovered your web site and told me about it. We want my son to continue baseball until old enough to come to your school. You have a REAL pitching college. I know with your help, he will become a Cy winner. We are not quite sure how to tell his AAU and PONY coaches or him that there will be no more pitching. My son LOVES to pitch more than anything on earth. Do you have any suggestions that will help us explain this in a way he will comprehend? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You are his parents. You decide what is best for him. You do not have to explain yourself to anybody, but your son. I have all the arguments in my Coaching Pitchers book and in my Instructional Videotape. My Instructional Videotape provides pictures. I have repeatedly argued this matter in my Question/Answer sections, including just today. Please read my update next Monday. I am but an email away. Together, we will make certain that your son has a non-deformed adult pitching arm with which he can find out whether he can pitch at the highest level. I invite you to join my research study. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 165. I saw in the Q&A 2003 your reply to an anxious father whose young boy developed a sore shoulder after pitching in a tournament, entries 138, 141 and 143. My son, a Little League pitcher, has developed shoulder pain that was diagnosed by the family doctor as a possible rotator cuff strain. He has recommended physical therapy no overhand throwing for two weeks, continued ice and anti-inflammatory medication and referred us to physical therapy three times a week for two weeks, and then he'll be re-evaluated. To me, that seems very minimal. I intend to keep my son from pitching for the rest of the season. Like the other father, I have some guilt about my son's injury. If I can get the doctor to agree to have the X-rays developed, I'd like to participate in the new analysis you are beginning on youth pitching arms. I will admit I am reluctant to adopt some of your suggestions, but it is difficult to argue with science. So while I cannot yet consider myself a disciple of your work, you definitely have my interest. Also, like you I have issues with the Little League organization. If Little League abides by the mantra that it's "for the kids," perhaps they will help your research by listing a link to your Web site on their home page. Then again, knowing the Little League mentality, I doubt they would ever agree to anything that would threaten their control of the sport. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you for wanting to participate in my research study of the effects of pitching on the adolescent pitching arm. We will also learn allot about maturation rates and parents will sleep better knowing the annual status of their son's growth plates. In and of itself, this study should save many pitching arms. However, I am not including the shoulder growth plates in this study. The growth plates for the greater tuberosity and humeral head do not mature until youth pitchers are biologically nineteen years old. And, if you read Dr. Adams' article on the shoulder (Chapter Nine of my Coaching Pitchers book), you will learn that he did not find that injuries to the shoulder growth plates had the same long term effects as injuries to the growth plates in the elbow. If the discomfort that your son experienced is in the front portion of the shoulder, then he has irritated the attachment of the Subscapularis muscle to the lesser tuberosity. This means that he is taking the baseball way too far laterally behind his body. He needs to learn to take the baseball only back toward second base. If the discomfort that your son experiences is on the top portion of the shoulder, then he has irritated the attachment of the Supraspinatus muscle to the humeral head. This means that he points his elbow vertically upward just before he starts his elbow forward. He needs to learn to have his forearm at forty-five degrees behind vertical as seen for the side view and 'lock' his forearm with his upper arm when he starts his forearm forward. I call this, 'reverse forearm bounce.' It comes from the 'high guard position' technique. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 166. You are correct, according to her doctors, her growth plates have matured. I looked again and they have diagnosed her injury as a UCL strain and the doctor seems sure that this is the proper treatment for her injury. He also emphasized the rehab program post-op. My daughter is a little reluctant, claiming that she is not a pitcher, but a catcher, shortstop and third-baseman. I have assured her that she does not have to be a pitcher to have gained this type of injury, that it's just it's more common in pitchers. However, she is anxious to be pain free, so she is slowly warming up to the idea. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is common for baseball pitchers. It occurs because they 'supinate' their release, that is, they turn their thumb to point upward and permit their forearm to flyout away from their body. To prevent this injury, all players have to do is 'pronate' their release, that is, turn their thumb to point downward after release. The surgeon drills holes in the medial epicondyle and the proximal end of the Ulna bone. He takes the tendon of the Palmaris Longus muscle from the non-throwing arm and threads it through these holes and secures the ends. After the holes in the bones grow closed around the new tissue, she will have a brand new UCL, better than the original. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 167. Where will your writing on the new torque be found, in the emails or in a chapter of the book? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have not had time to edit my book yet. So, here goes in an email. As usual, the answer was right under my nose. I simply had to keep listening to Sir Isaac Newton and my research finding of the importance of forearm pronation. With two adjustments, the torque fastball release is the same as the maxline fastball release. First, the torque pickoff position differs from the maxline pickoff position. And second, whereas, for the maxline fastball, pitchers start with their index and middle fingers at forty-five degrees from vertical and powerfully pronate their forearm to get these fingers to vertical at release, for the torque fastball, pitchers start with their index and middle fingers horizontal and powerfully pronate their forearm, but with no concern for getting these fingers vertical. Actually, they should try to keep them horizontal throughout the driveline and release. My new torque pickoff position has pitchers standing with both feet on the pitching rubber facing home plate. Then, I want them to take their glove-side foot and place it the length of their foot ahead of the pitching rubber. Now, pitchers assume the 'leverage' position with the elbow maximally flexed and the baseball near their ear. Next, I want the pitchers to point the baseball at home plate. To start the exercise, pitchers bring the baseball back near their ear and on straight back toward second base until they have to lift their pitching arm-side foot off the ground. From this preparation position, I want pitchers to step straight forward with the pitching arm-side foot and drive the baseball straight forward with their index and middle fingers remaining horizontally pointing toward their head past their ear toward home plate with a powerful forearm pronation finish that leaves their elbow and forearm at shoulder height with minimal forward rotation of their shoulders. I know that this defies 'common sense logic', but give it a try and see what happens. Pitchers should start easy and increase their intensity when they realize that when they powerfully pronate their forearm, wrist, hand and fingers through release, they will not slam their olecranon process into its fossa. Needless to say, they need to stand tall and keep their shoulders level. However, I do not want them to forwardly rotate their shoulders until after they release the pitch. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 168. I'm going to need some time with your explanation of how to throw your torque fastball. After two read throughs, I remain confused. Count me in with X-rays of my son's arms within one week of his birthday. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The difficulty that you are having with the torque fastball technique is 'common sense logic.' I have explained the when the upper arm circles outward, it generates a centripetal force that causes the forearm to flyout. I have also explained that, to counter this centripetal force, I want pitchers to drive the baseball straight toward home plate with a powerful pronation action. I have recommended that pitchers keep the longitudinal axis of the upper arm (humerus bone) ahead of their acromial line. I have recommended that pitchers reverse rotate their acromial line only to where it points toward the glove-side hitter or home plate. I have done all this to minimize the force of the upper arm circle out that generates centripetal force that leads to forearm flyout. To maximize the elbow extension range of motion, I want pitchers to bend their elbow to place their forearm tightly against their upper arm. To maximize the forearm pronation range of motion, between my 'ready' position and my 'leverage position,' I want pitchers to 'roll their forearm inwardly,' which is a 'supination' action. Theoretically, this should be a maximal supination. However, while it would help them learn my maxline pronation curve, it would interfere with youngsters learning the proper releases for my maxline fastball, maxline true screwball and torque fastball. So, I only say, 'roll their forearm inwardly.' All of the preceding is precisely what I want pitchers to try to do with every bit of strength that they can muster. I want them to feel as though they are driving their forearm straight toward home plate with their forearm horizontal and the baseball brushing close to their ear. My guys will swear to you that they do just that. They are positive that their forearm is horizontally inside of vertical. They would say that, relative to the longitudinal axis of their upper arm (humerus bone), they have their elbow bent at one hundred and thirty-five degrees with their forearm laying right on top of their upper arm. As you have seen, these a powerful, well-trained young men. They throw twenty-five pound wrist weights. They throw twelve pound iron balls. Without any difficulty, they forearm pronation snap eight pound iron balls in my pickoff position leverage throws ninety-six times every day. Surely, they can drive their forearm straight toward home plate horizontally inside of vertical. They cannot. The centripetal force remains much stronger than they can completely overcome. The very best that I have on five hundred frames per second film is forty degrees above the longitudinal axis of the upper arm. I have thought of everything that I can to minimize the effect of the centripetal force that forward shoulder rotation generates. At this point in my research, the best I can get from my strongest guys is forty degrees. That means that, to get their forearm vertical at release, they have to lean fifty degrees to their glove side. I know, I tell them to keep their shoulders level and rotate. They try, but to get their forearm vertical to impart horizontal spin axes to my maxline pronation curve and maxline true screwball, they still have to lean to their glove-side at least fifty degrees. On the plus side, imagine what the 'traditional' pitchers do. They are much, much worse. In fact, most 'traditional' pitchers cannot get the longitudinal axis of their forearm above the longitudinal axis of their upper arm at all. Pronation is the key. Even with only ten degrees, my pitchers avoid the injuries that the 'traditional' pitching motion causes. The point is, humans see at only thirty frames per second. When I see at five hundred frames per second high-speed film, then I understand what is really going on. In conclusion, please have your son try to do what I recommend that he does. It does not make 'common sense' because you have not seen the pitching arm action at five hundred frames per second. I have. I am very pleased that you are joining my Research Study Club. By carefully monitoring the growth and development of your son's pitching arm, you will make certain that he has a non-deformed pitching arm as a high school junior when it counts. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 169. Do you recommend not "stretching" muscles at all because they increase myofibrils! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Myofibrils are the contractile organelles within muscle fibers. They are finite length tissue. Their sarcoplasmic reticulum attach to the endomysium connective tissue that surrounds every muscle fiber. Myofibrils do not stretch. However, they will tear. Therefore, I do not recommend stretching. To prepare the pitching muscles for my pitch-specific wrist weight exercises, I recommend my pronated swings and three-movement deltoid exercises. To prepare the pitching muscles for my pitch-specific iron ball exercises, I recommend my bucket twirls and middle fingertip spins. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 170. First, you have made me feel a lot better about my son's progress in learning your motion. I see the circle out that you talk about and I get nervous that he is doing something wrong. Now I know that he is probably not. Next, my problem with your explanation is much more basic. You gripped the baseball the same way in the video I shot of you throwing the two fastballs in November. In your new Torque explanation, you have maxline fingers 45 degrees from vertical and torque fingers horizontal. I do not understand. The fingers are vertical or horizontal in relation to what? If my fingers are horizontal on the ball, isn't that the curve ball grip? "Next, I want the pitchers to point the baseball at home plate." They do this with the ball still near their ear, correct? They are simply pronating the wrist a few degrees, correct? "To start the exercise, pitchers bring the baseball back near their ear and on straight back toward second base until they have to lift their pitching arm-side foot off the ground." From the "pointed at home plate, leverage position, the baseball is moved straight back, i.e. the forearm is straightened? Or does the forearm stay locked in the leverage position? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If your son is trying to keep his forearm horizontally inside of vertical, then he is doing the best that he can. If he is pronating as powerfully as he can through release, then he will not slam his olecranon process into its fossa. For their maxline and torque fastballs, pitchers grip the baseball across one of the four seams. I ask them to turn the open end of the horseshoe to point toward the side of home plate toward which they want the baseball to move. With my maxline fastball, pitchers place the tip of the middle finger directly on the stripe and release the pitch off the tip of only their middle finger. With my torque fastball, pitchers place the tips of their index and middle fingers on either side of the stripe and release the pitch of the tips of both fingers equally. I do recommend that, with my maxline fastball, pitchers ulnar flex their wrist forty-five degrees such that their fingers are forty-five degrees above horizontal beside their ear. With my torque fastball, pitchers should leave their wrist straight such that their fingers are horizontal beside their ear. For my pickoff position leverage throws, I want pitchers to point the baseball toward home plate, then bring their pitching arm straight back to their ear where their tightly bent elbow has the baseball almost touch their ear, then continue the baseball straight back as far as they can while they raise their front foot off the ground and raise their front arm to point at home plate. When they have moved the baseball straight back as far as they can, then I want them to drive the baseball straight forward along the same path. During the early weeks of this training, I do not want pitchers to reverse rotate their acromial line at all. After pitchers learn how to keep their elbow and forearm at shoulder height throughout the forearm acceleration phase, the release and the deceleration phase, then I want them to reverse rotate their shoulders until the longitudinal axis of their upper arm (humerus bone) is parallel to the driveline toward home plate. Then, from this new starting position, I want pitchers to again drive the baseball straight forward along the same path. The forearm should remain horizontal throughout the drawback phase of both of these techniques. Eventually, pitchers will be able to have their forearm pointing toward second base. However, this does not mean that pitchers have outwardly rotated their upper arm to achieve this position. Instead, pitchers have extended their pronation range of motion to achieve this position. In this way, pitchers do not inappropriately stress the attachments of the muscles that outwardly and inwardly rotate the head of the humerus, the so-called rotator cuff muscles. Therefore, with my new horizontal forearm technique, pitchers increase the distance over which they can apply force to their pitches without stressing the 'rotator cuff' muscles at all. This is the major finding that I have made over the past year. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 171. Thank you much for allowing my wife, son and me to spend some time at your pitching complex last week. There's nothing like seeing your pitchers in action to convince a boy that your way works. My wife and son were quite impressed. We look forward to your new video and also plan on joining your X-ray study. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We enjoy showing off. Thanks for joining my Research Study Club. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 172. I have a 13 year-old son who is pitching on the Freshman High School level. It is early in the season and he started complaining about soreness in his bicep area. I have asked him if he was sure where the soreness was and he said yes and pointed to the bicep area. He recently started a light lifting program and I was wondering if this combined with the throwing could be the cause of muscle pain. Since the soreness is not in the shoulder or elbow area, should we be concerned at this point? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This means that he has severe forearm flyout. He is trying to prevent his olecranon process from colliding with its fossa. The weight lifting program could be making the problem worse. Because we cannot get a non-obstructed X-ray of the coronoid process of the Ulna bone, I do not know the appearance date of the ossification center for the coronoid process of the ulna bone. But, he could also be having growth plate discomfort. At thirteen years old, every growth plate in his pitching elbow is wide open, he is susceptible to numerous growth plate injuries. If he started Kindergarten at five years old, shouldn't he be fifteen years old in the ninth grade? He is too young to start this level of baseball pitching competition. You might want to join my Research Study Club. For details, please click on the Research Study icon on my Home Page. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 173. My son recently expressed a real interest in pitching and I want to start him out correctly. He has pitched a little for every team he has played for since the age of 8 (except for high school), but mainly he has been at SS and 3B. He is now a high school junior, 6' 2'' 155 lbs. (string bean) player, who has put on 8 " and 50 lbs. in the past two years. He has struggled with retaining his coordination throughout this transition, mainly with his size 13 feet. Still, he was coordinated enough to rank as one of the top ten infielders in our area. He is late maturing and I still worry because he has very little hair under his arms or on the rest of his body for that matter. An endocrinologist we took him to see several years ago said he was 2 years late in development based on x-rays they did of his hands and wrists. We were assured on a recent revisit that all was ok. Anyway, at the showcase I mentioned, Brad decided to also participate as a pitcher. He did rather well based on the comments he received from the scouts and coaches. He has three pitches that he throws: Fast Ball, Circle Change and 2-8 Curve Ball. This is stuff he has just picked up, no formal training from anyone including his team coaches. He throws 82 avg. for his fast ball from the mound but he also throws 82 avg. across the infield, so I know he is not getting it all off the mound. I feel that if he used the proper pitching mechanics he should be able to get much more velocity off the mound than off of flat ground. Do you agree? How would you suggest we proceed with getting the right start on developing his pitching skills? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- He does sound like a diamond in the rough. I offer an eight-week summer session for high school juniors and seniors. Otherwise, he and you can read and copy my Coaching Pitchers book for free off my web site and learn how he should properly apply force to and release his pitches from my book. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 174. My son (just turning 14) is nearly ambidextrous. He probably favors his left somewhat in most activities. That said, he plays SS, 3B and catcher all right-handed and his throwing speed is well above average. Because he likes the infield, he has not thrown very much left-handed, so that particular arm is nearly "virgin" territory. His motion does seem a bit more "natural" on that side. (With a football, he can throw a nice spiral with either arm.) I have tried to keep him out of pitching since reading your materials, but according to the orthopedic, he pulled the growth plate off the inside of his right elbow at some point, which has re-attached. The orthopedic has since OK'd him pitching, which I am still trying to discourage. He matured rather early (dark black hair all the way up his stomach and starting in the center of his chest), is about 5'8" 155lbs. The doctors project 6'2". (His hands and size 12 feet are bigger than mine and I'm 6'2".) It would seem he is not done growing. He and I are interested in developing his left arm for pitching (and potential injury back-up). What, if anything, at this present age, would you recommend he do to train the "virgin" left arm? Should we begin now with your 60 day adolescent schedule? Or is this even the proper time to begin any training? At what point would you recommend moving to higher stress training? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The first skill that youth pitchers must learn is how to use their pitching arm to properly apply force to and release the basic pitches; my maxline fastball, maxline true screwball, maxline pronation curve and torque fastball. To accomplish this, I recommend that youth pitchers at whatever age practice my pickoff position leverage throws. I am in the process of updating my Coaching Pitchers book to reflect what I have learned and am currently doing with my research/training kids. Please give me a couple of weeks to edit my new Chapters Thirty-Six and Thirty-Seven. Keep in touch. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 175. I have a son pitching in the minor leagues and since he began pitching back in high school, he always put ice on his elbow and shoulder. The organization he is with does not do this. I'm not sure what their method is for them to do after they pitch, but I'm interested to know in your opinion what is the proper thing to do. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When pitchers put ice on the elbow and shoulder after they pitch, they increase the blood flow to those areas. This helps resupply nutrients and remove waste products. These are good things and I have absolutely nothing against it. Nevertheless, I never put ice on my pitching arm after I pitched. I trained to increase the vascularization to my pitching muscles such that I resupplied the nutrients and removed waste products without an artificial aid. However, if you son puts ice on his pitching arm because he is experiencing discomfort, then he needs to evaluate how he applies force to his pitches and how he trains. Properly trained pitchers with proper force application techniques do not need ice and they can pitch every day without fatigue or discomfort. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 176. I am 19 year old and I am in my freshman year of college. I was born without one of the ligaments in my shoulder and was having problems with pain in my shoulder my junior year of high school. I was a pitcher and I messed up my mechanics to find a comfortable arm slot for my shoulder. In doing this I ended up hurting my elbow. I will try to be as specific as I can in describing it. The pain is on the inside of my forearm, right around my elbow joint. It does not hurt me at all when bringing my arm back just when from where it gets parallel with my body on through. Basically, when I snap my wrist down to put pop on my fast ball. I can squeeze what feels like where the ligament meets the elbow and just about put myself to my knees. When I am throwing there is a real sharp pain and that runs from my elbow to my fingers and then its over no lingering pain. It also does this when I am swinging. When I turn on an inside pitch and roll my wrist over. Hitting opposite field does not bother it but when I roll my wrist over that's when the pain occurs. I had X-rays on my elbow and MRIs done when my elbow first started bothering my junior year in high school. The results were the ligament was inflamed and I also had a piece of cartilage floating around in my elbow. Nothing was torn and the X-rays showed no sign of growth plate separation. Since I had the rotator cuff surgery my shoulder is fine and everything was off to a good start but recently my elbow has started to bother me again with the same pain as before. I also believe that if the elbow was just inflamed or it was the growth plate the time off I had during surgery should have healed it. I am wondering if that cartilage could have hardened to the point where it is rubbing the ligament? Possible a bone chip? It is not a everyday pain some days I can throw fine and throw 89-91 mph and other days I can barley throw the ball at all it hurts so bad. Any Ideas? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pain on the inside of the elbow indicates the medial epicondyle area. Pain when you make a strong fist indicates the medial epicondyle area. Did you have that piece of floating cartilage removed? If it lodges between the ulna and humerus bones in the elbow joint, then you could irritate the hyaline cartilage and create intermittent pain. Otherwise, if you have strained the Ulnar Collateral Ligament or the muscles that attach to the medial epicondyle, then you would experience continuous pain. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 177. We have been through your tape about a million times. I learn something new every time I see it. Looking forward to the new version. My older son has been working hard incorporating the techniques. He is a fairly well developed kid, has worked out for a long time, but he cannot get through an entire workout yet. I still have thoughts about the leg drive and height of the pitcher at release. It still seems to me that, all other things being equal, a lower release point, through dropping and driving, would give a more advantageous ball travel angle, making any pitch harder to hit. Thinking about force application, whereby for whatever force you want to go the plate, an equal force must go to second base. I thought maybe a 'sprinters start' type of drive might be best. My eldest son has been dropping and driving for a long time, and was having trouble with the straight up delivery. So I suggested he try to drop a little and sprint off the mound, back foot then front foot and sync the forearm snap with the front foot drive, as you say. Well, he threw the hell out of the ball, with great control and movement. We did not have the radar gun, as you suggested, but he surely had more pop on his pitches than he ever has. The sprinters start is not a true drop and drive delivery, but it is not straight up either. Maybe it is simply the description that got it across to my son. What do you think of this description as far as what you are looking for? Too low? He has really gotten the arm pronation down, and has more movement on his fast balls and sinker than he ever has. It seems impossible, but some of his sinkers seem to break two feet in with a great sharp drop, fastballs a foot in. He is a left hander, and has always had trouble pitching to left handers. Never a problem against right handers. I think his improved fastball and sinker will really help him out against the left handers. His top pitch has always been his slider. Well now, after getting pretty good with pronating when throwing a slider, it makes his old slider look flat. He has always been able to throw a good slider on 3-1. Now he can still throw a slider on 3-1, but it has a much more wicked break. It also does not bother his elbow AT ALL! In fact, since starting the exercises and changing mechanics, he has had no arm trouble whatsoever. His curve has always been really good, but now it is better. He is also working on the screwball. Thanks for all you do. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is fun to talk with people who are thinking and incorporating my ideas. I agree with much that you say. However, lowering the release point is not one of them. How much pitchers should lower their center of mass to drive off the pitching rubber is the question. In their first step forward, I do not believe that pitchers require a great deal of force. Therefore, I recommend that pitchers simple walk off the pitching rubber. That does not require a drop and drive rear leg action that significantly lowers the center of mass and, as a result, the height that pitchers release their pitches. I also believe that pitchers drive their pitches straightforward on a line that is perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of their body. The only thing that separates five foot eight inch tall pitchers like me from six foot eight inch tall pitchers is the degree of forward lean in the rotational axis of their body, not how much they lowered their center of mass with the drop and drive rear leg action. I want all pitchers to release their pitchers as high as they can without leaning to their glove-side at a downward angle toward the top of the strike zone. In this way, my four seam maxline and torque fastballs cross home plate at the top height of the strike zone, my two seam maxline fastball sinkers and torque fastball sliders cross home plate in the middle height of the strike zone and my maxline pronation curves and maxline true screwballs cross home plate in the bottom height of the strike zone. Consequently, hitters cannot discern what pitch pitchers have thrown until they recognize the spin on the baseball. Typically, pitchers release their fastballs at lower drivelines than their non-fastballs and they are easy to recognize and time. I agree with the 'sprint start' idea. That is one of the reasons why I have pitchers turn their rear foot to point somewhat toward home plate. However, the concept for ballistic actions such as pitching is uniform acceleration. That means that the velocity linearly increases throughout the force application to reach its maximum at release. Therefore, we cannot have pitchers exploding off the pitching rubber. By contrast, running a marathon is an uniform velocity activity, where after they reach the proper velocity, they have no change in velocity, which means no acceleration. We do not want to spin our wheels at the starting gate. I recommend that we walk forward off the pitching rubber, push and pull our body ahead of our front foot and strongly push back toward second base simultaneous with our forearm acceleration through release. The sinker sounds right. You can correct the flat slider with a slight slice tennis serve lean to the glove-side during the forearm acceleration phase. Remember, pronate, pronate and pronate. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 178. My husband is using your specifications to build my fourteen year old a mound. Is there a picture of your mound? I'm not sure that he is building it correctly. This mound should be fine and doesn't need to be taller does it? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pitching mounds are ten inches higher than home plates. I build a rectangular box, fill it with dirt and cover it with astroturf. This way, I have no maintenance and pitchers can throw shortly after it rains. I have not taken or drawn pictures of my mound, except maybe it shows on my Instructional Videotape. However, it is a good idea and I will include a picture in my next video. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 179. What thoughts or concerns do you have regarding overloading/underloading and the use of weighted baseballs? I would appreciate your comments regarding the advantages/disadvantages of it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You do not tell me that ages of the pitchers. If they have open growth plates, I do not recommend that they throw anything other than baseballs. For adults, I do not see how they can meaningfully underload a five and one-quarter ounce baseball. When I teach hitting, I use underloading with thirty-four ounce baseball bats. But, with baseball pitching, I use six, eight, ten and twelve pound iron balls. The purpose of overloading is to stimulate an osteoblastic response that will strengthen the cortex of the bones as well as the attachments of the tendons and ligaments to the bones. Anything less is a waste of time and probably injurious. The heavier balls force pitchers to use the proper force application techniques. The lighter balls only exacerbate the pitching flaws that they already have. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 180. I'm 17 years old and I don't understand this. I've been keeping my throwing arm elbow as high as I can for as long as I can through my delivery, yet after my best pitches my elbow hurts a little bit. I have pitched excessively lately, about 200 pitches over the last few day. Also, afterwards my fingers feel tingly, but my elbow no longer stings when I put stress on it like it did last year. Wat's wrong? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I assume that when you say 'my elbow hurts a little bit,' you are referring to the inside of your elbow, the medial epicondyle area. If so, your problem relates to 'forearm flyout,' not whether you keep your elbow high. I assume that when you say, 'afterwards, my fingers feel tingly,' you are referring to your little finger and the lateral one-half of your ring finger. This is your Ulnar Nerve that runs in the groove behind your medial epicondyle. If so, your problem relates to 'supinating' your forearm, rather than 'pronating' your forearm. The first thing that you have to do it stop taking the 'longitudinal axis' of the upper arm (humerus bone) of your pitching arm behind your body. You should keep this 'longitudinal axis' parallel with your driveline toward home plate. While this correction will not eliminate your 'forearm flyout' entirely, it will give you a fighting chance. To overcome the centripetal force that you generate when you forwardly rotate the 'longitudinal axis' of the upper arm, you must learn to powerfully 'pronate' your pitching arm. I recommend that pitchers try to drive their forearm straight toward home plate with their forearm pointing horizontally inside of vertical. I am in the process of updating my Coaching Pitchers book. Give me a few days to rewrite my new Chapters Thirty-Six and Thirty-Seven. Then, when you see in my Recent Updates file that I have rewritten them, read them carefully and get back with me on what you do not understand. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 181. Thank you very much for letting me come and see your camp. I had a great time and learned something also. I am glad I finally got to see the camp my dad talks about it a lot. Hopefully someday I may attend the camp myself. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is always nice to have a youth pitcher visit. I hope that you gained a perspective of what it takes to become the best pitcher that you can be. But, more importantly, I hope that you understand that excessive youth pitching can destroy your pitching arm before you get a chance to see how good you can be. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 182. As part of my Discussion Group. I've been to your camp, I have your video and I think the more people hear about, read about and have access to the information you provide, the better able we will all be as coaches, parents and trainers to protect our children from injuries from overuse in pitching. I understand if you individually do not want to join the discussion(s), but I definitely want your information out there. Our goal is to teach athletes how to maximize athletic performance, avoid injury and reach or surpass their goals in sports through the use of effective strength and conditioning programs tailored to the individual athlete. Hopefully we can promote some constructive dialogue among players and coaches interested in baseball and strength and conditioning. I look forward to discussing and disseminating what will be information useful to anyone interested in improving performance on the baseball and softball field through intelligent training. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My goal is to eliminate pitching arm injuries at all ages. I appreciate any help anybody gives me in my pursuit of this goal. I am always ready to give my advice on what parents, coaches and pitchers can do to prevent pitching arm injuries. You and anybody else in your group are welcome to visit my Pitcher Research/Training Center at any time. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 183. I RUPTURED MY UCL ON SAT 4/5/03. I KNOW THIS BECAUSE I AM A PTA FOR AN ORTHO GROUP. I GOT THE OPINION OF TWO DRS. AND BOTH SAID THAT THEY FELT THAT I COULD FUNCTION JUST FINE WITHOUT SURGERY. THIS OBVIOUSLY MEANT NOT PARTICIPATING IN THROWING SPORTS. MY CONCERN IS THAT I AM EXTREMELY ACTIVE. I DO A GREAT DEAL OF HOME REMODELLING, HEAVY WEIGHT LIFTING, SWIMMING, BIKING, ETC AND I'M NOT SURE WHETHER THIS WILL CAUSE LIMITATIONS THAT I CANNOT DEAL WITH. PLEASE GIVE ME YOU OPINION ON THIS MATTER. I NEED TO BE ABLE TO SPOT MY CLIENTS IN ADDITION I PERFORM A GREAT DEAL OF MANUAL TECHNIQUES. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you ruptured your Ulnar Collateral Ligament, then you do not have a ligament between your Ulna bone and Humerus bone that holds the two bones together. Without muscle action from the five muscles that attach to the medial epicondyle, these bones will move apart when you try to apply downward pressure with your hand with your elbow bent. You must have this repaired. It is a simple, effective surgery. I cannot imagine why any orthopedic surgeon would say that you do not need to fix it. I do not know your age or how you injured your UCL, but I would find an orthopedic surgeon to fix it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 184. I have just found your web page and it puts some fear in my heart. I know some of your advice without asking but will give you some back ground and then get to the advice that I cannot find on your web site. My son has been pitching little league since he was 10, and has had a very strong arm, has not thrown curves (did not even try) until this year, he is now 13. He does not appear as mature as most of the other athletes. He throws a 2 seam, 4 seam, change up, and knuckle. He wins most of his battles with control. When 11 he injured his epicondyle in his elbow. He did not pitch again for about a year. Pitched until this year without any pain in his elbow, in fact even now he has no pain in his elbow. His problem this year began as pain high in the biceps area not on top of the shoulder or in the joint. Of course the coach says pitch through this it is just muscle soreness but it seemed worse. My son LOVES to pitch and I know he would not “wimp” out so we went to the orthopedic surgeon that treated his epicondylitis. Following X-rays and MRI his physician diagnosed stress fracture of the growth plate in the upper arm. Is this injury likely to be from pitching? He also played football and felt pain during bench press. The physician recommended another week of no throwing (for a total of 4 weeks) and begin to throw but to stop with ANY pain. We began throwing last week and today he was long tossing at about 100% with no pain. A very happy boy ready to get back to pitching a week from now. What recovery would you recommend? What kind of long term problems should we expect from this recent injury? From the elbow injury earlier? Any advice? Is it too late? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is not easy to determine his present age, but I guess it is either twelve or thirteen. For biological twelve year old males, the ossification center for the lateral epicondyle appears. At thirteen biological years old, all growth plates are wide open. At this point, he has irreversibly altered the growth pattern for the growth plate for his medial epicondyle and growth plate for his humeral head. He does not appear that he has yet damages the growth plates for his olecranon process and lateral epicondyle. He could try for all four. I recommend that he stop pitching until all the growth plates in his pitching elbow have matured. To monitor this situation, I invite you and your son to join my Research Study Club. Please click on the Research Study icon on my home page. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 185. In regard to your new torque fastball: In your video you say to turn your wrist slightly at release so that the ulna side of the wrist is slightly closer to home plate than the thumb side ( basically the opposite of your maxline release). Are you still teaching this for the torque release? If so, can you describe how the fingers go from horizontal going by the ear to your original torque fastball release? Finally, does the torque fastball still break toward the glove side of home plate? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I was wrong on my Instructional Videotape. I am sorry. However, I always say that my Coaching Pitchers book is a work in progress and so is my Instructional Videotape. I put my latest ideas in my Question/Answer file. It appears that you conscientiously read my comments. So, you are doing your job. I will continue to update everything as soon as I can. I recommend that pitchers never 'supinate' their forearm through release. My former torque fastball release includes some supination action. I was wrong. Now, I want pronation with my torque fastball release. I want pronation with the release of all pitches. To teach the proper releases for all my pitches, I use my pickoff position leverage throws where the acromial line is perpendicular to the driveline. For the torque fastball, my pickoff position starts with both feet on the pitching rubber. Then, pitchers move their glove-side foot one foot length ahead of the pitching rubber. Pitchers bent their pitching elbow tightly against their upper arm and raise their upper arm until their forearm is horizontal and the baseball is near their ear. I use the same grip and release as I show on my Instructional Videotape. I want the fingers horizontally pointing toward the head. To start the throw, I want pitchers to shift their body weight backward to their pitching arm-side leg and reach straight backward with their pitching hand without reverse rotating their shoulders. Then, I want them to step straightforward with their pitching arm-side leg, forwardly rotate their shoulders and drive the baseball straightforward in the same line past their ear. Because the torque fastball is supposed to leave the tips of the index and middle fingers equally, pitchers should attempt to get the baseball to spin with a vertical spin axis such that the stripe is horizontal. As you see, I do not want the fingers to go to what I taught on my Instructional Videotape. As soon as I find time to update my Coaching Pitchers book and take some more high-speed film of my best guys throwing my pitches as close as they can to what I recommend that they do, I will update my Instructional Videotape. The last video took me three hundred hours and six weeks. So, I will need some time. But, I will get it done and, together, we will get you or your son throwing a great torque fastball. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 186. My son is 13 years old. He has been pitching since he was 9. He would be considered one of the better pitchers at his level in this area in Little League. Although his interest is certainly an outgrowth of my passion for the game, he is his own person. I do not have to push him and take great pains not to. He works on his own, and works a great deal on his pitching. He truly loves the game and drives himself to be successful. This year, he has moved up to the real field, at 60’ 6”. I have held off on any formalized instruction because he is not old enough, he has been playing Little League, etc. There is a local instructor. However, it is becoming obvious he has talent at this level as well, and I am rethinking formal instruction. One thing most people say about him is he has good “mechanics”, whatever that means, and who in the hell around here knows what good mechanics is. I do know that he looks like he is not throwing the ball hard in an effortless manner, but umpires and other players say he throws harder than anyone around at his age. He agrees not to throw any breaking stuff involving any elbow movement. He did pick up a pretty good cutter from reading a former major league pitching star's book on his own which involves only a differential in pressure from the middle finger/index finger. Anyway, from reading your materials, I get the impression you do not put much stock in kids who have thrown from such an early age. I have not had his growth plates checked and maybe I should. (He has a pediatrician who has an older son who is a good pitcher at the high school level, so he follows my son’s progress. He would not think I was crazy to check on that issue.) From your study and work, is there much hope for a kid like this moving on to a good high school career, and maybe even a college career? He has pitched since he was 9. What should he be doing now for some longevity? Have you come across any case histories of pitchers who started at this age and went on? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is my belief that youth baseball programs select the best young pitching arms in the country and ruin them. I do not believe that the growth plates in the adolescent pitching arm can withstand long term stress. However, except for a study conducted by Dr. Joel Adams of San Bernadino, CA in the middle 1960's, nobody has conducted any meaningful research. With the cooperation of the parents of youth pitchers, I am trying to get a research study started. I invite you and your son to join. I know that at thirteen biological years old, the growth plates for the medial epicondyle, lateral epicondyle, olecranon process and radial head in the pitching elbow are wide open. I know that too much stress will cause these growth plates to prematurely close or much, much worse. I know that ninety-five percent of the youth pitchers in Dr. Adams' study showed premature close or worse. I know that while winning a youth league program is important to adults, participation and skill development is important to the kids. I know that adolescent males mature at different rates. I know that for a youth team to get to the final eight teams that play in the Little League World series, the majority of their players have to be biologically nearly fifteen years old when they are chronologically nearly thirteen years old. I want the best young pitching arms to reach their junior year in high school without a pitching arm deformed from youth pitching, but with the skills to correctly apply force and impart the proper spin axes to throw the pitches that they will need to become the best that they can be. I place the responsibility on the parents. The problem with throwing curves is the way that 'traditional' pitching coaches teach it. They tell youngsters to 'supinate' their forearm, wrist, hand and fingers. That causes pitchers to 'slam' their olecranon process into its fossa. I teach a 'pronation curve.' It is safe to practice and learn. I also teach a 'true screwball' that requires 'pronation.' I reach two fastball releases, both of which require 'pronation' releases. These are all safe to practice and learn. I recommend that, until the growth plate for their medial epicondyle completely matures, parents do not permit their youth pitchers to pitch more than two months per year, do not pitch competitively until they are thirteen years old and do not pitch more than one inning per game twice a week. The growth plate of the medial epicondyle matures when adolescent males are biologically sixteen years old. I do not know the gentlemen you mentioned as pitching experts. Nevertheless, I do know that they are not. They teach what major league pitching stars do. They have no scientific basis for anything that they teach. They are like those who thought the earth is flat, they pass down myth after myth without looking through a surveyor's transit. If they had, they would have seen the top of the ship's mast as the ship approached shore and realized that the earth is round. My surveyor's transit for baseball pitching is high-speed film, Sir Isaac Newton's three laws of motion and applied anatomy. I know the science. Read my book. You should be your son's pitching coach. If not, you will be respondible for destroying his pitching arm. Please join my Research Study Club and, together, we will make your son the best high school junior pitcher that he can be. P.S. I strongly advise against the 'cut fastball.' To throw that pitch, pitchers have to 'supinate' their forearm, wrist, hand and fingers. As a result, when tired, they are likely to 'slam' their olecranon process into its fossa. They will complain of discomfort above the tip of their elbow (olecranon process). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 187. I have determined that I have practically destroyed my right elbow (throwing elbow). I think I can even think back to the day I did it in little league. Ever since, I have played with a injured elbow. I throw very very hard, but after a little while, my elbow cramps up with pain, especially the inside part of my elbow and decreasing my ability to throw tremendously. I was a catcher/pitcher/outfielder. I used to throw hard a allot as well, which caused the problem. I just have a couple questions. Generally, how much does Tommy John surgery cost, and as a catcher still, how long is a good recovery time. Also, if properly rehabbed, and proper throwing techniques are enforced, will the same injury occur over time or not? One more question, can you refer any surgeons in my area? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have no idea what Ulnar Collateral Ligament replacement surgery costs. From what you have said, 'my elbow cramps up with pain,' does not convince me that you have ruptured your UCL. My 280-Day Adult Pitchers Interval-Training Program greatly reduces the rehabilitation time and, more importantly, teaches pitchers how to properly apply force to their pitches. This surgery is well-known and relatively simple. I am sure that your area has several qualified surgeons. Call them and ask them how many they have done. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 188. You were kind enough to do an interview with for a website recently. We'd really like to have you on our new radio show to discuss both your career and your ideas on pitching. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To eliminate pitching arm injuries, I will talk with anybody at any time. However, I am only minimally interested in discussing my career. I know that my career helps give me a forum and credibility, but I prefer to discuss the end of pitching arm injuries. Unfortunately, major league pitching success also gives others credibility that does not tranfer to the elimination of pitching arm injuries. Therefore, for my credibility, I minimize my reliance on my career. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 189. I saw your video today and I have to say I am very impressed AND I understand much better now. I know you are a very busy man and do not have a lot of time for questions. I really appreciate your help. I sure would like to drop by some time and meet you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I always take time for email questions. Ask away. Everybody is welcome to visit my Pitcher Research/Training Center on the south side of Zephyrhills, FL at 4352 Gall Blvd on Hwy 301. Presently, we will train from 10:00AM to 11:30AM. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 190. I received your order for my Instructional Videotape. I sent an email to my video guy to mail it to you. You can read and copy my Coaching Pitchers book on my web site for free at www.drmikemarshall.com. I am currently doing my annual update, so give me a couple of weeks. Seven year olds should not be pitching competitively at all. I recommend that he waits until he is thirteen years old biologically before he pitches competitively. He should not even practice pitching for more than two months per year until the growth plate for his medial epicondyle completely matures. From thirteen to sixteen biological years old, he should not pitch more than one inning twice a week. I invite you and your son to join my Research Study Club, where we will follow the progress of his growth plate maturation in his pitching elbow. For more information, click on my Research Study icon. Together, we can make certain that your son does not destroy his pitching arm before he has a chance to become the best pitcher he can be. I have a 60-Day Pubescent Pitchers Training Program that youngsters can start at ten biological years old. Until then, there are allot of other activities that he can do. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 191. My son is a 16-year old RHP. He is a junior in high school and is 6'3", 187 lb. He has been pitching since he was 8 years old, but missed the majority of his freshman season with elbow tendonitis. He throws low to mid 80's with his fast ball and has hit 88. This past Saturday, after warming up in the bullpen and feeling great he went to the mound and his first warm-up pitch nearly sailed over the backstop as a loud crack was heard and he crumpled to the ground. X-rays at the ER showed a spiral fracture of the right humerus. The doctor chose the non-surgical route because there is no muscle or soft tissue damage and because his growth plates are still open feels the bone will heal and be stronger than before. He anticipates recovery will be complete and he should be able to return to the mound for his senior season in 2004. Have you had experience with this and if so is this a good timetable estimate? I know this injury ended the career of 4 major leaguers, but I have found two younger pitchers that recovered completely and are pitching again, one in rookie ball and the other for Cincinnati. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your son broke his forearm because the has late 'forearm turnover' and 'reverse forearm bounce.' This means that he takes the baseball out of his glove with his fingers on top of the baseball, that he turns the palm of his pitching hand to face second base and that he points his pitching forearm upward immediately before he starts his pitching elbow toward home plate. The rotational force exceeded what the mid-humerus bone of his pitching upper arm could withstand. All pitching arm injuries result from either improper force application or insufficient training. In his case, because the doctor found open growth plates, his injury resulted from improper force application. I say that because youth pitchers with open growth plates in their elbow should not use overload training methods to strengthen their skeletal structure. Did the doctor tell you which growth plates were still open? At fourteen biological years old, the growth plate for the lateral epicondyle of the elbow completely matures. At fifteen biological years old, the growth plate for the olecranon process of the elbow completely matures. At sixteen biological years old, the growth plate for the medial epicondyle completely matures. If he is an equated or accelerated maturer, at sixteen chronological years old, these growth plates should already be completely matured. At sixteen biological years old, only the growth plates in the head of the humerus bone in his pitching upper arm should be open. They do not completely matures until nineteen biological years old. The doctor is correct. After broken bones correctly heal, they are stronger that before they broke. However, that is true for only precisely where the bone healed. One-quarter of an inch on either side of the heal, the bone is weaker than before it broke. The danger in returning to pitch is that it will break again near the previous break. The time that broken bone patients spend in their casts caused the bones to loss bone density and atrophy (become smaller). As a result, doctors look at the X-rays of the break and pronounce that the bone has healed and it is stronger and the pitcher can resume pitching. Not true. Before the pitcher resumes pitching, he must first learn how not to have 'late forearm turnover' and 'reverse forearm bounce.' And, I recommend that before the pitcher resumes pitching, he waits until all growth plates his entire pitching arm have closed and then, I recommend that, to regain the bone density and hypertrophy the bone to far stronger than it was before the time he spent in a cast, he complete my 280-Day Adult Pitchers Training Program. I designed this program to maximally strengthen the bones of the pitching arm, the attachments of the ligaments in the pitching arm and the attachments of the tendons in the pitching arm. At the same time, I teach pitchers how to properly apply force to their pitches. I 'injury-proof' pitchers. The only reason why all those major league pitchers did not return to pitching is because they did not complete my 280-Day Adult Pitchers Training Program. After your son completes it, then he can pitch without further injury concern and find out how good he can be. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 192. I RUPTURED MY ULNAR COLLATERAL LIGAMENT THROWING DURING A SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT. I FELT AND HEARD A POP AND IMMEDIATELY HAD PAIN. I AM 42 YEARS OLD MALE, BUT NOT ORDINARY. I AM NOT A WEEKEND WARRIOR, AS I AM CONSTANTLY PARTICIPATING IN SPORTS, TRAINING AND OTHER ACTIVITIES AT A HIGH LEVEL. 10 MONTHS AGO, I TORE 15% OF MY WRIST FLEXOR TENDON ALONG WITH AVULSING PART OF MY MEDIAL EPICONDYLE. I WAS DILIGENT WITH MY REHAB BUT I COULD FEEL THAT MY LIGAMENT WAS STRETCHED BY THE STRESS I FELT WITH ACTIVITIES THAT CAUSED A VALGUS STRESS ON THE ELBOW. I EXPRESSED THIS TO THE SURGEON WHO PERFORMED THE SURGERY AND HE TOLD ME THAT THE LIGAMENT WAS LAX BUT HE DID NOT FEEL AT THAT TIME IT REQUIRED A SURGICAL REPAIR. I GAVE HIM PERMISSION PRIOR TO THE SURGERY TO REPAIR THIS AND EXPRESSED MY LEVEL OF ACTIVITY. AFTER THE RUPTURE I EXPRESSED MY DISAPPOINTMENT. HE SAID THAT THE LIGAMENT WAS INTACT WHEN HE DID THE ORIGINAL SURGERY SO HE DID NOT REPAIR IT. HE ALSO STATED THAT I WOULD HAVE BEEN HARD PRESSED TO FIND A SURGEON THAT WOULD TAKE AN INTACT LIGAMENT WITH NO DAMAGE OTHER BEING STRETCHED AND DO A SURGICAL PROCEDURE ON IT. OH WELL, THIS IS WHERE I STAND. I AM GOING TO HAVE THIS REPAIRED. WHAT IS THE SUCCESS RATE FOR THIS REPAIR AND CAN I EXPECT TO BE ABLE TO RETURN TO SOFTBALL AND ANY OTHER THROWING SPORTS? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Ulnar Collateral Ligament replacement surgery is a simple, very effective surgery. However, after it heals, you have to learn to not permit your forearm to 'flyout' and you have to regain the bone density that you lost during the convalescence. I recommend my 280-Day Adult Pitchers Training program. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 193. Great article in Collegiate Baseball! I was really happy to see that they got it in there. When we spoke on the phone you mentioned that the arm never fully extends when it is pronated (screwball), did I understand this correctly? Could you explain it again? I want to start trying it with my kids and I want to make sure I understand. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pitchers should never fully extend their elbow on any pitch. To prevent this, all they have to do is to minimize the horizontal centripetal force that they generate when they forwardly rotate their pitching upper arm and pronate their forearm, wrist, hand and fingers through release and the deceleration phase. I am working hard on my new Chapter Thirty-Six. Give me a few more days and I will explain my entire pitching motion in much greater detail. My next Instructional Videotape will blow your socks off. I plan to start working on it in June. Thanks for the kind words on my piece in Collegiate Baseball. For years, I have refused to read what anybody else wrote about the pitching motion. I did this for two reasons. First, I knew that they were only expressing their opinions, that they did not do any research. Second, I did not want anything that they wrote to influence my research. However, I am down to very few questions that I have remaining about the baseball pitching motion and how best to teach and train youngsters to do it. As a result, I read the other articles. I was amazed. These guys know less than nothing. They even contradict themselves. I will continue to not mention names. But otherwise, the kid gloves are off. These guys tell the public that they are experts. The say that they know how to teach children how to pitch. I think that they should be held to the same standard as any trained professional, such as a medical doctor. I think that they are legally liable for the thousands of irreparable pitching arm injuries that they caused. Parents should sue. They are frauds. Worse, they knew that what they taught destroyed youth pitching arms, did not tell anybody and continued. I have taught college pitchers for eight years. I taught pitchers before, during and after those college years. I have a former assistant baseball coach who has taught college pitchers for eleven years. No pitcher that I or he has taught has ever had a pitching arm injury, much less required surgery. If a single pitcher that these pitching coach wannabes have taught has required surgery and they did not know why and how to prevent it, they should stop working with pitchers. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 194. WHAT IS YOUR 280 DAY PITCHERS PROGRAM? I AM A THERAPIST SO I HAVE ACCESS TO REHAB PROGRAMS BUT I'VE NEVER HEARD OF THIS PARTICULAR ONE. ALSO THE DONOR TENDON IS GOING TO BE THE PLANTARIS DUE TO THE FACT THAT I DO NOT HAVE A PALMARIS LONGUS TENDON. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To find my 280-Day Adult Pitchers Training Program, click on the Training Programs icon on my home page. When Ulnar Collateral Ligament replacement patients do not have the tendon for the Palmaris Longus muscle, Dr. James Andrews uses a portion of the tendon of the Gracilis muscle. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 195. I was a 4 year starting college pitcher. Since my graduation in almost twenty years ago, I have had the privilege of coaching high school baseball, but have stopped for some years now. My son is playing competitive 7 & 8 year old baseball and I have been asked to coach. Although I think it too competitive, that is out of my control. My question is how to best instruct such a young player on the fundamental of pitching. We do practice the three movement deltoid exercise that I have been using since a former player of yours taught me in 1985, but how best should I approach teaching such young children the craft of pitching. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You should not weight train youngsters with open growth plates. I recommend that, until the growth plate for the medial epicondyle completely matures, no youngster should practice pitching for more than two months per year, should pitch from the set or windup positions against batters in competitive games until they are thirteen years old and should not pitch more than one inning per game twice a week. To learn how to save your son's pitching arm, please click on the Research Study icon on my home page. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 196. I want to bring my son to see you, but I would like to have someone watch him throw to make sure he is doing things correctly. I am eager for your new tape. When are you planning to release it? My son has made progress, but his velocity varies from 42 to 48 mph and I’d like him to be more consistent at 46 to 48. The other kids on his team, with one exception, throw 50-54. I mention speed only because he is inconsistent and this comes with execution of the fundamentals of your technique, which brings me back to the first point, his mechanics. I know you are busy, I know how you feel about youth pitching, but I also know your desire to protect youth pitchers so I ask again: Can you watch him pitch, either in person at your place or video? I ask this so that I can learn his flaws and correct them. If you will not, would you allow your now advanced students to watch him if we came? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have worked for over a month on updating my Coaching Pitchers book. I am a couple of weeks from finishing that project. Other than writing the outline and dialogue, I cannot start on my Instructional Videotape until the first of June. I will be amazed if I finish it by the end of July. I put over three hundred hours just on the video studio equipment last time and I plan to be even more through this time. I am sorry, but I cannot open myself to watching youngsters. I will also not permit someone far less trained than I to advise you on your son's pitching motion. I am pleased that you want to make certain that your son is doing everything right, but I do not have the time for all, so I will not do any. I understand the concern about fluctuating velocities. However, if he stays with my pickoff position leverage throws until he perfects them and then, stays with my no-stride leverage throws until he perfects them and so on. He is having control and velocity fluctuations because he has not perfected these and my set position leverage throws before he started the set and windup position throws. Everybody is in such a rush to pitch competitively. He cannot do calculus until he masters the multiplication tables. In the perfect world, I would have ten year olds practice only my pickoff position leverage and slingshot throws for sixty days, I would have eleven year olds add only my no-stride leverage and ready throws for sixty days, I would have twelve years olds add only my set position leverage and ready throws for sixty days and I would have thirteen years olds add only my set position throws for their sixty days of one inning per game twice a week. When they rush into competition, nobody masters motor skills. Competition stops motor skill learning. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 197. Do you guys work on Saturday and Sunday? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My 280-Day kids and I train every day for two hundred and eighty days. My 8-Week summer kids and I train every day for eight weeks. Every day includes Saturdays and Sundays. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 198. If my son and I came on Friday, May 30 through Sunday June 2, would you come to a Devil Rays game with us? Would we be able to visit and learn some of your techniques and thoughts on hitting? Would we be able to hang out with some of the other guys one day? I don’t want to come for a weekend and only see you or your guys for 2 hours one day. There ain’t a lot to do in Zephyrhills although my son and I play golf. Do you? We could catch 9 or 18 with you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you mean May 30 through June 02 of this year, 2003, no to all questions. I am far too busy. In another email, you asked when I will have my second Instructional Videotape completed. Now, you ask me to go see a baseball game, put together a Coaching Hitters book and play golf. As I enter the final years of my life, I find that I have no interest in taking time for anything except my lady, my daughters and grandchildren, my parents and my work. Also, between May 30 through June 02 is after the present group of 280-Day kids leave and before my 8-Week summer kids arrive and I will be cleaning and rehabilitating apartments. One kid started in January, so he will be training. The local junior college kids with whom I work may also train here during that time, but I do not know for sure. Nevertheless, it is not the best time to visit my facilities. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 199. My teenage daughter had another MRI today of the elbow. According to the doctor, her ligament is stretched (nothing significant showed up on the MRI). I have two questions for you. First, can a stretched ligament heal on it's own with no use over a certain period of time (I'm wondering if surgery is the only option?) and second, her doctor says he will take the tendon from the throwing arm, not the non throwing arm. Does that make sense to you? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stretched ligaments remain stretched ligaments. I have trained baseball pitchers with stretched ligaments and they have performed fine. However, they will never perform at the level as they would have had they not stretched their UCL. Your daughter has to decide how important this is. To replace the ruptured Ulnar Collateral Ligament, those doctors that I personally know, use the tendon of the Palmaris Longus muscle of the glove arm or the tendon of the Gracilis muscle of the glove leg. While the Palmaris Longus muscle only operates a connective tissue sheathing in the palm of the hand and may not significantly contribute to the throwing motion, I would think that surgeons would want any limitation that it's removal causes to be in the non-dominant forearm. Consult with another orthopedic surgeon. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 200. Perusing your pitch sequences, it appears as though they have changed. I have a few questions. What is a Torque Maxline Fastball? What is a Maxline Torque Fastball? Sometimes you have the TF going inside and sometimes you have the MF going outside. I refer to pitch sequences for pitching arm side pull hitters. I thought the TF went outside and the MF went inside? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When my pitchers learn how to throw my pitches, I have them throw my maxline pitches to the pitching arm-side of home plate and our torque pitches to the glove-side of home plate. However, when, after they have completed my 280-Day Adult Pitchers Interval-Training Program and pitch in games, we reserve the right to throw them to the other side of home plate and from both sides of the pitching rubber. A maxline torque fastball is a torque fastball that we throw from the maxline side of the pitching rubber. A torque maxline fastball is a maxline fastball that we throw from the torque side of the pitching rubber. Of course, pitchers need to be highly-skilled and change in which direction they draw the maxline and torque drivelines for the rear feet. Very highly-skilled pitchers can do the same with all types of pitches. But, I prefer that we start simple, which explains why I rewrote these pitch sequences. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 201. ARE THERE ANY DOCTORS IN MY AREA THAT YOU WOULD RECOMMEND FOR THIS SURGERY? OBVIOUSLY, I AM LOOKING FOR SOMEONE THAT PERFORMS THIS SURGERY FREQUENTLY AND IS AWARE OF THE NEEDS OF A THROWING ATHLETE. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I recommend Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, AL. You can call his office at (205)939-3000. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 202. I am a RHP at a major baseball university. I had Arthroscopic shoulder surgery back in late July to repair a torn labrum. There was no rotator cuff damage. I began my throwing program in early February which consisted of 2 sets of 25 throws at 45, 60, 90 and 120 feet, progression between distances varied anywhere between 2-3 weeks. My arm feels strong and I have been extremely conscious of any wasted, incorrect or improper mechanics, arm action etc. In addition, I have had two bullpen sessions. The first one went well in which I threw 25 pitches with no pain or discomfort. However, the second session was different. I experienced some slight sharp pain in the back of the shoulder in my last two pitches. Our pitching coach told me that he sees no flaws in my delivery. Can this pain be explained by just the long rehab process of surgery? Or could it be the labrum detaching off the bone or rotator cuff soreness. Also, does this sort of procedure in general allow pitchers to return to the same velocity as before? I respect your opinion greatly, and would certainly appreciate any advice or suggestions on what I could do rehab-wise to prevent any future shoulder problems. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Discomfort in the back of the shoulder indicates the Teres Minor muscle, which means that you are pulling your pitching arm down and across the front of your body. This is a pitching flaw. It also indicates that, at release, the longitudinal axis of your pitching forearm lines up with the longitudinal axis of your pitching upper arm and both line up with the glove-side lean of your shoulders. This is a pitching flaw. The reason why your pitching coach cannot see any flaws is because he teaches the 'traditional' pitching motion, which is full of pitching flaws. To learn more, either read the April 18, 2003 issue of Collegiate Baseball or Chapter Twenty-Nine of my Coaching Pitchers book, which is free for you to read and copy. To learn a pitching motion without flaws that unnecessarily stress and injure your pitching arm, read Chapter Thirty-Six of my Coaching Pitchers book. To learn the proper adult pitcher training program, read Chapter Thirty-Seven of my Coaching Pitchers book. Because I am in my annual update of my Coaching Pitchers book, please allow me some time to finish Chapters Thirty-Six and Thirty-Seven. If you do not stop your present flaws, you will never achieve becoming the best that you can be. You have also wasted valuable rehabilitation time on a program that does not stimulate osteoblastic activity. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 203. I LOOKED UP YOUR 280 DAY PITCHERS PROGRAM, BUT THERE ARE NO PICTURES OR DESCRIPTIONS OF THESE EXERCISES. HOW DO I ACQUIRE THESE? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pictures on web sites take considerable computer bytes. I describe the exercises in my 280-Day Adult Pitchers Training Program in Chapter Thirty-Seven of my Coaching Pitchers book. It is free for you to read and copy. However, I am in my annual update of my book. Therefore, please give me some time to finish. My Recent Update file tells when I update my Coaching Pitchers book and other files. At the insistence of my readers, a year ago last January, I spent three hundred hours putting together my Instructional Videotape. Since use a video studios is not free, I have to charge for my Instructional Videotape. My video contains the pictures that you seek. However, it does seem to me that you have something else to get done before you are ready for my program. After I complete my edit of my book, I will take another look at my training programs. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 204. I am helping coach a high school baseball team and have run into a little predicament. Two of my pitchers are complaining of pain on the posterior side of the elbow. I am confused by this; I have heard of trouble with the ulnar collateral ligament on the inside of the elbow but am unfamiliar with posterior elbow injuries. Could you perhaps give me the proper course of action with these players. Thus far, the only action I have taken has been the suspension of their pitching duties. They are 16 and 17 years old respectively. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You are correct in stopping their pitching. The first commandment of coaching is do not harm. When you don't know what you are doing, stop doing it. I wish all pitching coaches would have the same integrity. Pain in the back of the elbow above the olecranon process indicates that they are 'slamming' their olecranon process into its fossa, probably when they 'supinate' the release of their curves or sliders. You must teach them to 'pronate' the release of all pitches. This means that they have to point their thumbs downward immediately after they release their pitches. Have them start easily with my Pickoff Position Leverage throws where they eliminate all reverse shoulder rotation movements. After they perfect their arm actions, they can proceed. Unfortunately, I am in the process of updating Chapters Thirty-Six and Thirty-Seven of my Coaching pitchers book and I have not written my descriptions of my motor skill acquisition/training exercises. Please give me a few days. I will have rough drafts of both on my web site soon. It will take me awhile after that to finalize those chapters. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 205. I was searching for the formula for drag and I found your web site. As I was reviewing what you have for drag, I noticed that as you calculate the cross-ectional area of the baseball you use the formula for the area of a sphere and divide this in half. However, I believe that instead, you should multiply the radius squared by Pi to find the cross-ectional area (formula for circle). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I considered your point. The two-dimensional surface of baseballs appears as a circle. However, baseball are spheres. Air molecules contact the foremost aspect of the baseball first. The air molecules deflect off at angles. Footballs also have two-dimensional surfaces that two-dimensionally appear as circles. But, the oblong point of thrown footballs spiral through the air molecules. This reduces the drag. If both surfaces were squared off circles, they would present more drag. The fact that they are round and oblong, respectively, indicates a lower drag coefficient. I know that the circle formula provides a smaller surface area than the sphere formula and may better indicate the reduced drag due to air molecule deflection, but the baseball is a sphere. Despite their last effort, NASA probably understands this better than I. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 206. In the new Torque technique you say: “I want pitchers to point the baseball toward home plate, then bring their pitching arm straight back to their ear where their tightly bent elbow has the baseball almost touch their ear, then continue the baseball straight back as far as they can”. Do we keep the tightly bent elbow similar to an archer pulling an arrow in a bow, or do we extended straight back as far as it can go?. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I thought about the archer analogy. However, I discarded it because I want pitchers to continue the baseball behind their head. I want pitchers to keep a horizontal forearm and a tightly bent elbow. In my Pickoff Position Leverage Throws, I also want pitchers to keep their acromial line perpendicular to the driveline to home plate. Pitchers use this drill to learn how to properly drive and release their pitches. Until they can achieve the proper spin axes on their pitches, I do not want them to advance to my Pickoff Position Slingshot Throws. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 207. I heard through a co-worker about your program. My question is: I your program appropriate for a 17 year old in the later stages of rehabilitation from shoulder surgery (8/03). He pitched varsity in his freshman year, but half way through his sophomore year, he had a great deal of pain. He was stretched out and could rotate back 150 degrees and lost any velocity. The orthoscopic surgery tightened up the scapula (among other 'housekeeping" duties, the surgeon said). We are looking for a process that is safe and effective to bring him back to par. We consider it an investment in his future. Baseball is all he's ever wanted to do. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I do not know what 'tightened up the scapula' means. Did the surgeon tighten the gleno-humeral ligaments? If you could get a copy of the surgical report, it would help me understand what they did. I am always interested in helping young pitchers. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 208. I coach baseball at the high school level. I love working with young pitchers and see them progress. I was reading Collegiate Baseball magazine and read your article and then pulled up your website. I find your research interesting and I would like to know more but cant get the info off of the site. It is very technical and it times difficult to follow. I would love to visit with you online, is that possible? I would love to have some pitching videos from you so that I could see your techniques. I would like to see what you teach. I am a visual learner. I would also like to see some pitching drills that works on your technique. I also have a son who is 17 and a pitcher. He throws in the low 90's but is having a difficult time with his control. If what I am teaching is not correct I want to know it. Everything I teach is correct from what I have read and seen except by you. I do understand the principles of Sir Newton and I am open to change if it will help my students and me as a teacher. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We are visiting online right now. You are also welcome to come to Zephyrhills, FL and see what we do. I have an Instructional Videotape. I offer pitching instruction. I think that you will find that my updated stuff is more simple, logical and easier to follow. The complicated stuff is the pitching arm injuries, surgeries and lack of success from the other the-world-is-flat-can't-you-see-that pitching coach wannabes who would not be caught dead learning the implications of Sir Isaac Newton's three laws of motion on the pitching motion. I am in a battle for the pitching arms of our youngsters. I need all the help that I can get. We have to get rid of the stupidity that others teach that destroys their pitching arms and we have to get parents and coaches to not only teach the proper way to apply force, but recognize that immature pitching arms cannot withstand too much stress from even my perfect force application techniques. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 209. I read this quote from Darek Braunecker, A.J. Burnett's (Marlin pitcher) agent, on ESPN today: "Braunecker said Burnett doesn't fault the Marlins for the way they handled him. He pitched 204 innings last season, when he went 12-9 with a 3.30 ERA, and threw 111 pitches in his final start Friday. "By no means are we laying blame on anybody," Braunecker said. "It's just an unfortunate occurrence. It happened. I know the Marlins have had nothing but his best interests in mind." He also said Burnett had his head held high because he understands "this (injury) is just part of the profession." I just have one word: Unbelievable! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- He should be suing the Marlin's organization for teaching him to throw his pitches with a technique that unnecessarily stressed the Ulnar Collateral Ligament. He should be suing the Marlin's organization for not training him to withstand the necessary and appropriate physical stresses of baseball pitching. In fact, the Major League Baseball Players Association should start a class action lawsuit against Major League Baseball. They should call in OASHA. The idea that an industry places their employees at such risk of career-ending injuries and has done absolutely nothing to prevent it should make them legally liable. I have already stated that the parents of the youth pitchers with pitching arm injuries that require surgical corrections or clear deformities as a result of the ridiculous pitching motions that these 'expert' pitching coach wannabes propose should sue them. When pitchers pitch for a living, their employers have safe work condition obligations. To hear someone say, 'the injury is not 'just part of the profession' only shows the cover-your-ass attitude of the industry. They use the paycheck of the pitchers as leverage to force them to throw their way and, then, when pitchers injure themselves, they blame the pitcher. When you don't know what you are doing, you blame everybody and everything else. I am so tired of listening to their stupidity. I am also tired of listening to the pitching coach wannabes criticising my stuff as too complicated. I don't know about you, but I like my experts to understand the relevant science of their area of alleged expertise. I am usually relieved when my doctor explains my illness with scientific terms. I would much prefer to ask him to simplify, than worry that he does not know big words. In medicine, when one researcher develops a procedure that increases a cure rate for something and publishes it, the doctors can no longer use other procedures with lower cure rates. The old procedure is no longer 'accepted practice.' Well, I have published. The old pitching procedure is no longer 'accepted practice.' That is why the pitching coach wannabes are stealing my stuff. That is good. I commend them. However, they have to get it right. The professional guys remain too arrogant. They do not have to listen. They control the money, the futures. They want to ride young pitchers to the major leagues. Young Burnett needs to light a fire under his agent. Marlin coaches ruined his pitching arm. He had a great future with considerable earnings. They took that from him. While he could recoup some of his future, he won't. He will never forget this injury. They will never teach him the proper way to apply force to his pitches. They will never properly train him. He will become only a shadow of what he could have been and they will dismiss him and move on to the next. If Michigan State University had provided me with a high-speed film research laboratory as Professor Vern Seefeldt told me that they planned to do, we would have resolved this matter back in the 1970's or 1980's. I have worked without financial or academic support for the intervening numerous years. Any time Major League Baseball is ready to solve this problem, I am ready to show them how. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 210. I saw your video recently and was impressed to stop my son from damaging his arm. We just hope it's not too late. At least, we had the good sense to not allow curve balls or breaking pitches. I saw the x-rays of the elbow and shoulder on the tape. I was wondering if you have them on the web somewhere so that I could print them out and properly explain to our coaches and some parents why the elbow and shoulders are not mature at 11 years old (I know it seems obvious, but parents sometimes are blind about theses things until you slap them in the face with it. Your book is very explanatory, but a picture is worth a thousand words. My goal is to change the philosophy of the coach and parents and reduce pitching to one inning per child. At least, in that way the damage will be limited for the other kids. They can not help the fact that they are not educated. I think that they want to see their kids succeed and all believe there is not harm if there is no pain. After all, as you say and have proven, these kids are not ready for 100 pitch games. I wish I had been educated sooner. The best I can hope to do is educate a few more and pass the word along. Question: Do the wrist weights cause any tendonitis problems? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The only pictures of the X-rays that I have are in my Instructional Videotape. I agree that most parents have no idea what they are doing to their youngsters. I am one guy in Florida giving the information away without any monetary backing or get-rich profit motive. The kids need the help of responsible parents and community leaders. One inning per game after they are biologically thirteen years old is a great goal. Maybe we will return the game to the kids for skill and strategy development, fun and maximal participation. When athletes start at resistances and intensities beyond their physiological limits, any training that anybody does can cause tendonitis. Nobody with an open medial epicondyle growth plate should do my wrist weight exercises. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 211. I know a 16 year old who used a radar ball to clock his pitches. He reached 65 MPH at a 60' 6" distance in September 2002, but he has not had the chance to pitch with that radar ball since then. Is that velocity normal for a then-15 year-old who is looking to go all the way (i.e. college, minor league, and major league level)? Please note that this was NOT thrown at the Little League distance of 46' feet, but at the major league distance. Is pitching with a tennis ball a bad practice for youth pitchers? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have no knowledge of the reliability of the accuracy of a radar ball device. I also have no knowledge of the fastball velocities that biological fifteen and sixteen year olds need to achieve to pitch college and professional baseball. Nineteen year olds need to throw from eighty-five to ninety miles per hour with the appropriate non-fastball pitches to succeed in college baseball and twenty-two year olds need to throw from ninety to ninety-five miles per hour with the appropriate non-fastball pitches to succeed in professional baseball. The distance over which this young man threw is irrelevant to the velocity at which he released the baseball. I do not believe that pitching with tennis balls adds anything. Underloading for a five and one-quarter ounce baseball will not improve their force application technique. Only when the object exceeds the physiological ability of the youngster to appropriately apply force to the object does underloading make any sense. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 212. I was recently told that a person has 10% more power when exhaling. Is this true? Do you recommend pitchers do anything special (inhale, exhale, hold their breath, grunt) when delivering a pitch? Do you think it's important for pitchers to relax their facial muscles when pitching? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No, athletes are not more powerful when exhaling. When pitchers maximally accelerate their pitches through release, they require a solid thoracic cavity. To have a large thoracic cavity against which to apply force, during the transition phase, pitchers should take in a deep breath. Therefore, during the acceleration phase, pitchers should hold their breath. However, I do not recommend that we get pitchers thinking about breathing. It happens naturally. As a natural result of holding a deep breath, when athletes release the air, they grunt. No big deal. All athletes should only use the muscles necessary for an activity only as much as is necessary. To pitch baseball, facial muscle tensions are not necessary. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 213. I read 80% of your book online the first night. I will finish it this weekend. I want to know more. I do not want to be a "the world is flat coach" and I want my son's arm to remain in tact and I believe you are right in what you are teaching and I have been wrong. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I want to eliminate pitching arm injuries and I need all the help I can get. Welcome. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 214. In a tape, a hitting coach wannabe uses computer animation superimposed on past hitters and shows that approximately one foot prior to ball contact and one foot after contact all the body positions and extremity positions were similar. The rest of the swing can vary and is style. I think that he is ahead of the curve on hitting form. As to strengthening and preparation, I cannot comment yet. However, he is challenging establishment as you on the correct applied physiology. That is analyzing applied human anatomy in a comparative manner. Just like you state the pitching motion is flawed in the way we teach it, he states a lot of coaches teach something different than what is what they did or great hitters are doing. I value your opinions and wanted to ask about hitting. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I designed my pitching motion from the laws of Physics and applied human anatomy. I did not use what great pitchers do. The fact that I now tell you what the 'traditional' pitching motion does that is wrong has nothing to do with how to determine the proper way to apply force. I do not know the curve of which you think he is ahead, but he has no idea what he is doing. What are his academic credentials? Does he understand Kinesiology, Biomechanics, Applied Anatomy and so on? Do you take medical advice from people without medical degrees? I don't have the time to get into this discussion, but until he accounts for Sir Isaac Newton's three laws of motion and precisely states what muscles perform what actions during his batting mechanics and why, I know that I will not be interested in his comments. Without solid scientific facts, opinions are without merit. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 215. I am starting my son on your 60 day program. Are there any caveats to the program if he is playing on a team at the same time. For example, if he has a game, should he skip your program for that day? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am in the process of redoing my 60-Day Interval-Training Programs. I will have different programs for eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve and thirteen through fifteen biologically year old pitchers. If youngster are biologically older than the beginning programs, before they start their program, they need to master the skill in the earlier programs. For example, when ten year old youngsters start my 60-Day programs, for their first 60-Day program, they should shorten my 60-Day Eight and Nine Year Old program to thirty days each. Then, the next year, for their 60-Day program, they should shorten my 60-Day Ten and Eleven Year old programs to thirty days each. This means that, instead of staying at each level for twelve days, they should stay at each level for six days. You should know that I recommend that youngsters do not train for pitching for more than sixty days each year, until they are biologically thirteen years old, do not pitch competitively against opposing teams and, until the growth plate of their medial epicondyle completely matures, they do not pitch more than one inning per game twice a week. If your son is thirteen years old and has mastered the pitching skills that I include in my eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve and thirteen through fifteen biological year old programs, then he can pitch one inning twice a week. On game days, he should complete only one-half of the program and use the other half during the game. To insure that he is prepared to pitch, he should moderate the intensity of his workout on other days. Please join my Research Study Club and, together, we will monitor the growth and development of your son's pitching arm and make certain that he has a non-deformed adult pitching arm. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 216. As we are approaching June, do you have any plans to give advance notice on the ship date for your next video. I'd like to send the check to you a week early so there are no delays with getting the video right away. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you for your interest. As soon as I have my second Instructional Videotape ready to ship, I will contact all with my first Instructional Videotape. However, I cannot start work on my second Instructional Videotape until after my present forty-week class graduate and I prepare my facilities for my summer group. That means that I will not start until June. To make my first Instructional Videotape, I spent over three hundred hours in the video studio. I plan to work even harder on this one. I doubt that I will have anything ready before the middle of July. I plan to use much, much more five hundred frames per second high-speed film. I am learning about new types of outdoor color film and where to process it. I already spent several thousands of dollars improving the clarity of my high-speed camera. I promise that I will do everything that I can to fully and precisely explain how youth pitchers should throw all my pitches and how adult pitchers should 'injury proof' their pitching arms. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 217. Have the diameters of the baseballs used in the American and National Leagues ever differed from each other? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 218. From the emails you are getting, it appears that the Collegiate Baseball article caused people to take notice. Why haven’t you been interviewed on ESPN? I am experiencing first hand what you preach. Competition stifles skill development. My son’s team is underachieving this year as they did last year and the major problem is that the coach knows less than nothing. I sent him a few pointed emails at one point and was confronted with an angry, “my way or the highway” tirade. But for my son’s desire to play and love of his teammates, I would |