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Questions/Answers 2005 |
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 001. I am a recent convert to baseball and live in England. Having read Ball Four, I looked up your stats on the internet and came across your site. I have had a great time reading through your files and I am interested, in the future, in buying your training video. Due to your 'discussions' with Richard Todd (2003 file) I went surfing through the other pitching coach instructors' websites. I can't say that I am very impressed. However, something on Paul Nyman's site interested me. He had an old link detailing his visit to your facility in 2003. He said he spoke to Mr. X and was very impressed with how quickly Mr. X rehabbed from Tommy John surgery using your programme. I know that you have said that you have worked with Mr. X for a number of years and that no pitcher who has worked with you has been injured or required surgery. Therefore, I wonder if you could tell me the reasons for Mr. X's injury. I hope you believe me when I say I ask this inquisitorially rather than accusatorially. Indeed, I know you have alluded to Mr. X's problems with the Wall of Ignorance and can guess that the influence of others may have caused it. Even Nyman, while disputing what you do (quackishly! in my opinion) has never tried to use his knowledge of Mr. X's injury to criticise you, which further makes me believe the fault lies with others. I would merely like to hear it from yourself as I am trying to be an aware buyer. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I was unaware that Mr. Nyman used the name of one of my pitchers. I try very hard to protect their privacy and I would never exploit them for my benefit. When I include your email on my web site, I will refer to this young man as Mr. X. I met Mr. X during the fall of 1993 in my office at West Texas A&M where I was their first head baseball coach. Until then, they never had an intercollegiate baseball team or a baseball field. Mr. X had transferred from another Texas college to train with me. He had serious pitching elbow trouble. He had injured it once in high school and once again in each of his first two years of college baseball. At that time, he threw 83 miles per hour. Like I do with every pitcher with whom I work, I took his baseball pitching history and checked his pitching elbow flexion and extension ranges of motion and the side-to-side laxity. He had a very unstable pitching elbow. He admitted that he had had severe inside of the pitching elbow pain. When I placed pressure on his Ulnar Collateral Ligament, he flinched and said that was where he always felt the pain. I told him what it was, what he does in his pitching motion that causes the unnecessary stress, what he had to do to stop unnecessarily stressing the area and advised him that he might need to have it surgically repaired. He said that he did not have the money and hoped that my training program would fix it. Over the next several years, Mr. X trained with me. He increased his release velocity to 96 miles per hour. He made it to the major leagues where, after the team found out that I trained him, they released his despite his a 3.5 earned run average. Three years ago, an affiliated team invited him to spring training on a Triple-A roster. After he pitched extremely well in a couple of Triple-A exhibition games, they invited him to pitch in a major league exhibition game. After he pitched well in that game, they kept him with the major league team. Unfortunately, he injured his back performing some silly medicine ball torso rotation exercise and could not throw for a couple of weeks. In his haste to return to form, he experienced some discomfort on the inside of his pitching elbow. An MRI discovered that he had three calcium deposits in his Ulnar Collateral Ligament, one for each time that he had partially torn his UCL in high school and college, which significantly lengthen and weakened his UCL. They released him. I told him that if he ever wanted to pitch in the major leagues again, because all teams now know that he has a damaged UCL, then he would have to have his UCL surgically repaired. In June, he had it repaired. In September, the doctor cleared him to train. In January, he threw all pitches at full intensity. That next professional baseball season, he joined an independent league team, where he pitched the full season with a 1.something earned run average. He continues to pitch very well, albeit with independent league teams. He continues to strike out ten to twelve batters per nine innings while giving up only five to seven hits per nine innings. He has the ability to be a superior major league pitcher. During his visit, Mr. Nyman asked the same question and got the answer straight from Mr. X that he would never had had any college, let alone a professional career, if he had not met me. I wonder why he did not include that piece of information? After doctors slash and burn as much as they can and, then, say that they cannot do anything more, injured baseball pitchers come to me. I have worked with pitchers whose doctors say that they will never pitch again or will never throw fifty miles per hour. Yet, after just my basic program, they throw over ninety miles per hour again. I do not want to rehabilitate baseball pitchers. I want Paul Nyman and the other pitching coach wannabes to stop teaching pitching motions that destroy their pitching arms. With my upcoming Flaws and Solutions video, I believe that parents, coaches and baseball pitchers will understand why the 'traditional' pitching motion injures pitching arms and why my pitching motion not only prevents pitching arm injuries, but also maximizes release velocity and increases the movement quality of my pitches. And, I believe that my next Baseball Pitching Instructional video will provide a simple, easy-to-follow five-step program with which parents, coaches and baseball pitchers of all ages will readily learn my pitching motion. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 002. My son is a senior in High School and is a non-pitcher (shortstop). Once spring practices begin, I doubt that his coach will allow him to perform his iron ball and wrist weight training prior to warming up. They start right after school and there wouldn't be time. Would you suggest that he perform these exercises after he gets home from practices and games? Obviously, even non-pitchers do allot of throwing during practices and on game day. Do you suggest that he do any additional throwing (baseballs not the iron ball) on days when there is a practice or a game? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- During the competitive season, athletes should continue their off-season training program at maintenance levels. That is, they should perform one-half of the base level of repetitions at comfortable intensities. For my baseball pitching exercises, my base level is forty-eight repetitions each for my wrist weight, iron ball and baseball exercises. Therefore, he should perform twenty-four repetitions of each. During my major league seasons, I did my wrist weight exercises just before I went to bed, my iron ball throws during the morning hours, usually right after I completed my jog and my baseball throws at the park. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 003. I think I finally have your maxline pronation curve down. For clarification and, possibly, as a service to your readers, I am going to describe where I had it wrong when I taught my son. I never quite got the release down correctly. I incorrectly had my son drive the ball from the ready position by his ear with the stripe vertical so that he could get a horizontal spin axis at release. For those that need help on this, it is key that the stripe be horizontal as the ball goes from the ready position by the ear to right before you flick the ball like a piece of gum (ulna flex). If your readers hold the ball in one hand (eg, the right hand) and go from leverage to right before they flick the ball with the ball angled closely to the ear and the stripe horizonal. Then, if they hold the ball with the left hand as well and flick (ulna flex) the ball slowly, they will see that it is this flicking that brings the stripe vertical at release so that you get the horizontal spin axis. They can do this sitting in front of the computer. I know you demonstrate this in your video with the ball on the stick, but I never quite got it. Now my question: We know that in reality the ball does not go by the ear when we throw a pronation curve ball. In fact, it is outside of vertical. With this being the case, are your pitchers able to get your theoretical release on the ball. With the ball slinging outside of vertical, it seems like it would be difficult to keep the stripe horizontal from the ready position to the ulna flex ending. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The key to the release of all pitches is pitching forearm pronation. We must make sure that we turn the pitching thumb downward. If pitchers start with the points of the football vertical, then, through release, they will supinate their pitching forearm. The only way to insure that they pronate their pitching forearm through release is for them to start with the points of the football horizontal, where their pitching middle finger points downward. I agree that, when baseball pitchers throw my Maxline Pronation Curve, they do not actually drive their pitching hand straight forward close to their pitching ear. However, they can achieve forty or more degrees of separation between the longitudinal axes of their pitching upper arm and their pitching forearm. When they lean the line across the top of their shoulders fifty or more degrees, they can get their pitching forearm slightly inside of vertical. With my present group, I have a couple of guys who get their pitching forearm too far inside of vertical, such that they lose their straight line drive. This is rare and easily corrected. The greater problem is that the lifetime of the 'traditional' pitching motion teaches them to throw their pitching forearm laterally away from their body. In any case, congratulations of learning the proper curve release. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 004. I AM HAVING SURGERY ON MY LEFT SHOULDER THIS FRIDAY. ANY ADVICE ON RE-HAB IS APPRECIATED. MY MRI RESULTS SHOW THE FOLLOWING: MRI PROTOCOL: Axial proton density with fat saturation, coronal fast spin echo density T2, sagittal fast spin echo proton destiny with fat saturation, coronal STIR and sagittal STIR images were obtained. MRI FINDINGS: The glenohumeral is normally located. The acromioclavicular joint demonstrated no hypertropic change. The supraspinatus tendon demonstrates a full thickness partial laceration at the insertion of the greater tuberosity of the humerus. The infraspinatus tendon appeared to be unremarkable as did the subscapularis tendon. The long head of the biceps appeared to be grossly unremarkable. The glenoid labium appeared to be grossly unremarkable. IMPRESSION: Full thickness partial laceration of the supraspinatus tendon. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I did not realize that unremarkable had several degrees. I guess grossly unremarkable means that it is not minimally or typically unremarkable. I assume that you injured your pitching shoulder while pitching. That you have a full partial laceration of the Supraspinatus at its insertion to the greater tuberosity of the Humerus indicates that you inwardly rotate your Humerus bone beyond horizontal. You need to learn how to drive the baseball straight forward, such that you only inwardly rotate your Humerus to horizontal. After this injury heals, I recommend that you follow my forty-eight week baseball pitching interval-training program, which includes five drills: 01. Short Step Pickoff body action with Slingshot arm action. 02. Wrong Foot body action with Slingshot arm action. 03. Wrong Foot body action with Transition arm action. 04. Short Step body action with Transition arm action. 05. Wind-Up Set Position body action with Transition arm action. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 005. We did not receive the book that is mentioned in your description of the video. For clarity, I am referencing the paragraph that reads: "For first-time buyers, my two-hour 2004 Baseball Pitching Instructional Videotape, my Coaching Baseball Pitchers book and my advice costs one hundred dollars ($100.00), postage included. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With regard to my Coaching Baseball Pitchers book and advice, after I wrote that, I decided to make them available for free on my web site at www.drmikemarshall.com. If you go to my web site and click on FREE BOOK!!!, wyou can read and/or download chapters as you wish, and, I will gladly answer any questions that you have. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 006. It was good having my son home over the holidays. He worked hard while he was here, but he was most anxious to resume his normal training schedule and settle back into Z-hills. As you predicted, some opinions here changed quickly when folks saw him throw. They also saw the pitcher throw that I am training. I now have an increasing number of other parents who want their young men to train this way. Therir ages range from 9-16 years. Earlier today, I spoke with the executive director for our state's High School Coaches Association. He is genuinely excited about what I related to him regarding your mechanics. He provided me with names of specific high school coaches who will have immediate interest. It is possible that I will have the opportunity to speak to all of the coaches at their annual meeting. The young man you corresponded with earlier that had Tommy John surgery after his junior year in high school is throwing for a local junior college. After seeing my son throw, he told me that he is sold. I do not know if he will choose to act. I forwarded a video of my son throwing to the area supervisor for an affiliate professional team. He and I have become very good friends in the time since they drafted my son. He is both impressed and intrigued. When my son comes back here in the late spring to show his stuff to the JUCO coach I wrote you about earlier, he will try to see him throw. I encouraged him to make the trip to Zephyrhills and visit you. Unfortunately, he will be without transportation and his schedule is full. He wants my son to come see him at their spring training headquarters to make introductions to other people in their organization. I continue to tell and remind people that he is not remotely finished with his initial training and that mastering his technique and releases is a long term process. I do not want to push the timing of any of this until he is VERY ready. I believe strongly that he should be ready to destroy hitters at an advanced level before he attempts to do so. As the spring progresses, I would appreciate your feedback. Is it possible that he would benefit from continuing to train in Zephyrhills next fall rather than attending college? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It sounds as though you are having a lot of fun. At the end of May 2005, when your son finishes the first phase of my program, he should spend the summer pitching amateur baseball. How he does should determine whether he should return for more work before he starts junior college. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 007. Have you ever heard of Dr. Angel Borrelli, Sport Kinesiologist in the baseball world? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have no knowledge of Dr. Borrelli. If you send me something that he has written, I will gladly critique it for you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 008. Just an email to thank you for the warm hospitality and conversation on our trip to Florida. As always, it was most enjoyable and educational. I can think of no place I would rather be than in Zhills from 9-11 AM sitting at a picnic table. My oldest son looked incredible. Even while deep in regression, it is obvious that he has made great strides in all phases of his delivery since summer. When he comes out of regression and is at full intensity, he will be scary. My youngest son seems to be taking it slow. I love his arm action. Tremendous power. If he can put the legs and body with it, he will have no bounds. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I love the company. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 009. Can you go into more detail on your new cross-panel throwing? As I see it, you must be having your students throw from one mound at your facility into a net from an adjacent mound. If that is the case, it seems like it would be a very difficult drill to manage for those that do your drills on their own. Also, it looks like you have made several changes to your latest video as far as your pitching motion. Have you made many changes to your iron ball and wrist weight exercises? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To maximally lengthen and straighten my Maxline driveline, pitchers need to learn to throw these pitches to the pitching arm side of their body. This requires that they forwardly rotate their pitching hip to in front of their glove foot. My Wrong Foot body action insures that pitchers forwardly rotate their pitching hip to in front of their glove foot. To also insure that pitchers keep their pitching forearm inside of vertical, when they practice my Wrong Foot body action with my Transition arm action, I tell them to step straight forward, but throw the pitches to the net that is to their immediate pitching arm side. For those pitchers without sixteen foot wide nets to their pitching arm side, I recommend that they step to the glove foot side of their target and throw to their target. I have not made any changes to my pitching motion. Rather, I have streamlined the drills that I use to teach my pitching motion. 01. Because my new guys minimized their lower body involvement with my Pickoff with Step body action, I eliminated my Pickoff body action. 02. Because I determined that my new guys learned to drive behind their pitching hand with my Slingshot arm action, I eliminated my Leverage arm action. 03. Because I determined that Swing-to-Ready arm action created as many problems as help they provided, I eliminated them. 04. Because, once my new guys learned how to reach as far backward as they could while their kept their pitching elbow high with my Wrong Foot body action, Slingshot arm action, they did not need to use my Slingshot arm action with any other body action. As a result, I now recommend only five drills: 01. Pickoff with Step body action, Slingshot arm action. 02. Wrong Foot body action, Slingshot arm action. 03. Wrong Foot body action, Transition arm action. 04. Short-Step body action, Transition arm action. 05. Wind-Up Set Position body action, Transition arm action. However, rather than follow a strict timeline, before their permit their pitchers to proceed to the next drill, I recommend that parents and coaches require their successful accomplishment of specific skills: 01. Until pitchers show that they can properly release my four basic pitches when they throw footballs with my Pickoff with Step body action, Slingshot arm action, I recommend that they do not advance to baseball throws. 02. Until pitchers show that they can reach as far backward as possible without lowering their pitching elbow from ear height and drive their pitching hand straight forward, I recommend that they do not advance to my Transition arm action. 03. Until pitchers show that they can use my Transition arm action to achieve precisely their same forward arm action as they learned with my Wrong Foot body action, Slingshot arm action, I recommend that they do not advance to my Short-Step body action, Transition arm action. 04. Until pitchers show that they can keep their pitching arm inside of vertical with my Wrong Foot body action cross-panel throws, I recommend that they do not advance to my Short-Step body action. 05. Until pitchers show that they can pendulum swing their glove arm to shoulder height pointing directly at home plate and their pitching arm to driveline height directly behind their head at ear height, I recommend that they do not advance to my Wind-Up Set Position body action. With my Wrist Weight and Iron Ball drills, for the most part, my new guys have achieved my new goals within the time frame I designed for their physiological adjustments. Therefore, I have not had to hold them back. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 010. I am a pitcher, and am curious to the limits of human motion in the form of pitching. My question is; is there a limit to how fast someone can throw? I would assume so. But, I would like to know, so I can be sure. I have read about people who've thrown 103 mph and, recently, about someone who has thrown 104 mph. So naturally, wouldn't the limit for now be how fast that guy has thrown? For me, my opinion is that 105 mph is probably the fastest that can be thrown. But, I would like to know what you think about this matter. Also how long should a pitcher wait before he pitches after straining his rotator-cuff? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release velocity equals the uniform straight-line force that pitchers can apply to baseballs times the time period over which they can apply that force. At this moment in the history of baseball throwing, no pitcher has ever applied straight-line force over as long of a time period as is possible. Therefore, no pitcher has ever achieved his maximum release velocity. My pitching motion would enable baseball pitchers to achieve their maximum release velocities. Then, the baseball pitcher with the skeletal structure with the best leverage, with the muscle fiber type for the fastest muscle contraction, with the Central and Peripheral Nervous System with the fastest nerve conduction velocity to complete my interval-training program and master my force application techniques would throw at the fastest release velocity. In my opinion, under these circumstances at this moment in human evolution without artificial performance enhancements, one hundred and ten miles per hour is possible. After baseball pitchers strain their rotator cuff, they should wait until they have completed my interval-training program and mastered my force application technique before they pitch. They must immediately stop using the 'Traditional' pitching motion. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 011. My son is not a pitcher and has no desire to throw anything but a fastball. Are 48 fastballs per day too much, or should he limit his throws to 24 daily? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When position players complete my 120-Day High School Baseball Pitchers Interval-Training Program, when doing my wrist weight, iron ball and baseball drills, they should add the number of non-fastball pitches that I want pitchers to throw to the number of fastballs that they throw. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 012. I am not a big radar gun fan, I am much more interested in ball movement. However, current reality necessitates knowing something about pitch velocities. While my son was home I had the opportunity to borrow a radar gun. I held the gun about head high behind a screen. Acquisition time for this model is 0.04 seconds, using digital microwave. The gun was calibrated according to recommendations. I noticed that (theoretical) release velocities on Maxline fastballs averaged 82-84 mph. One fastball release (when his hips came all the way through) was recorded at 88 mph. Screwball releases were about 16-18 mph slower. I used the gun one session only, so did not record Torque fastball and curveball releases. Of particular note was that this gun showed plate velocities in the 60 mph range when release velocities were recorded in the 82-84 mph range. These balls (theoretically) decelerated 22-24 mph at the plate. Physics laws, if my calculations are correct, show that 90 mph fastballs decelerate approximately 12 mph over distance to the plate (primarily from the effect of gravity). The 60 mph readings struck me as highly unlikely in relation to the release velocities. I called the radar company late last week and spoke with a technician. My primary question was regarding how radar guns are tuned to allow for baseball rotation. Your pitchers throw pitches that generate substantially more rotational velocity. (Twice as much? Maybe you know this from high speed film.) This gentleman informed me that with increased baseball rotation (in this case the top surface of baseball rotating backward toward the pitcher; i.e. maxline fastball) and my alignment of the gun, it is entirely possible that the gun was reading the top/retreating surface of the ball. If so, the release velocities were low and as the ball dropped (as it approached the plate) the velocity differential was magnified because of an 'internal graph' that these guns use to extrapolate information. To correct for this, at least in theory, we should hold guns low, in alignment with the flight line of the baseball. I wish I had known this prior to Pat's departure and had taken the opportunity to experiment. I was also informed that digital microwave radar guns read through solid block walls, and can display false readings under numerous circumstances. For instance, if the backdrop is a cinderblock or prestressed concrete wall with rebar or other embedded metal, readings are suspect. If a car or truck is parked behind the same wall (even up to a mile away) and in alignment with the beam, readings are suspect. The list goes on. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Because my pitchers release their pitches closer to home plate than 'traditional' pitchers can, we do not have to throw as fast to get the baseball to home plate. Therefore, release velocity is not a viable measure of the effectiveness of our fastballs. Because my pitchers disguise their pitchers, such that baseball batters cannot determine what pitch they are throwing until well after they release their pitches, baseball batters cannot react as quickly and we do not have to throw as fast to get the baseball to home plate. Therefore, release velocity is not a viable measure of the effectiveness of our fastballs. In 1971, I determined that the ninety miles per hour fastball (over the first sixteen inches of flight) that I threw on high-speed film crossed home plate at seventy-eight miles per hour. If my pitchers complete my interval-training program and master my force application technique and continue to complete my series of off-season wrist weight and iron ball recoil cycles, then they will eventually achieve their physiological fastball release velocity. That is all they can do. It is time to again measure the quality of baseball pitchers by whether they get baseball batters out. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 013. If I might follow up on your new 5 step approach, you wrote: "I have not made any changes to my pitching motion. Rather, I have streamlined the drills that I use to teach my pitching motion. 01. Because my new guys minimized their lower body involvement with my Pickoff with Step body action, I eliminated my Pickoff body action." You follow this up by recommending a Pick-off with Step body action. It seems like you are recommending something you do not recommend. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I used to use my Pickoff body action and my Pickoff with a Step body action. I no longer use my Pickoff body action. I have also eliminated my Leverage arm action. My kids seem to learn how to drive their pitching hand straight forward just as well with my Slingshot arm action. My Pickoff with a Step body action remains valuable for taking the lower body out of the motion, which permits baseball pitchers to learn how to properly use their pitching and glove arms. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 014. With your new short-stride body action how do you want the feet positioned to start the drill? The young man I am training did this naturally, I think, in order to generate a little bit of forward momentum. Does this completely replace the no-strides? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I designed my no-stride body action to eliminate 'glove foot float.' With 'glove foot float,' pitchers lift their glove foot off the ground during the final phase of their pitching arm pendulum swing. This action resulted in their glove foot moving toward their pitching arm side and the baseball moving laterally behind their body. While my no-stride body action corrected this problem, it did not help pitchers to move their pitching leg forward and, as you suggest in your email, did not generate the powerful forward movement of their center of mass that I want. With my short-stride body action, to continue to prevent 'glove foot float,' I require that pitchers keep their glove foot on the ground until they start moving their body forward. Then and only then do I want pitchers to slide their glove foot forward. As a result, this body action not only also prevented 'glove foot float' and it also generated the powerful forward movement of the center of mass that I want. However, when I started pitchers on my Wind-Up Set Position body action, I found that most still stepped toward their pitching arm side, such that they moved their center of mass toward their pitching arm side. Therefore, I have added another variable to my short-stride body action. I call it, my drop-stride. When I pitched, I used my drop-stride technique to get my pitching hip forwardly rotated as far as I could. This body action permitted me to throw my super big, downward-breaking screwball. To do my drop-stride, instead of stepping straight forward, pitchers step six to eight inches to their glove side and somewhat shorter. This body action opens their hips and shoulders even more and permits them to get their pitching hip farther forward, such that pitchers can drive their pitching arm even more to the pitching arm side of their body. I felt as though, instead of driving the top seam of my screwball straight forward, I could drive that top seam downward. As a result, my drop-stride screwball spun faster and moved more. I could start it over batters' heads and break it to their ankles. To solve the closed-stride problem with my Wind-Up Set Position body action, I have decided to add the drop-stride to my new short-step body action. I call it, my drop-stride short step body action. Except that pitchers step six to eight inches to their glove side of straight forward, they are doing my short-stride body action. When pitchers step to their glove side, they point their glove foot outward. To powerfully move their pitching leg straight forward down the driveline for their pitching foot, pitcher can now powerfully push off the inside of their glove foot. I want pitchers to move their center of mass straight forward. However, given a choice between pitchers moving their center of mass toward their pitching arm side or their glove side, especially with my Maxline pitches, I choose their glove side. Your son has done a great job of learning how to powerfully moving his pitching leg straight forward. This action not only permits him to release my Maxline pitches to the pitching arm side of his body, but it also lengthens his driveline and enables him to flip his pitching him forward and 'finish' his pitches in the same way that I described the final pitching hand action of my super screwball. Unfortunately, other pitchers still have their pitching foot within a foot of the pitching rubber when they release their pitches. I am hoping that my drop-stride short step body action will teach them how to move their pitching leg forward. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 015. My son is 11 and plays multiple sports. He has just been diagnosed with Seaver's Disease. The orthopedist recommended rest, heel inserts, icing after playing and Ibruprophen. The doctor also said David will not hurt himself by playing on it. Should we cut out his basketball season (he just made a competitive AAU team)? Is there anything we can do to speed the heeling and make sure it doesn't come back? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Did the doctor explain what causes the pain? Did the doctor talk about growth plates? Did the doctor say that normal growth and development of growth plates will eliminate the pain? Did the doctor say that, when youngsters continue to place more stress on growth plates than they can withstand, they can permanently alter the normal growth and development of the affected bones? There is nothing that anybody can do to alter the rate of normal growth and development of growth plate. However, with continued stress, your son will cause the growth plate to prematurely close, which would permanently deform the bone. Until this growth plate matures considerably more, your son should take up activities that do not stress this growth plate. Try swimming. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 016. In Chapter 33 you have a section named, 'Final Stress Levels,' you write: "Because athletes’ psychological limits are lower than their physiological limits, wherever possible, athletes should not know the stress levels at which they are performing." Could you expound on that please? I take it that you would not want your students to know what weight their wrist weights are. You seem, however, to tell your students exactly what you and they are doing. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In May 1978, I passed my Comprehensive Exams, which are a series of questions that my doctoral committee members require that I answer to receive my doctoral degree. The professor responsible for securing the high-speed camera with which I studied the baseball pitching motion asked me to write a report on that research. In addition to that report, I included how other disciplines contributed to baseball pitching. In Chapter Thirty-Three, I discussed the guidelines that I follow when I write interval-training programs. As I quickly reread what I wrote twenty-seven years ago, in general, I am pleased with the material. I discussed neuromuscular specificity, physical activity types, starting stress levels, stress increments, sets, final stress levels, frequency and maintenance. The quote you provide refers to a study conducted by members of the Human Energy Research Lab at Michigan State University during my stay. The researchers recruited several volunteer athletes and placed them into equated control and experimental groups. They constructed a training chair where the athletes hooked their ankle under a bar with their knee bent at ninety degrees and straighten their leg. They could carefully control how much weight the athletes moved. In the control group, the athletes could see the amount of weight that they attached to the bar. In the experimental group, the athletes could not see the amount of weight. The researchers identically increased the amount of weight for both groups. At about half-way through the eight week study, the control group leveled off. That is they could no longer continue to linearly increase the amount of weight they lifted. The experimental group continued to linearly increase the weight for a couple of more weeks, then they dramatically decreased the weight they moved. The experimental group found out how much weight they were moving and decided that they could not do that. The point is; when athletes believe that they cannot do something, they are right. It is a self-fulfilling prophesy. I run into this all the time. For example, those who believe that they cannot throw the twenty-five pound wrist weights at maximum intensity for ninety-six repetitions cannot throw the twenty-five pound wrist weights at maximum intensity for ninety-six repetitions. I can't do something, whatever it is, limits everybody. Whenever possible, interval-training program designers should not let the athletes know the stress levels at which they are performing. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 017. For kids under 16 biologically, do you recommend any exercises to strengthen the rotator cuff muscles? I imagine you do not recommend any weight lifting of any kind for these muscles. When you train your students who come to you with rotator cuff injuries, do you have them do anything beyond the normal wrist weight, iron ball and bucket twirls that your students do daily? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Four muscles that arise from the Scapula bone attach to the head of the Humerus bone. Because, when each of these four muscles contract, they rotate the Humerus bone either inwardly or outwardly, we call them the rotator cuff muscles. The Subscapularis muscle arises from the entire internal surface of the Scapula bone and attaches to the lesser tuberosity of the head of the Humerus bone. When it contracts, it inwardly rotates the head of the Humerus bone. Baseball pitchers unnecessarily stress the attachment of the Subscapularis muscle when they take their pitching forearm behind their acromial line. To prevent this injury, baseball pitchers must never voluntarily take their pitching forearm behind their acromial line. The Supraspinatus muscle arises from the supraspinatus fossa, which lies above the spine of the Scapula on its external surface and attaches to the top of the head of the Humerus bone. During the early moments of the start of the accelerations phase, pitchers raise their pitching upper arm to shoulder height (shoulder joint abduction) and lay their pitching forearm horizontally backward (shoulder joint outward rotation). In this position, when the Supraspinatus muscle contracts, it inwardly rotates the head of the Humerus bone. However, after the pitching upper arm inwardly rotates, to assist in the deceleration phase, the Supraspinatus muscles is in position to also outwardly rotate the head of the Humerus. When 'traditional' baseball pitchers inwardly rotate their pitching upper arm beyond horizontal, they unnecessarily stress the attachment of the Supraspinatus muscle. To prevent this injury, baseball pitchers must never inwardly rotate their pitching upper arm beyond horizontal and powerfully pronate their pitching forearm. The Infraspinatus muscle arises from the infraspinatus fossa, which lies below the spine of the Scapula on its external surface and attaches immediately behind the Supraspinatus muscle on the posterior, superior aspect of the head of the Humerus bone. During the deceleration phase, the Infraspinatus muscle outwardly rotates the pitching upper arm. When 'traditional' baseball pitchers inwardly rotate their pitching upper arm beyond horizontal, they unnecessarily stress the attachment of their Infraspinatus muscle. To prevent injury, baseball pitchers must never inwardly rotate their pitching upper arm beyond horizontal and powerfully pronate their pitching forearm. The Teres Minor muscle arises from high on the axillary border of the Scapula and attaches immediately behind the Infraspinatus muscle on the posterior aspect of the head of the Humerus bone. During the deceleration phase, the Teres Minor muscle outwardly rotates the pitching upper arm. When 'traditional' baseball pitchers supinate their releases and pull their pitching arm downward and across the front of their body, they unnecessarily stress the attachment of their Teres Minor muscle. To prevent injury, baseball pitchers must powerfully pronate their pitching forearm. In conclusion, whatever their age, 'traditional' baseball pitchers cannot sufficiently strengthen the four rotator cuff muscles to prevent injury. Therefore, to prevent injury, 'traditional' baseball pitchers have to become Marshall baseball pitchers, where they never unnecessarily stress these muscle attachments. When 'traditional' baseball pitchers come to me with injuries to any of the four rotator cuff muscles, I teach them how to properly apply force to their pitches and they never experience that discomfort again. However, when, before they come to me, orthopedic surgeons 'shrink' the posterior capsule of baseball pitchers, no matter how well they learn to apply force and no matter how hard they train, they will never recover. The 'shrink' procedure destroys the tissue, such that it never regenerates and pitchers cannot recover. Why would anybody believe that burning living human tissue is a good idea? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 018. Could you analyze the delivery approach of Jim Kaat if you remember it? I vaguely do, but I remember it was some kind of Crow step mechanic. He definitely had a long career of 28 years and also a 25 win year. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I also vaguely remember that Mr. Kaat abbreviated his pitching motion into a more straight line driveline. However, without videotape or film, I could not say more. To determine whether he incorporated the crow-hop throwing rhythm into his pitching motion, I do not remember that he raised his pitching arm to driveline height before he moved his body forward. Nevertheless, he was an outstanding pitching and gentleman. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 019. I have your free book and your instructional video. But, when I read more and see more, I increase my confusion. My 15 year old son needs to pitch each week in order to reach his fastball from 79-81 mph. If he rests one or two months, his speed drops to about 74 mph. I would think that there is a great difference between rest and not rest. What does he need to do in order to be in fit and always have life in his arm? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At fifteen years old, your son still has open growth plates. It is important to not damage those growth plates. At his age, he should spend his time learning how to properly apply force and how to properly release his pitches to achieve the perfect spin axes, not to try to throw as hard as he can. When he is biologically sixteen years old, to get stronger for better release velocities, he can start my 120-Day High School Baseball Pitchers Interval-Training Program. When he is biologically nineteen years old, to achieve his maximal strength and release velocity, he can start my 315-Day Adult Baseball Pitchers Interval-Training Program. Thereafter, he can train every day without concern for damaging his pitching arm. Until I make my Coaching Baseball Pitchers book and my Baseball Pitching Instructional Video as easily understandable as I possibly can, I will continue to work on them. I want every parent, coach and pitcher to be able to learn how perform my pitching motion. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 020. I read through your email file for a while tonight and learned as I always do. My son always liked to step back with his glove foot while trying your motion and I see that you have now incorporated that step. He broke his left distal radius a few weeks ago and the cast has just come off. What should he do to rehabilitate it? He says it is sore, which I assume is true because of muscle atrophy during the time the arm was in a cast. He continues to vacillate between wanting to play and not wanting to play. School ball is getting started. He will positively not play this summer. Now, he wants to play, but he doesn’t know if he wants to pitch. We threw for the hell of it Sunday and just throwing, he throws strikes. I hope he pitches, but it is his call. I’ll try and read the changes you’ve made since the last video, which I thought was great. Good luck, happy new year and thanks for all you do for us dads. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I do not want pitchers to step back with their glove foot, I want them to start with their glove foot back a step. As a result, pitchers can use this pitching motion with and without base runners. When pitchers step back with their glove foot, another problem arises. They can easily lose the crow-hop throwing rhythm. To prevent this, I do not want them to lift their glove foot off the ground until their pitching arm reaches the last one-quarter of its movement. To satisfy Sir Isaac Newton's second law of motion, the law of acceleration, I want the longest driveline pitchers can achieve. To achieve their longest driveline, I want pitchers to start with their pitching foot on the pitching rubber and their glove foot an exaggerated step behind. From this starting position, pitchers can start their driveline well behind the pitching rubber. From this position, pitchers can step forward with their glove arm at shoulder height pointing toward home plate and their pitching arm at driveline height. When their glove foot contacts the ground, pitchers can powerfully push off the pitching rubber with their pitching foot and pull with their glove foot to move their center of mass in front of their glove foot. When their center of mass moves in front of their glove foot, pitchers can pull their glove arm straight backward, rapidly forwardly rotate their hips and shoulders and start the Slingshot action of their pitching arm. When the baseball moves in front of their acromial line, pitchers can powerfully push back with their glove foot and powerfully extend their pitching elbow and pronate their pitching forearm to release the baseball as close to home plate as possible. I recently started taking the front view of my pitchers from behind the catcher's position. This view permits us to watch the entire flight of the baseball, which not only shows the baseball spinning, but also shows the body position of the pitchers when the baseball reaches home plate. With my next high-speed film sessions, I plan to take the side view of my pitchers, so that we can see the length of their drivelines. It will be interesting to see whether we can achieve driveline in excess of the six foot driveline of the 'traditional' pitching motion. To rehabilitate from the atrophy of bone and muscle that the inactivity of a cast causes, your son should gently resume his normal activities. With open growth plates, he should not introduce any training stresses. For example, he can swim, dribble basketballs, swing baseball bats, catch thrown balls and so on at slightly increasing repetitions and intensities. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 021. My son has started the "Wrong Foot Transitions" and I have a question. During my last visit to your facility, you had demonstrated how to lock the upper arm after reaching the "ready position" by turning the key. This seems very comfortable during the torque fastball and the pronated curve, but when positioning your hand and wrist for the screwball and maxline fastball this seems very difficult to do. After reaching the "ready position," do you still turn the key to lock the upper arm if you are positioning the hand and wrist to throw a screwball or maxline fastball? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Before I discuss my Wrong Foot body action with my Transition arm action, I would like to affirm that your son has learned the lessons from my Pickoff with Step body action with my Slingshot arm action and my Wrong Foot body action with my Slingshot arm action. My Pickoff with Step body action with my Slingshot arm action teaches pitchers how to properly release my Maxline True Screwball, Maxline Fastball, Maxline Pronation Curve and Torque Fastball. They should start with appropriately-sized footballs and move on to baseballs only after they show that they can release the football throws with the proper spin axes. My Wrong Foot body action with my Slingshot arm action teaches pitchers how to drive their pitching hand and baseball straight forward without introducing any centripetal force. When pitchers raise both arms to shoulder height in front of them and, then, draw their pitching hand straight backward with their pitching elbow at ear height, they will automatically 'lock' their pitching upper arm with their body. Then, when they start to step forward with their pitching leg, if they keep their pitching elbow at ear height and reach straight backward with their pitching hand, they will stay in the 'locked' position from which they cannot take their pitching elbow behind their acromial line. Lastly, when their pitching foot contacts the ground, if they drive their pitching hand straight forward through release and 'stick' it at the target, then they will have eliminated all centripetal force that causes pitching forearm flyout. My Wrong Foot body action with my Transition arm action teaches pitchers how to pendulum swing their pitching arm to driveline height in line with the line from second base to home plate. To insure that the pitching hand smoothly flows from the transition phase into the acceleration phase, pitchers should start the step straight forward with their pitching foot during the final one-quarter of the pendulum swing. When the pitching hand achieves driveline height, pitchers have to assume the same position as when they reached as far backward as possible with my Slingshot arm action. Therefore, I recommend that pitchers perform my Slingshot arm action to feel where their pitching forearm and hand are for each type of pitch and immediately perform my Transition arm action and learn how to smoothly move into the same Slingshot position. You are absolutely correct. My 'turn-the-key' instruction works well for my Maxline Pronation Curve and Torque Fastball, but not for my Maxline True Screwball and Maxline Fastball. As a result, I no longer use that instruction. Instead, as I said above, I recommend that pitchers blend the reach back position of my Slingshot arm action into my Transition arm action. If he and you spend some time holding the reach back position of my Slingshot arm action for each pitch and immediately pendulum swing his pitching arm to driveline height, I am confident that the two of you will learn how to bridge that tiny gap between the two. Let me know how it goes. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 022. You have not posted any questions and answers lately. Just wondering if you've changed your format or just too busy presently. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you. This proves that I am one guy in a small town in Florida. I am an idiot. I changed the files in my computer to include my new 2005 Questions/Answers file, but I had not sent the changes to the one critical file on my web site. Please try again. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 023. How do you define the word medial as it applies to the medial epicondlyle? I understand the lateral epicondyle because it is on the OUTside of the elbow. Medial, to me, has the connotation of in or towards the middle. The medial epicondlyle, however, is on the INside of the elbow. I am curious how this is considered medial. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the anatomical position, athletes extend their arms in front of them with their palms facing upward. In this position, the medial sides of their elbows are toward the middle and the lateral sides are away from the middle. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 024. I do not want to take a lot of your time, but we are looking for a Pitching Clinic, or facility in which our twenty-three year old son can attend in the near future. He pitched college ball and continued with independent ball. Recently, he has worked out with a specific type of exercises with a training facility in our area. He is a very accomplished pitcher with an extreme dedication to keeping in EXCELLENT physical shape. His strength is having three types of pitches, and his Competitive, Bulldog type nature. His weakness is his speed. He has been working out with a very specific exercise routine designed to add speed to his pitches. We are now looking for someone on a higher level to work with in order to make sure the mechanics are there to maximize speed. His plan is to attend walk on try outs, and although we all realize the percentage of success is not in his favor we are supporting his desire to give it everything he has so he can walk away from it if need be knowing he has given it his all. He has been referred to as a Greg Maddux type pitcher, as his command of his pitches and his competitive nature has brought him the successes he has experienced. We are in searching for information or direction on a complete pitching camp, clinic, program, or individual he can work with in order to be prepared for spring baseball. Any information you have would be of value. I appreciate your time in reading my e-mail and any direction you can offer. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You say that you are searching for someone with whom your son can train in order to be prepared for spring baseball. My program starts the third Saturday in July and ends the fourth Saturday in May. While I have no knowledge of your local program, I doubt that it has shown your son how to achieve his maximum release velocity. To achieve maximum release velocity, pitchers have to apply their maximum force straight toward home plate over the maximum toward-home-plate distance with the maximum oppositely-directed force that their body permits. He needs to have spent several months learning the proper glove arm and pitching arm force coupling arm actions while increasing the strength of his bones, ligaments and tendons with both deceleration and acceleration resistances. He needs to learn how to properly drive and release the variety of types of pitches that he needs to succeed against the best hitters in the world. I believe that variety includes fastballs that move toward the glove and pitching arm side of home plate, a sinker, a screwball, a slider and a curve, all of which, to prevent injury and increase either release or spin velocity, requires that he powerfully pronates his pitching forearm. Lastly, to verify that he is properly applying force, he needs to study five hundred frames per second high-speed sixteen millimeter film of his pitching motion. I realize that it does not fit into your time frame, but if he is to truly be able to know that he has given his all to a professional baseball career, he needs to see what we do. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 025. Michael Johnson, the Olympic champion runner runs with an upper body that is perpendicular the the ground. When I ran track I was told to have a slight lean of the upper body. Which way do you think is better? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In sprinting, running velocity equals the length of their strides and how quickly they can repeat them. The length of strides that sprinters can achieve depends on how high they can lift their upper leg. The key muscle is the Psoas Major muscle. Therefore, the attachments of the Psoas Major muscle determine how high sprinters can lift their upper legs. When sprinters lean their trunk backward, they can lift their upper legs higher. The percent of fast-twitch muscle fibers in the running muscles determine how quickly they can repeat their strides. Of course, all of Newton's three laws play critical roles in the proper force application for running. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 026. You recently replied to an e-mail in your question and answer files that pitchers who have had the capsular shrink procedure during surgery never are able to recover and pitch at a high-level. I am an older position player and I have had that procedure done twice, in my twenties, the last almost six years ago now. I recovered fine enough after the first one to be a league all-star in my open-age summer adult league for three years, again as a position player, and for sure using the traditional throwing motion. I still had a fine arm for those three years, almost as good as the one I had at age 18. Then I got hurt again, had the shrinkage procedure again. I couldn't recover, no flexibility, no chance to throw with the traditional motion. That's when I discovered you. That shrinkage procedure calls for the surgeon to basically rub the tissue in question with a probe heated to 180 degrees. It's to cure what they call "laxity." I am now, after two years of stops and starts, 45 days into your adult program. I am a DVD owner and hope to be a Z-Hills visitor soon. I have found that I can throw without pain now. Though I am not yet to the full motion, I understand it and mess around with it during my Marshall workouts. I am able to make full infield throws at pretty good velocity, not the gun of my youth, but good enough to get by in any infield I would have to play in at this point. And it will only get better the deeper I get into the training program. I don't pitch, never pitched and never want to pitch. But, I am soliciting your views on if I can get to a competitive level as an infielder, given my surgical history. I bet you I can! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Two pitchers have come to me after surgeons performed this procedure on them. They both trained very hard and completed my program. However, when I took high-speed film of them, neither could raise their pitching upper arm to a line parallel with the line across the top of their shoulders, could never lay their pitching arm all the way back with their pitching upper arm locked with their body or drive their shoulder behind their pitching forearm as far out front as my other pitchers. As a result, when they tried to throw as hard as they could, they always complained of discomfort in the back of their shoulder. Obviously, even my twenty-five pound wrist weight exercises could not rehabilitate their problem, which I believe was a scarred posterior capsule from the surgery. However, they did throw well enough to be position players. I look forward to your visit. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 027. I would not be opposed to seeing what you do, we just need to do something now. The local training program is not a pitching program. He is merely doing strength exercises for his legs, opening his chest and basic body conditioning. It is a specific type of strength training, not merely lifting weights. Do you do one on one assessments? My son has three pitches that he has been successful, with, and has been a successful pitcher. I don't want you to get the impression he is just a novice. I realize you do not know him, but what I am looking for is someone he can throw for and get guidance, at a higher level than he has been exposed to thus far. If you are available one on one, I would be interested in knowing what the cost is, and where you are located. My son is available now till March. He has just now starting to throw with the local college baseball team. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My Pitcher Research/Training Center is in Zephyrhills, FL, which is twenty-five miles northeast of Tampa. I know that your son uses the 'traditional' pitching motion. Therefore, I know that, at the very least, he has late pitching forearm turnover, reverse pitching forearm bounce and pitching forearm flyout. These are critical flaws that prevent him from achieving his maximum release velocity and pitch-after-pitch are destroying him pitching arm. Nevertheless, if you and he want me to take videotape of his pitching motion and show him that he does this, I will. Then, he can watch the pitchers that I train and learn what he must do to become the best pitcher that he can be. That is the something that he needs to do now. If he does anything else, he will be wasting valuable learning and training time. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 028. My son was drafted as a "draft and follow" in 2000 right out of high school. He attended a junior college and developed tendonitis in his throwing arm. Since then, he has not had a much velocity as he did prior. Right now, he seems to be pain-free and as parents, we wonder how he might increase his velocity to the point where it was prior to the injury. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My adult baseball pitchers interval-training program will strengthen your son's pitching arm such that he will be able to throw as hard as he can without discomfort. If he masters my pitching motion, he will be able to apply greater toward-home-plate force to his pitches over longer drivelines. If he masters my grips and releases, he will be able to throw the variety of pitches that he will need to pitch to the best hitters in baseball. However, he has to train hard and learn every day for as long as it takes him. My basic wrist weight and iron ball training program takes two hundred and sixty-six days. After that, he has to throw every day until he can throw two of every three of all types of pitches in the strike zone. This requires a single-minded commitment. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 029. To my question on the difference between medial and lateral you replied: "In the anatomical position, athletes extend their arms in front of them with their palms facing upward. In this position, the medial sides of their elbows are toward the middle and the lateral sides are away from the middle." What does the 'middle" refer to, the middle of the elbow, the middle of the torso? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- While standing, in the anatomical position, athletes have their arms hanging at their sides palms facing forward. With regard to labeling the structures of the two arms, medial is toward the midline of their body. For example, the medial epicondyles of the Humerus bones are on the little finger side of the arms, which face the middle. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 030. As you can probably tell, I am very inexperienced with this type of situation. Are you available to talk live, so I can better understand what you are saying. Please supply a time when you are available and I will make sure I am available in order to talk a little. I respect your time and obvious knowledge in this area, I am just a concerned parent trying to help support and guide my son in this very critical and sensitive time in his life. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- While my schedule is not uniform, the best time to telephone me is between 11:30 and 12:00AM. The telephone number at which you can best reach me is (813)783-1357. I understand your difficulty. With so many pitching coach wannabes that have absolutely no idea what they are doing and only want to steal as much money from you as possible, when you talk with someone who wants to become a partner with your son in his quest to find out how good of a pitcher he can be, it is unsettling. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 031. Once a player has completed your adult program, does he conintue to only throw 48 pitches each day? Does the player need to increase the stress to continue to improve, or will he stay at that level and perfect the motor unit contraction relaxation sequence? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My adult baseball pitchers interval-training programs takes two hundred and six days to increase the wrist weights from ten pounds to twenty-five pounds and the iron balls from six pounds to twelve pounds. This training strengthens the bones, ligaments and tendons associated with baseball pitching. Immediately thereafter, pitchers start my sixty day eight pound iron ball recoil training cycle. This training increases the number of capillaries and the substrate storage capacity in the muscle fibers associated with baseball pitching. Then, my pitchers increase their baseball throws by twenty-four pitches and add my Maxline Fastball Sinker and Torque Fastball Slider to my basic four four-seam pitches. After whatever time the pitchers take to throw each of these pitches for strikes two-thirds of the time, my pitchers practice my four four-seam pitches on one day and my six two seam pitches the next day. With my sinker and slider, they add my two-seam Maxline True Screwball, Maxline Fastball, Torque Fastball Curve and Torque Fastball. To simulate bullpens, every third day, I have my pitchers throw their last twenty-four baseball at maximum intensity. We call this, a blowout bucket. When pitchers start pitching competitively, between games and bullpens, my pitchers decrease their pitches to thirty-six. The following off-season, pitchers need to complete my sixty-day fifteen pound wrist weight recoil training cycle and continue alternating two and four-seam pitches with blowout buckets. The following off-season, pitchers need to complete my sixty-day ten pound iron ball recoil training cycle and continue alternating two and four-seam pitches with blowout buckets. The following off-season, pitchers need to complete my sixty-day twenty pound wrist weight recoil training cycle and continue alternating two and four-seam pitches with blowout buckets. The following off-season, pitchers need to complete my sixty-day twelve pound iron ball recoil training cycle and continue alternating two and four-seam pitches with blowout buckets. The following off-season, pitchers need to complete my sixty-day twenty-five pound wrist weight recoil training cycle and continue alternating two and four-seam pitches with blowout buckets. When I pitched, I completed a sixty-day thirty pound wrist weight recoil training cycle and a sixty-day sixteen pound iron ball recoil training cycle and maintained those levels until the end of my professional career. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 032. When I chat with parents who have their (under 16 y/o) kids in pitching classes or stregnth and conditioning programs, they often tell me that their kids are getting flexibility around their joints. This, they tell me is very important. This often comes up in the context of "stretching". What does it mean to have flexibility around joints? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As you know, muscles do not stretch. However, during the adolescent growth years, when youth pitchers throw too hard for too long, they can stretch their Ulnar Collateral Ligament and the Gleno-Humeral Ligaments. This decreases the stability of these joints. Then, as adult pitchers, they will not be able to throw as hard as they could have and are more susceptible to injuries. Joint flexibility measures that range of motion associated with the joint. The elbow has flexion and extension ranges of motion. The shoulder has flexion, extension, abduction, horizontal flexion, horizontal extension, inward and outward rotation ranges of motion. I recommend that athletes develop their various ranges of motion while they properly apply the forces required of their skills. However, to prevent them from stretching their Ulnar Collateral Ligament or Gleno-Humeral Ligament, youth pitchers should not throw baseballs for more than two months per year. Researchers call this, dynamic flexibility. I never want athletes to stretch. Researchers call this, static flexibility. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 033. I found your website searching for information on how to improve velocity. We have a son who is a pitcher and will graduate from high school this spring. He is a young senior and will turn 18 in August. Both NAIA and D1 programs are currently recruiting him. His ultimate goal (like so many other kids his age) is to make it to the majors. He has very good control and his velocity is in the mid 80s. I have been told that he has “excellent mechanics”, but after viewing your website that statement probably doesn’t have a lot of credibility. I happened upon your website after watching my son “stress” about what to do. If he goes NAIA he can probably play his first year with little if any tuition costs. D1, on the other hand, he would most likely sit his first season and be short on funds. His high school coach does not think that D1 ball is a necessity to make it to the majors, but I don’t think my son has completely bought into this. In looking at his situation appears to me that another option would be to take a year off between high school and college and attend your pitching school. Well, that’s the background information, now some questions. I apologize if any of my questions have already been answered in your question/answer files, but I feel I need to get answers right away so we can make an informed decision. Is our son old enough to attend your training? If he were not old enough, what would you advise him to do? If your principles are not widely accepted, how do your graduates keep from being re-trained in improper techniques by their college coaches? The credentials you list on your website are very impressive. What can you offer as proof of the success of your students? (I trust you will not be offended. As every parent I just have our son’s best interest in mind.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For my forty-five week adult baseball pitchers interval-training program, I accept recent high school graduates and college baseball pitchers with two years of eligibility remaining. Your son fits my criteria. Until they have their game perfected, I advise serious-minded high school pitchers to not attend college. Then, I advise them to attend a Florida junior college. I teach straight-line force application. Tom House and the other plagiarists now teach directionality. I teach maximally lengthening the driveline. Tom House and the other plagiarists now teach release your pitches closer to home plate. Unfortunately, they do not know how to properly lenthen the driveline, the importance of increasing the oppositely-directed force, the importance of the crow-step pitching rhythm or the importance of my pronation releases, which result in higher quality pitches. Nevertheless, my point is: my principles are becoming widely accepted. With regard to college coaches wanting to change them, when my pitchers show them the quality of their game, they usually leave them alone. If not, pitch for someone else. This is no longer high school, students can easily and readily change schools. When I become partners with pitchers, I also have their best baseball pitching interest in mind. I will make sure that they never injure themselves. I will make sure that they know how to throw my pitches to the best of their ability. As long as they want to pitch baseball collegiately or professionally, I will continue to work with them. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 034. How are things in Zephyrhills? I am assuming the weather is a lot nicer down there than it is up here in the single digit temperatures up here. Just writing to let you know where I am at and I had a few questions for you. I have continued my training without a hitch, getting into the sport center everyday and throwing, while also continuing my iron ball and wrist weight exercises. Our coaches have us throwing 30 pitches every other day to catchers. I have been doing my two buckets of balls after this, usually working on pitches I am not ready to throw to catchers. Will this put me into more of a regression, having these 30 or so more pitches added into my workout? I know I should probably blood flow after, but for some reason my body and my mind can't stop the adrenaline I get and I just feel like ripping the ball every time. My pitches are really coming along, my curveball seems to get better and better everyday and my velocity is steadily increasing. I have been told both are better than they were during fall ball. I was throwing to one of our freshman catchers the other day and threw a maxline fastball right by his ear. I don't think he ever saw it coming. I had a nice chuckle with that. I find myself throwing pitches that amaze myself. It is so much fun to be able to throw everyday. I have to bite my tongue when I hear all the bullshit our coaches are telling our other pitchers. I've tried to explain to them the truth, but it's like talking to a brick wall. The main reason I'm writing you is over the last week or so I have experienced a little discomfort in my forearm. It hasn't slowed me down any, but I'm wondering if eventually it may lead to something or is nothing at all. The discomfort is about halfway up my forearm, next to my ulna bone. If I put my palm facing forward, the discomfort is on the left side of my ulna bone, and I can increase the discomfort by pushing in on the left side right next to the bone, towards the bone. I am wondering if this is due to releasing with more pronation and possibly using more finger flexor, is it fascia tissue, or I'm not really sure. I remember another pitcher having some discomfort right along his ulna bone and I thought I remember hearing you say it was the flexors. I think I have ruled out fascia because I remember that only bugging me while throwing with a bounce in my arm. This discomfort does not bother me while I throw. Any suggestions as to flaws I may have brought out or is this expect, having finger flexors discomfort after having maintained for roughly 7 months? Our season starts at the end of Feb. with a trip down to Ft. Pierce, FL and our season and school ends towards the end of May. I am still planning on coming down for the recoil cycle during the summer as long as that is OK with you. I know you are prompt in returning your emails, so I hope to hear back from you soon. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for the update. I had twenty years of the fun that you are starting to experience. I wish you as much. The discomfort that you describe is a middle ulna bone fascia tear. If you powerfully pronate your releases, you can exceed the limits of this fascia. However, it is structurally irrelevant. Keep doing what you are doing. It will go away. You may have to moderate the start of your baseball throws to allow the blood flow to infuse this area, but, otherwise, let is fly. Distal ulnar nerve groove fascia tears, while still structurally irrelevant, indicate reverse pitching forearm bounce. Therefore, when pitchers make that complaint, I tell them what they are doing wrong and make sure that they correct it. You are not doing anything wrong, just more powerfully than it can presently withstand. If you continue, the tissue will adjust and the discomfort will go away. See you this summer. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 035. I have a couple of follow-up questions, if you don't mind: Do you still have openings available for your forty-five week class starting this summer? Why do you advise pitchers to attend Florida Junior Colleges after your course? I would again reiterate that your website is very impressive. However, I am again asking how we can get a sense of the results of your program? I'm sure you have numerous success stories, and I also see your need to keep your students anonymous, what do you suggest? Do you possibly have a brief synopsis of each of your graduating classes in numbers only? For example, in 2002, 8 received college scholarships, 1 signed a professional contract, 2 unknown. Average velocity at start of class was 78 and end average was 85. (I'm just throwing out ideas, not trying to be a pain) Before we could make the commitment to the "partnership," I am sure we would want to make a visit. Is that acceptable to you? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I will only accept twelve students. I have had more than that express interest, but, until I receive the non-refundable six hundred dollar ($600.00) deposit check, I do not reserve a space for them. Upon arrival, I credit their equipment and electric bill accounts with that deposit. I recommend Florida Junior Colleges because of the year-around training, the scouting and the quality of the baseball. I promise that, at the end of my forty-five week interval-training program, every student will understand what they have to do to become the best pitcher that they can be. They will no longer wonder whether they could have pitched collegiately or professionally. They will know. Many of my pitchers have succeeded beyond their wildest expectations. Others have moved on with their life. I believe that all succeeded. I welcome all visitors. Certainly, I would welcome and expect that anybody thinking of committing a minimum of forty-five weeks would want to see what it is all about. We train from 9:00 to 11:00AM seven days a week. Let me know whether you need directions. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 036. First of all, let me apologize if I'm getting to be a pain in your butt! In your reply to my first email you stated: "With regard to college coaches wanting to change them, when my pitchers show them the quality of their game, they usually leave them alone. If not, pitch for someone else." Today I was reading through some of your question/answer files from 2004. In your response to question 863 you stated: "Because of the frustration I was feeling about pitchers compromising my pitching motion with the 'traditional' pitching motion, I had tried to figure out how I could get pitchers to stop this. I thought that I might have to return to college coaching, but athletic directors do not like innovation and the NCAA rules do not let me train pitchers every day. I thought that I needed to train pitchers for a professional team. If I controlled whether they kept their jobs, they would have to do what I teach." Don't get me wrong, everything I have read on your site makes perfect sense. However, this last statement reads as if college & professional coaches "won't buy it" and force the kids back to traditional. I'm getting totally confused! Is the reality of the matter that a kid has to stick with "traditional" pitching techniques (even at the risk of injury) in order to be given the opportunity to play at the college or professional levels? My son can go play college baseball right now on a scholarship. Since I know his ultimate goal is to play pro ball, your program looks like a great opportunity to improve his chances and better prepare him for college. But, if he is the greatest pitcher in the world after your class, but no coach will take him, how do I sell that? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With my pitching motion, pitchers will reach their maximum release velocity, will have the broadest range of high-quality pitches, will throw every day and will never injure their pitching arms. With the 'traditional' pitching motion, pitchers cannot reach their maximum release velocity, cannot throw all types of pitches and cannot throw every day and will destroy their pitching arms. That professional and college pitching coaches have no idea what they are doing and teach the 'traditional' pitching motion out of ignorance and laziness should remain their problem, not your son's. My frustration with my pitchers compromising my pitching motion to try to satisfy their 'traditional' pitching coaches is that I knew that they would never become the best pitchers that they could be and I would never have examples of my perfect pitching motion. Unlike the other pitching coach wannabes, I cannot simply point to some pitcher and claim his pitching motion as the perfect pitching motion. I knew that as soon as one guy learned my pitching motion, others would see how simple, powerful and effective it is. Although they are not perfect, I now have four guys with very close to my perfect pitching motion. Two have not yet finished my basic interval-training program. One is completing his first off-season recoil training cycles. And, the other is pitching for a Puerto Rican team in the Caribbean World Series. I will get high-speed film of these four pitchers and the others training with me this year. I will include the film and my simplified learning sequences in my next video. To me, your choice is simple. Your son stays with the 'traditional' pitching motion, never becomes the best pitcher he can be and destroys his pitching arm. Or, your son trains with me, becomes the best pitcher that he can be and never injures his pitching arm. More and more college coaches are recognizing the value of my pitching motion and some professional teams are interested. Things are changing. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 037. Again, I must preface my email with an apology. I hope I have not stuck my nose in too deep so as to offend you. You may think I’m an idiot, but I have spent my entire day composing this email. Why? Because I see so much value in what you are doing and I would love to see my son benefit from it. I would also love to see, what appears to be, your life long ambition fulfilled. Your latest technical response is again professional, makes complete sense to me, and I am 98% sold on your methods. But, I also have to say that I feel like you’re "sidestepping" my question. We have a lot of similarities. Like you, we are not afraid to go "against the grain". We home schooled all of our children from kindergarten through the sixth grade. This was not popular with the local school system but did not hinder them from re-entering public schools or going on to college. For years now in our business we have been producing a product, which is controlled by software that we have written in-house, specifically for the task required. (Similar to Dr Marshall Pitching techniques) All of our competitors use” canned" software, which they "tailor" to meet their needs. This software is produced by a software giant and can be purchased "off the shelf" so consultants and owners assume it must be good. (Similar to traditional pitching) This vastly limits our sales, but we continue to fight the battle because we "know" that our software is absolutely the best for this application. If a potential customer is interested, we can give them references and/or take them to sites where our product is installed. My point is this; although we are used to fighting uphill battles, at the end of the battles, we have been able to benefit from our means. With home schooling, our kids have excelled academically. In business we are able to make a living; we certainly have not gotten rich, but I think we are successful. To make an informed decision we need a sense of how the employers (teams/coaches) will accept our employee. (A “Dr. Marshall” trained pitcher) I do not doubt that with your training, our son will be the best pitcher that he can be and will never injure his pitching arm. But that is not his goal; it is a means to his goal. To be analogous to business: I don’t think pitchers come to you so they can say, "I'm the best pitcher that I can be and I will never injure my pitching arm." I think they come to you (whether or not they have the talent) because they want to be "hired" by college and/or professional baseball teams. And once they are "hired" they know they can continue to work because they will never injure their pitching arm. Therefore, your program is a means to their end. In reviewing your information I truly think that you have a “higher calling”. It is very evident to me that you are not “in it for the money” and you really want to reduce injury, help kids, and improve the game. So I assume that your ultimate goal is for your methodologies to gain wide spread acceptance. (I realize there is personal satisfaction for you in each student that reaches his full potential–injury free) Therefore, every pitcher that makes it on a team, and that team accepts their (Marshall) motion, is a means to your end. So now I have established that the “partnership” could have definite merit. You help our son to attain his goals (if he has the talent) and he in turn helps you attain yours. My son cannot attain his goals, nor can you attain yours, if there are no teams/coaches that will use a “Marshall pitcher”. You stated: “That professional and college pitching coaches have no idea what they are doing and teach the 'traditional' pitching motion out of ignorance and laziness should remain their problem, not yours.” How can it not be our problem? It is a problem for both of us; it keeps us both from reaching our goals. The only way you can say it is not a problem for you, is if you take the attitude that you don’t care because you know you’re right. But how does that help your pitchers? You stated: “To me, your choice is simple. Your son stays with the 'traditional' pitching motion, never becomes the best pitcher he can be and destroys his pitching arm. Your son trains with me, becomes the best pitcher that he can be and never injures his pitching arm.” Aren’t you really saying: “Your choice is NOT simple. Your son can stay with the 'traditional' pitching motion, play college ball, maybe pro, never become the best pitcher he can be, and most likely will destroy his pitching arm. Your son trains with me, becomes the best pitcher that he can be and never injures his pitching arm, but will never have an opportunity to play college or pro ball”. We’re shooting ourselves in the foot! What good does it do be the very best injury free pitcher and not be able to pitch? Put yourself in the mind of an 18 year old, what would you choose? You can’t ask someone to give up the end because they are using incorrect means. What can be done to get Marshall pitchers on teams, and to spread your techniques? Or if that’s not a problem, and they are on teams why won’t you expound on it? Why not tell success stories? Why not provide references? Do you know specific Jr. or 4-year colleges that will use your pitchers? Do you have graduates at the Jr. or 4-year college level that are currently pitching using your methods? Do you know specific professional teams that will use your pitchers? Do you have graduates at the professional level that are currently pitching using your methods? If the answer is yes, great! Paint us a positive picture. If it’s no, do you know any teams or coaches that you can get to buy in? I will close as I started; I think you and I are very similar. We are both technically minded, we love to engineer, build, and refine. But, we hate to market or do sales. However we both need to market. I to put food on the table, and you to prevent injuries, help pitchers be all they can be, and to preserve your life-long work. We have to make this work! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am not offended. I do not think that you are an idiot. I am also not side-stepping anything. I taught in the public schools. My children attended public schools. My children graduated from public colleges. I am one guy in a small town in Florida. I do not have the staff or equipment to scientifically provide the answers you seek. I will not make unsubstantiated claims. I respect the privacy of the pitchers with whom I work. I can only give you my word. You can either trust my word or not. I recommend that you come see for yourself. My goal is to eliminate pitching arm injuries. I do not need your son to help me achieve that goal. I am doing what I am doing because it appears that I am the only person who understands why baseball pitchers destroy their pitching arms and what they must do to prevent that from happening. Your choice remains simple. Choose the 'traditional' pitching motion and watch your son destroy his pitching arm or choose my pitching motion and watch your son throw harder with high-quality pitches without destroying his pitching arm. If he masters my pitches, throws strikes and gets batters out, then he will pitch. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 038. I subscribe to Baseball America magazine where I hope you get a nice response from the ad you have every month. Assuming you read the magazine, you may have noted the considerable baseball bat ads. The controversy seems to be around whether flexible handle baseball bats are good or not. As the anti-flexible bat ads point out, it does seem to me that the bat would flex at the wrong time to get maximum power on the ball. Do you have an opinion on this subject? Also, as I have to buy my high school son a bat soon, I have always been under the impression that the speed at which you can swing a bat is twice as important as the weight of the bat. I use the formula Mass X velocity squared as the basis of my opinion. High school bats have to have a -3 height to weight differential. His choices seem to be a 31" 28 oz versus a 33" 30 oz bat. I am advising him to pick the lighter bat. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Although I advertise in Baseball America, I do not subscribe to it. Therefore, I am unaware of a baseball bat controversy. I have no idea what a flexible handle baseball means. Off the top of my head, it sounds like advertising nonsense. With regard to the baseball bat, the key to successful contact with the baseball is the weight. Batters must be able to control the pathway of the center of mass of the bat. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 039. I have been reading your letters and book for about three years now. I have read with much interest your views on exercise. Namely that stretching is out and that you must exercise every day. Over the past three years, I have walked probably 2-3 days a week but, because of travel, laziness, etc I never got to the every day mode. Until now. I have walked every day so far this year; about 2.5 miles. I am happy to report that I have lost 7 pounds. Given my weight and given the fact that I can't seem to kick my "see food" diet, it's nothing to brag about. Nevertheless, it's a start. Had I not been fortunate enough to come across your facility in my travels, I am quite certain my son would have a ruined arm and I'd be 7 pound heavier. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Congratulations. Now, if we all would learn that we eat to live, not we live to eat. We have to eat less and eliminate more animal fat from our diets. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 040. When a third baseman or center fielder throws a baseball your way, should they have their index and middle fingers together as you instruct for the maxline fastball? I think most coaches tell kids to keep their index and middle fingers slightly apart as you do with your torque fastball. Also, I always told my son to throw with the 4 seams of the baseball. Based on my interpretation of your book, he should throw with two seams as this would create less resistance from the air molecules. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Position players want their throws to go absolutely straight and carry. This means that they should with four-seam baseball rotations with my stripe absolutely vertical. Because my maxline fastball throwing arm action is longer, which means a slightly higher release velocity, I recommend that they use my maxline force application technique whenever possible. However, when position players have to make a throw dramatically toward their glove side, such as a right-handed catcher throwing to third base on a steal attempt, I recommend my torque fastball technique. I would agree that two fingers on either side of my stripe would help keep the stripe vertical in flight. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 041. I have great memories of you in an Expos uniform, you were a real battler, and I recall Jim Bouton writing very highly of you in his book. Could elaborate on what exactly Gene Mauch did to make you feel that you advanced thanks to his assistance? I noticed that you did your BA, MA and PhD all at the same school. Often, people choose to go to different institutions to do this, why did you choose the same school? And lastly, I believe you were a practitioner of the screwball, which doesn't seem to be thorwn at all anymore. Do you have commnets about the demise of this pitch? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I credit Gene Mauch with giving me the opportunity to learn what I had to do to become a major league pitcher. I attended Michigan State University for my bachelors, masters and doctoral degree because they had Bill Heusner, Wayne Van Huss and Vern Seefeldt. These three men helped me learn what I had to do to research Biomechanics, Exercise Physiology and Motor Skill Acquisition. In 1967, I took high-speed film of my pitching motion. That film showed me the critical importance of pitcher pronating the releases of all pitches. With that information and my knowledge of the Magnus Effect of Bernoulli's fluid flow equation, I developed my force application technique for throwing my Maxline Fastball Sinker and Maxline True Screwball. Thirty-seven years later, I still appear to be the only person to understand these pitches. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 042. I have a 15 year old son that tops out at 86 when pitching. He's been told he has great potential. He's a sophomore this year. He's considered the #3 pitcher for his school and will probably be used as a closer. The question I have is his school is lacking this year for a catcher. My son just so happens to enjoy catching and is quite good at it. My husband refuses to let him catch as he was told by a college baseball coach that a pitcher should not catch. After catching for inter-squad last week, my son's coach wants him to catch occasionally. What is your opinion on this? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Catching will teach your son about pitching. If he wants to do it, I would let him. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 043. I thought you would enjoy reading what Paul Nyman recently said. I try very hard (for me) do not "meddle" in what happens here. And please believe me when I say that at times it is difficult for me not to rain on someone's parade. But I also believe that it is very important for people to ask questions and express their opinions even though at times their questions and/or opinions are not consistent with what I consider factual information. But again I also try to moderate that by saying to myself we are all only capable of seeing what we are capable of seeing, yours truly included. That being said, I have to balance here the freedom of expression with my concern for the well-being of those who read what is posted here. In other words my concern that someone will read what is posted here and then go out and try and do it. Or as the case may be not do it. The intent behind my post regarding spitball's references to injury and counter rotation was not to pick on spitball as individual. It was to caution everyone that what is posted here is for the most part opinion unless supported by other information. And that is important for all of you both posters and readers to participate and to question what is and more importantly, what is NOT posted. The only reason why my or any one else's opinions should have any precedence over other opinions is my or their ability to support that opinion with information/facts other than my own opinion. In the world of academic journals, research this is synonymous with peer review. Also all of you who visit here need to understand, especially those who consider themselves "knowledgeable" with respect to pitching mechanics and/or training, that I consider 90% of what you think you know to be virtually useless with respect to maximizing a players throwing abilities/skills/capabilities. And before some of you crawl off into your sand boxes please continue to read with an open mind (if possible). What I mean by this statement is that traditional pitching culture (what constitutes good pitching mechanics and training) pitching culture that most of you have been brought up on is virtually worthless with respect to developing high-level players. The primary reason being is that it addresses pitching and not throwing. Pitching and throwing are two totally different "animals". Pitching is what is doing whatever is necessary to defeat the batter and/or winning the baseball game. Throwing is the act of using the body to propel an object through space usually with a specific goal in mind for so doing. At just about every level except the major-league themselves, those who have throwing proficiency (velocity, location and movement) are more attractive to coaches and scouts than those who have pitching proficiency (getting batters out). Anyone who disputes this is living in a fool's paradise. The paradox is that virtually no one teaches throwing and everyone teaches pitching. I repeat again that no one, and I repeat no one who post here is "immune" from catching my "cold" if I feel what you post here has the potential to misinform or create what I consider less than desirable results. This being said I would like to make a comment on counter rotation. Way back in the early days of SETPRO my approach was much more biomechanical that was physiological with respect to understanding how the body throws the ball. Also these are the days of robotic mechanics as espoused by many alleged pitching experts such as pause at the top of the delivery, go to the high cock position, keep the shoulders in a straight-line, down and out as defined by keeping the lower body moving in a straight-line, etc. etc. But what was actually seen in most high-level pitchers was everything but. Many pitchers showed their back pocket and even completely turned their back to the batter. From a physics perspective it make sense that the longer you could apply force to the baseball the greater your possible velocity. But simple physics doesn't tell the whole story. Physiology has an equal and possibly superior role in defining how effectively a player will throw the baseball. Also most people are only capable of seeing what they're capable of seeing. In other words counter rotation to me is not the same as counter rotation to you. There is no way that 30° of counter rotation can be defined as too much or too little. Depending upon the players physical capabilities, how he action throws the ball, arm action, etc. etc., 10° of counter rotation may be too much. 30° may be too little (Luis Tiant, Kevin Brown). As with most things people have a tendency to use the rationale/mentality that if a little bit is good than a lot is better. Most of what is espoused as good pitching mechanics is based on the principle of throwing strikes. From everything I know about movement and movement control it is easier to throw strikes if one reduces the complexity (degrees of freedom) of the throwing process. Bottom line is that the degree/magnitude of counter rotation in its purest sense is nothing more than doing what is necessary with the body to achieve the best final result. Counter rotation is nothing more than loading to unload. How much loading is totally dependent on the individual and his abilities/skills to use his body to throw the baseball. When it comes to swinging a throwing quickness supersedes length of time. In other words players who are quicker to execute the sequence than those who take a longer time (path/distance). When all is said and done, it's really about momentum development and transfer and rate of force development. Long slow movements are less productive than short fast movements. Again bottom line being momentum production transfer. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I assume that you took this from a chat room discussion somewhere, where some guy, nicknamed, 'spitter, commented on the injury potential when pitchers turn their backs to home plate. Mr. Nyman calls this, counter rotation. I call it, reverse rotation. I agree with Mr. Nyman that most of what pitching coaches teach is worthless and without scientific merit. I believe that pitching coaches have to cite scientific principles for why they teach what they teach. Then, instead of discussing why he disagrees that 'counter rotation' causes pitching arm injuries, Mr. Nyman tells us that pitching and throwing are 'two totally different animals.' He defines pitching as doing whatever is necessary to defeat batters and throwing as the act of using the body to propel an object through space. When I teach pitchers how to throw the variety of types of pitches that they will need to succeed at the highest levels, I teach them how to use their body to propel baseballs toward home plate. With regard to every body part except the pitching forearm, wrist, hand and fingers, I teach pitchers to use their body precisely the same as I would teach position players to apply force to their pitches. While pitchers release their baseballs at different horizontal angles than pitchers, they apply force identically. Mr. Nyman supports his contention that 'counter rotation' is not harmful by saying that many high-level pitchers, including Luis Tiant and Kevin Brown, show their back pocket and even completely turn their back to the batter. Mr. Nyman shows that he does not understand the difference between reporting and researching. Even with the epidemic of pitching arm injuries among high-level pitchers, he wants others to throw the way that they do. Mr. Nyman continues that the longer pitchers apply force to the baseball, the greater their possible release velocity. He says that the pitching arm action that pitchers use is more important than whether they reverse rotate their hips and shoulders ten or thirty degrees beyond the driveline toward home plate. Mr. Nyman fails to understand that when baseball pitchers take the baseball laterally behind their body, before they can throw it toward home plate, they have to return the baseball to their pitching arm side of their body. As a result, they generate an unnecessary horizontal force that they have to overcome before they can apply force to the baseball toward home plate. It is this side-to-side force that causes the pitching forearm to move laterally away from the body, such that the olecranon process slams into the olecranon process. This action causes bone chips and worse. I agree with Mr. Nyman when he says that baseball pitchers can more easily throw strikes when they reduce the complexity of their throwing process. To me, this means that from the moment they start the baseball toward home plate until they release the baseball, baseball pitchers apply force straight toward home plate. I teach my pitchers that they take the baseball behind their body toward second base to maximally length both their pitching arm and the posterior length of their driveline. I teach my pitchers that from this posterior-most position of their pitching hand and baseball at driveline height, they must uniformly accelerate the baseball straight toward home plate over as great a distance as possible. I tell them to 'work the front side' of the pitching motion. Mr. Nyman says that 'counter rotation' is nothing more than loading and unloading. Loading means athletes maximally lengthen the muscles that they are about to powerfully contract. I agree that baseball pitchers must maximally lengthen the muscles that they are about to powerfully contract to accelerate the baseball straight toward home plate. However, to accomplish this, they do not have to reverse rotate their acromial line and pitching arm beyond the line between home plate and second base. Next, Mr. Nyman says that physiology makes an equal or superior contribution to release velocity. He says that long, slow movements are less production than short, fast movements. What he is talking about here is muscle contractility. Athletes with higher percentages of fast-twitch muscle fibers can move their limbs more rapidly than those with lower percentages. However, when these athletes use inferior force application techniques, they cannot achieve their potential and they injure themselves. The list of high release velocity baseball pitchers who rupture their Ulnar Collateral Ligaments goes on and on. We have to eliminate pitching arm injuries and counter rotation of the acromial line and pitching arm beyond the line between home plate and second base is a major cause. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 044. Thank you much for your hospitality this week when I visited your facility. I would encourage anyone who has not visited your facility to do so. I did notice that many of your students are still bringing the ball beyond their acromial lines. This somewhat surprised me because you put so much emphasis on correcting this flaw. It got me wondering how much of the success of your program not causing arm injuries is due to your iron ball and wrist weight program as opposed to your adherence to Newton's three laws of motion? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What you see that you believe indicates that some of my pitchers take their pitching elbow behind their acromial line is when you see the baseball laterally behind their head. This does not mean that they have taken their pitching elbow behind their acromial line. This means that they are reverse rotating their shoulders too far. This is a flaw that, while it does not cause injury, does meaningfully decrease their release consistency. We continually work with those pitchers to get them to only take the baseball toward second base. The key to understanding when pitchers actually do voluntarily take their pitching elbow behind their acromial line lies in the relative positions of their pitching hand and pitching elbow at the end of their transition phase. When they have their pitching elbow behind their body, but they have their pitching hand to their pitching arm side, that means that they failed to 'lock' their pitching upper arm with their body. This action permits them to voluntarily take their pitching elbow behind their acromial line. However, if, as with all my pitchers, they have their pitching palm facing upward and their pitching hand behind their body, then they have 'locked' their pitching upper arm with their body and cannot possibly move their pitching elbow behind their acromial line. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 045. I have an above average knowledge of the pitching anatomy. Where in your work do you provide a glossary or pictures that will help outline the muscles and bones you refer to and the various motions (pronate, supinate, midline, posterior, anterior, etc)? Separately, Mark Cresse has a stable of capable coaches and instructors in his schools. To your knowledge, does Mark himself subscribe to your general philosophies on pitching? Does his personal background as a bullpen coach make him unique for pitching instruction? I am not looking for either an endorsement nor bashing of Mark one way or the other however my bias is that his background as a catcher limits his ability to impart knowledge and a pitchers "feel" to students. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I do not provide a glossary in which I explain the terms that I use. However, it is on my list of things to do. In the meantime: 01. Forearm pronation means to rotate the thumb side of the forearm toward the little finger side of the forearm. 02. Forearm supination means to rotate the thumb side of the forearm away from the little finger side of the forearm. 03. Midline means the vertical middle of the body. 04. When athletes stand in the anatomical position with their arms hanging at the sides with their palms forward, posterior means to the back of their body. 05. When athletes stand in the anatomical position with their arms hanging at the sides with their palms forward, anterior means to the front of their body. During 1974, 1975 and 1976, when I pitched for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Mark Cresse was a young bullpen catcher. Although a very nice person, Mr. Cresse has no background that would make him capable of providing meaningful instruction for any baseball skills. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 046. This question is in response to your reply on question #44 of the 2005 questions. It concerns bringing the ball laterally behind the acromial line. Here is the first paragraph of your response: “What you see that you believe indicates that some of my pitchers take their pitching elbow behind their acromial line is when you see the baseball laterally behind their head. This does not mean that they have taken their pitching elbow behind their acromial line. Rather, this means that they are reverse rotating their shoulders too far. This is a flaw that, while it does not cause injury, does meaningfully decrease their release consistency. We continually work with those pitchers to get them to only take the baseball toward second base.” I understand how this impedes release consistency, but I am surprised to learn that this does not cause injury. It was my understanding that, if the ball reaches drive line height behind the back of the pitcher, then the first forward movement of the baseball is toward the third base line. That the inertial weight of the baseball causes the forearm to sling out to horizontal with the upper arm as the pitcher struggles to fight the fly out. I thought that this causes the olecranon process of the forearm to collide with the olecranon fossa of the humerus. Are you saying that this will not happen as long as the upper arm is locked with the shoulder? Isn’t the forearm moving independently of the upper arm? It seems like it would still fly out. I now move on to the second paragraph of your reply: “The key to understanding when pitchers actually do voluntarily take their pitching elbow behind their acromial line lies in the relative positions of their pitching hand and pitching elbow at the end of their transition phase. When they have their pitching elbow behind their body, but they have their pitching hand to their pitching arm side, that means that they failed to 'lock' their pitching upper arm with their body. This action permits them to voluntarily take their pitching elbow behind their acromial line. However, if, as with all my pitchers, they have their pitching palm facing upward and their pitching hand behind their body, then they have 'locked' their pitching upper arm with their body and cannot possibly move their pitching elbow behind their acromial line”. My question is on your statement about the pitching palm facing upward (I assume at drive line height), which automatically prevents the elbow from going beyond the acromial line. What if the pitching palm is not facing upward? In this case, would the pitcher be susceptible to injury? In an earlier response you wrote this about the position of the screwball at driveline height: “At release for my Maxline True Screwball, pitchers have to have the thumb side of their pitching hand forward with their palm facing away from their body. Therefore, to throw this pitch, pitchers do not have to have their pitching palm ever facing upward. One reason why my Maxline True Screwball is the least stressful on the pitching arm is that it does not require pitchers to reposition their pitching forearm after they achieve my 'Ready' position.” In this case, could the pitcher lock his upper arm to his shoulder and still bring the baseball behind his back without risking injury? In your Flaws and Solutions video, it would be great if you spent some time demonstrating locking the upper arm to the shoulder. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is great stuff! I appreciate that you took the time first, to read what I write, second, to recognize what appears to be inconsistencies and, third, to send me an email that clearly points out your concerns. With regard to why my pitchers do not injure themselves as a result of pitching forearm flyout when they take the baseball laterally behind their body: During their transitions phase, 'traditional' pitchers take the baseball backward with their pitching palm facing downward and their pitching forearm still below their shoulder height. As a result, they raise their pitching elbow to shoulder height with their pitching palm still facing downward. (See Pedro on the latest Wheaties box.) From this position, to get their pitching palm to face upward as they have to do to throw the baseball toward home plate, they have to start to turn their pitching forearm over. I call this, 'late pitching forearm turnover.' During this 'late pitching forearm turnover,' 'traditional' pitchers start to pull their pitching upper arm forward. As a result of their pitching upper arm moving forward and their pitching forearm moving backward, at some point, they suffer what I call, 'reverse pitching forearm bounce.' 'Reverse pitching forearm bounce' ruptures the Ulnar Collateral Ligament and snaps the Humerus bone. After 'reverse pitching forearm bounce,' the horizontal centripetal force of the pitching upper arm slings the pitching forearm outward, which, as you correctly noted, causes the olecranon process of the Ulna bone to slam into the olecranon fossa of the Humerus bone, which damages the tip of the olecranon process and the hyaline cartilage that lines the olecranon fossa and, gradually decreases the elbow extension range of motion. Concurrently, the Brachialis muscle fights to prevent this collision, such that the attachment of the Brachialis muscle to the coronoid process of the Ulnar bone enlarges, which gradually decreases the elbow flexion range of motion. However, your question is why do my pitchers not suffer the same fate? Two reasons: First, because, if they perform my transition phase properly, my pitchers will no only have their pitching palm facing upward when it reaches driveline height, such that they will not have 'late pitching forearm turnover,' but they will also immediately raise their pitching elbow to the height of their pitching ear and point their pitchign elbow laterally away from their body. In this way, my pitchers lock their pitching upper arm with their body. As a result, when my pitchers start rotating their acromial line toward home plate, they will not only not have any 'reverse pitching forearm bounce, but they also will not generate the resultant horizontal centripetal force that slings their pitching forearm laterally away from their body. Nevertheless, before they can drive the baseball toward home plate, they do have to return the baseball to their pitching arm side. Then, at some point of this sideways movement, they have to apply force to redirect the baseball toward home plate. Fortunately, without the 'reverse pitching forearm bounce,' they can easily overcome the minimal inertial force of the five and one-quarter ounce baseball.' But, because they may not always apply their-toward-home plate force at the appropriate instant, they will have inconsistent releases and because they decrease the length of their driveline, they will lose some release velocity. Second, if they perform the start of my acceleration phase properly, my pitchers immediately start to powerfully pronate their pitching forearm. Pitching forearm pronation prevents pitchers from using their pitching upper arm to pull their pitching forearm forward. If they cannot use their pitching upper arm to pull their pitching forearm forward, then they cannot generate their horizontal centripetal force that slings the pitching forearm laterally away from the pitching arm side of their body. I would agree that the pitching forearm moves independent of the pitching upper arm. The pitching upper arm moves as a result of the movement of the upper body. The pitching forearm waits until their body almost completes its forward rotation to start its powerful pitching elbow extension and pitching forearm, wrist, hand and fingers pronation. As you again correctly noted, the pitching hand position that I recommend for my Maxline True Screwball does have the pitching palm facing away from the body when the pitching hand reaches driveline height. However, rather than a difference in the position of the anterior surface of the pitching forearm, this apparent inconsistency results from the positioning of the wrist, hand and fingers. That is, as evidenced by the pitching elbow being at the height of the pitching ear with the pitching elbow pointing laterally away from the body rather than downward, the pitching upper arm still locks with the body. Perhaps, I should have described the position of the pitching elbow rather than the pitching palm, but, even with this inconsistency, I felt the position of the pitching palm was easier to understand. Rather than a separate Flaws and Solutions video, I plan to release a 2005 version of my Baseball Pitching Instructional Video. In it, I will include a thorough discussion of the flaws in the 'traditional' pitching motion and the solutions that I recommend in my pitching motion. The reason why I have not provided this discussion earlier is that I have to train pitchers to perform my pitching motion, I cannot simply pronounce the pitching motion of some well-known major league pitcher as perfect. I think that hundreds of thousands of destroyed pitching arms proves that the 'traditional' pitching motion has flaws. While several of my pitchers are closing in on my perfect pitching motion, as yet, I have not captured perfection on my high-speed film. Nevertheless, we are close enough to see what pitchers should do. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 047. I just discovered your website and your e-book today, and they are terrific. I'm a researcher working on an extensive study of the evolution (or devolution) of pitching over the three-plus decades since the Save statistic and DH were introduced. I agree with you that the DH is a travesty. I am also advising two West Point cadets who are doing their senior thesis on relief pitching, and have advised them to contact you with questions, so don't be surprised if you hear from them. The primary area of our research interest which you might be able to help with is the question of fatigue. That is, fatigue within a game (more related to starters) and fatigue over a series of consecutive appearances (more related to relievers). Obviously, even if you were not an expert on kinesiology and training methods, I would be interested in communicating with you because of your pitching record and your ability to pitch more often and more effectively than anyone. So I expect to ask a number of questions of you in the upcoming months, and hope to learn from your answers. (If you would prefer to answer all my questions at once in a phone interview, please let me know, as that would be fine with me. I plan to interview a lot of former relievers, particularly those who have been pitching coaches in recent years and have seen the changes in how relievers are used/misused.) My question today, however, deals with starting pitching and a pet theory of mine which you are the perfect person to comment on. We hear all this talk in recent years about pitch counts and how the arbitrary 100-pitch limit is a fail-safe point beyond which most pitches lose their effectiveness. My pet theory is that time of game is a more useful guide to how long a starter might remain effective. There is at least a surface connection with the increases in time of game over the past couple of decades and the decline in effective innings pitched by starters. Of course there are other factors involved, such as how hard a pitcher has had to work. My question is this: Is there a maximum amount of time for which a starter's arm can "stay warm"? Grover Cleveland Alexander, Ed Walsh, and Joe McGinnity used to pitch both ends of a doubleheader in less time than it takes to complete one game now. I don't see how they could've pitched that much in one day if they had had to spread their work out over a 5 or 6-hour stretch. My guess is that the average pitcher can only stay warm (however you want to define that) for roughly 150 minutes. A generation or two ago, that was enough time to complete a game. In the past decade or so, that only gets you to the 7th inning. Is that why so few pitchers are effective past the 6th or 7th inning? Researchers have confirmed the statement of pitchers like Bob Gibson and Greg Maddux and many pitching coaches that the best way to get hitters out is to work fast and throw strikes. Pitchers today tend to dawdle and also waste a lot of time stepping off and making needless pickoff throws. Those who work fast and throw more strikes do tend to pitch longer into games. Is there a physiological reason why pitchers don't go as far into a game as they used to, and is it related to how long it takes to play the games? It is fascinating reading your answers to questions, and I applaud your efforts to teach sound pitching mechanics that will help prevent arm injuries. I speak as someone who did nothing as a kid but throw (not competitively past Little League) and blew out my arm by my mid-20s. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I look forward to many more questions from you and the young men studying relief pitching. In my Coaching Baseball Pitchers book, I discuss how I recommend that managers use pitchers. For starting pitchers, I recommend that they never go more than three times through the line-up. However, I have additional guidelines. I recommend that, unless they are in the third inning, starting pitchers do not start their second time through the line-up. I recommend that, unless they are in the fifth inning, starting pitchers do not start their third time through the line-up. If you do the math, you will see that these are performance based determinants, not pitch counts. Managers use pitch counts because they do not understand why the 'traditional' pitching motion destroys pitching arms. They mistakenly believe that fewer pitches with more rest prevents pitching arm injuries. After I finished my professional career, I pitched amateur baseball. In one tournament, I started the 9:00AM game, the 12:00PM game and the 10:00PM game in the same day and threw a perfect game the next morning. That reflects the size of the substrate storage in my pitching muscles. With my interval-training program, pitchers can pitch every day for as long as they want. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 048. Are the problems caused by throwing pitches in which the arm supinates upon release (traditional sliders, curveballs, cut fastballs) related to just the turning inward phase of release or are they also related to the powerful pronation that occurs just after release? I'm asking because I recently came across some still photos of pitchers who have just released supinated breaking pitches and noticed that their arms are pronated to an almost grotesque position. I have a picture of Roger Clemens showing his hand turned completely over and his palm facing the sky immediately after release. I know supination is bad, but I'm just wondering if it's bad for reasons I hadn't previously considered. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To make certain that we are talking about the same thing, forearm pronation occurs when baseball pitchers rotate the thumb side of their pitching forearm inwardly toward the little finger side of the pitching forearm. As a result, they turn their pitching thumb to point downward and even farther. That Mr. Clemens turned his pitching palm completely over, such that he turned his pitching thumb even farther than downward, is a very, very good thing. That means that he powerfully pronated the release of that pitch. That is exactly what I teach my pitchers to do with every type of pitch. To throw the 'traditional' curve, slider and cut fastball, 'traditional' pitching coaches teach their pitchers to supinate their pitching forearm. They also teach their pitchers to turn their pitching palm downward during their transitions. They also teach their pitchers to raise their pitching upper arm to shoulder height while their pitching forearm is still below their waist, which causes 'late pitching forearm turnover. They also teach their pitchers to use their pitching upper arm to pull their pitching forearm forward before they completely turn pitching forearm to have their pitching palm facing forward, which causes 'reverse pitching forearm bounce' and generates 'horizontal centripetal force,' which causes the pitching forearm to dramatically move away from their body (pitching forearm flyout). When, on top of these pitching flaws, they also teach their pitchers to then supinate the releases of their pitches, they cause their pitchers to slam the olecranon process of their Ulna bone into the olecranon fossa of their Humerus bone, which causes bone chips, bone spurs and worse. That all pitchers pronate their pitching forearm after they release their pitches shows the importance of the Pronator Teres and Pronator Quadratus muscles to the pitching motion. When pitchers learn to powerfully pronate before they release their pitches, including curves, sliders and cut fastballs, they not only prevent their olecranon process from slamming into their olecranon fossa, they also increase the force that they can apply and the quality of their releases. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 049. I can not find your Forty-Week training program for college pitchers. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You are correct, Sir. To reflect what my present group of pitchers have taught me about how to best teach them my pitching motion, I have rewritten my interval-training programs and am in the process of rewriting Chapter Thirty-Seven. I no longer have my Forty or Fifty-Week programs. Instead, for adult baseball pitchers, I recommend my Forty-Five Week or three hundred and fifteen day program. Baseball pitchers need two hundred and six days to be able to train with my twenty-five pound wrist weights and twelve pound iron ball. They also need sixty days to complete my eight-pound iron ball recoil training program, which greatly increases the quality of their releases. Thereafter, I give them forty-eight days to learn my Maxline Fastball Sinker and Torque Fastball Slider and one day to learn their combined workout for what to do when they leave. At this point, to learn what they have learned and can meaningfully use, my pitchers need to throw to catchers, throw to hitters in batting practice and throw to batters in competition. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 050. First, I am a huge fan of your videos and an advocate of your pitching mechanics. I own your latest DVD and it is great! I am not or never have been a pitcher nor will I ever be, however, my son (12) seems to have the gift, so I am learning all I can so that I can film him and help him learn. I practice your mechanics daily (well, not perfectly), and I am starting to really get it. I am an engineer, which causes me to be an improver (or maybe improviser?). I have been experimenting with throwing to my net with the radar behind it. I have likened your mechanics to movements I learned in my karate classes many moons ago. I am finding that if I change one movement I can consistently add 2 mph to the radar-indicated speed. I am a righty, so I will explain what I am doing with that in mind. When I go forward with my glove hand toward home plate, instead of pulling my glove hand back to my shoulder, I pull it all the way through in-line near my waist (very linear with a pronation as it passes the body) and toward second base very powerfully. (Note: Before I found out about you, I did not know what pronation was). When I finish, I am facing first base with my glove pointing toward second. I consistently throw 2 mph faster using this technique. This might be dangerous if a ball comes back my way, but I had to report to you about the improved velocity! I am in no way qualified to instruct pitchers, however, I thought you might want to try this out to see if it was of benefit to your pitchers. If I can add 2 mph, your guys could probably get 4 or 5 out of it. Maybe add just enough to get a spot on a college team when they are normally hitting the mid 80's. This is just a thought and I, in no way can say it's the right way, just a way to be faster when you really need to be. Before I learned your mechanics, my elbow used to hurt after throwing 10 balls, but now I can throw a whole bucket, as hard as I can, without pain! Miraculous! Thank you for all that you do! Please don't rip me apart too badly on your web page, but please correct me where I need correction. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I hope that I only rip apart the phony pitching coach wannabes, never sincere, thoughtful insights and questions. What you suggest involves Newton's third law: For every action force, there is an equal and oppositely-directed reaction force. For baseball pitchers, this means that if we want to apply greater force toward home plate, then we have to apply greater force toward second base. For years, pitching coaches have ignored the glove arm as a means of increasing release velocity. 'Traditional' pitching coaches tell their pitchers to point their glove forearm halfway down the third or first base line. From this starting position, 'traditional' pitchers generate another horizontal centripetal force that causes their pitching forearm to flyout away from the body. I teach my pitchers to use the glove and pitching arms as parallel and oppositely-directed forces. Those who research Physics call this, force coupling. That is, when two parallel and oppositely-directed forces operate across an intervening fulcrum, those forces summate to increase the force of the lever arm. I recommend that baseball pitchers pendulum swing their glove arm downward, forward and upward to shoulder height pointing at home plate with their glove thumb pointing downward. From this position, I tell my pitchers to, at the appropriate moment, pull their glove hand straight backward toward second base. Because, to rapidly, forwardly rotate their acromial line, I tell my pitchers to stand tall throughout the acceleration phase. This means that they have to move their glove hand horizontally straight backward. That is, they cannot lower it below shoulder height. Additionally, because I do not want my pitchers to introduce any lateral forces, I tell them to not take their glove elbow behind their body. As I envision the action of your glove arm, I can see that you have increased the parallel and oppositely-directed force. That is good. However, I question the height at which you pull your glove arm backward. You say that you pull it back at the height of your waist. Unfortunately, you did not tell me from what height you started this action. If you started at shoulder height, then the pull-back action would introduce a downward force that would interfere with pitchers being able to rapidly, forwardly rotating their acromial line. If you started at waist height, then the pull-back action would subject the front of the glove shoulder to considerable stress. You also say that you pronate the glove forearm as it passes the body. Forearm pronation means that you rotate the thumb side of the forearm toward the little finger side of the forearm. Unfortunately, you did not tell me the position of the glove forearm when you started this action. If you pointed the glove thumb downward at the start, then you have already maximally pronated the glove forearm and to maintain this position throughout the pull-back would probably tear the front of your glove shoulder apart. Therefore, I believe that you started with glove thumb pointing downward and you supinated the glove forearm throughout the pull-back action. This would mean that at the posterior-most point, you have your glove thumb pointing upward. I am always looking for ways to increase the oppositely-directed force of baseball pitching, especially as pitchers apply it through release. If pitchers extended the posterior length of the glove arm force, they would generate more force through release. However, I would want the force at shoulder height, I would start from extreme glove forearm pronation (thumb pointing down) and I would powerfully supinate the glove forearm throughout the pull-back (thumb rotating to point upward). As I practice your glove arm action, if pitchers were to take their glove hand farther backward along the line between home plate and second base, I especially fear the effect on the front of the glove shoulder. This means that I agree with your theory, but I cannot reconcile it with the anatomical realities of what muscles accelerate and decelerate the force and how the intervening joints have to tolerate the stresses. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 051. In question #717 of your 2003 Questions, you give this answer to a question that I did not ask: 3. "You continue to misrepresent what I recommend. I recommend that pitchers have their pitching hand facing inward, facing forward, facing outward and facing upward. At no time, do I recommend that my pitchers have their pitching palm under the baseball. There was a time in the much distant past where, to eliminate late forearm turnover, I recommended that pitchers consider the baseball a plate of water and try not to spill it. However, I soon learned that this action generated reverse horizontal centripetal force and immediately discarded it.” My question concerns your statement that you do not recommend having the pitching palm under the baseball. How does the pitching hand face upward and NOT have the palm under the ball. I am trying to teach my son to lock his upper arm with his shoulder by turning his palm upward at driveline height. I get the sense that it is, in fact, like holding a plate of water. I wonder if I am having him flex his wrist too far backwardly at driveline height? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I recommend that, when baseball pitchers take the baseball out of their glove, they have their pitching fingers pointing toward home plate with their palm facing inward. However, when they start the pitching hand and baseball on the downward portion of their pendulum swing along a straight line from home plate to second base, I want them to have their pitching fingers pointing downward with their pitching palm facing forward. This is where the gentleman misinterpreted what I want. He thought that I wanted the pitching palm facing upward throughout the transition phase. After the pitching hand and baseball pass behind the hip, to continue the upward portion of the pendulum swing, there comes an anatomical limitation to the palm-facing-forward position and pitchers have to outwardly rotate their pitching upper arm and supinate their pitching forearm, wrist, hand and fingers. I want pitchers to move smoothly through this cross-over from the pitching palm facing forward to pitching palm again facing upward, but, this time, with their fingers pointing toward second base. I agree with you that, at the moment when pitchers 'lock' their pitching upper arm with their body, they could hold a plate of water or, if you watch restaurant waiters, a tray of food, on their pitching hand. It would be nice were pitchers able to arrive at the end of the transition phase with their pitching forearm, wrist, hand and finger positions precisely the same for all pitches. However, the pitching forearm, wrist, hand and fingers position for my Maxline True Screwball requires that they have the pitching palm facing away from the body. As I said in our last email, for baseball pitchers to 'lock' their pitching upper arm with their body, they need to raise their pitching elbow to the height of their pitching ear and point their pitching elbow away from their body. The fact that when my pitchers supinate their pitching forearm, wrist, hand and fingers to properly position them for my Maxline Pronation Curve and Torque Fastball, they concurrently also 'lock' their pitching upper arm with their body in an interesting coincidence, but not the proper definition of how to accomplish this critical skill. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 052. My thirteen year old son had a second MRI and his doctor reviewed the findings with us. His capitulum that showed some problems seven months earlier is now looking good and he had cleared him to pitch again. Although we're excited about the news, we have agreed to let him wait until High School baseball before we allow him to pitch. As we discussed in my last visit to your facility, he will continue to work on his football throwing drills. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I recommend that you continue to teach your son my Pickoff with Step body action, Slingshot arms action with the appropriately-sized football and, when he masters his releases, teach him how to also properly release baseballs. When he masters all my baseball releases, I recommend that you teach him my Wrong Foot body action, Slingshot arms action with the appropriately-sized football and baseballs. When he masters all my releases with this body action and arms action, I recommend that you continue with my Wrong Foot body action, Slingshot arms action with the appropriately-sized football, but teach him my Wrong Foot body action, Transition arms action with the baseballs. When he masters all my release with this body action and arms actions, please again find your way over here to learn my new Crow-Step body action. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 053. I can see where there might be a problem related to the shoulder as you say. I have not had it interfere with the acromial line as far as I can tell. I have not experienced any pain yet. To answer your questions: I take a similar posture to one of yur pitchers in your video with my glove hand at shoulder height pointed toward home plate with my palm down and use your throwing hand technique as best as I can duplicate the video, sweeping down and up then standing tall and driving directly at the target. From my early karate days, there is a punch from the waist that starts with the left fist extended forward at shoulder height, palm down, the right fist at the hip palm up. The punch is executed by pulling the left arm back to the waist, rotating the fist to where it is palm up and simutaneously moving the right fist forward to the shoulder height while rotating it to be palm down (basically pronation). Newton applies here as well. This is the basis of the modification. (Muhammed Ali used this exact same punch to win his championship.) Instead of stopping the left fist at the waist, I continue pronating (rotating the fist) and moving the fist back toward second base ending with the left hand level with the shoulders and the palm facing upward. So, the glove is actually moving in a semicircle. The only problem I am experiencing is that it puts such and incredible rotational dynamic on my body, I sometimes tend to end with my back towards the batter. That may be a bad thing, but I do get a velocity increase! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am aware of the karate punch to which you refer. It is clearly force coupling. Except that it is waist high, it is an excellent analogy to what I want my baseball pitchers to do. Rather than at waist height, I want my pitchers to do this at shoulder height with their pitching upper arm. I want their glove upper arm vertically tight to the midline of their body. This glove upper arm position severely limits their ability to outwardly rotate the head of their Humerus bone. I am somewhat bothered by to excessive rotational forces that you generate. I prefer that the glove arm only moves straight backward and the pitching arm only move straight forward. These forces would not cause the body to continue to rotate beyond the acromial line pointing toward home plate. While I would have some concern about fielding safety, my main concern would be generating any horizontal force that would lessen the straight-toward-home-plate force that we want to generate. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 054. I have continued experimentation and you are right about the glove shoulder, it could easily be injured. As I increased the velocity of the glove hand, I was putting a tremendous load on my shoulder at the full extension point of my glove arm. My excessive rotation is probably due to the glove hand passing my body outside it's center of gravity. It was interesting though, how I was able to achieve a higher velocity. But, a small amount of velocity is not worth an injury. I will continue to train with your standard mechanics, so that I truly understand them and can teach them correctly. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I appreciate your efforts. I am always looking for new, safe ways to increase the toward-home-plate force in my pitching motion. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 055. I see many references to the off season wrist weight and iron ball recoil cycles. What is this and how is it performed? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Baseball pitchers need two hundred and six days to increase from ten pound wrist weights to twenty-five pound wrist weights and from a six pound iron ball to a twelve pound iron ball. At the end of these two hundred and six days, to maintain their new level of wrist weight and iron ball fitness, I reduce the wrist weight to fifteen pounds and the iron ball to eight pounds. This training strengthens the bones, ligaments and tendons associated with my baseball pitching motion. As a result, my pitchers are not only injury-proofed, but they also have a powerful structural platform on which to generate as much force as they possibly can to accelerate baseballs toward home plate. If they have also mastered the releases to my pitches, then they have the power and skill to throw high-quality pitches. However, they still do not have the important ingredient that I had, the ability to throw every day at my highest quality without fatigue. To do that, pitchers need to increase the capillarization to the baseball pitching muscles and increase their substrate storage capacity. To accomplish this, I designed my wrist weight and iron ball 'recoil' interval-training cycle. We do thirty days with my Wrong Foot body action, Slingshot arms action followed by thirty days with my Wrong Foot body action, Transition arms action. Because my Wrong Foot body action has the pitching foot on the ground in front of the body, pitchers can simultaneously push toward home plate with their pitching foot while they accelerate their pitching forearm through release. This is the recoil action I want. This past year, I decided to include an eight-pound iron ball recoil cycle in my basic program. That is, immediately after my pitchers complete six days of throwing a twelve pound iron ball ninety-six times every day, I reduce the iron ball weight to eight pounds and have them continue ninety-six repetitions for sixty days. Not only does this program increase capillarization and substrate storage, but it also greatly improves the quality of their pitch releases. Then, after my pitchers pitch competitively for a season to learn what pitches they have mastered, they return for the ongoing series of wrist weight and iron ball recoil interval-training programs. Depending on how much time they have, they can complete one or two cycles. When they finish, they will maintain at twenty-five pound wrist weights and twelve pound iron balls. When I played professionally, I maintained at thirty pound wrist weights and a sixteen pound iron ball. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 056. My question (#048 in 2005) referred to the pronation that occurs after the supination of sliders, cut fastballs and curve balls. In my observations, I have noticed that most traditional pitcher's arms pronate further after they throw supinated pitches than when they throw pronated pitches. I was wondering if the torque generated by the arm turning 180-degrees or further to the outside (the movement from the palm facing inward at release to the palm facing outward or beyond at it decelerates) is a significant contributing factor to elbow damage. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am not sure how you determined for 'traditional' baseball pitchers what is a supination pitch versus a pronation pitch. I guess they pronate their split-finger pitches and some pronate their fastballs. I teach my pitchers to pronate the releases of my Torque Fastball, which moves like a cut fastball, my Torque Fastball Slider, which has the spiral spin axis of the slider and my Maxline Pronation Curve, which has perfect twelve to six o'clock stripe spin. However, unless you have high-speed film or photographers happen to catch the correct moment immediately after they release their pitches, the normal eye misses most pitching forearm pronations. When baseball pitchers rotate their pitching thumb to point downward and even outward after release, they protect their pitching elbow, not injure it. Pitching forearm pronation and pitching upper arm inward rotation moves the pitching elbow to point away from and even upward. This prevents pitching elbow extension as a result of pitching forearm flyout from slamming the pitching olecranon process into its fossa. To demonstrate this, I ask people to raise their pitching elbow to shoulder height with their pitching palm with their thumb pointing upward near their ear and their fingers pointing toward home plate. To compare the effects of pitching forearm supination versus pitching forearm pronation on the pitching elbow, I tell them to use two different pitching forearm actions when they extend their pitching elbow, such that they pitching hand moves straight toward home plate. First, I tell them to carefully, then more powerfully, with their pitching thumb pointing upward throughout the movement, to extend their pitching elbow straight toward home plate until their pitching arm locks out straight. Second, I tell them to carefully, then more powerfully, while turning their pitching thumb to point downward throughout the movement, to extend their pitching elbow straight toward home plate until their pitching arm locks out straight. After a few attempts, everybody realizes that when they keep their pitching thumb pointing upward (supination), they slam their olecranon process into its fossa and it hurts, but, when they turn their pitching thumb to point downward, they cannot slam their olecranon process into its fossa and it does not hurt. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 057. I would like to learn your ideas on pitching. I looked at your website and found your free book. Do you sell a hardback copy and/or tapes of your instruction ideas and techniques? I would like to purchase it or them vs. reading online. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can copy each chapter of my Coaching Baseball Pitchers book for free from my website. However, I consider my book to be a work in progress. That is, until I believe that I have it perfected, I can only offer it to you free on my website. Nevertheless, I do plan to produce a print copy, but I cannot predict when that will happen. My Baseball Pitching Instructional Video is also a work in progress. However, because it costs me money and I cannot afford to put it on my website for free, I do charge for it. I updated my video last summer and plan to do the same this summer. If you purchase last year's video, I will give you seventy-five percent off this year's video. For details, check the home page of my website. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 058. I was reading a book published in 1985 by Joe "Spanky" McFarland. He's been a long-time college coach. He states that in most cases right-handed pitchers should pitch from the right side of the rubber and left-handed pitchers should pitch from the left side. He says if they start from the opposite side they tend to throw across their bodies and are more likely to develop arm injuries as they put more strain. He says the exception to this is when you are throwing screwballs, sinkers, and changeups that break away from an opposite handed hitter. He says that when you throw from the pitching arm side of the rubber the batter may have a tougher time picking up the ball because it is hidden longer, the hips open up automatically which produces a more efficient delivery, less arm strain, and possibly more velocity. What is your opinion on this? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- First and foremost, without regard for from which side of the pitching rubber baseball pitchers stand or to which side of home plate they throw their pitches, the 'traditional' pitching motion will destroy their pitching arm. Therefore, if Mr. McFarland teaches baseball pitchers to turn their pitching foot to parallel with the pitching rubber, to lift their glove foot off the ground in a balance position, to start their body forward at the same time that they start their pitching arm backward, to have their pitching palm facing downward, to raise their pitching upper arm to shoulder height before their pitching hand, to use their pitching upper arm to pull their pitching forearm forward, to step with their glove foot on or beyond a line between their pitching foot and home plate, to point their pitching arm at the opposite-side mid-infielder, to point their glove arm down the first or third base line and so on, then, no matter where the pitchers stand, he is destroying pitching arms. Consequently, all we are talking about is a matter of degree. For Mr. McFarland to say that if pitchers stand on 'the opposite side (of the pitching rubber from their pitching arm, then) they tend to throw across their bodies,' and, as a result, they 'are more likely to develop arm injuries as they put more strain' does not make any sense. With the 'traditional' pitching motion, the pitching arm locks out straight, such that the baseball is almost an arm's length outside of their pitching leg. If baseball pitchers stand on the pitching arm side of the pitching rubber, then the baseball starts toward home plate from more than an arm's length outside of pitching arm side of home plate. As a result, to get the baseball into the strike zone, these pitchers have to pull their pitching arm across the front of their body by more than an arm's length. If they want the pitch on the glove side corner, then they have to pull it seventeen more inches. It is this pitching arm pull action that overly stresses the inside of the pitching shoulder and elbow. However, if baseball pitchers stand on the glove side of the pitching rubber, then the baseball starts toward home plate twenty-four lateral inches closer to home plate. As a result, to get the baseball into the strike zone, these pitchers do not have to pull their pitching arm as far across the front of their body. You say that Mr. McFarland says that 'the exception to this is when you (baseball pitchers) are throwing screwballs, sinkers, and changeups that break away from an opposite handed hitter.' This means that the pitchers do not have to pull the baseball the extra seventeen inches across home plate to the glove side, they only need to pull it the more than their arm's length to the pitching arm side of home plate. If they were to stand on the glove side of home plate, they could have reduced the distance that they had to pull the baseball by another twenty-four inches. You write that Mr. McFarland says that when baseball pitchers 'throw from the pitching arm side of the rubber, the batter may have a tougher time picking up the ball because it is hidden longer, the hips open up automatically which produces a more efficient delivery, less arm strain, and possibly more velocity.' Because Mr. McFarland teaches baseball pitchers to reverse rotate their body and point their pitching arm toward the opposite mid-infielder. He thinks that this means that his pitchers hide the baseball. But, batters can see the baseball. It comes to a complete stop. It is clearly visible one to two feet laterally behind the pitcher. Hitters can see his change-up, curve and fastball grips, whether he has cocked his wrist for a curve and much more. You say that Mr. McFarland said that the pitchers' hips 'open up automatically.' With the closed stride that Mr. McFarland teaches, pitchers cannot forwardly rotate their hips beyond perpendicular to the driveline toward home plate. There is nothing automatic about that. You say that Mr. McFarland says that pitching from the pitching arm side of the pitching rubber 'produces a more efficient delivery, less arm strain, and possibly more velocity.' I believe that I have explained how and why pitching from the pitching arm side of the pitching rubber is less efficient, increases the stress on the pitching arm and, definitely, decreases release velocity and release consistency. To summarize, Mr. McFarland does not have the knowledge on which to base a pitching motion. What he teaches destroys pitching arms. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 059. I looked at your website. I believe your video sells for $100.00. Please confirm. I grew up in the 70's and one reason I followed you was because it appeared you worked out with weights. You had well developed arms and this was unique to pitchers of that era and even now. I always felt that one could workout to increase their throwing ability if they were able to correctly balance the development of the antagonistic muscles of the arm, shoulder, and back. I felt with your education and success, being able to pitch as often as you did, you figured a workout program to accomplish this. My concern or reason to learn and understand is that I have three boys who play baseball and are pitchers. All three have had great success and accomplishments early in their careers but my goal is for them to have long and healthy performances and enjoyment of the game more than just thinking about short term results. Techniques and work ethics I can teach and instill in them at the beginning of their careers should allow them to accomplish this. I have talked to Roger Clemens and I believe Greg Maddux would be a great source of information but I believe you are probably the best able to provide this advice. I will buy your tapes and hopefully they will cover most of my questions. I looked over your book and read that you suggest that kids don't start pitching until they are more fully developed. If that is your suggestion, how are they to develop and build arm strength? I don't let my kids throw curves and sliders but they do throw fastballs and a knuckleball. They throw every other day for most of the year and based upon your thinking, this is not good. I live where baseball is played year round. I would have no problem flying to your facility and visiting with you if you can make time to meet with me, I really do think you can provide wise advice and want to do everything I can to help my kids enjoy a long, healthy sporting career. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You are correct, Sir. I do charge one hundred dollars ($100.00) for my Baseball Pitching Instructional video. However, I will give you seventy-five percent off all future updates. I did basically the same wrist weight and iron ball training that I have on my Baseball Pitching Instructional Video. I designed my wrist weight interval-training program to train what you call, the antagonistic muscles, but I call, plioanglos training. Coupled with my adjustments to my force application techniques enabled me to have a decent major league career. With regard to youth baseball: I recommend that youth pitchers throw baseballs for only two consecutive months per year and, after they become biologically thirteen years old, competitively pitch only one inning per game twice a week. If they pitch too much, too hard and too early, they will alter the proper growth and development of their pitching arms and never become the adult pitchers that they could have been. I want solid-armed high school junior baseball pitchers. You and everybody else are welcome to visit my Pitching Research/Training Center in Zephyrhills, FL near Tampa whenever you and they want. We train from 9:00 to 11:00AM every day between the middle of July through the end of May. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 060. I guess I need to be clearer in my communications. When a pitcher (any pitcher) throws a slider or cut fastball, his pitching arm turns inward at release (thumb up; supination) and then it turns outward upon deceleration (thumb down; pronation). I'm just wondering if this torque is an underlying cause of elbow damage in addition to the damage you site when they slam their olecranon process into its fossa through the process of supinating their pitches. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When pitchers turn their pitching thumb inward, because the pitching upper arm inwardly rotates, I would call that pronation. However, I agree that they turn their pitching thumb downward. When pitchers turn their pitching thumb outward, because the pitching upper arm outwardly rotates, I would call that supination. However, I agre that they turn their pitching thumb upward. When baseball pitchers supinate their pitching forearm through release, they subject their pitching elbow to damage. The Pronator Teres muscle causes the pitching forearm to pronate after pitchers release their pitches. This is not a torque force, this is the natural continuing action of the Pronator Teres muscle. The supination of the pitching forearm causes the olecranon process to slam into its fossa. To prevent this injury, all pitchers must pronate the release of all pitches. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 061. Thank you very much for the detailed response. I asked that question because my son is a right-handed pitcher and throws from the left side of the rubber. He's always done it that way. After reading Mr. McFarland's book, I wondered if my son was doing something wrong. I understand if the pitching motion is incorrect it doesn't matter which side of the rubber he is throwing from he could hurt his arm. Based on your email, it seems there are advantages to throwing from the glove side of the rubber if you incorporate the proper motion which you teach. I have forwarded your email to my son, who is planning on studying engineering when he goes to college next year. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With my pitching motion, baseball pitchers can throw from either side of the pitching rubber to either side of home plate without any increase in the stress to their pitching arms. With the 'traditional' pitching motion, when baseball pitchers stand on the glove side of the pitching rubber and throw to the pitching arm side of home plate, they do decrease the stress to their pitching arm. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 062. I would like to order DVD's if you sell them, if not I will order the tapes. I don't think you accept credit cards so I believe I need to send a check, correct? You are making me think about how I am letting my kids develop. At 9 years, I let them start pitching. They only throw fastballs, but they work out almost every other day. My question is how does throwing a fastball and playing SS and/or 3rd base and having them throw the ball hard across the diamond daily provide such different stress on the arm? We play baseball year round and I often questioned the need to do that. The problem is that we have tried to remain ranked #1 in the country and that requires playing in tournaments virtually year round. I respect your advice and research and really appreciate the time you have allocated to answer my questions. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For reasons still unclear to me, far too many people could not get the DVD version of my video to work. Therefore, I decided to offer only the VHS version. The home page of my website provides the information that you need to get my video. If you have any problems, please let me know. Whether baseball pitchers or position players, every time skeletally-immature arms throw baseballs, they stress their growth plates. Nobody knows the point at which they apply more stress than these growth plates can withstand before they permanently alter their normal growth and development. Therefore, rather than a few activities, I prefer to have youngsters learn a broad base of motor and sport skills. In this way, while they wait for their skeleton to properly mature, they can master the skills. When youth baseball pitchers become biologically sixteen years old, then they can stress their pitching arm for longer periods with positive physiological results. In the meantime, they need to learn how to properly grip, drive and release my four basic pitches. For the motor skill acquisition and interval-training programs that I recommend, please go to the home page of my website and click on Pitcher Training Programs. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 063. I've heard alot about "overspeed" training lately. Is there any value in adding overspeed training to the end of your workout to increase speed in throwing, hitting or running? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do these guys stay up nights coming up with flashy, new names for training programs that they are trying to sell? To increase the velocities at which baseball players throw baseballs, swing baseball bats and run bases, they have eliminate the unnecessary forces and maximize the necessary forces specific to each skill. They need to understand the proper force application techniques, the applied anatomy and the physiology of exercise. Do the proponents of over-speed training understand these things? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 064. I'm a college baseball pitcher and I have a question for someone such as yourself with a scientific backround and an opinion I would very much respect. Our coach has recently began a throwing program with our pitchers using weighted balls, of 7 oz, 14 oz, 21 oz, and 2 lbs. Over the course of the workout, we throw the different balls at least 60 times in sets of 5 or 10. After the workout I find my front side shoulder, particularly in the area of my bicep tendon, is sore as well as my elbow. I usually feel no soreness from pitching in my shoulder, but this soreness seems to linger for at least 2 or 3 days. I've also noticed I'm not the only pitcher on staff having this soreness. With this reoccuring soreness, especially in my shoulder, I was questioning the validity of throwing weighted balls and the stress it puts on the shoulder. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elsewhere in my Question/Answer files, I have discussed the damage that throwing weighted baseballs causes and why. Nevertheless, I will gladly do so again. The first responsibility of those who design interval-training programs is to know the proper force application techniques for the skills that the athletes will perform. In this case, the skill is baseball pitching. If baseball coaches do not know the proper force application techniques for baseball, then to increase the stress only worsens the effects of the flaws in the 'traditional' pitching motion. You say that you have soreness in the front of your shoulder, particularly in the area of your bicep tendon. The long head of the Biceps Brachii muscle attaches to the coracoid process of the Scapula bone. While it runs vertically through the bicepital groove on the anterior surface of the head of the Humerus bone, I doubt that your front shoulder discomfort comes from any part of the Biceps Brachii muscle. Instead, the soreness on the front of your pitching shoulder probably comes from the attachment of your Subscapularis muscle to the lesser tuberosity of the head of your Humerus bone. This discomfort indicates that you reverse rotate your body, such that you point your pitching upper arm at the opposite mid-infielder. This force application flaw takes your pitching elbow behind your acromial line, which unnecessarily stresses the front of your pitching shoulder. To prevent this unnecessary stress, you have to learn to keep your pitching elbow in front of your acromial line. That you also have soreness in the inside of your pitching elbow, at the very least, indicates that you also have late pitching forearm turnover, reverse pitching forearm bounce and pitching forearm flyout. Late pitching forearm turnover comes from you taking the baseball backward with your pitching palm facing downward and from you raising your pitching upper arm to shoulder height before you raise your pitching hand to shoulder height. Reverse pitching forearm bounce comes from you pulling your pitching forearm forward while your pitching forearm is still in the late pitching forearm turnover movement. When your pitching forearm switches from moving backward and downward to moving forward and upward, that bounce can rupture your Ulnar Collateral Ligament and/or snap your Humerus bone. Pitching forearm flyout comes from you using your pitching upper arm to pull your pitching forearm forward, which generates a horizontal centripetal force that slings your pitching forearm laterally away from your body. If your Brachialis muscle is not able to prevent the olecranon process of your Ulna bone from hyperextending into the olecranon fossa of your Humerus bone, then you will injure either your olecranon process or your olecranon fossa or both and, as a result, you will lose some of your pitching elbow extension range of motion. Further, the excessive pull of your Brachialis muscle on its attachment to the coronoid process of the Ulna bone will cause it to enlarge and you will lose some of your pitching elbow flexion range of motion. To summarize, your baseball coach does not know what he is doing. You need to learn how to correctly apply force to your baseball pitches and complete an interval-training program that strengthens, rather than destroys, the bones, ligaments and tendons of your pitching arm. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 065. In your response to me on question 51 of your 2005 questions you stated in part: "... for baseball pitchers to 'lock' their pitching upper arm with their body, they need to raise their pitching elbow to the height of their pitching ear and point their pitching elbow away from their body." I have two questions: 1. You say the elbow has to be pointed away from the body. I'm not sure that I'm clear on this. It seems to me the elbow is always pointed away from the body at driveline height. My understanding is that at driveline height you want the ball at about the height of the ear and the forearm at a 45 degree angle toward second base. Is that no longer true? If you could tell me where the olecranon process (tip of elbow) is supposed to be pointing when you lock the upper arm it would be clearer. 2. You say your pitchers lock their pitching upper arm by bringing the elbow up to the height of their pitching ear. This would bring the ball above the ear which voids my point in my first question as I say you want the ball at the height of the ear at driveline height. My major problem is the pitching elbow above the ear. Are your pitchers leaning their shoulders to lock their upper arm? You have often stated that it is anatomically impossible to throw a baseball with the elbow above the shoulder. If that is the case, what happens after your pitchers lock their upper arm to the shoulder? Do they then bring the elbow back down to shoulder height? What height would the elbow be at leverage? Are you insructing your pitchers to keep their shoulder level and rotate? Am I correct that the upper arm stay locked to the shoulder until the ball is released? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boy, this is what I get for educating my readers. Now, they see inconsistencies in what I recommend. However, fear not, I know that, at first blush, they appear like inconsistencies, but they are not. I will start, as you should have, because it shows the basis for the apparent inconsistency, with your last paragraph. You are correct, I have said and it is absolutely true, as I believe that I showed in my 2004 Baseball Pitching Instructional video, baseball pitchers cannot raise their pitching upper arm any higher than a line parallel with the line across the top of their shoulders. At this time, I will not address why they cannot do this, but they cannot. As you said, it is anatomically impossible. Now, we have the stage set for the inconsistency in my recommendation that baseball pitchers raise their pitching elbow to the height of their pitching ear. At the end of my pitching arm pendulum swing, I want pitchers to have their pitching upper arm at shoulder height with their pitching hand, palm facing upward, at driveline height, which I define as the height of their pitching ear. At this point in the discussion, I would like to address the angle of the pitching forearm with respect to the pitching upper arm. The pitching ear is about six inches higher than shoulder height. If the pitching upper arm is at shoulder height, then the pitching hand is six inches higher. To determine the angle, I suppose that we could measure the length of the pitching forearm for the hypotenuse and use the Pythagorean Theorem (A squared plus B squared equals C squared) to determine the length of the other side of the right triangle from which we could calculate the angle. However, whatever we find, I am sure that my forty-five degree statement is not right. What do you say we forget putting a number on the angel and just say that the pitching upper arm should be at shoulder height with the pitching hand at pitching ear height and call it, my 'Ready' position? With the pitching upper arm at shoulder height and the pitching hand at pitching ear height with their pitching palm facing upward, pitchers have their pitching elbow pointing downward. That is, if we draw a line into the middle of the anterior surface of the elbow and out of the middle of the posterior surface of the elbow, then that line is vertically pointing downward. As soon as pitchers achieve my 'Ready' position, they are ready to start driving the baseball toward home plate. However, to protect the front of their pitching shoulder and transfer the rotational velocity of their body to the straight line force of their pitching arm, they first have to 'lock' their pitching upper arm with their body. With my Pickoff with Step and Wrong Foot body action, I teach my pitchers my 'Slingshot' glove and pitching arm actions. In general, I tell my pitchers to raise their glove arm to shoulder height and their pitching hand to the height of their pitching ear with their thumbs turned downward. Then, I tell them to, like an archer draws back their bow, move their pitching hand straight backward along a line from home plate to second base to their ear and, then, from that point, while they simultaneously reverse rotate their acromial line to point toward second base, move their pitching hand as far backward as they can. I call this position, my 'Loaded Slingshot' position. In my 'Loaded Slingshot' position, pitchers have their pitching upper arm 'locked' with their body, their pitching elbow at the height of their pitching ear with the line into the middle of the anterior surface of the elbow and out of the middle of the posterior surface of the elbow pointing horizontally away from their body and their pitching hand also at the height of their pitching ear. Before they practice my 'Transition' glove and pitching arm actions, my pitchers have to master my 'Loaded Slingshot' glove and pitching arm positions for all my pitches. Therefore, when I tell them that immediately after they achieve my 'Ready' position, they should go to my 'Loaded 'Slingshot' glove and pitching arm position for whatever type of pitch they want to throw, they know what to do. That is, they raise their pitching elbow to the height of their pitching ear, such that they point their pitching elbow horizontally away from their body. To raise their pitching elbow to the height of their pitching ear, they have to appropriately change the angle of the line across their top of their shoulders, such that they account for the six inch difference in the height of their shoulders and pitching ear. Whether you want to say that they raised their pitching shoulder or lowered their glove shoulder, or both, makes no difference to me, but they can do it. And, that is how baseball pitchers can raise their pitching elbow to the height of their pitching ear when they cannot raise their pitching upper arm above a line that is parallel with the line across the top of their shoulders. So, you were correct again. The answer is that my pitchers lean their shoulders to get their pitching elbow to the height of their pitching ear. However, that action does not lock their pitching upper arm with their body. After my pitchers lock their pitching upper arm with their body, they simultaneously powerfully drive their body straight toward home plate and forwardly rotate their body. They keep thier pitching elbow at the same height throughout their driveline. Even with their shoulder lean, they stand tall and rotate. Even though they powerfully inwardly rotate their pitching upper arm, they do keep their pitching upper arm locked with their body throughout their driveline ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 066. When looking for a picture of one of your pitching muscles, I stumbled across this web site. It is by far the best site I have come across to see many of the pitching muscles you often refer to. It is GetBodySmart.com. http://www.getbodysmart.com/ap/skeletalsystem/skeleton/menu/animation.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you. Another reader suggested: netterimages.com. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 067. I have been reading with interest the book you have written and posted on your website. I see that there is a "companion" video tape that covers much of the same written material. As I was reading about the "Maxline" and "Torque" grips and releases, among several others, I had trouble visualizing their physical applications, even when holding a baseball and trying to duplicate in my hand what you had written. Just not quite sure I am understanding things like "horseshoe", "stripe", and other terminology as you apply it. My question is this: Does the aforementioned video show these grips and releases in its content? I am a left-hander and find in pitching a lot of movement on everything I throw, by my own observation, and by the comments of hitters, catchers, coaches and other observers. I have always been interested in finding ways of bringing more "seam" into the airflow (except with my knuckleball!) and your work with the principles of aerodynamics and physiology involved in changing the direction of a baseball after release is a most intriguing and tantalizing focus for me. I simply MUST know more about adding/applying these things to my own pitching skills. It is a real passion for me, not just to know it, but to USE it. I also would be interested in knowing what parameters are involved in your being willing to work with or critique/adjust/train me in the motion/mechanics of my pitching should you be open or available to do so. I know spring training is just beginning, and all that goes with that, but would appreciate some input, if you might find opportunity to do so. Thank you so much for the passion you show in the work you have already done and posted free of charge. I do not overlook the edge it gives me in persuit of my own passion to play. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Absolutely, my 2004 Baseball Pitching Instructional video clearly shows my grips, pitching forearm actions and releases for my pitches as well as how I recommend that pitchers learn them. On the home page of my website, my Pitching Instruction file explains the circumstances under which I personally train baseball pitchers. Basically, they have to have graduated from high school and have at least two years of athletic eligibility remaining and still be academically eligible. My next group starts on Saturday, July 16, 2005 and trains with me at my Pitcher Research/Training Center in Zephyrhills, FL for three hundred and fifteen consecutive days. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 068. I have two 15 yr old boys, one is a lefty the other a righty, who play high school baseball. I have heard there is an exercise using a medicine ball to help improve and increase their speed. I am having a difficult time trying to locate that information. Are you aware of it and if so do you know where I would be able to locate it? They throw mid 70's to 80 range; is that good for their age? They both have good movement and location and want to increase the speed. What would you recommend? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A medicine ball will not increase baseball release velocity. When they are biologically sixteen year old, they should complete my 120-Day High School Baseball Pitchers Interval-Training Program. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 069. I am a junior in college and I just recently reviewed your program. I am somewhat perplexed as to how a pitcher can follow this program within the confines of a college fall and spring season. Also, if this program is followed correctly will it benefit in increased arm strength and velocity? I have had problems with shoulder tendonitis in recent years, will this program help to prevent this? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My basic adult baseball pitchers program requires three hundred and fifteen consecutive days of training. We start the third Saturday in July and finish the fourth Saturday in May. Therefore, recent high school graduate and college pitchers have to take a year off from going to college. At the same time that pitchers injury-proof their pitching arms, they learn what they need to do to become the best baseball pitchers that they can be. In your case, you will never experience shoulder problems again, you will learn how to throw pitches that you presently have no idea you could throw and you will know how to achieve your maximum release velocity. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 070. I was reading a physics article that suggest that throwing velocity has to do with fingertip velocity. Is there any truth to this? If so, how would you increase your fingertip velocity? I hope this isn't a stupid question. When I read something that is new to me, I like to know if there is any substance to the claim. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When baseball pitchers transfer force from the tip of their middle finger to the baseball, they cannot get a one hundred percent transfer. Therefore, the baseball can never leave the tip of their middle finger with the same velocity as the tip of their middle finger. This is the weak link in the force application chain for baseball pitching. As a result, baseball pitchers are only as good as the strength and skill of the tip of their middle finger. Pitchers must have the strength to maximally transfer force to the baseball for horizontal release velocity and spin velocity and the skill to impart the perfect spin axis for each type of pitch to move maximally on its way toward home plate. My middle fingertip spins and iron ball throws train the tip of the middle finger for the required strength and skill. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 071. I have your videos which I am forever grateful for your work. My son (13) will not be pitching this season. He is working on your program (no weights, just technique). We hope to have him ready by next year for light pitching work. My son has a new coach this year. One 14 yo had a pain in the inside of his elbow between the radius and ulna at the elbow, (right at the point where doctors draw blood for testing). He told him that he is putting too much wrist into his throws. He did not give any further explanation. Can you put too much wrist into a throw? Backward/forward? Pronation? Would over-supination cause this type of pain? I suspect it would be radial head related, but am not sure. I understand without actually seeing it and talking with the young man, it is impossible to say, but I am seeking some additional knowledge. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As I explain in Chapter Seventeen of my Coaching Baseball Pitchers book, the wrist flexes, extends, radially flexes and ulnarly flexes. The forearm pronates and supinates. I agree with your analysis. I think that he has a Radial Head of the Radius bone or a Capitulum of the Humerus bone problem. During the deceleration phase, the Radius bone rebounds back into the Humerus bone on the thumb or Capitular side. He needs to get an MRI to see whether he has damaged either bone. If someone does any type of movement too hard, too soon for too long, they can stress the bones, ligaments, tendons or muscle more than they can withstand. But, the muscles that control the actions of the wrist are low on the list of baseball pitching injury concerns. The pitching elbow and shoulder are much more likely to break down. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 072. You say that you have your pitchers do your wrist weight and iron ball exercises to strengthen their muscles' ligaments and tendons. Yet, you also say that the ulna collateral ligament (for example) is not a contractile unit, so weight lifting will not help it. How does your program strengthen ligaments is they are not contractile? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My wrist weight and iron ball exercises strengthen the bones, ligaments and tendons associated with my baseball pitching motion. While I wish that I had the staff, equipment and money to conduct the quality scientific study to show this, I have to stand on pitchers who had X-rays taken at the time of their surgery and after they complete my adult baseball pitcher interval-training program. Bones, ligaments and tendons do not have the contractile units of skeletal muscle fiber, but they do physiologically adjust when athletes judiciously place physical stress on them, but not in the same way as skeletal muscle fibers. As an aside, those cheating athletes who use steroids to increase their muscle mass, do not strengthen their bones, ligaments and tendons. That explains why those structures fail with their increased muscle abilities. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 073. Recently, while lifting weights, I tore the long end of my biceps tendon. I went to see an orthopedic surgeon and, after X-rays, they noticed that I have bone spurs. They ordered the proposed sirgical procedure: asad, mumford, poss rcr, biceps tendon repair. They are telling me that the biceps tendon repair will only be cosmetic (they want to attach it to the upper part of the patella bone instead of bringing it back under the rotator cuff and attaching it there). Is their any other procedure before they cut on me that could be done? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I certainly hope that they do not attach the long head of your Biceps Brachii muscle to any part of your patella bone. The patella bone is your knee cap. Because the long head of the Biceps Brachii muscles attaches to the supraglenoid tuberosity of the Scapula bone, I assume that they said, Scapula bone. The supraglenoid tuberosity of the Scapula bone is a tuberosity (bump) on the top aspect of the glenoid fossa into which the head of your Humerus bone articulates. The rotator cuff is made up of the attachments of four shoulder joint muscles, the Subscapularis, the Supraspinatus, the Infraspinatus and the Teres Minor. Therefore, since only the Subscapularis muscle lies on the anterior aspect of the shoulder, I assume that when they say rotator cuff, they mean the attachment of the Subscapularis muscle to the lesser tuberosity on the anterior-medial aspect of the head of the Humerus bone. If they bring the tendon of the long head of your Biceps Brachii muscle under the tendon of the Subscapularis muscle and attach it there, where is there? I have to assume that they will again attach it to the Scapula, but where? Do they mean some place medial to the supraglenoid tuberosity? If you are not comfortable with what they say, go talk to other orthopedic surgeons. Don't tell them what the others said. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 074. I am a big fan of yours and trying very hard to learn your methods and teach the boys I work with. I know realistically I cannot do that in the middle of the season, but I plan on getting those interested to follow your plan directly after the high school season. My question involves icing: You talk about icing increasing blood flow if done correctly after throwing about 11 times in your Q & A section since 2000. I have read every Q & A and have bought your video. Would icing before throwing if a player has a sore elbow be good as well? I have never heard of icing before throwing, but one of the local sports rehab places told a player I coach about icing an injured elbow prior to throwing to increase blood flow. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cold-induced vaso-dilation passively opens the affected blood vessels. The metabolites that skeletal muscle fibers produce as result of muscle contraction also cause the blood vessels that serve the working muscles to a vaso-dilate. The question is which is better? The metabolites are several times more effective and much faster. Therefore, in preparation for competitive pitching, you should use baseball pitching at gently increasing intensities to redistribute the blood to the baseball pitching muscles. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 075. Why isn't the Teres Major muscle part of the rotator cuff. It appears that it attaches to the humerus and rotates it. Why doesn't this muscle get injured from incorrect force application of the pitching motion? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I love your new anatomical knowledge. The Teres Major arises from the dorsal surface of the inferior angle of the Scapula bone and attaches to the medial lip of the bicipital groove of the Humerus bone. To be a rotator cuff muscle, the muscle has to attach on the head of the Humerus bone, not down the shaft. It is a very powerful muscle in great position to apply force. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 076. The orthopedic surgeon wants to attach the long head of my Biceps Brachii muscle to the top of the humerus bone. My question is, is that practical or is there a better procedure for this so that i may have better use of this? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Biceps Brachii muscle is a two-joint muscle. In the Shoulder Joint, it moves the Humerus bone forward and upward (Shoulder Joint Flexion). In the Elbow Joint, it moves the Radius bone forward and upward (Elbow Joint Flexion). To learn more, you can read Chapters Fourteen and Fifteen of my Coaching Baseball Pitchers book. If they attach the long head of your Biceps Brachii to the Humerus bone instead of to the Scapula bone, the long head of the Biceps Brachii muscle will no longer help move your Humerus bone forward and upward. If you want to know of any alternative surgeries, you need to talk with other orthopedic surgeons. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 077. I just happened to come across your Web site and as I was reading through your 2005 questions and answers (starting from the most recent) specifically your answer to question 058, 2005, Mr. McFarland’s advice on how pitchers should work from the pitching arm side of the plate. Your answer is absolutely correct and I agree with you in that (especially youth pitchers) as he states “that in most cases right-handed pitchers should pitch from the right side of the rubber and left-handed pitchers should pitch from the left side” when pitchers plant their foot parallel to the rubber. This places their heal down in the hole (just about all pitching mounds have holes just in front of the rubber) and their toes point skyward in an awkward and backward position. Pitchers will never achieve an explosive move off the rubber (as a sprinter coming out of the blocks) straight toward home plate. Pitchers have to position themselves to use their big muscles in the legs powerfully excelling their body straight forwards towards home plate. They definitely will have control problems and most likely would not have much on the ball. And yes, I’m an advocate of pushing off the rubber. I have parents (just like the gentleman in reading Mr. McFarland’s book) coming to me and tell me that their "pitching coach" or they read it somewhere else that pushing off the rubber is old school. That working from the pitching arm side does help in hiding the ball and falling instead of pushing is the new way to pitching. I tell parents and players that throwing and pitching are basically the same. I believe I teach a simple and efficient was of throwing the baseball especially youth players. I tell them to stand tall, turn their shoulders parallel (line up between second and home plate) to the direction of throw, pitching arm and elbow above back shoulder, and palm up pointing straight back towards centerfield (centerfield keeps their elbow up instead of pointing downward at second base), crow hop or push off, and releasing as far forward and as high as possible (from a high to low through release) with index and middle fingers (fastball) on top of the ball straight towards where they are throwing or home plate. With as minimal side motion as possible ending with your pitching shoulder pointing towards home plate (protecting your chest and face). I do have one question on conditioning youth players. I have my players do running exercises: base running, pole to poles for my pitchers and a quarterback drill (basically I throw long balls and they run and catch it). I also have them do push-ups, sit-ups, chine-up and pull-ups (also pitchers hang and cross the ladder parallel bars). What conditioning or exercises do you recommend for boys (15 & 16) doing the season? Weights? You most likely have answered this in the past, but your help in this matter is appreciated. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My pitchers point the pitching toe directly at home plate. As a result, we do not dig a hole in front of the pitching rubber. In this foot position, my pitchers can powerfully drive their body forward off the pitching rubber with their Hip Joint Flexion muscles and Knee Joint Extension muscles. When baseball pitchers have their pitching foot parallel with the pitching rubber, they create several problems. However, in answer to your comments, I will only discuss how that foot position forces them to push off the pitching rubber. They can only use the Hip Joint abduction muscle, the Tensor Fascia Latae. This is not a powerful muscle. Worse, after they push off the pitching rubber, because the Hip Joint adduction muscles are also not powerful, they cannot move their pitching leg forward off the pitching rubber. As a result, they have this big anchor dragging behind them that decreases the length of their pitching arm driveline. In addition, when 'traditional' baseball pitchers powerfully push off the pitching rubber at the same time that they are moving their pitching arm backward, they unnecessarily stress the attachment of their Subscapularis muscle on the front of their pitching shoulder. I also strongly disagree with you telling pitchers to have their pitching arm and elbow above their back shoulder. During the acceleration phase of the pitching motion, pitchers cannot raise their pitching elbow above a line that is parallel with the line across the top of their shoulders. If they try to do so, they will rub the head of their Humerus bone against the underside of the acromial process of their Scapula bone. I also strongly disagree with you telling pitchers to have the palm of their pitching hand facing toward center field. At release, pitchers have to have the palm of their pitching hand facing toward home plate. When do you propose that they rotate their pitching forearm the one hundred and eighty degrees? If they try to rotate their pitching forearm while they are accelerating the baseball, then they will generate a horizontal centripetal force that will unnecessarily stress the front of their pitching shoulder and the inside of their pitching elbow. I also strongly disagree with you telling pitchers to crow hop or push off the pitching rubber. The rules of baseball require that pitchers keep their pitching foot in contact with the pitching rubber. They cannot hop onto and off of the pitching rubber. You failed to describe the pitching rhythm that you teach. If you have your pitchers raise their glove leg off their ground before they separate their glove and pitching hands, then you teach the 'balance position' pitching rhythm. You cannot use this rhythm and crow-hop. The crow hop pitching rhythm requires that pitchers have their pitching arm approaching the position from which they will start their drive toward home plate before they start their body forward. I also strongly disagree with you telling pitchers to drive the baseball from high to low through release. This indicates that you teach the 'balance position' pitching rhythm that forces pitchers to bend forward at their waist. You cannot tell them to stand tall and to bend forward. Further, baseball pitchers should drive the baseball straight forward, not downward. However, I do like that you tell them to keep their pitching arm on a line between home plate and second base, to length their driveline such that they release their pitches as close to home plate as possible and, while you do not know how they should do it, to use the crow-hop pitching rhythm. I wonder who thought of those ideas almost forty years ago? With regard to your conditioning question: When baseball pitchers do base running drills, they get better at base running. When baseball pitchers do poles to poles, they get better at poles to poles. When baseball pitchers catch baseballs that you throw, they get better at catching baseballs that you throw. The same goes for push-ups, sit-ups, chine-ups, pull-ups, pitcher hangs and ladder parallel bar crosses. For biological sixteen year old baseball pitchers, I recommend that they complete my 120-Day High School Baseball Pitchers Interval-Training Program. For younger baseball pitchers, I recommend that they complete my first through fourth Youth Baseball Pitcher Motor Skill Acquisition Programs. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 078. I appreciate your timely response and would like to clarify a few points (I believe a better explanation is in order) that I stated based on your answers. A picture would really help. 1. You answered with "I strongly disagree with you telling pitchers to have their pitching arm and elbow above their back shoulder". What I meant to say is that I tell my players and pitchers to keep the ball above their back shoulder, palm facing upwards and their whole pitching arm point away from the body. Youth players relate to the arms and shoulders better than they do with other body parts. I try to keep it as simple as possible. In your answer to question 065, you state "If the pitching upper arm is at shoulder height, then the pitching hand is six inches higher" which I believe is close to what I was trying to convey. And, you state " With the pitching upper arm at shoulder height and the pitching hand at pitching ear height with their pitching palm facing upward, pitchers have their pitching elbow pointing downward". Which to me the ball is above the back shoulder. 2. You answered with "I also strongly disagree with you telling pitchers to have the palm of their pitching hand facing toward center field". As I stated above and what I meant to say is that the palm and ball is facing upwards and the whole pitching arm pointing towards centerfield (away from the body) not downwards towards second base. My thought here is that young pitchers will do exactly what you preach in that, if you tell them to point their pitching arm at or towards second base, they will literally point their whole pitching arm downwards towards second base. And that is what I try to prevent. So I use centerfield. I want their pitching arms up and I do not want them drop their elbows and throw sidearm. 3. You answered with "I also strongly disagree with you telling pitchers to crow hop or push off the pitching rubber. The crow hop is for the position players only. Pitchers push off the rubber. 4. You answered with "I also strongly disagree with you telling pitchers to drive the baseball from high to low through release. What I meant to say is that I do not what pitchers to drop their pitching elbow as in throwing side arm. I want them to stay on top of the ball through release. As you have stated numerous times in your answers "all pitchers must pronate the release of all pitches. Kids do not relate to "pronate" as well as they do to "on top of the ball". Conditioning young players (under 18) is different in every coaches training or practice routines specially compared to the higher levels. As I stated I try to develop the whole body in these young players. These are young boys that are developing into (in some cases) athletes. And more than half of them having know athletic ability at all let alone pitch or throw a baseball. They need exercises that develop their whole body and that is why I keep to exercises that train and condition the whole body. I can not believe that you do not have "running" in your conditioning training programs. Unless I'm not understanding you correctly you say "When baseball pitchers do poles to poles, they get better at poles to poles. These drills build endurance and stamina in the players. How do you condition players for endurance and stamina? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you for the clarifications. When I read your first email, I got the impression that you just found my website and had no idea what I recommend. 01. I agree with you telling your pitchers to keep the baseball above their back (pitching shoulder) with their pitching palm facing upward and pointing their entire pitching arm pointing away from their body (toward second base). They must also keep their pitching upper arm at shoulder height, never higher. 02. I also agree with you telling your pitchers to have their pitching palm facing centerfield, then they will have late pitching forearm turnover problems that can lead to serious injury. You make a good point about youth pitchers pointing their pitching arm literally at second base. At the start of the acceleration phase, they must have the line across the top of their shoulders horizontal, not tilted backwardly downward. 03. I did not mean to say, "I also strongly disagree with you telling pitchers to crow hop or push off the pitching rubber." I made a mistake with my typing. I meant to say, I also strongly disagree with you telling pitchers to crow-hop TO push of the pitching rubber. I recommend that pitchers powerfully push off the pitching rubber. I also agree that only position players should use the literal crow-hop. Baseball pitchers have to keep their pitching foot on the pitching rubber. Nevertheless, to use the crow-hop throwing rhythm, all pitchers have to do is keep their glove foot on the ground until they have almost pendulum swing their pitching arm to driveline height. 04. I think that I understand what you are trying to do with telling your pitchers to stay on top of the baseball. But, if they are so literal, they cannot drive the baseball straight toward home plate with their pitching hand on top of the baseball. They have to have their pitching hand behind the baseball driving the baseball literally straight toward home plate. I do not have any trouble with pitchers of all ages understanding that to pronate their pitching forearm means to powerfully turn their pitching thumb to point downward. I also want them to feel at though they have their pitching forearm inside of vertical, such that they believe that their pitching hand passes very close to their pitching ear. When I train biological sixteen year old baseball pitchers for baseball pitching aerobic fitness, I use my 120-Day High School Baseball Pitchers Interval-Training Program. When I train biological nineteen year old baseball pitchers and older for aerobic fitness, I use my 315-Day Adult Baseball Pitchers Interval-Training Program. Aerobic fitness for running has absolutely nothing to do with aerobic fitness for baseball pitching. Aerobic fitness relates to the specific skeletal muscle motor units involved in the activity, not the fitness of the heart and vascular system. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 079. My 14 year old son has what appears to me to be good throwing mechanics. However, he cannot throw very long, maybe 30 throws, before complaining of a moderately sharp pain right at the top of his throwing arm bicep. Without actually seeing him throw, can you offer up a reason or two for this? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You say that your son experiences a moderately sharp pain at the top of his pitching arm Biceps Brachii muscle. Do you mean in the front of his pitching shoulder? If so, then it is probably the attachment of his Subscapularis muscle. When pitchers have discomfort in the attachment of his Subscapularis, it means that they take their pitching elbow behind their acromial line. Their acromial line is a line as viewed from above that goes through the tips of both shoulders. If your son uses the 'traditional' pitching motion with the palm down transition, reverse rotate the body to have the pitching upper arm point at the opposite mid-infielder, late pitching forearm turnover, reverse pitching forearm bounce, pitching forearm flyout and more, then he is lucky that he does not have more and worse pains. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 080. I stumbled across some of your Q&A files while doing a Goggle search for damages caused by sidearm pitching. Wow! The level of questions and depth and specificity of answers is amazing! My hats off to you for providing so much valuable expertise to parents, coaches and players. I guess I never realized so much technical analysis was available and that that so many people are conversant in it! Anyhow, after reading it just from sheer interest (as I’m not a player and neither is my son) I have a question that I hope you can also address. I’m not a player now, but I did pitch for 1-2 years in little league and just generally threw a LOT as a 10-14 year old kid, rocks, balls, you name it. And for much of that time I threw sidearm. Fast forward 30 years and now I’m a 45 year-old B-level competitive league racquetball player with, you guessed it, elbow issues that limit my playing time. I love the game and the competition, but can’t usually play more than 2-3 days a week, and even then I have some pain afterward doing the silliest things, picking up a coffee cup or pencil or even scratching my behind! In an attempt to follow the general wisdom advice I read regarding epicondylitis/tennis elbow, I have tried to “rest” my elbow by not playing racquetball at all for the last 3-4 months, but I still feel some twinges in there and I’m really missing the game! To your knowledge is there anyone or anywhere on the web that is as illustrative and educated about the bio-mechanics of the racquetball swing as you are with pitching? Any treatment/conditioning suggestions you might have that you think are universal (not baseball specific?). Or do you have any suggestions for getting a true and educated diagnosis of my specific problem (i.e., I don’t even know what kind of doctor/specialist is most suited to advise me)? One of the parents (a nurse!) in my son's cub scout den suggested that since (a) I’m old, (b) I have some history of arthritis in my family, (c) my elbow hurts even when I’m NOT playing for 4 months, that (d) I should just play anyway and live with the pain. I’m really hoping there is some better, more promising advice out there than this! Can you point me toward any? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tennis elbow indicates the outside or lateral epicondyle (the thumb side of your forearm). That problem arises from players keeping their arm locked straight when they hit their backhand shots. The key to prevention of lateral epicondyle problems is keeping the elbow bent and forearm supination. That is, during the acceleration phase, you must lock your elbow at ninety degrees and turn your thumb upward. If your discomfort were on the inside of your elbow (the little finger side of your forearm), then baseball pitchers, tennis servers, javelin thrower and, for the forehand shot, racquetball strikers perform essentially the same force application technique. That problem arises from players dropping their elbow under and locking your elbow straight. The key to prevention of medial epicondyle problems is forearm pronation. That is, during the acceleration phase, you must straighten your elbow while you powerfully turn their thumb downward. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 081. I know you'll be thrilled to know that we are playing school baseball. In fact, we only have about two weeks left. My son pitched 3 perfect innings Saturday, threw only 24 pitches and had four Ks. He is having trouble with the screwball and sinker. His fingers have gotten longer and I guess he is having trouble adjusting. He has also developed a vise-like grip which, I assume, can only be good for his pitching. He does not intend to play this summer and I am glad. He has also decided that he will try out for the High School Freshman team next year. My intention is to work with him getting his screwball back and learning the curve. I have read your '05 letters and it appears that the evolution of the Marshall Method continues. If I understand correctly, you want him to throw footballs from Pickoff with step body action/Slingshot arm action; then move to Wrong Foot/Slingshot. Is this correct? Do you need editing help? Suggestions? Anything I can do to assist? By the way, my son also bowled a 200 the other day. He is planning on bowling in high school. Any harm to his arm in bowling? Thanks again for being there. How are you besides busy? When is the 2005 version of the video coming out? I saw that you had some trouble with the DVD. I had some trouble initially, but mine works. I MUCH prefer having it on DVD than VCR. NO ONE watches VCR tapes anymore. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It sounds as though your son is reaping some benefits from his hard work on the skills of baseball pitching. Baseball pitchers have to have very strong middle fingers. I have re-written all my training programs. He should start with my First Baseball Pitching Motor Skill Acquisition Program and move along as rapidly as he masters the skills through the Second, Third and Fourth. Please congratulate him for me for bowling a two hundred game. Bowling will be good for his pitching arm. I want to update my video this June. I always listen to suggestions. My video guy agrees with you about DVDs, but, without regard for what is wrong, I cannot continually be bothered with complaints, mailing replacements and so on. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 082. Recently, my son visited a sports medicine doctor due some soreness in his right pitching shoulder. During the check up, the doctor advised us that my son's shoulder ligaments in both shoulders are 'loose' and make him susceptible to potential shoulder dislocations. Just so you know, I am have had a history of shoulder dislocations. Is there anything he can do to 'tighten' the ligaments? Does pitching further exacerbate the problem? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You failed to tell me your son's age and how much pitching he has done. Too much youth baseball pitching, especially with the 'traditional' pitching motion does stretch the Gleno-Humeral ligaments in the shoulder. After he has completed his skeletal development, if he has ongoing problems with his pitching shoulder, orthopedic surgeons can tighten those ligaments. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 083. Ooops, I am sorry, Dr. Marshall. What I meant by "right at the top" of his bicep muscle was that the pain is in the muscle "peak" (I believe it is called) at the center of his upper arm. He says that the pain is definitely in the muscle. I hope that locates his pain a little better for you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When the muscles (Biceps Brachii and Brachialis) that bend (flex) the pitching elbow become sore, it is because they are trying to prevent the olecranon process of the Ulna bone of the pitching forearm from slamming into the olecranon fossa of the Humerus bone of the pitching upper arm. The 'traditional' pitching motion generates a horizontal centripetal force that slings the pitching forearm laterally away from the body. The answer is to stop using the 'traditional' pitching motion. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 084. I am currently printing your online book and will read up on your recommended delivery. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To provide the latest teaching methods for my pitching motion, I hope to complete my re-write of Chapter Thirty-Seven soon. I have completed my re-writes for my Motor Skill Acquisition and Interval-Training Programs. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 085. Yesterday, I wrote to you regarding my 11 year old son's diagnosis with regard to his pitching shoulder. Last week, a doctor had determined that my son had 'loose' ligaments in his shoulder. Just to give you further background, my son has been pitching for about two years now. Last year, he pitched approximately twice a week, never throwing more than (50) pitches in an outing. Further, I never allowed him to pitch more than two innings per game. Should I allow my son to play this coming season or would he be better served taking off the season? Lastly, if my son were to have surgery to 'tighten' the ligaments in his shoulder (when he becomes of age), would that impact his ability to continue pitching? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If your son is also biologically eleven years old, then the ossification center for his olecranon process has just appeared. The ossification center for his lateral epicondyle will not appear until next year. The growth plates at the distal end of his Humerus bone will not mature until the following year. The growth plate for his lateral epicondyle will not mature until the following year. The growth plate for his olecranon process will not mature until the following year. And, the growth plates for his radial head and medial epicondyle will not mature until the following year. In other words, he still has a lot of growing to do. I recommend that you do not permit him to throw baseballs for more than two consecutive months per year, do not permit him to pitch competitively until he is biologically thirteen years old and, then, do not permit him to pitch more than one inning twice a week. If you do this, then, when he is biologically sixteen years old, we will have a better idea of what he needs to do to become the best pitcher he can be. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 086. I may be interested in your services for my son if it can be worked out. My son's baseball team will be traveling to Orlando for the preseason Orlando National Baseball Classic tournament March 21-15, 2005. I wonder if it would be possible to have you look at my son pitch/throw assess his mechanics just prior to that and at what fee? My son will be turning 17 (a junior) just before our arrival in Orlando. He has periodically had little trouble with his elbow until last High School season, when it seemed to be worse. He pitched successfully, but complained of more than normal elbow pain after an almost complete game 90+ pitches (an error for 3rd out of last inning kept him from completion). He rested a rotation, and then was pitching (10 days later) a shutout in the district championship. In the 4-5 inning, he called to the coach saying his elbow 'hurt' and he thought he should come out. His coach tried to goad him into staying, but he didn't back down. I have been unable to find anyone here I think actually know what they are doing with regard to mechanics. We went the doctor and had X-rays taken of both elbows> The doctor said that everything was normal and my son's growth plate had close with no bony fragments or calcification. With his physical exam, the doctor found some 'give' in my son's pitching elbow connective tissue, possibly the ligaments. Then, the doctor took an MRI of my son's pitching elbow. I don't have the technical jargon from the doctor or radiologist, but the lay explanation was a UCL sprain or strain, not a tear or separation. The doctor said that my son's UCL area was inflamed/engorged in blood. The doctor advised my son to stop pitching until the pain subsided. The doctor found no damage to the joint or ligaments. The doctor prescribed a compound lotion (ketoprofen?) for my son to use daily 3-4 times until pain was gone. He took the rest of the school season and summer season off. He did some stretching, light weights, core work up until December trying to build strength and flexibility for the season. When he started pitching again (mid-February), he would get sore (normal), but, recently, as the season has started, he pitched batting practice and mound work 3 or 4 times over 6 days (30 -50 pitches) and now he is concerned about his elbow again, experiencing slight pain. I don't know if you are available on weekends or not and how long it would take to get the Zephyrhills from Orlando, or if you even have time/willingness during that time. Ultimately, I would like to find out if he just 'doesn't have the right physiology' or if it is a mechanical or conditioning issue. Any suggestions/advice would be helpful. I read your Q & A, and have downloaded the book, but have trouble with the medical terms and visualizing the explanations. I can provide more information if you think that would help. Your earliest response would be appreciated. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am sure that your son has the right physiology. Unfortunately, he does not have the right force application technique or interval-training program. I do not evaluate pitchers, but I know what he is doing that is unnecessarily stressing his Ulnar Collateral Ligament. He has late pitching forearm turnover with reverse pitching forearm bounce followed by pitching forearm flyout. You and he are welcome to visit my Pitcher Research/Training Center in Zephyrhills, FL. We are about an hour from Orlando. I will explain what he needs to do to eliminate the unnecessary stress. And, he can watch my pitchers train. We start at 9:00AM. From Orlando, you drive West on I-4, turn North on Hwy 39, turn North on Hwy 301, go one-half mile to Vinson Avenue, turn West, go one block, turn North and turn right into the first driveway. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 087. What is the cost of the 8, 10 and 12 lb iron balls? How long does it take to receive them once they are ordered? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The eight, ten and twelve pound iron balls that we use are not iron balls. They are lead balls. Actually, they are weights that shrimpers use to hold their nets on the bottom of the ocean. They come with hooks that secure them to the edges of the shrimp nets. I have to special order them. They require that I order large numbers of each. For my last order, they charged me one and one-half their weight. For example, the eight pound lead ball cost me twenty dollars. Therefore, for an eight, ten and twelve pound set, they charged me seventy-five dollars. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 088. How does bowling help the pitching arm? My son was thrilled with the information, but I was just curious. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bowling is just like doing my wrist weight pronated swings. That strengthens the muscles that flex and extend the shoulder joint, flex the elbow joint and pronate and supinate the forearm joint. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 089. When should I use the resistance tubing, after a pitching workout, or the day before pitching? Can I also do it before I'm going to pitch in game, during warm-up and how much, if yes? Do weighted baseballs like 4oz-6oz can injured my arm? If not do they increase speed using them? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pulling on rubber tubing makes you better at pulling on rubber tubing. I recommend my ten to twenty-five pound wrist weight and six to twelve pound iron ball exercises that precisely replicate my pitching motion. Baseballs weigh five and one-half ounces. Four to six ounces will not only not sufficiently stress the pitching bones, ligaments and tendons to cause a physiological adjustment, but, if you have improper force application techniques, will only increase your opportunity for injury. The only way to increase release velocity is to increase the toward home plate force that you apply to the baseball. To do that, you have to change how you apply force and train with sufficient resistance that the stress causes the bones, ligaments and tendons to make a physiological adjustment. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 090. We will come to Zephyrhills when we are in Orlando for the tournament. I am excited and my son is VERY excited at the notion of putting elbow problems behind him. We have the directions you provided. We will bring his glove and ball so he can pitch a few times after you have explained the changes, then perhaps you can tell if he/we understand what you have said enough to apply it. I will also bring my camcorder if that is okay. I will not film anyone there without permission. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You may bring your camcorder and record whatever you want. And, you may ask questions of anybody. We look forward to your visit. However, for obvious liability reasons, your son cannot practice at my Pitcher Research/Training Center. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 091. My son pitches college baseball. He sits at 87 mph with his fastball and sometimes breaks 90 mph. He drags his back leg and foot and I think that it is amazing that he throws as hard as he does with this major fault. What drill can we run through to break this habit? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To learn to move their pitching leg forward, I used to have my kids do my No-Stride body action. Now, I use my new Crow-Hop body action. I just posted my re-write of Chapter Thirty-Seven. You can find my explanation of how to perform my Crow-Hop body action in that chapter. If he has ever played infield or outfield, then he has crow-hopped his throws and he has moved his pitching leg forward. We just have to remind him of what that felt like, such that he can do it on the pitching mound. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 092. I will still call just to be sure your situation has not changed prior to the tournament in Orlando. Also the weather/team schedule may affect the specific day we can come if his coach has some plans. I will ask his coach this weekend about the team schedule. I hadn't thought about the liability issue and am sympathetic. Can he throw a whiffle ball or do a drill or something/anything in your presence to validate that w/he understand your explanation about how/what has to change, and that he mechanically has the jist? You obviously have a lot of experience conveying your technique and validating that the pitching student grasps it. We will trust that to you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am at my Pitcher Research/Training Center every day from 9:00 to 11:00AM. You may come any day you can. Sorry, you and he cannot even leave the safe viewing area. But, I assure you, both of you will understand why his pitching arm is bothering him and what he needs to do to fix it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 093. I am curious to know if you receive a substantial number of hits to your web site anytime soon. Today (Friday, March 4), hosts at a local radio station were talking about parents signing 'unconditional' releases for their young men to play little league baseball. I took the opportunity to call in, with my wife's prompting, and speak with the host on-air regarding pitching/throwing injuries. Among other things the host asked for your web address. I gave it to him live on-air. This station broadcasts at 50,000 watts and has a general listenership of over 1.5 million people at any given time. My son tells me that he saw high-speed film of himself in the past couple of days. He said that he had good body action with the hips getting through, but the glove-side needs work. Will the glove-side work also help keep him from driving the arm upward during curveball releases? What is your assessment of his progress at this point? My lefty threw against live hitters for the first time this week. He faced four hitters, throwing a total of 15 pitches. Two strikeouts and two weak ground balls! Not bad for a first outing. On another note, would you consider putting me through a training program by which you would certify me to teach your mechanics? What might I have to do? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Youth baseball programs are requiring 'unconditional' releases? It sounds as though they know that they are destroying pitching arms and want to avoid litigation. It takes a couple of days for my web host to post the number of hits my website received. I will know more tomorrow when I add the questions that I received and answered this past week. Without you and others getting the word out, my message will never get out. When I talk, the public believes that whatever I say is self-serving. When others, who have no vested interest in my web site talk, they listen. While I have never and will never solicit testimonials, in furthering the cause of advancing the elimination of pitching arm injuries, I do appreciate them. With some of my pitchers leaving for spring training, I wanted to high-speed film them. I decided to spend another five hundred dollars and give the other guys and early opportunity to see what they are doing. High-speed film shows everything. I told them to compare their pitching arm action, their glove arm action, their pitching leg action, their glove leg action and the movement of their center of mass with what I have told them that they should be doing every day from the day that they arrived. They have to assume the responsibility for correctly performing my pitching motion. As you know, I want pitchers to point their glove arm directly at home plate. At the appropriate moment, I want pitchers to pull their glove hand straight backward to slightly above their shoulder without moving their glove elbow behind the midline of their body. I tell my pitchers that what they do with their glove arm, through centripetal imperative, influences how they can use their pitching arm. Because I want them to drive their pitching arm straight toward home plate, I want them to drive their glove arm straight toward second base. Your son pointed his glove arm about eight feet above home plate. Then, when he pulled his glove hand backward, he pulled it downward to below his waist and away from his body. Therefore, his glove arm action caused his pitching arm to move upward and away from his body. As a result, to correct for the upward and away from the body movement of his pitching arm, he had to pull his pitching elbow downward. Also, the force that his glove arm generated forced him to bend his body forward at his waist. He could not stand tall and rotate. Like I told him and everybody else, from day one, with my wrist weight exercises, I showed you how to properly use their glove arm. They do a great job with the wrist weight exercises. With one wrist weight on their glove arm while they do their iron ball throws, they do a great job with their iron ball throws. Then, when they throw baseballs, they return to what they have done all their lives. I continually remind them of the proper glove arm action and have others watch them and tell them what they are doing, but nothing improved. Now, they can see for themselves. Your son has also not yet learned how to move smoothly from my 'Ready' position into my 'Loaded Slingshot' position. I have explained what he needs to do and given his drills, but he still hesitates at 'Ready' while he moves his body forward. This forces him to have to rush his pitching arm and makes his releases inconsistent. I am hoping that, when he relaxes and feels the rhythm, he will stop thinking about each step and let his pitching arm flow. Isn't it fun to watch a pitcher you train use what you taught him and get the results that the quality of his pitches deserves? He has a long way to go, but that is a nice start. It makes sense for me to certify teachers of my pitching motion. Maybe, I will have to hold certification classes. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 094. I often hear people say Pitcher X has a torn rotator cuff. I know that the rotator cuff consists of four muscles; The subscapularis, the infraspinatus, the supraspinatus and Teres Minor. But, what actually happens when one of these muscles gets injures? Does the muscle tear away from the Humerus? Can it tear away from the other end of the muscle? Can they get injured without actually tearing them? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With its attachment to the lesser tuberosity of the head of the Humerus bone, pitchers typically only aggravate their Subscapularis muscle at this attachment. I suppose that they could tear the attachment away from the bone, but I have no direct information. With its attachment to the top of the head of the Humerus bone, pitchers can pull this attachment of their Supraspinatus muscle away from the bone. The problem lies with too much inward rotation of their pitching upper arm with the 'traditional' pitching motion and the Supraspinatus acting as both an inward rotator and an outward rotator of the pitching upper arm. With its attachment immediately behind the attachment of the Supraspinatus muscle on the head of the Humerus bone, the Infraspinatus muscle acts only as an outward rotator of the pitching upper arm. I suppose that pitchers could aggravate this attachment of their Infraspinatus muscle, but I have no direct information. With its attachment immediate behind the attachment of the Infraspinatus muscle on the head of the Humerus bone, the Teres Minor muscle acts as an outward rotator and a horizontal extender of the pitching upper arm. The problem lies in that the Teres Minor muscle is small, such that when pitchers pull their pitching arm across the front of their body, it does not have the ability to safely decelerate the force without injury. To prevent this injury, pitchers have only to learn to pronate their pitching forearm. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 095. I would like your opinion/ideas on this matter relating to my 17 year old son. He pitches effectively (i.e., per the standard of gets batters out). He is also what I would call a strikeout pitcher, averaging 1.5 per inning pitched. My question is this: Although my son has not complained of any pain in any part of his body (shoulder, elbow, etc.), the forearm of his pitching arm feels like a rock after he finishes pitching an outing. By rock, I mean if you were to push on it it has very little 'give' and the muscles/ligaments feel very tight. It returns to normal after a few days of regular use and basic flexing exercises. Does this mean his forearm is weak, or not adequately flexible or is some hidden thing going on? Based on this amount of information can you draw any conclusions about a mechanical/physiological issue? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A combination of factors could cause your son's pitching arm to remain 'rock hard' for a few days after he pitches. The intensity of the activity could exceed the physiological limits of his pitching muscles and he could tear some muscle fibers. When muscle fibers tear, to protect them from further injury, the surrounding muscle fibers remain contracted. These bundles of contracted muscle fibers feel like knots in the muscles. Until the injured muscle fibers heal, they will remain contracted. Also, with any intense physical activity, fast-twitch glycolytic muscle fibers metabolize glycogen, which produces lactic acid as a waste product. These muscle fibers have to move the lactic acid that they product into the blood stream where slow-twitch oxidative muscle fibers will metabolize the lactic acid. Blood engorged muscle fibers also make muscles feel 'rock hard.' Within twenty-four hours, properly trained pitching arms return to the flaccid state, which indicates full recovery from the intense activity. The failure of these muscle fibers to not appropriately recover from the activity indicates that he has not properly trained his pitching arm. To properly train his pitching arm, I recommend that he complete my 120-Day High School Baseball Pitchers Interval-Training Program. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 096. You wrote that my son hesitates at 'Ready' while he moves his body forward, forcing him to rush his pitching arm. Sequentially, what is the exact timing for initiating drive of the pitching hand toward the plate? I am unclear about this, because I have thought we were trying (conceptually) to delay any forward movement of the pitching hand and pitching forearm until the torso is fully, forwardly rotated (acromial line on a line from second base to home plate with the pitching shoulder pointing at home plate). Indeed it is great fun to watch these guys throw! It is difficult to watch anyone throw with traditional mechanics. When I consider what they could be doing and the damage incurred it takes the fun away from watching games. I hope that, in our lifetimes, we can see games where every participant throws your way. One of my goals is to coach a team like this. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You are correct, Sir. I do want pitchers to delay the start of their body forward until they pendulum swing their pitching arm (almost) up to driveline height. However, I do not want the pitching hand to stop. I want the pitching hand to arrive at driveline height as far behind the pitching rubber as possible. And, I also want pitchers to turn the upward momentum at the end of the pendulum swing into forward momentum. Therefore, they have to learn when to start their body forward such that the baseball arrives at the driveline as close to second base as possible and converts its upward momentum into forward momentum. I tell pitchers that, the instant that their pitching hand reaches driveline height with their pitching palm facing upward, they should move their pitching upper arm into my 'Loaded Slingshot' position, where they inwardly rotate the head of the Humerus bone in its glenoid fossa, such that their pitching elbow points away from their body. During this movement, pitchers should step straight forward with their glove foot, such that when their glove foot contacts the ground, they have their glove and pitching arms fully loaded and ready, such that when they move their pitching knee slightly in front of their glove knee, they can explosively drive their glove hand straight backward toward second base and, after they have forwardly rotated their acromial line to point (almost) toward home plate, they can explosively drive their pitching hand straight forward toward home plate. Right now, I prefer that every pitcher on the major league team for whom I am the pitching coordinator uses my pitching motion. That will give that courageous professional baseball organization a ten year head start on the other teams. However, I suspect that, like everything else good that happens, it will have to start at the grass roots level with today's ten years olds showing the professional teams how to do it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 097. At the grass roots level, everything is going quite well. My young lefty threw his first inning of competitive scrimmage against another team yesterday. The entire opposing team lined up in front of their dugout, watching him throw. They still have no idea what really happened. Three batters, nine pitches, two weak ground balls and one strikeout. He struck out batter #3 (lefty vs. lefty) with a Maxline curveball that moved inside-out well enough to back the hitter off of the plate, then dropped into the zone. The hitters seemed very, very frustrated. Gee, I wonder why. This is much too much fun and I'm still grinning. You wrote that "they should move their pitching upper arm into my 'Loaded Slingshot' position, where they inwardly rotate the head of the Humerus bone in its glenoid fossa." Should this read outwardly rotate? We lock the upper arm by outwardly rotating the humerus bone. Please read the sequence below, as a whole made up of parts. Am I correct in thinking the following: 1. Throughout the pendulum swing we are applying force to the baseball through an arc; 2. As the pitching hand pendulum swing reaches driveline height and, as we lock the upper arm into the Loaded Slingshot, we convert force from the pendulum arc to the beginning of straight line drive; 3. Conceptually this could be seen as a rocket reaching apogee, where there is a momentary, fractional, yet unrecognizable pause before the rocket begins its fall toward earth; 4. Simultaneously, as the ball reaches driveline height (apogee) and the pitcher locks into the Loaded Slingshot, by striding forward with the glove-side leg we initiate the first true movement of the baseball toward home plate by carrying it forward with the stride; 5. The musculature of our pitchers must be strong enough to overcome the slight centrifugal imperative that occurs 'at apogee' if they are to achieve true straight-line drive; 6. The technique and timing of our pitchers must be sufficient enough to smoothly convert movement of the baseball from the pendulum arc to forward movement of the pitching hand straight toward home plate without interruption, if they are to achieve true straight-line drive. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is too much fun. I do not mean just that the young man you are teaching is doing well, but that you caught a mistake that most Ph.D.s would have missed. You are absolutely correct, I did mean outward rotation of the pitching upper arm. I realized my mistake when I was explaining this very point to your son this morning. 01. The pendulum swing is nearly gravity driven, I do not want pitchers to apply force backwardly that they have to overcome. Nevertheless, the baseball does move downward, backward and upward in a full arm arc. 01a. Except for my Maxline True Screwball, when their pitching hand reaches driveline height, which is slightly above the height of the pitching ear, pitchers have their pitching palm facing upward. 02. Immediately after the pitching hand reaches driveline height, pitchers outwardly rotate the head of their Humerus bone, which locks the pitching upper arm to their body. I agree that pitchers need to convert the upward force of the baseball into the toward-home-plate horizontal force of the start of the acceleration phase. 03. Rather than a rocket reaching apogee, I would say like a playground swing, just before its starts back downward. 04. When pitchers should step straight forward with their glove foot to insure that they smoothly convert the upward force of the pendulum swing into the toward-home-plate horizontal force depends on their individual rhythms. If I see that they start their body forward too soon, such that the baseball moves forward before it reaches driveline height, then I tell them to keep their glove foot on the ground a little longer. If I see that they start their body forward too late, such that the baseball stays in place at driveline height at all, then I tell them to lift their glove foot on the ground a little sooner. 05. Because I tell pitchers to drive their pitching hand straight forward, pitchers do not generate and the pendulum swing does not have any centripetal force. 06. I agree that pitchers require technique and timing to convert the upward momentum of the baseball to toward-home-plate momentum. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 098. I hope this finds you well, and that my two knuckleheads are doing OK. Just finished my weekly read of the letters, and was interested in certification of the teaching of your techniques. I live in a pretty good baseball area, as I am sure you know, and I would not mind helping other guys. As of now, I just send them to your website, and recommend they sign up to go to Florida. I was also interested in the last paragraph of your last letter where you talked about being a pitching coordinator for a major league team. I might have a bit of information on that, just enough to be fascinated. I was hoping you could provide more. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am trying hard to make my drills and instructional so simple that every parent feel confident to teach their youth baseball pitchers my pitching motion. However, if they had someone who could show them how to perform my drills and offer evaluations, then they could also feel confident that they are doing things correctly. I think that you and both of your sons would do an outstanding job. I would certainly certify all of you for the ten through high school kids without histories of pitching arm problems. However, because my three hundred and fifteen day adult baseball pitcher interval-training program is continually on the edge of too much stress, I could not certify all of you for them, especially when they have histories of pitching arm problems. With regard to becoming a pitching coordinator for a major league team, a couple of teams have shown interest, but I doubt that they will pull the trigger. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 099. I am a baseball player(pitcher) in an European national league! Give me, please, other baseball books or video. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am always willing to help baseball pitchers everywhere. I plan to upgrade my Baseball Pitching Instructional video this summer. If you send me your address, I will send you a copy. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 100. My 14 year old son has been complaining about pain in his glove wrist. He thinks it may have started a couple of months ago when he fell playing basketball. The pain is on the anteror side of his wrist right where you would bend your hand upward. There seems to be a bone on the distal end of the radius. The pain goes from there right across the crease in his wrist. It does not hurt him while hitting but will hurt a lot after he finishes. When he plays catch, it does not hurt for the first few times he catched the ball during warm-ups but after that it will hurt. I know you sometimes refer to growth plates in the wrist so I'm wondering if this is a growth plate issue. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The growth plates at the distal end of the Ulna and Radius bones do not mature until biological nineteen years old. It does sound as though he has irritated the growth plate at the distal end of his Radius bone, which is on the thumb side of the forearm. The more that he continues to irritate it, the longer the discomfort will last. He needs to find ways to not irritate it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 101. When should I use the resistance tubing, after a pitching workout, or the day before pitching? Can I also do it before I'm going to pitch in game, during warm-up and how much, if yes? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Because I see absolutely no value in any resistance tubing training, I would never advise doing any resistance tubing training. Nevertheless, because the stress is minimal, you can do it before you prepare to pitch, after you pitch and whenever else you want. To use it to redistribute blood to the working muscles, you can pull on it or anything else that is handy for about two minutes before you start getting ready to pitch and see how things come out. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 102. I was also thinking along the lines of being a person who could show parents how to teach their sons to perform my drills and offer evaluations, rather than an everyday workout type thing. I was only thinking about non-injured, high school kids or younger, just to get them started and on the right footing. I still believe, for too-many-reasons-to-mention, that every serious coming senior in high school should spend a summer with you in Zephyrhills, and after graduation, the next year with you in Zephyrhills. I know you do not like the summer program, but I think it can be invaluable. If you are indeed willing to be the pitching coordinator for a professional baseball organizatin and a team did not snap you up, then the wall of ignorance is even higher than I imagined. And, I realize it is of Everest proportions. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You would be great as an advisor to parents who want to teach their sons how to use my pitching motion. You should advertise for an Introductory meeting with personal follow-up sessions as needed. I will allow you and their parents to cover their pre-graduation needs. After they graduate from high school, they can spend forty-five weeks with me. Mount Everest is a mole hill compared to the wall of ignorance in professional baseball. Yesterday, at a professional baseball team tryout, after one pitch, a pitching coach stopped my most talented, major-league-experienced pitcher and spent five minutes telling him how he had to change his pitching motion. Then, when he refused, he ignored him and did not choose him to stay and pitch against hitters. Unfortunately, I was meeting with someone elsewhere at that time or I would have verbally taken that jackass apart. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 103. I have a 14 year old kid that was diagnosed with a stress fracture of his humerus last year. He complained of pain in his bicep muscle and surrounding muscle. The fracture was in the inside, distal end of humerus above the elbow. All growth plates were said to be in good shape. After diagnosis was made he stopped everything for the rest of summer. No bike riding, lawn mowing, no anything on doctor's orders. After one month, he was reevaluated and the fracture was said to be healed and in good shape. After another 2 months of taking it extremely easy with no throwing or any other stressful activity, he gradually returned to some light tubing and light 3-5 lb. dumbells as well as some light throwing, nothing stressful. After the new year, he started a little more aggressively using the tubing and dumbells as well as some moderate throwing, around 20-25 throws 2 days a week while doing the tubing stuff, 2 days one week, 3 days the next week, but only throwing twice a week. Recently, he started complaining about some pain in his bicep area again. I took him back to the ortho and he was X-rayed and all was said to be fine with no sign of stress fracture and the growth plates were all in good shape. I decided to take him to another ortho who is highly regarded within the sports community. He spent all of 5 minutes with the kid and made a diagnosis, rotator cuff tendonitis with the supraspinatus as the likely culprit. He basically had the kid put his arm into external rotation and had him stop at the point where he would begin to internally rotate/acelerate the arm. From that point, he applied some resistance and told the kid to act like he was going to throw. Then, he asked what the kid felt the boy said he felt a little discomfort on the upper/outside of the humerus, but below the shoulder. He also said his shoulder never hurt. He said it was his bicep area. He also said that when he had the fracture, so, with him, it is sketchy as to where in the heck it all originates. For me, that was a pretty quick diagnosis, but than again, I'm not the doctor. What would you think? Also, what would you prescribe for exercise/therapy that would best help this young man? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You say that your son suffered a stress fracture on the inside of the distal end of his Humerus bone above the elbow. You say that the doctor told you that he did not harm the growth plate of the medial epicondyle. While you did not say, I assume that you believe that baseball pitching caused this stress fracture. Stress fractures occur where muscles attach to bones or where bones have to withstand the stresses of muscle action. The medial epicondyle of the Humerus bone has five muscles attached to it. But, you say that the stress fracture was above the elbow, which means above the medial epicondyle. The Brachialis muscle attaches to the anterior surface of the distal one-half of the Humerus bone. The Brachialis muscle is the only muscle in the area of the Humerus bone that you describe. With the 'traditional' pitching motion, the Brachialis muscle contracts to prevent pitching forearm flyout. While this action increases the size of the coronoid process of the Ulna bone and decreases the elbow flexion range of motion, I have never heard of it causing a stress fracture. However, given the facts as you stated them, that is the only way that I can see where the bone received more stress than it could withstand. The solution is to stop using the 'traditional' pitching motion. You have to teach your son to not generate horizontal centripetal force that causes pitching forearm flyout that forces him to use his Brachialis muscle to prevent the olecranon process of his Humerus bone from slamming into the olecranon fossa. While the 'traditional' pitching motion also unnecessarily stresses the Supraspinatus attachment at the top of the head of the Humerus bone, you have not stated any symptoms that indicate he has problems at this location yet. The solution is for you and your son to start with my First 60-Day Youth Baseball Pitcher Motor Skill Acquisition Program. He will learn how to properly use his glove and pitching arms in my pitching motion. To learn how to perform my drills, you may read Chapter Thirty-Seven of my Coaching Baseball Pitchers book and/or purchase my 2004 Baseball Pitching Instructional video. If you do, then when I finish my update this summer, I will send you a copy. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 104. I am on the Board of Directors for a Babe Ruth League. We have been chartered for about 35 years and this season have almost 1,000 kids from ages 5 through 18 in our league. This is my first year as a Director, so I am learning quite a bit about running a league that I did not appreciate as a player growing up. I came across your name in an internet search and was impressed with your approach. As a former ball player and current engineer, I was impressed with your application of physics to the pitching world. In a recent Board meeting, it was decided that we would not use a mound for our Cal Ripken division games (ages 9 through 12). I believe most of the reason for this was that some of the field will also be used for softball. Someone on the Board made the comment that if a kid can pitch from flat ground than he will be a better pitcher in any post-season tournaments that will have mounds. I have a friend that has been a successful youth coach for the past 10 years and expressed concerns that kids would hurt their arms throwing hard from flat ground. As a Board member, this concerns me but also as a parent of a 9-year old that wants to pitch and seems to be able to throw hard. Do you have any information or experience that would show any advantages or disadvantages to not using a pitching mound for 9 through 12 year old pitchers? Any information you could share would be greatly appreciated. I look forward to your reply and I am sure that I will be referring to your book from time to time. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When baseball pitchers throw on the regulation one inch per foot for six feet downward grade pitching mound, they should be able to drive the baseball horizontally forward and all pitches be in the strike zone. However, when baseball pitchers throw exactly the same on flat ground, their pitches will be above the strike zone. As a result, the pitchers will have to either drive their pitches at a downward angle, bend at the waist or pull their pitching elbow down, rather than drive the baseball straight forward. If they drive their pitches at a downward angle, then they will have to retrain both their mechanics and their muscles to fit this new driveline. If they bend at their waist, then they will not be able to stand tall and rotate, which will not only make their pitch releases more inconsistent, but will stress muscles that they do not typically use. If they pull their pitching elbow down, rather than drive the baseball straight forward, then they will unnecessarily stress their pitching elbow. As you read my materials, you will learn about growth plates and the stress that youth baseball pitching places on them. To protect these growth plates and insure that youth baseball pitchers have unaltered bone growth when they are biologically sixteen years old, I recommend that youth baseball pitchers train for only two consecutive months per year, wait until they are biologically thirteen years old before they pitch competitively and pitch only one inning per game twice a week. From this, you can see that I disagree with biological nine to twelve year old baseball pitchers pitching competitively at all, whether from regulation pitching mounds or on flat ground. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 105. I am looking for a training program for pitchers in the age range of 13-15. What do you recommend? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Until youth baseball pitchers are biologically sixteen years old, they should throw baseballs for only two consecutive months per year, wait until they are biologically thirteen years old to pitch competitively and pitch only one inning twice a week. They definitely should not use weights, throw too much or throw too hard. Rather, they should practice the skills of baseball pitching. With my First through Fourth Youth Baseball Pitchers Motor Skill Acquisition Programs, I provide drills that help youngsters learn the skills of baseball pitching. I recommend that youth baseball pitchers of whatever age start with my First Program and, when they master those skills, advance to my Second Program and so on. When youth baseball pitchers become biologically sixteen years old, they can start my 120-Day High School Baseball Pitchers Interval-Training Program where I introduce ten pound wrist weight exercises and have them throw a six pound iron ball. To learn how to perform the drills in these programs, you will need to read Chapter Thirty-Seven of my Coaching Baseball Pitchers book and/or get my 2004 Baseball Pitching Instructional video. If you get this video, when I complete my upgrade this summer, I will send you a copy. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 106. In the book, 'A Treasury of Baseball Drills,' you described a drill to strengthen the lead arm in the baseball swing. Do you still consider that a good drill? In previous Q&A, you described a hitting drill with broomsticks. Do you cut the broomsticks to a normal bat length, or longer because you grip a forearm's distance up from the bottom? I really enjoy reading the Q&A's every week and they (and the book and video) have really increased my enjoyment of watching pitching technique. I can't believe how much bad information there is out there. I recently looked at a book on pitching at the library. The star pitcher showed his release point with his forearm about 90 degrees from the upper arm. Yet, pictures of his actual delivery show his arm almost straight at release! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Did Danny Litwhiler put 'A Treasury of Baseball Drills' together? In question 832 of my 2004 Question/Answer file, I discuss my 'Overload for the Quick Bat' article that I wrote for the Athletic Journal back in 1967. I also wrote 'Specific Weight Training for Baseball' in 1967 for the Journal of Strength and Health. I recommend both for biological sixteen year old baseball batters. The baseball batting interval-training program that I also developed during the 1960s used broomsticks cut to the same length as youth baseball bats. Without high-speed film, neither the professional baseball pitchers nor their pitching coaches have any idea what actually goes on during their pitching motion. They live in some fantasy land of their mind. That is the reason why I offer my one thousand dollar prize for anybody with only sixty degrees of pitching elbow bend at release. Nobody has accepted the challenge. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 107. First off, please let me thank you from the bottom of my heart, I mean that sincerely! You, my friend, have always maintained the utmost in respect, integrity and all around GOODNESS even when you may have not been on the recieving end. To me, that is the sign of a real genuine person who is filled with a good sense of being, thanks! The doctor that my son has seen have no idea what caused the stress fracture, nor do I. He did fall catching a ball while playing in the outfield and sort of rolled over the arm. In your views, he did pitch quite a bit from 10-12 years of age. In no way was he overused, we always kept strict pitch counts and were always looking for signs of breakdown/fatigue and dealt with it accordingly. I realize even this goes against your belief system and I respect that. Last year, he pitched a total of about 12 innings and that was it. As soon as the fracture was diagnosed, he was done. As I wrote in the first email, he really didn't do much until after the new year besides some real light playing of catch. This evening he will start with some physical therapy that was prescribed by the ortho he last saw. I'm seriously thinking about not having him pitch at all this year, as in my view, it means nothing until he reaches high school. I wished I would have held that view a couple of years back. He does have some promise, not to mention he's a lefty. At this time, I am basically unemployed due to the nature of my business, so I really do not have the money for the tape. But, I soon will and I fully intend to buy it as well as try the program for young pitchers. I also will surely reread the chapter from your book. I have read it before, but the terminology is tough to say the least. I'm not sure if you viewed the clip or not, but, if you did, what did you see in terms of mechanical issues that further complicate his condition. At any rate, I will follow through with your reccomendations promptly. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The location of the fracture does support a fall versus a throwing injury. Unfortunately, pitch counts do not prevent youth pitchers from injuring their growth plate and ligaments. The American Sports Medicine Institute (ASMI) conducted a survey of wannabe pitching coaches, who would not know a growth plate from a dinner plate, and fraudulently presented it as scientific fact. Also, youth pitchers can alter the development of growth plates and ligaments without significant discomfort. I do not review video clips of youth pitchers. Nevertheless, since they are not using my pitching motion, I know what they look like and, without high-speed film, nobody gets to see the acceleration phase anyway. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 108. First off, let me say that I am a diehard fan of yours and believe that if Eck and Fingers belong in the Hall Of Fame, then you certainly do. I can go back to when I was about 12 or 13 and Sports Illustrated had a dice baseball card game and you were the DOMINANT player in the game. My brothers and I would fight to pick you for our team. Additionally, I was intrigued that you had degree in physiology and, for those times, athletes barely had high school or AA degrees yet and you had a doctorate. Quite impressive. Well, enough about that, my question for you is not really baseball related though I do play softball. I am 44 years old and weigh 230 lbs., but it is an athletic 220 as I can bench press 300+ pounds and squat 550+. I am a Police Lt. in the Miami area and I'm left-handed. I recently tore my left distal biceps (80-90% partial high-grade tear per MRI biceps retracted 2 cm. from elbow). I have full elbow flexion, minimal pain, yet I do have residual weakness and this is my dominant and gun hand. The doctor and I looked at the MRI and we both decided that I should have the surgery. I'm now beginning to have second thoughts. Is it possible to strengthen the bicep without the surgery? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Biceps Brachii muscle distally attaches to the radial tuberosity of proximal end of the Radius bone on the thumb side of the forearm. It also has a connective tissue attachment (lacertus fibrosus) to the proximal end of the Ulna bone on the little finger side of the forearm. The radial tuberosity attachment is much stronger and more important. Did the doctor tell you which of these attachments you tore? If you tore the radial tuberosity attachment, then, to return to near total function, you need the surgery. With your training attitude, you should rehabilitate well. P.S.: If I don't earn the Cy Young Award in 1974, the sports writers would not have given either Mr. Fingers or Eckersley their cheapened Cy Young Awards and they would not be in the Hall of Fame. Also, I did what they did, they never did what I did. I should have been there first. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 109. I had him in yesterday for his first session of P.T. This person examined him by really giving his shoulder a good "going over" prodding fingers everywhere and poking around looking for "hot spots". He had him lie down with his arm behind his back to "expose the supraspinatus tendon" and he massaged the area saying he thought the boy had a partial tear. Is that possible to diagnose in this fashion? He also started him out on some scapular isolation exercises, lie down with his face against the table and doing some arm lift from this position, the boy really felt the work in the isolated scap area. He said after the inflamation subsides, he will start strengthening the cuff. Is this good advice in your opinion? I just want what is best for my son, obviously. Also, I trust your observations because I respect your work and abilities. Here is my query. This boy does have some potential to be a good solid high school performer, in your opinion should I have him forego any pitching this year instead getting him as ready as possible for his freshman year in high school? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No, nobody can diagnose a tear in the attachment of the Supraspinatus tendon to the head of the Humerus bone with their fingers. All this is hocus pocus nonsense. He needs to start with my First Youth Baseball Pitchers Motor Skill Acquisition Program and when he masters those skills, he needs to advance to my Second Youth Baseball Pitchers Motor Skill Acquisition Program and so on until he is biologically sixteen years old when he can start my 120-Day High School Baseball Pitchers Interval-Training Program. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 110. I believe I understand your aversion to youth pitching and this year I am especially sensitive to it. As a member of our league's Board, I am concerned with all of the kids involved, but this year will be the first that my second son will be in a division that has youth pitching and he wants to pitch. The discussion to remove the mounds is based strictly on the reason that some softball teams (also in our league) will also use the fields which I feel is absolutely the wrong reason. I spoke with a friend of mine last night who was a pitcher with the Expo's for a short time. He expressed concern that not having a mound would probably greatly limit or even prevent the follow through for a lot of kids. He said that there is a small muscle in the back of the shoulder that is damaged if a pitcher does not have proper follow through. Would you agree with this? I really hope to present a convincing argument to the rest of the Board why we should have mounds. As I said earlier I believe most of the them have based their decision on convenience of scheduling rather than what is truly better for the kids. I know that you are in no way a proponent of youth pitching, but I think you would agree that it much better for a youth to pitch off a mound than on flat ground. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You are correct, Sir, I do have an aversion to destroying youth baseball pitching arms. But, if you do not and know more about how these bones and their growth plates mature, then feel free to destroy as many as you want. The Teres Minor muscle receives unnecessary stress when baseball pitchers use the 'traditional' pitching motion and pull their pitching arm across the front of their body. It has nothing to do with flat mounds. When compared with youth pitchers pitching too much, too hard and too soon, flat mounds versus regular mounds is meaningless. Flat mounds only require that pitchers raise their drivelines. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 111. This is a strange question. Did you take three pitchers to an open tryout at the spring training headquarters of a professional baseball team last week? A friend of mine, who is a scout for another professional baseball team, was there and heard and saw some things that he still cannot believe. He said that he was standing with his radar gun behind home plate with the team's pitching coaches when he heard a pitching coach say that a doctor who uses weights to train pitchers had brought three kids to the tryout. Then, he heard another guy say that here is the first one. That guy ran across the three mounds and stopped the kid from throwing for several minutes. Finally, the kid just started throwing. The pitching coach walked away from him and never looked at any pitches. My friend said he threw ninety and the best screwball that he had ever seen. Later, he heard the first pitching coach say this is another of the doctor's kids. My friend said this kid threw ninety-five and the best curve he had ever seen. Then, he said he heard the guy in charge say ignor him. My friend said they asked every pitcher who threw eighty-eight to pitch in the game except the two kids the doctor brought. My friend said he could not believe that these professional pitching coaches acted this way. He never heard why they don't like the doctor and his kids. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yep, that was me and my kids. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 112. I noticed discrepancies in your 350 day adult workout. Under general description for day 267, it has IB @ 10 # and 24 reps. Under the Maxline workout for that day it shows 48 reps for the 10 # IB. Which one is correct? Also, I have a question of how to maintain after completing the 350 day workout, during the competitive season and after, what are the weights/reps to be used? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In my ever-re-evaluating interval-training programs, I no longer recommend 350 days for my Adult Baseball Pitcher Program. I now recommend 315 days. My problem is that I no longer have the 350-Day program. Therefore, I cannot answer your question about day 267. Please examine my 315-Day program and see whether I have the same problem. After nine days, I start my first ten pound wrist weight interval-training cycle. Each interval-training cycle takes twenty-four days. During my first wrist weight interval-training cycle, every six days, my pitchers increase the number of ten pound wrist weight repetitions from twenty-four of two pitches per day to forty-eight per pitch per day. Then, they increase their wrist weights weight to fifteen pounds. During my first iron ball interval-training cycle, every six days, my pitcher increase the number of six pound iron ball repetitions from twenty-four of two pitches per day to forty-eight per pitch per day. Then, they increase their iron ball weight to eight pounds. During my second wrist weight interval-training cycle, every six days, my pitchers increase the number of fifteen pound wrist weight repetitions from twenty-four of two pitches per day to forty-eight per pitch per day. Then, they increase their wrist weights weight to twenty pounds. During my second iron ball interval-training cycle, every six days, my pitcher increase the number of eight pound iron ball repetitions from twenty-four of two pitches per day to forty-eight per pitch per day. Then, they increase their iron ball weight to ten pounds. During my third wrist weight interval-training cycle, every six days, my pitchers increase the number of twenty pound wrist weight repetitions from twenty-four of two pitches per day to forty-eight per pitch per day. Then, they increase their wrist weights weight to twenty-five pounds. During my third iron ball interval-training cycle, every six days, my pitcher increase the number of ten pound iron ball repetitions from twenty-four of two pitches per day to forty-eight per pitch per day. Then, they increase their iron ball weight to twelve pounds. During my fourth wrist weight interval-training cycle, every six days, my pitchers increase the number of twenty-five pound wrist weight repetitions from twenty-four of two pitches per day to forty-eight per pitch per day. Then, they decrease their wrist weights weight to fifteen pounds and decrease the number of repetitions to twelve per pitch per day. This is the first maintenance level for my wrist weight exercises. During my fourth iron ball interval-training cycle, every six days, my pitcher increase the number of twelve pound iron ball repetitions from twenty-four of two pitches per day to forty-eight per pitch per day. Then, they decrease their iron ball weight to eight pounds, but continue to complete forty-eight repetitions per pitch per day for sixty days. I call this interval-training cycle, my 'Recoil' interval-training cycle. Then, they increase their iron ball weight to ten pounds and decrease their number of repetitions to twelve per pitch per day. This is the first maintenance level for my iron ball throws. After these two hundred and sixty-six days, my pitchers complete my basic wrist weight and iron ball interval-training program. Then, for the next forty-eight days, while they work to perfect their releases, they increase their baseball pitches to three per day and throw twenty-four of each. Then, to see what pitches they can meaningfully use, I want them to pitch competitively. Then, during their first off-season, I recommend that they complete their first wrist weight 'Recoil' interval-training cycle where they complete forty-eight repetitions per pitch per day with their fifteen pound wrist weights for sixty days. Then, they increase their wrist weights weight to twenty pounds and decrease their number of repetitions to twelve per pitch per day. Then, during their second off-season, I recommend that they complete their second iron ball 'Recoil' interval-training cycle where they complete forty-eight repetitions per pitch per day with their ten pound iron ball sixty days. Then, they increase their iron ball weight to twelve pounds and decrease their number of repetitions to twelve per pitch per day. Then, during their third off-season, I recommend that they complete their second wrist weight 'Recoil' interval-training cycle where they complete forty-eight repetitions per pitch per day with their twenty pound wrist weights for sixty days. Then, they increase their wrist weights weight to twenty-five and decrease their number of repetitions to twelve per pitch per day. Then, during their fourth off-season, I recommend that they complete their third iron ball 'Recoil' interval-training cycle where they complete forty-eight repetitions per pitch per day with their twelve pound wrist weights for sixty days. Then, they increase their iron ball weight to fifteen pounds and decrease their number of repetitions to twelve per pitch per day. Then, during their fifth off-season, I recommend that they complete their third wrist weight 'Recoil' interval-training cycle where they complete forty-eight repetitions per pitch per day with their twenty-five pound wrist weights for sixty days. Then, they increase their wrist weights weight to thirty and decrease their number of repetitions to twelve per pitch per day. During my professional baseball career, I complete a fourth iron ball and wrist weight 'Recoil' interval-training cycles, such that I maintained with a fifteen pound iron ball and thirty pound wrist weights. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 113. Is the Ulna Collateral Ligament the same thing as the medial collateral ligament of the pitching arm or are they two different ligaments? I thought the MCL referred to the knee. As some of your viewers are noting, once you learn your pitching motion, it is quite a sight seeing these youngsters pitch. I am quite frankly stunned by how bad it is at the high school level. I ask parents in general conversation if their son's have had arm problems. Invariably, they say that their son's had a shoulder or elbow problem but the doctors said it was only a sprain. They had their sons rest a month or two and sent them back out there. This leads to my question. It seems to me that parents get many warning signs of what is to happen to their sons. I was under the impression that these kids are one pitch away from blowing out their arms but, with my very unscientific sampling, it looks like it is, in fact, a gradual process. Would you agree? Would it be correct to say that doctors can't diagnose these problems until the elbow completely blows? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Because the Ulna bone of the forearm is on the inside or medial side of the elbow, anatomists now refer to the medial collateral ligament as the ulnar collateral ligament. They are the same ligament. In the knee, the medial collateral ligament holds the Tibia bone of the foreleg to the Femur bone of the upper leg. If you want, we could start to also call this ligament, the tibial collateral ligament. With every 'traditional' pitching motion throw, pitchers of all ages are destroying their pitching arm. When the ulnar collateral ligament sufficiently weakens, then one more throw snaps it. Medical doctors do not know how badly clogged the coronary blood vessels are until one or more almost completely close, therefore, orthopedic doctors do not know how badly weakened the ulnar collateral ligament is until it snaps. However, medical doctors know what causes the coronary blood vessels to close and recommend lifestyle changes to prevent the problem. Unfortunately, orthopedic doctors do not understand what causes the ulnar collateral ligament to weaken and do not recommend pitching motion changes to prevent the problem. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 114. I just read the two emails regarding your students and pitching scouts. What is, as Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story? How do you beat this? If true ability won’t trump, what do you do? Did you get the opportunity to take the guy apart verbally? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have talked about the prejudice against the one pitcher before. He is the guy who, in his first twelve games in 2000 with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, had a one point five earned run average. Then, after a sportswriter wrote how he was the next great pitcher and included that I trained him, they did not pitch him and messed with him until his earned run average increased to three point five and then, they released him. The General Manager of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Chuck LaMar, apparently does not like me. This young man continues to pitch for independent league teams and, in the off-season, in Puerto Rico and elsewhere, and always does well. The second young man has had pitching arm problems for the last year or so. After seeing doctor after doctor without relief, his father brought him to me. When he arrived, he threw eight-four miles per hour on the continuous reading of my radar gun. He now does not have any pitching arm discomfort and, even though he has about three months more of my basic interval-training program, he is already throwing ninety-five. He will go higher, but he also will have outstanding non-fastball pitches. Unfortunately, I did not get the full story of what happened for a couple of days, so I never got the chance to confront the pitching coach. However, I did telephone the General Manager with whom I was meeting during their tryout and left a message on his voice mail about what happened. It is one week today and I have not heard from him. The first guy will continue to pitch in the best independent league during the regular season and in foreign countries during the off-season. If I ever get a job with a professional organization, then he will pitch for their major league team. Until then, he is a very highly-skilled pitcher who loves to pitch and, like Paladin, has pitching arm, will travel. The second guy will attend a local community college team and continue to perfect his game. He will generate high strikeouts per game, low hits per game and low extra base hits per hits statistics and some professional team will want him. We have come a long way from 2000. The professional pitching coaches talk about directionality (my straight-line force application) and releasing the baseball closer to home plate (my lengthening the driveline 'hidden velocity' concept). On Saturday, March 05, 2005, for a personal tryout, the first guy and I went to another spring training site of a professional baseball team. He threw brilliantly. The Farm Director and Minor League Pitching Coach watched him. The Farm Director was a young guy with no baseball pitching motion knowledge. The Minor League Pitching Coach works with Tom House. The Minor League Pitching Coach told my guy, "I'm not afraid of you." What he meant was, I am afraid of you. He knows that if they sign my guy, he will throw pitches that his pitchers cannot throw, he will have success that his pitchers cannot have, his boss will see this and he will get fired. They are all afraid for their jobs. One big reason why my pitching motion has not taken over is the intolerance of the college and professional pitching coaches not allowing them to use my motion. They force them to use the 'traditional' body action. This decreases their release velocity and pitch quality. Now, I have guys training with me who say that they will use my pitching motion. As a result, they will have more success. At another tryout, my first guy used my Wind-Up Set Position body action with a base runner on first. The umpires did not say anything and he struck out two in his inning. Unfortunately, they did not sign him, but it shows that he has the guts to stand up to them. The independent leagues don't care about anything, but the fact that he humiliates batters. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 115. Your 315 day interval program has the same issue that I mentioned under your old 350 program. On day 267, under the general description, it shows 48 reps per pitch for the 10 # IB. However, on the actual maxline workout for that day, it shows 12 reps per pitch. Also, on that same workout on day 315, it has a 'combined workout'. What is this and how long do you follow this? Is this part of a maintenance plan? Your answer to my previous email concerning the recoil phase of your training has raised a couple of questions. You wrote that during the first off-season you must complete wrist weight interval training cycle at 48 reps per pitch. What has happened to the IB training during this cycle? Also, you mentioned that at the completion of 60 days, you increase the wrist weights to 20 lb. and decrease the number of reps to 12 per pitch. How long do you stay on this part of the cycle and what about IB throws for this cycle? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For the first two hundred and six days of my 315-Day Adult Baseball Pitchers Interval-Training Program, my pitchers complete my basic wrist weight and iron ball interval-training programs. For the next sixty days, they complete the first of my iron ball 'Recoil' interval-training program. Therefore, for two hundred and sixty-six days, my pitchers strengthen the bones, ligaments and tendons of their pitching arm. I call it, 'Injury-Proofing' their pitching arm. On the two hundred and sixty-seventh day, they drop the number of repetitions of their wrist weight and iron ball exercises down to a total of twenty-four per day. This is my maintenance level for their wrist weight and iron ball training. I do not want them to lose the physiological adjustments that they worked so hard to get. Fortunately, they do not have to word as hard to maintain their gains as they did to achieve them. Also, on the two hundred and sixty-seventh day, they increase the number of baseball throws to seventy-two. They throw twenty-four two-seam Maxline or Torque fastballs, twenty-four two-seam Maxline True Screwballs or Torque Pronation Curves and two-seam Maxline Fastball Sinkers or Torque Fastball Sliders. On the three hundred and fifteenth day, my pitchers start their Combined Workouts, where they throw all six pitches every day. If they are in-season, as well as their wrist weight and iron ball repetitions, I have them decrease their baseball throws by one-half their training level. During my 315-Day basic program, they already completed their first iron ball 'Recoil' interval-training cycle. Therefore, during their first off-season, my pitchers complete my first wrist weight 'Recoil' interval-training cycle. I include the first iron ball 'Recoil' interval-training cycle in my basic program because I want them to have the pitching hand strength to powerfully release their pitches. After they complete a 'Recoil' interval-training cycle, my pitchers return to their maintenance level number of repetitions. However, they do increase the weight of their wrist weights or iron ball to the next level. They stay on the maintenance level of my program with twenty-four total wrist weight exercises and twenty-four iron ball throws and seventy-two baseball throws per day until they are again in-season, when they decrease the number of baseball throws to thirty-six. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 116. Recently, I asked you about pain my son was having in his wrist. You said that he may be irritating the growth plate of his wrist. My wife was at the doctor today about a problem with her finger and asked him about my son's situation. My son broke his forearm a couple of years ago and the emergency room doctor told me he did not injure his growth plate. This doctor today told my wife that the growth plate on one side of his wrist may have closed due to the broken forearm and the other may still be growing. He told her that this situation can cause much pain. I gathered that one part growing and the other not growing causes alignment problems. Do you agree? As an aside, he told my wife that he does not recommend that kids start to pitch until they are 16. He said that a survey was done on major league pitchers and the ones with the least arm problems did not start pitching until they were 16. This is very interesting because a major argument I get about your theories is that all major league pitchers were great little league pitchers. He said he had not heard of you, but that will change when I bring my son in to see him. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Until I see an X-ray that show that the growth plate at the distal end of his Ulna bone has matured and the growth plate at the distal end of his Radius bone has not, I cannot believe his speculation. These growth plates do not mature until biological nineteen years old. He is too young for either to mature. I would be very interested in reading a study that concludes that the major league pitchers with the least pitching arm problems did not start pitching until they were sixteen years old. First, I do not like survey facts. Second, where were these pitchers hiding when they were twelve years old? My recommendation is that youth pitchers master the skills of baseball pitching with minimal stress on the growth plates in their pitching arms. Then, when they become biologically sixteen years old, they are high-skilled and can start developing the strength. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 117. I have followed your site for a few years now and have exchanged emails on a couple of subjects in the past. My question now has to do with my son. My son is a senior in high school. He is smart, 3.5/1240, and has been accepted at a couple of colleges, who are also interested in him as a RHP. But, my son shows no interest in any academic disciplines. He is only interested in sports despite his ability to get good grades and test well on SATs. This weekend we took him to these colleges. He showed no interest in the campuses, but only wanted to go to the baseball games. We believe this to be a sign of lack of maturity. Kids need to have a thirst for knowledge to do well in college. We question whether our son is ready for the academic part of the college experience. I have been aware of your 315 day program for a while now. It may be that our son needs to take a year off from school and do something different. Your program is a possible option. My son is 6’0”, 165 lbs, on the small side for a pitcher. He has never been on a training program since we live in a small northern town where baseball is not the major sport. He just seems to prefer baseball and is a dominant pitcher in this area since he throws hard and has good control of a changeup. If you have openings for the upcoming year, we would like to know your opinion. If you need any info on him as a pitcher and a person, you can contact a professional scout for our area, who is familiar with him. His assessment is that my son is competitive for small college baseball, but he is not a pro prospect at his present size. We want our son to have the best college baseball experience that he can have, but we also want him to use his natural intelligence to sample as many academic disciplines as possible. Right now, he does not seem ready for have the curiosity necessary for the latter. Please let us know if you have openings next August and if our son would be a likely candidate. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I believe that all high school graduates should spend a year after high school learning what it means to work for a living. One requirement of all attending my Pitching Research/Training Center is that they have a job. I do not want anybody sitting on a couch all day playing video games or whatever. With regard to his baseball pitching ability, except for a commitment to train every day intellectually and physically, I have no requirements for joining my groups. The first twelve young men to sign my Lifetime Partnership Agreement and send in their six hundred dollar ($600.00) deposit receive their reservation for my 2005-06 group. If you want me to send my materials, please provide me with your mailing address. By the way, this year, we start on the third Saturday in July, not August. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 118. I've heard about your work for years, but, finally, last year, I sat down and read your stuff. I found it makes great intuitive sense and was waiting for a little real-life evidence to back you up. Your comments on Mark Prior, who everyone and his brother says has "perfect mechanics," seemed a good test. Today, you are looking pretty good against the whole world. I write about baseball. You'll see my name in several magazines and all over the web and I am extremely interested in doing a long piece about your theories and practices for publication, after this season. If you could back up your Prior prediction with a few other examples of well-known pitchers likely to visit Dr. Jobe it would make one helluva splash. Who knows, it might even finally cut through the prejudice and superstition that currently rule the roost. Do any examples occur to you? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I thank you for your interest and appreciate the time that you took to read my stuff. I will help in any way that I can. The only reason that I closely examined Mr. Prior's pitching motion was that Tom House claimed that he has the perfect pitching motion. With his late pitching forearm turnover, behind-his-head loop and extreme pitching forearm flyout, I knew that he was greatly unnecessarily stressing his pitching elbow and, in all likelihood, he would suffer an injury. If I were to examine other major league pitchers, I would find lesser examples of the same pitching arm flaws. Because Sports Illustrated showed side-by-side photographs of Mr. Prior and Mr. Wood last spring, I also saw that he has a bad pitching forearm flyout problem. My pitching motion eliminates the unnecessary stress on the pitching arm. The fact that my pitchers throw as hard as they can every day without pitching arm injuries is a better example of what pitching motion all pitchers should use than those 'traditional' baseball pitchers with pitching arm injuries. But, I understand your point. People do not understand that the 'great' major baseball pitchers of this era use bad force application techniques. After all, they are the 'great' major league pitchers of this era. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 119. I'm a sports writer. I'm doing a story about whether or not pitchers at the high school level, especially in the northern climates of the country, are being burned out by overuse. And I stumbled onto some of your theories on the web that I would like to discuss with you in the next few days, at your earliest opportunity. Please let me know what works best for you. I think the experience that you have had may shed some light on the subject. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With prior notice, I can make myself available at 11:00AM any day of the week. I will gladly help you in any way that I can. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 120. Mark Prior has experienced elbow problems during the last two spring trainings. Do you feel his off season program is causing it. He seems to recover later in the season? Prior sidelined indefinitely 03/14/2005 12:57 PM ET By Carrie Muskat / MLB.com Mark Prior, who missed Tuesday's start, will be out of action until the inflammation in his right elbow subsides. An MRI showed no damage to the ligament and ulnar nerve. http://www.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/emailArticleServlet?aid=386074 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Great to hear from you. With a couple of years more experience teaching these young men since you visited, I have streamlined the program and the kids are learning better, faster. When can we see you again? Obviously, his off-season program fails to prepare his pitching arm for the stress of competitive pitching. The first thing to examine is his force application technique. If he continues to use the Tom House pitching motion, no training program will ever protect his pitching arm. The picture in the article shows that Mr. Prior has late pitching forearm turnover. This means that when he starts his pitching upper arm forward, his pitching forearm is still moving backward. As a result, the downwardly bounces his pitching forearm. This greatly and unnecessarily stresses his pitching elbow. In the article, Mr. Prior says that he inflamed a nerve. That nerve is the Ulnar Nerve that runs through a groove in the back of his medial epicondyle. He feels tingling down the little finger side of his pitching hand. The reverse pitching forearm bounce stretches the Ulnar Nerve around the point of the elbow. If he continues to 'loop' his pitching hand behind his head, then he will continue to unnecessarily stress his pitching elbow. The more that he rests, the more that his pitching arm atrophies. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 121. The following article is from the Chicago Sun-Times. Thanks for your response. I thought you'd enjoy this article. I hope to visit again. Thanks for your insights. To read the full story, click here: http://www.suntimes.com/output/cubs/cst-spt-stone15.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I read the Steve Stone article. While Steve does not have any scientific basis for what he says, I, in general, agree with him that Mr. Prior does have pain and Mr. Wood needs to learn how to pitch, not just throw. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 122. I just checked your Q&A's for my weekly update and was outraged by 2005 #111. I cannot believe that the wall of ignorance is black balling not only you, but your pitchers who not only have worked diligently to accomplish what they have, but also proved they have the movement, location and velocity to warrant at least a fair trial at an open try out. I'm going to get the name of the pitching coach and write to the organization, and also to a New York radio sports show to get this travesty out in the open, spread the word to the public and sports fans. That's the least I can do. I would encourage all your followers and those whose son's arms have been ruined by these retreads in the baseball pitching circles to do the same. We need to speak up against the wall of ignorance and point out that the baseball pitching inner circle is a bunch of closed minded, egocentric, ignorant, unscientific and uncaring idiots. This is truly a travesty. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I had to go back to make certain that I did not mention the name of the professional team. I didn't. I prefer that we do not get specific. Also, we do not have to get specific. I receive the same treatment from the pitching coaches with all professional teams. I know the name of the pitching coach who interrupted my first pitcher, but he is not worth my or your time. However, I support everything else you said. Thank you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 123. I recently emailed you about a rupture to my biceps tendon. I want to thank you for the information that you sent me. If it wasn't for your knowledge and help, I don't think that I would have bean able to express what I wanted done with my doctor. My doctor was able to pin the torn attachment to the scapula and tie off the tendon. They also did some repair work to my rotator cuff and performed a mumford. It took them 2 hours longer than what they had planned for surgery. Meanwhile, I'll be in a splint for another 4 weeks and continue therapy. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am happy that your two-joint Biceps Brachii muscle remains a two-joint muscle with both heads. I wish you a speedy and full recovery. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 124. I am a high school baseball coach who is in the second year of implementing your pitching motion in our program. I am very pleased with the progress the pitchers have made with the pitching motion. This year, I would like to incorporate the high school 120 day work out-specifically the use the wrist weights and the six pound ball during the baseball season. First, is this a good idea? Second, if it is a good idea, should it be done in the morning before school or after school at practice? Third, on game days, should a game day pitcher do the workout and, if so, when in the day? Finally, should the number of repetitions be modified during the season or on game days. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My 120-Day High School Baseball Pitchers Interval-Training Program is an off-season only program. During the season, pitchers should complete only one-half of the wrist weight exercises, iron ball throws and baseball throws. On game days, at about twenty minutes before the game, the starting pitcher should use my wrist weight exercises and iron ball throws as part of their pre-game preparation. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 125. I have read about you explaining, when a pitcher swings his throwing arm back toward center field, the palm should be facing up. Do you mean the palm is up with the inside of the forearm pointing up as well? Or, do you mean the forearm is pointing down, with the wrist bent backwards as far as possible, making the palm to show an upward position? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At my 'Ready' position, my pitchers have their shoulders level with their pitching upper arm at shoulder height and their pitching hand at driveline height. The anterior surfaces of the pitching upper arm, pitching forearm and pitching hand face upward. The pitching wrist lies in line with the pitching forearm and the pitching hand. The entire pitching arm points toward second base, albeit well above the actual base. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 126. I had the opportunity to hear you last night as you were interviewed on WGN Radio, Chicago, by Tom Waddle and Jim Memolo. I also had the opportunity to hear you interviewed (I believe also on WGN) last year. My question is this: are your principles also applicable to the golf swing? I have experienced a certain amount of back strain from my swing, although golf pros have told me my swing is fundamentally sound. I am recovering from a minor disk herniation in the lower lumbar region and do not want to aggravate things further. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newton's three laws of motion apply to all human movements. However, the differences between movements require appropriate adjustments. With golf, like baseball batting, the force coupling occurs between where their hands grip the club. With regard to your lower back problems, I recommend that you stand more upright and turn your feet slightly forward. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 127. What's going on with Mark Prior? Do you see this as an ongoing problem with him? Is there something different he should be doing to alleviate this problem? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Prior has late pitching forearm turnover, which leads to reverse pitching forearm bounce. Most major league pitchers have the same problems. The reason why Mr. Prior's problem is worse is because, rather than keep his pitching elbow bent at about ninety degrees during his late pitching forearm turnover, he bends his elbow tightly, such that his pitching hand comes close to his pitching ear. This causes Mr. Prior to generate much more centripetal force that slings his pitching forearm laterally away from his body. As a result, Mr. Prior's pitching forearm flyout unnecessarily stresses the inside of his pitching elbow more than other major league pitchers. He needs to change how he applies force to his pitches. He needs to complete my 315-Day Adult Baseball Pitchers Interval-Training Program. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 128. I’ve linked our league website to yours within our “Resources” section, which only has a few listings. Hopefully, more coaches in our area will get educated. I’ve been a little league manager going on 13 years now, and the pain of watching my oldest boy blow-out his elbow at awhile back at 13 yrs. old has really motivated me to do better for my 9 yr. old. Indeed, not only did my older son hurt his arm, but most of his pitching teammates did also, all using the “traditional” delivery approach so often seen today. Very few are left remaining to provide the local high school with a good pitching staff. Hopefully, my efforts in promoting your research will help change things. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am very sorry to hear about the pitching arm injuries. We have to put a stop to that. We are not only destroying their pitching arms, but their love of baseball. With my video and my advice, maybe we can put a stop to these pitching arm injuries. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 129. First, do any MLB teams use you as a consultant for their pitching systems? It seems that if your techniques work, and your evaluation and predictions come true (Mark Prior), there would be a lot of money to be made in consulting with the scouts and pitching coaches of a particular MLB team that places value on money well spent, i.e. Small Market Teams. If you can successfully predict and change the outcomes of predestined pitching injuries, why wouldn't some of these teams that invest tens of millions of dollars on pitchers that will no doubt get injured employ your services to prevent the inevitable? If I ran a small market club and was looking for an advantage over the high payroll clubs, I think eliminating pitching injuries from the Rookie Level to the Majors would be one way to get a competitive leg up. You won't obviously name specific teams, but are you under contract to any of them? Second, in the billion dollar industry of fantasy sports, I would think that your expert knowledge in evaluating pitchers' tendencies towards injury would be an extremely valuable commodity. Have you ever thought about writing a yearly book on those major league pitchers with good mechanics and bad mechanics and grading them based on their probability for injury? It would be a godsend to the industry, and like most of the fantasy "experts" you don't even need to be right every time, which I kind of get the sense you nearly are. If you can assess Prior and Wood's chances of injury just by seeing a few pictures of them in Sports Illustrated, I would think that evaluating the top 100 pitchers in the league wouldn't take much effort and would reap you large economic rewards, if you're obliged by such things. For me, I just want to win my fantasy league and I think your expertise could help many people. Three, are you aware of the Pitcher Abuse Points that Baseball Prospectus puts out every year based on several factors, mostly with regards to pitch counts? I would like your opinion on them, are they grounded in science, do they match up with any of your independent evaluations, or are they hogwash? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No professional baseball team has ever contacted me for any purpose. My rest-of-my-life mission is to eliminate pitching arm injuries. The only reason why I investigated Mr. Prior's pitching motion was because Tom House claimed in The Collegiate Baseball News that Mr. Prior had the perfect pitching motion and my readers asked me whether that was true. With my pitching motion, the more my pitchers throw, the stronger they get. With the 'traditional' pitching motion, the more their pitchers throw, the sooner they will completely destroy their pitching arms. Rest means atrophy. Therefore, the fewer pitches that 'traditional' pitchers throw, the weaker their pitching arm becomes. They are damned if they do and damned if they don't. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 130. I saw your disconcerting opinion on Prior and Wood in today's Chicago Sun Times. While I was aware of your expertise in general terms, I guess I was unaware that you had such a low opinion of Prior and Wood's respective mechanics. I am curious if there are other pitchers in the majors who have problems as pronounced as Prior or Wood? In other words, guys who have huge injury risks that are not part of the conventional wisdom? On the flipside, is there any one pitcher in the majors whose delivery is akin to your ideal? I am curious as to your 'success stories'. Do you have any former pupils in the majors or high minors? Guys to look out for in the near future? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I do not spend time evaluating major league pitchers. After Tom House pronounced in The Collegiate Baseball News that Mr. Prior had the perfect pitching motion, my readers asked me to take a look. I found that Mr. Prior has the same late pitching forearm turnover that all major league pitchers have. Unfortunately, whereas the other major league pitchers keep their pitching elbow bent at about ninety degrees during their late pitching forearm turnover, Mr. Prior bends his pitching elbow considerably more, such that his pitching hand comes close to his pitching ear. This move generates considerably more centripetal force that slings his pitching forearm laterally away from his body. As a result, he unnecessarily stresses the inside of his pitching elbow much more that the others. Because every major league pitcher starts their pitching motion by lifting their glove foot off the ground, no major league pitcher has a delivery akin to my ideal. I train recent high school graduates who did not receive any college scholarship offers, college pitchers who could not make their teams and injured pitchers. Nevertheless, several of my pitchers succeed beyond their wildest dreams. Most of all, no pitcher that I have trained has every injured their pitching arm. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 131. I'm a fan of yours, both while you were pitching in the ML (I got to see you pitch in Chicago and Los Angeles) and, also, since you retired from pitching and have been coaching pitchers. It sure seems to me that you are FAR, FAR ahead of current ML pitching coaches in terms of knowledge/teaching philosiphies regarding the science/mechanics of pitching. Your career certainly suggests that, too. As a Cub (and baseball) fan of about 50 years, I'm concerned about the present and future health of Mark Prior. At least a year ago, I read an article in which you predicted about exactly what has happened to Prior (due to his circle motion and the stress it puts on his elbow, as I recall). 1) What do you believe his prognosis is given his current trajectory and the coaching he receives (e.g. how likely is T.J. surgery)? 2) How long would it take you to straighten him out to the point where he would have control/ML stuff (and a healthy arm)? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The next structure on the inside of his pitching elbow to give way will be his Ulnar Collateral Ligament. Until he changes how he applies force to his pitches, he has no chance of having a healthy pitching arm. With five months this off-season and five months next off-season (October 01 to March 01), I could injury-proof his pitching arm. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 132. I have been a die-hard cubs fan for 14 years, I am greatly concerned with Mark Prior's arm situation. I am wondering what you think the cubs should do to help Mark Prior stop his cycle of injury? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- They could send him to me for my 315-Day Adult Baseball Pitchers Interval-Training Program. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 133. I saw your quotes on Prior. The one about 50 pitchers caught my eye. Would you be willing to publish that list on your web site, so it could be tracked? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have no idea about a fifty pitchers quote. If you would tell me what I am supposed to have said, I will answer your question. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 134. Sorry, it was a quote in the Sun-Times today, from this article: http://www.suntimes.com/output/couch/cst-spt-greg171.html As I re-read it now, I realize the quote is from Tom House and not yourself. I apologize for the confusion. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you. I just read the article. Tom is right, many major league pitchers have the same loop behind their heads as Mr. Prior. The problem is that Mr. Prior can move his pitching arm faster, hence, he generates greater unnecessary stress. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 135. Is there a way to do your interval-training workout when there is a time limitation of doing a workout in one session? Is it permissible to break up the workout in two or three sessions? Also, due to weather conditions ( cold, rain-snow and light) throwing outside at 60'-6" may be near impossible. Will there be any benefit of throwing inside (basement) a lesser distance? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is better when pitchers complete my wrist weight exercises, iron ball throws and baseball throws during the same hour. However, during the season, I did my wrist weight exercises at night, my iron ball throws in the morning and my baseball throws at the park. With regard to conditioning your pitching arm, you can throw at shorter distances. However, I doubt that you will master your releases. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 136. I read the Chicago Sun Times article. I think that I understand why you disagree with his pitching motion. But, did you have to call Tom House an idiot? Also, what about what House says about the Cubs doing the right thing and Mark Prior matching up statistically? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- During the interview, I said that idiots keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect a different result. Tom House is an idiot. I think calling him an idiot is the nicest thing I can call him. What would you call someone who professes expertise, but continues to teach the same thing over and over again and continues to destroy thousands of pitching arms? Mr. House says that I disagree with him because he gets a little attention. No, I disagree with him because he destroys pitching arms. He refuses to debate me. It is way past time for the House apologists on ESPN and elsewhere to seek the truth. I will debate him and anybody else any time, anywhere. Mr. House said that Mark Prior is a can't miss because of his "motion analysis". What Mr. House cannot understand is that when he analyzes Mr. Prior's pitching motion, he only reports what he does. He does not evaluate the stresses that Mr. Prior puts on his pitching arm. Bridge-building engineers have to determine how their bridge will withstand the stresses placed on them. Mr. House continues to build bridges that collapse. I understand the stresses that the 'traditional' baseball pitching motion places on the bones, ligaments and tendons of the pitching arm. As a result, I designed my pitching motion to eliminate unnecessary stresses and, with my 315-Day Adult Baseball Pitchers Interval-Training Programs, I show baseball pitchers how to strengthen those bones, ligaments and tendons to withstand the necessary stresses. Mr. House said that Mark Prior is a can't miss because of his 'blood chemistry, mental-emotional make-up and nutritional make-up.' What blood chemistry? Is Mr. Prior from Smallville? What mental-emotional make-up? Can he throw his best curve on the corner of home plate in extra innings, with the score tied, the bases loaded, two outs and a full count on the batter? What nutritional make-up? Does Mr. Prior like bananas? Mr. House throws out irrelevancy after irrelevancy. Mr. Prior has a bad pitching motion and, whatever Mr. House says, Mr. Prior missed most of last season and continues to spiral downward. He has my sympathies. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 137. How long does it take for your students to complete one interval workout? Do you rest between wrist weight, iron ball and baseball throws and, if so, for how long? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please do not forget to do my football throws. Even with the maximum number of repetitions on the final six days of a wrist weight or iron ball interval-training cycle, my pitchers do not take more than one hour. On other days, they take about forty-five minutes. Because they use different muscles when they do their wrist weight exercises than when they do their iron ball throws, they do not need much rest between them. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 138. I don't know if you'll have a response before my son is scheduled to pitch again since you appear to answer questions once a week. My question revolves around the 'reconditioning' required to alter 'traditional' mechanics to 'Marshallian' mechanics. Since my son is active in high school (17 years old, plates closed) season now and very good (1st outing 9K's, 4 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 0 BB), I would like for him to be able to continue to pitch. My concern, in addition to the prospect of arm problems by continuing with traditional mechanics, is how to make the transition to your proposed method(s) without losing the season because of making the adjustment. Is there a specific sequence of elements in the delivery that can be taken on one at a time during the transition, mastering one before moving on while still being able to pitch effectively? Or, is it an all or nothing transition and you lose nnn weeks or months? If there are steps, could you articulate the sequence, approximate the transition time, and offer suggestions on how to be successful in making the transition. My son is very visually oriented and a good mimic. But he does have his current pitching mechanics ingrained. Are there one or two key training techniques and or steps in delivery that offer steps in the right direction until the season is over if there is no effective way to make a complete mid-season transition? I understand that every athlete is different, depending on their work ethic, coachability, etc. Can you lay out any guidelines at all that would be helpful to those of us trying to make a difference, but cannot ship our son (cost or practicality speaking) to Florida for 2 months or more? Your help is appreciated and good luck to you penetrating the MLB shield of tradition. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I do my very best to answer questions the same day that I receive them. Because I want to spend my 6:00AM time working on editing my Chapters Thirty-Six and Thirty-Seven, I am answering emails the night before. The first baseball pitching skill that all pitchers must master is how to properly release my pitches. The key is that they must pronate all releases. I recommend that he use my Pickoff with Step body action with my Slingshot glove and pitching arm actions. In my new Chapter Thirty-Six, which, at present, is my new Chapter Thirty-Seven, I describe how to perform my Pickoff with Step body action and my Slingshot glove and pitching arm actions. Better yet, my 2004 Baseball Pitching Instructional video not only shows how to perform this drill, but also shows how to properly release my pitches. When your son masters this drill, please contact me again and I will provide the next step. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 139. My son is thirteen and throws every other day. He is clocked at between 60-63 mph. He is short in stature, but has a rubber arm. How much does an individual's size play in becoming a successful pitcher? I am 6 feet and, although he is a late developer, I believe he will reach that height. What do you think of Dick Mills pitching video that I purchased? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am five feet eight and one-half inches tall. As long as he does not tell the baseball how tall he is, he can become the best pitcher that he can be. If we knew your son's biological age, then we could better predict his future growth. If he is a delayed maturer, then he probably has more future growth than his chronological age would warrant. Whether he is biologically thirteen or younger, I strongly recommend against him throwing baseballs every other day. Dick Mills has no idea what he is talking about. You wasted whatever you paid for his video. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 140. I’m a Twins fan and I really enjoyed the years you pitched there. You were always known for your knowledge of the mechanics of pitching. What, in your expert opinion, is Mark Prior doing wrong to cause him recent injury to both his arm and his Achilles' tendon? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All major league pitchers use the 'traditional' pitching motion. The 'traditional' pitching motion has several injurious flaws, such as late pitching forearm turnover, reverse pitching forearm bounce and pitching forearm flyout. Mr. Prior adds a behind-his-head pitching forearm loop to the mix. This loop significantly increases the centripetal force that 'traditional' pitcher generate that slings their pitching forearm laterally away from their body. The inside of his pitching elbow cannot withstand this force. I do not know if, let alone why, he injured his Achilles Tendon. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 141. I was reading an article in Suntimes thursday that caught my eye, I have tennis elbow in my left arm since January. I ice and I am taking an anti-inflammatory called mobic. By the way, I play tennis about 5x a week. And doctors say rest, but I thought the same thing when I read this article and it said that you thought "resting means atrophy" and I do feel my arm is very weak, which, in my opinion, is getting worse. My question is should I be doing some sort of a least mild strength training along with ice, stretching and maybe taking anti-inflammatory when needed? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You should be doing my wrist weight exercises. I recommend my 120-Day High School Baseball Pitchers Interval-Training Program. Chapter Thirty-Six explains how to do the drills. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 142. Does Prior's general symptomology suggest that his Ulnar Collateral Ligament will give way as soon as this season if he continues to try to pitch? I know you have said that if the motion is correct, pitch counts aren't nearly as big of an issue. Prior pitched a lot of innings with a poor motion AND high innings/pitch counts in '03. Did that excaberate his current problems? Am I correct that Greg Maddux has a bit of a circle in his motion that might stress the elbow? If so, how has he been able to pitch so long and well without major elbow problems? Are there any ML pitching coaches more enlightened than Larry Rothschild about these issues? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When Mr. Prior weakens his Ulnar Collateral Ligament sufficiently with microscopic tears and increased rest and, then, he places greater stress on it than it can withstand, it will rupture. As I recall Mr. Prior's 2003 season, sometime around mid-season, he had the good sense to stop pitching for a month or so. All major league pitchers use the 'traditional' pitching motion. The 'traditional' pitching motion has several injurious pitching flaws, such as late pitching forearm turnover, reverse pitching forearm bounce and pitching forearm flyout. However, Mr. Prior also has the behind-the-head loop. This increases the centripetal force that slings his pitching forearm laterally away from his body. Also, unlike Mr. Maddux, who pronates his fastball and change-up releases, Mr. Prior supinates his releases, such that he slaps his back with his pitching hand. No, all major league pitching coaches are about equally unenlightened. Mr. Rothchild is only a little worse than the rest. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 143. I have a quick question regarding the use of medicine balls. Does it strengthen your abdominal muscles if you drop a 2kg or 6lb medicine ball onto your abs at a height of about one yard? One would think that internal damage would occur, but I have recently heard otherwise. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I can think of many ways to train the abdominal muscles without risking rupturing my spleen. Try sit-ups. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 144. I was saddened to see the email about how cruelly your pitchers were treated be major league scouts during a tryout. I'm curious why you don't publicize the name of the scout who said to ignore your pitchers or the scout who tried to change your pitcher's pitching motion? I'd certainly like to contact the major league teams that employ these guys. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I greatly appreciate your comments and willingness to state your opinion to those who should care. However, I have tried hard to always discuss ideas, not persons. As I said in an earlier email, I am treated the same by pitching coaches with all major league baseball organizations. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 145. I told a pitcher recently the muscles don't stretch. He told me he was told that he does stretching to tear muscles. Then, they grow back stronger. I remember in my weight lifting days in college I was told that when you lift weights you tear muscles. Then, you take a day off to let the muscles grow stronger. What happens when pitchers tear muscles? I would imagine that the muscles do try to repair themselves. I'm not sure this is related but he told me his shoulder was sore after pitching, but he said his arm was fine after a couple of days. I think he likens this process to tearing muscles then having them rebound in a couple of days. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- That is an interesting idea. How do they regulate the amount of tearing? When athletes tear muscles, they cannot use those muscles for several weeks. Have you ever torn a Hamstring muscle? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 146. I went to chapter 36 in your book like you recommended, and I have a couple of questions. I was not clear on how many reps and sets I should be doing? Can I use ankle weights, but you also can put them on your wrists, and if not where do I get these wrist weights? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am in the middle of a re-write of Chapters Thirty-Six and Thirty-Seven. Actually, I am reversing their order in my book, so I have finished what you read as Chapter Thirty-Seven, but will become my new Chapter Thirty-Six. I am still working on what you read as Chapter Thirty-Six, but will become my new Chapter Thirty-Seven. Therefore, to learn how to perform the drills that I now use to teach my pitching motion, you should read what is now my Chapter Thirty-Seven. In any case, the title of the chapter that you should read is: Dr. Mike Marshall's Interval-Training Programs and Drills. I recommended that you do my 120-Day High School Baseball Pitchers Interval-Training Program. I want you to do only the wrist weight exercises. However, I want you to do all exercises. That is, I want you to do the forearm actions for my Maxline True Screwball, Maxline Fastball, Maxline Pronation Curve and Torque Fastball. Ten pound weights that you strap on your ankles become wrist weights when you strap them on your wrists. If you click on Equipment Vendors on the home page of my web site, you will find from whom I purchase my wrist weights. It says that to purchase the Long Strap RS Series therapeutic ten and five pound weight with which we make our wrist weights, partners need to telephone (800)251-6040 for the name of the distributor near them. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 147. I forgot another question. Is it the pronated swings that I should be doing? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I want you to do my Pronated Swings, my Crow-Hop with Shakedowns, my Pickoff with Step body action; Slingshot arm actions, my Wrong Foot body action; Slingshot arm actions, my Wrong Foot body action; Pendulum Swing arm actions, my Crow-Hop body action; Pendulum Swing arm actions and my Wind-Up Set Position body action; Pendulum Swing arm actions. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 148. My son is being told he will be signed by a major league baseball organizationas a pitcher this year during the first year draft. He has also been told to throw in the meantime. My question is; who do you recommend as a pitching instructor in the Tampa area for some spot lessons or at least a place to throw on a regular basis? Some background is my son had a college scholarship, which he could not handle after one semester, even though he was slated as a starter as a Freshman. Then, he went on to a junior college, where he couldn't handle the grades. He's just not a student, although he has a 1100 SAT score. During his time at junior college, a scout saw him throw and told him he would give him a chance this year. He has been in constant contact with us. My son is 6'6", left-handed and has been clocked once at 93 mph. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Before you let their pitching coaches destroy your son's pitching arm, you and he should make a trip to my Pitching Research/Training Center in Zephyrhills, FL and learn what he should do before he even thinks about a professional career. Your son needs much more than spot lessons. He needs to devote himself to working every day as hard as he can to become the best pitcher that he can be. With his unwillingness to devote himself to academics, I think he always looks for the easy way out. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 149. Is it advisable to start your interval training during the season (16 years and older)? If so, why, and if not, why not? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I carefully designed my High School and Adult Baseball Pitchers Interval-Training Programs to force the physiological systems of the athletes to make significant changes to the bones, ligaments and tendons associated with the baseball pitching motion. That means that my interval-training programs stresses the involved physiological systems to their limits. Without the likelihood of breaking down, they cannot also withstand the stress of competitive pitching. Therefore, my interval-training programs are for the off-season training only with at least a couple of month of maintenance level training before the competitive season begins. The day after my competitive season ended is when I started to work the hardest. For me, the competitive season was the easiest part of the year. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 150. I have been reading your online FREEBOOK!!!, as well as the Q&A section for over 5 months now. I am more impressed as each day goes by, and my comprehension of what you are teaching is growing. Back in the late 70's, I was in college and a pro prospect. I had come from a small Missouri community with absolutely no throwing/pitching training available. All I could do is what the folks in my area called "throw country-hard". Basically, I was a poster child for "Rotator-Cuffs-R-Us". I reverse rotated my entire body, moving my throwing arm laterally behind my body, while "showing the batter my hip pocket". I would lean backwards, "bending my back" as they say. Being a right-handed thrower, I would throw my left leg behind my body toward second base. As I pushed forward toward home plate, my left arm would fly horizontally straight out toward first base as if I were a duck trying to take flight. My throwing forearm would naturally fly out mercilessly toward third base as well. I'm sure my "behind-the-head-loop" was big enough for 2 show-dogs to jump through. Since I had reverse rotated my body so badly, there was no way I could even get close to rotating far enough back to bring my pitching leg past my front foot. I would actually land on the outside portion of my left foot and fall terribly off-balance toward first base in a tangled mess, (i.e., Bob Gibson, Rich Gossage, etc.) Remember, I said this was in the 70's, and kids emulate those they admire. Even with these faults, there were times when MLB scouts would record my release velocity as high as 95 at times. But one day, at age 20, after about 80 pitches in a game, it literally felt like my upper arm came completely out of socket. It felt like the only thing holding my arm onto my shoulder was the skin. Well, that was it, career over, bye scouts, bye MLB, bye baseball, period! Why do I write this sob story, you ask? Well, I'll tell you. I now have three sons, ages 16, 13, and 10. The 2 older ones want to be baseball pitchers. Naturally, as a father, I want them to have the best opportunity for success that they can have. So 3 years ago, I started searching for some program that could teach them the proper way to throw with velocity AND do it PAIN-FREE!!! What I would do is find a training method/pitching instructor and try it/him myself, first. I figured if I could not master the technique without pain, I would go on to the next one. Hopefully, I would find somebody out there that knew what they were doing. Guess what, I didn't. At least I thought I hadn't, until I happened across your website. I had remembered you when you played in the 70's. I started applying your techniques myself. I can't say that I have everything mastered yet, but I am getting closer. The VERY BEST part is; I am living proof that your program does work! Before using your program, I literally could not throw a baseball 90 feet. When I use your technique properly, I can actually throw TOTALLY PAIN-FREE! I have even registered pitches over 70 mph on the high school radar gun. Not bad for a 45 year old guy with more calcium in his right shoulder than a milk truck. Anybody who is a skeptic, simply isn't adopting your techniques properly. I'm just sorry that I wasn't throwing in this manner 30 years ago, but I'm glad I have it for my sons. I know this sounds like an infomercial, but whoever is not accepting your principles of force application, simply needs to stop complaining, leave their ego at home, and start training their pitching students to be successful, and pain-free. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to be able to play catch with my kids. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am so very, very sorry that a pitching arm injury crushed your youthful baseball pitching dreams. But, I am exhilarated with what you have done with that disappointment. We must stop pitching arm injuries from ruining baseball. You are doing your part. Parents have to take charge. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 151. Thanks for sending the materials on your 315 day session and partnership program. I have a couple of brief questions regarding the program. My son will not be 19 until November 11, so he would not be exactly 19 when the program starts. Is that okay and does he need x-rays for growth plate analysis? What would be the make-up of an average class?. Is it 19 year old college bound guys or is it a mix of ages?. My son has committed to playing legion ball earlier this year, and that ends on August 6. Can a person start in August or does that throw the whole class schedule off? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The growth plates in the shoulder and wrist completely mature at biological nineteen years old. However, unlike the growth plates in the pitching elbow during early adolescence, the growth plates in the shoulder and wrist in the final year or two of growth and development withstand the appropriate stress of my interval-training program without distress. For my adult program, I do not require X-rays. For the most part, I work with recent high school graduates and college pitchers with two years of athletic eligibility remaining. Therefore, my kids are nineteen to twenty-one years old. The only way that I can get in forty-five weeks of training and end the program before the following June is to start in the middle of July. I am aware of the conflict with Legion baseball, but, without dropping the sixty-day iron ball recoil cycle, which I believe is critical for the quality of their pitch releases, I cannot shorten the program. Everybody starts the program on Saturday, July 16, 2005. If someone arrives after that date, they have to pick up where everybody else is. That does not give them the time for their body to mobilize its resources for the training load and, therefore, until I saw that their body could handle the stress, I would have to keep their intensity at very low levels. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 152. I love baseball and, yet, am amazed that the approach of most ML teams is based on what has been done in the past, rather than the latest thinking in other fields in the present. I'm wondering whether one of the more "progressive" GMs/Teams (e.g. the A's, Toronto, Los Angeles) might be open to pioneering your methodology. Are any of the more "progressive" teams open to those discussion at present? One last question: in your considered judment, which ML pitcher has the best mechanics at present? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The General Manager for one of those 'progressive' teams played college baseball at Saint Leo College. For three years in the 1980s, I was the head baseball coach/Associate Professor of Physical Education at Saint Leo College. At the request of a Saint Leo College Hall of Athletic Fame inductee, I attended a dinner where Saint Leo College also inducted said same General Manager into that Hall of Fame. I took the occasion to attempt a discussion with him. Later, I telephoned him to ask whether I could bring a pitcher over to his nearby spring training headquarters for a tryout. Through his assistant, he said that he was not interested. I don't think that these read-the-statistics guys are progressive at all. They do not understand how to train baseball pitchers and position players to achieve the statistics that they value so highly. No major league baseball organization has ever contacted me about working for them. The closest that happened is that, to see whether I could rehabilitate lost-cause professional baseball pitchers, a couple of Assistants to the General Manager of another major league baseball organization sent me three injured minor league pitchers that they had released. Within a few weeks of the start of my program, they all threw without discomfort, even one who the doctors said that one would never throw baseballs again. However, during the forty-five weeks of my training program, the owner fired their General Manager and the new guy stopped the experiment. If you can find a major league pitcher with straight line drive toward home plate with a powerful pitching forearm pronation release of all pitches, even with the 'traditional' pitching motion body action, although not as good as he could be, he would be better than all the rest. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 153. I think it is very obvious that Mark Prior has to start changing some things. What I am worried about is whether or not this can be done. Can a pitcher make serious adjustments to their delivery and expect to be able to pitch at the same level? A hitter can make serious alterations to a hitting stance, but I think pitching is a little more invovled. Mark Prior was touted as having a perfect motion. Are these injuries catching up with him now that he is in the big leagues and having to pitch many more innings? His numbers at USC were just unbelievable and injuries were believed to be beneath him. Lastly, why can someone like Roger Clemens and Nolan Ryan seem to pitch forever with not nearly as much drama? I think Prior could be in the same class if he can ever shake these issues. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With my 315-day Adult Baseball Pitchers Interval-Training Program, Mr. Prior and all other professional baseball pitchers at all levels can make serious adjustments to their delivery and expect to pitch better than they did before. This past off-season, a minor league professional baseball pitcher contacted me about discomfort in his pitching shoulder. I told him that, if he is serious about his baseball pitching career, then he should get to my Pitching Research/Training Center as soon as possible. He arrived on about the first of November. This means that we had only four months! I knew that I could not ask him to totally change his body action. But, I also knew that he had to straighten his driveline as much as possible and he absolutely had to learn how to pronate the release of all pitches. With the 'traditional' body action, because pitching forearm flyout would prevent him from getting his pitching forearm vertical at release, I knew that he could not throw my Maxline Pronation Curve or Maxline True Screwball. Nevertheless, without all the body action adjustments, I had him do my 120-Day High School Baseball Pitcher Interval-Training Program. When he arrived at his spring training camp, the pitching coordinator immediately noticed that his shoulders and chest were considerable stronger, that he threw harder, that he now had what the pitching coordinator called a hard sinker versus his former soft sinker and that he now threw a sharper breaking ball. He had greatly improved his game. After several days of questioning, my guy confessed that he had trained with me. This is the same pitching coordinator who, as I chronicled in an earlier email, said that he was not afraid of another pitcher I trained. I hope they don't release this pitcher. But, if they do, I hope that he will complete my program and go pitch independent league baseball, where the pitching coaches are more likely to leave him alone and let his pitching do his talking. If I had high-speed film of Mr. Clemens and Mr. Ryan, then I might be able to answer your question. Maybe, they have/had straight line drive and pitching forearm pronation. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 154. With your personal track record for durability in ML baseball, let alone your research base and study of the science of pitching, it is almost unbelievable that NO team has approached you to serve as a consultant, at the least! I will hope that changes in the near future! Hopefully, developing newer, better training techniques will soon be as vogue as using statistics to develop an organizational strategy. Certainly, nothing is as debilitating to an organization or more frustrating to its fans as making a major investment in (and building around) a particular pitcher who becomes unable to pitch due to poor mechanics (that could have been improved with better training). Are there any young guys you are working with now who seem to have a ML ceiling and are developing the right mechanics? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I agree, but I have no control over what they do or do not do. Unless some owner decides to take charge, I do not see anything changing. I work with high school graduates without college baseball scholarship offers, college baseball pitchers who cannot make their team and injured baseball pitchers who cannot pitch anymore. Despite their inadequacies, I have trained several pitchers how to increased their release velocity to the mid-nineties. Unfortunately, when their pitching coaches get hold of them, they change how they throw and they not only lose their velocity, but they injure their pitching arms. Nevertheless, I do have one pitcher right now who has the genetic qualifications, seems to have the requisite motor learning ability and says that nothing will make him change how I teach him to throw. It seems that, before he trained with me, his pitching arm hurt him all the time and he does not want to go through that again. We will see. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 155. There are numerous major league pitchers that can throw a fastball 95+ MPH using "traditional" pitching mechanics. Using your force application techniques, how fast would you expect these pitchers to be able to throw the fastballs that you teach? I am an instructor at a baseball facility at which I am forced to teach "traditional" pitching mechanics. Is there a way to integrate the most important aspects of what you teach into the "traditional" pitching motion? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Every pitcher I train comes to me with the 'traditional' pitching motion. Every pitcher who completes my 315-Day Adult Baseball Pitchers Interval-Training Program has increased their release velocity at least five miles per hour. Assuming that they did not use steroids to achieve their ninety-five mile per hour release velocities, I would expect your sample of professional baseball pitchers would similarly increase their release velocities. In the beginning, to satisfy the 'traditional' pitching coaches, I tried to blend my pitching motion with the 'traditional.' Basically, I used the 'traditional' body action, but, as best we could, we used my Pendulum Swing glove and pitching arm actions. The problem is the 'balance position' pitching rhythm versus the 'crow-hop' pitching rhythm. The 'balance position' pitching rhythm prevents pitchers from driving behind their pitching hand and forwardly rotating their acromial line. With this hybrid motion, pitchers cannot get their pitching forearm inside of vertical and, as a result, they cannot throw my Maxline True Screwball or Maxline Pronation Curve. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 156. Have you ever spoken with the orthopods for ML pitchers (e.g. Dr. James Andrews, Dr. Frank Jobe) about your methods? It seems to me that they have enough business and have seen so many unnecessary injuries that they would be supportive of better training methods for pitchers. Have you ever thought about a training video for pitchers (to lay at least some of the foundation)? If your methods gained a wider audience (via a video or other means), perhaps you could teach your methods more widely to other coaches and, then, you provide more expert instruction to those who wanted to go deeper. One indisputable proof point is your own ML record (your durability during a key part of your career was absolutely amazing to me!). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Let me see. Doctors who make their living doing surgery would want to show their potential patients how not to become their patients. It could happen. I met Frank Jobe in 1974 and Jim Andrews in 1979. I have spoken with each of them many, many times. They know who I am and what I do. I just saw Dr. Jobe this spring. He is eighty years old and no longer doing surgery. Dr. Andrews is well aware of the rehabilitation success of my training methods. In 2002, I released my first Baseball Pitching Instructional Video. As I learned more from my students about how to better teach my pitching motion, in 2004, I released my second. I plan to release my third video this summer. Until I believe that I have perfected the pedagogy of my pitching motion, I will continue to upgrade this video. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 157. I just ran across your web site today on baseballresource.com, I have a 15 yr. old freshman son that pitches. He is 5"11 170 lbs. He works out on core strength twice a week along with running and his HS baseball practice each day. I would have to say, but what do I know, that his mechanics are solid, but that's based on Tom House techniques. My biggest concern is that he enjoys the game and plays as long as he was physically intended too so. I'm always looking at things that will reduce the chance for injury in kids, all not just my own. I will be sending my $100. this week to buy the video and training instructions. Now, my question; I read where you said at this age they should not pitch past two times through the line-up. Does this correlate to pitch count as 18 batters could be anywhere from 50-90 pitches. Right now, he is on a 60 -70 pitch limit and he throws 1 game a week. He is not a max thrower meaning he throws without much effort. He throws mostly fast balls and change ups, last game he threw 67 pitches with 4 curve balls and 6 split fingers in a complete 7 inning game. He has extremely large hands and very long fingers. What do you think about the split finger as far as injury is concerned? He had elbow surgery last November to remove cartilage that had formed from a elbow to helmet blow in football, so I have x-rays that I could look at on the growth plates. The doctor had said the growth plates were closed but that was in a passing conversation about something else. Priority number one is his school work but he dreams of playing college baseball and I would like to see that a potential injury doesn't shorten that dream. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If he is doing Tom House's pitching motion, he definitely on his way to serious pitching arm injuries. For biological fifteen year old baseball pitchers, I recommend two consecutive months per year of baseball throwing, including one inning per game twice a week. If the growth plates for his medial epicondyle and radial head, then your son is biologically sixteen years old. Therefore, I recommend four consecutive months per year of baseball throwing, including twice through the line-up once a week and once through the line-up once a week. Pitch limits mean nothing. The number of times that batters see pitchers, the variety of pitches that pitchers can throw for strikes and the number of times per game that youth pitchers have to get their pitching arm up to game intensity mean everything. Until baseball pitchers are biologically nineteen years old, I would never have them throw more than five innings. With the pitching forearm flyout inherent in Mr. House's pitching motion, when pitchers to jam the baseball between their index and middle fingers, the index finger receives considerable stress. I do not teach either change-ups or split-finger pitches. Without the stress on their index finger, my pitchers achieve much better speed differentials and movement. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 158. I just viewed the 2nd videotape and know that I’ll enjoy studying it for hours to come. Thank you for your work in helping to prevent arm injuries. This spring, I will manage my son’s 9-year old team and plan on implementing as many of your ideas as possible. The problem is that there is simply not enough practice time to do everything. Three times a week, we have a 90-minute session that includes hitting instruction, defense, pitching instruction and a 30 minute intra-squad scrimmage that is fun and keeps them coming back for more. One idea I had was to combine hitting and pitching practice by having one player bunt several balls pitched by a kneeling player. Do you have any recommendations for a pitching drill involving a kneeling player? Perhaps, I could have the kids throw with the wrong foot forward in a variation of some of the drills in the 2nd videotape? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As long as they are not pitching against opponents in a competitive baseball game, I have no problem with biological pre-thirteen year old youth baseball pitchers pitching. However, I do worry that some youngster might think that it would be cute to swing away. Therefore, without a protective screen, I would not do this drill. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 159. I would appreciate your input with regard to the mechanics and suitability to young arms of a change-up pitch. The pitch in question is the "palm ball" as thrown by David Guisti in the 70's, Bob Stanley in the 80's, and as of late, by Tony Fiore of the Twins. I am referring to the old-school traditional palm ball which involves a deliberate attempt at reduced ball rotation, and not the box change-up used to great effectiveness by Trevor Hoffman among others. Please correct my mechanical description if I'm mistaken as I seem to remember that Dave Guisti used his thumb to somewhat forcefully press the ball against the upper part of his palm and lower part of the fingers, elevated all finger tips off of the ball, and tossed the pitch with fastball arm speed, while maintaining a stiff wrist (without any pronation or supination of the pitching arm or wrist). The palm ball it seems, should leave the pitcher's hand with little rotation and tended to lose all, or nearly all rotation on the way to the plate. The effectiveness of the pitch seems two-fold in that to the batter the apparent variance between arm speed and ball velocity is more pronounced than for other change-up pitches, and the reduction in, or lack of rotation, creates increased drag on the ball, ideally imparting knuckleball-like characteristics to the pitch (such as an unexpected degree of drop or sink). Having read your publications and purchased your fine video I am attuned to the fragility of pitching arms. One of my sons, having caught my backyard variety of the palm ball, expressed an interest in learning the pitch. Since the palm ball has become somewhat of an arcane art in America (yet still popular in Japanese baseball), and I can find neither mechanical descriptions nor physical implications of the pitch in any literature, perhaps you can provide some clarity on the subject. I am aware that you generally disdain efforts to reduce or eliminate rotation on a pitched baseball, viewing effective and consistent mastery of such pitches as exceedingly difficult. Would you be so kind as to momentarily suspend your skepticism of the efficacy of reducing rotation upon a pitched baseball, and proffer an opinion as to whether the mechanics I have described are correct for the palm ball. In addition, and of great importance to me is to learn whether holding the wrist stiff during the act of pitching a change-up would present undue stress on elbow tendons, muscles, ligaments, or the nascent olecranon area of a 12 year old. My thanks for your efforts and guidance at developing, promoting, and disseminating safe and effective pitching habits. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No matter how baseball pitchers grip and release change-ups, they are ten mile per hour slower straight pitches, which, when batters correctly anticipate them, are very easy to hit very hard. When I want my pitchers to throw ten mile per hour slower pitches, I tell them to throw my Maxline Fastball Sinker and Torque Fastball Slider. With my ten mile per hour slower pitches, my pitcher still accelerate their pitching arm at maximum fastball velocity, which makes it difficult for batters to recognize the change in velocity, and, in case they do, these pitches move, which makes it difficult for batters to hit. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 160. My 17 year old son is a 6 foot four lefty who pitches for his HS team. He has some discomfort in his back left shoulder when he throws hard and I suspect it's from the recoil. He is seeing a Dr. today. Should he be working with a trainer to build muscle in the back of his shoulder? One interesting aside, it doesn't hurt when he throws a football. Are you the same Mike Marshall who had the nasty screwball with LA? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Discomfort in the back of the pitching shoulder indicates a deceleration problem. That is, after he releases his pitches, he is incorrectly decelerating his pitching arm. With the extreme pitching forearm flyout of the 'traditional' pitching motion, the pitching arm of 'traditional' baseball pitchers moves across the front of their body and downward. As a result, they only have the same Teres Minor muscle in position to decelerate their pitching arm. He needs to stop using the 'traditional' pitching motion. Footballs weigh three pounds. Baseballs weight five and one-quarter ounces. Athletes cannot accelerate footballs to the same release velocity as they can accelerate baseballs. As a result, they do not have to decelerate their throwing arm from the same release velocity. In my Academic Credentials and the Professional Baseball Credentials files on my website, you can learn of my academic and professional baseball careers. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 161. I am a 25 year old guy from the UK and I have recently become interested in playing baseball and especially pitching. I have been trying to teach myself how to pitch, but I am not sure if my mechanics are correct and if not, what needs work. Is there any way that I could email you a video clip on me pitching so that you could give me some advice? If so how much would this cost? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Are you trying to learn my pitching motion? Have you purchased my 2004 Baseball Pitching Instructional Video? If you answered yes to these questions and take the video as per my instructions, I might consider your request. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 162. I have coached youth baseball for 20+ years and am beginning to work with my son (league age 11) on pitching fundamentals and mechanics. I have really only allowed him very limited pitching opportunities. He is small, but very strong and a hard thrower, but I prefer to delay his pitching days as long as possible or until he develops a bit more. I have a difference of opinion with my son’s Little League coaches. I am of the opinion that in order to develop command and control, proper release point and muscle memory that it is best to work out at a shorter distance than the Little League 46 feet. It seems to me that it is a mind and body connection which determines control and that is best to sharpen those skills at a distance that is comfortably within his abilities. It also allows him to focus mainly on mechanics and still be able to throw strikes with ease. You develop muscle memory and work your way out to greater distances taking with you what you have learned. His coaches think that their pitchers should work from 50-52 feet in workouts on the theory that throwing from that distance is so taxing that it will seem easier when they move up to the regulation distance. To my thinking you don’t practice basketball jump shots from half court when beginning just because it will be easier when you move closer. I fail to see how you can develop finesse from so far away in both instances. By extension why not learn to pitch from second base? The flight of the ball, the release point and the muscle memory are nothing like pitching. What can be learned by struggling and maybe throwing a strike once and a while? The strikes will be accidental and not intentional. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Until youth baseball pitchers master the drills that I include in my First, Second, Third and Fourth Youth Baseball Pitchers Motor Skill Acquisition Programs, I recommend that they do not throw to catchers. After that, I recommend that youth baseball pitchers throw baseballs for only two consecutive months per year, wait until they are biologically thirteen years old before they pitch in competitive baseball games against opposing team members and pitch only one inning per game twice a week. Now, what was your question? Oh yes, from how far from the batter should biological eleven year old baseball pitchers, whose ossification center for their olecranon process just appeared, pitch to batters in competitive games? My answer; they shouldn’t from any distance. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 163. You are not behind where you should be in getting your material out to the public. The last time I checked, you were one man in a small town in Florida. Your example inspires me and I wish to help in any way I can. I think best when I see the big picture. Simply know that there are people out here who care deeply about you and what you are working on. I am working diligently to understand everything (no exaggeration) you have written right down to the anatomical, kinetic, physiological details, because I thrive on teaching young men. Baseball, in my opinion, provides the finest laboratory in the world for teaching lessons about life. Your pitching mechanic provides an incredible opportunity to add lessons about anatomy, physics, kinetics and the list goes on. You know, as a highly skilled teacher, that pedagogy is never complete because there is always more for the teacher to learn. During my lefty's 120-day program this fall, I concluded that we were going through too many stages of drills. You have now condensed the program to five essentials. As if my feedback really matters, I can affirm that I think you are correct. From this point your program design will continue to evolve, yet it is time to say "I have perfected this to a point where I can 'market' it." You have gone far beyond Research &Development. Perfect? No, you still need displacement data. Acceptable? Better than anything else out there. Using your 2004 video, your previously published materials, your ongoing (now voluminous) e-mail support (and of course two trips to Florida), I have been able to teach my lefty enough to get off the ground. By the end of spring season, he will be far and away the best pitcher in our high school program. He is almost there now, two weeks into spring ball. My point is that, with the updated materials you wrote about above, I can teach more effectively AND have all the resources I need to present your program locally. You are very, very close to being in a position to blow the lid off of this business of pitching injuries. I can't wait! It's going to take someone courageous in media to help. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Every year, after I work with a new group, I feel totally prepared to make the adjustments that they taught me and teach the next group perfectly. I feel that way today. However, history has taught me that the next group will teach me how to better teach the next group. Nevertheless, I am strongly confident that I have designed the best drills possible to teach the essentials of my pitching motion and, as a result, every pitcher I train will become the best pitcher that they can be. I also feel very confident that I will put together my best Baseball Pitcher Instructional video. I have started the process. The first thing that I have to get is videotape of my present group perfectly performing the five drills with wrist weights, iron balls, footballs and baseballs. Unfortunately, they will not all be perfect. That is the problem with a theoretical pitching motion. Your son told me how reluctant the high school coach was to use your pitcher. That he put him in a game against a powerful opponent only after what he thought was his best pitcher got bombed. Then, despite the fact that the other team had a huge lead and, thereby, felt very confident, your young man shut them down with six strikeouts in four innings and no baseballs hit hard and his team rallied to win. He also told me of how, when the opposition tried to steal, the catcher got rid of the baseball so quickly that the middle infielders could not get to the base in time to catch his throws. And, how, when the base runner got his normal lead off second base, from my Wind-Up Set Position, your pitcher quickly turned to face him and, when the base runner saw that the normal second base lead was too long, your pitcher ran at him and tagged him out. I want to congratulate your pitcher for being the first baseball pitcher to use my Wind-Up Set Position body action with base runners. When others realize that baseball pitchers can use the same pitching motion with nobody on base and with base runners, they will discard the ineffective, archaic set position. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 164. My son is a college sophomore catcher. I am trying to help him. He has, according to his trainer, an impinged nerve in his arm/shoulder area. Trainer states it is from overuse, he gave him Ibuprofen and rest. Our son was a very good catcher with very good pop-times. His catching coach left last year and there is now not a coach with catching-specific skills. My husband has noticed changes, but cannot pin-point exact mechanic problem. I am wondering if you could point me in the right direction? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In their attempt to release their throws as quickly as possible, many catchers start their throwing elbow toward their throwing target with their throwing hand still in front of their throwing elbow. As a result, when they start their throwing elbow toward their throwing target, their throwing hand has to move away from their throwing target. Unfortunately, when the throwing hand jerks to a stop and starts moving toward their throwing target, the front of the throwing shoulder receives a considerable jolt. To stop this reverse throwing forearm bounce, like baseball pitchers only quicker, baseball catchers have to wait until they have their throwing hand behind their throwing elbow before they start their throwing elbow toward throwing target. To accomplish this, instead of raising their throwing hand straight upward to close to their throwing-side ear, they should pendulum swing their throwing arm downward, backward and upward such that, when the baseball reaches driveline height, their throwing hand is above and behind their throwing elbow with their throwing palm facing upward. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 165. You are recommending that my son stop using the traditional pitching motion. I assume he should learn a different way to decelerate. Is that something I can find on your website? Is that in your videos? A professional baseball scout has worked with my son for a few years now and he recommends that he keep doing the "high" step over with the "pitching leg" during the follow-through. Is that wrong? Do you do any one day reviews of a pitching motion? We could come to FL at some point. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The key to properly decelerating the pitching arm is to properly accelerate the pitching arm. The 'traditional' pitching motion generates considerable centripetal force that slings the pitching forearm laterally away from the body. After the pitching arm flys laterally away from the body, it comes medially across the front of the body. As a result, pitchers not only waste force redirecting the baseball toward home plate, but they also subject their pitching arm to unnecessary stress that destroys their pitching arm. Newton's law of inertia demands that baseball pitchers apply force toward home plate, not sideways. When baseball pitchers apply force toward home plate, then to decelerate the pitching arm, they only have to apply force toward second base. Like the muscles that we use when rowing boats, unlike the tiny Teres Minor muscle that has to decelerate the fly-away curvilinear pitching arm, these muscles are very powerful. In the 'traditional' baseball pitching motion, when their pitchers release their pitches, their pitching foot is within inches of the pitching rubber. Thereafter, what they do with their pitching foot has no effect on how they threw their pitches. I suppose that the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes could use people who raise their pitching foot really high as they step forward, but, for baseball pitchers, it indicates that they bent forward at their waist and, rather than pointing toward home plate, they released the baseball with their acromial line perpendicular to the driveline. As a result, they not only introduce a vertical curvilinear aspect to their driveline, but they also shorten their driveline. I could not disagree with this professional baseball scout more. If you come to Florida, it should be to see what your son needs to do. I already know what he does. He takes the baseball backward with his pitching palm facing downward with his pitching forearm horizontal. When his pitching elbow raises to shoulder height, his pitching hand is well below and his pitching palm still faces downward. He points his glove arm half-way down the first base line. When his glove foot contacts the ground, he is in the middle of turning his pitching forearm over from the palm down position to the palm up position when he starts his pitching elbow toward home plate. From here on, he struggles to get his pitching arm to catch up with his body. As a result, rather than driving behind his pitching arm with his pitching shoulder, he has to pull his pitching arm forward. Therefore, he generates so much centripetal force, that his pitching forearm quickly moves laterally away from his body. Lastly, after he releases his pitches, the ongoing centripetal force swings his pitching arm all the way across the front of his body that he actually slaps himself in the back. If he continues to throw this way, he will not only never become the best pitcher that he can be, but he will also destroy his pitching arm. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 166. We cannot thank you enough for your kind and timely response. My husband read your e-mail and physically worked out the mechanic as written. He feels strongly you are exactly right and will work with our son from your suggestion. My "mother's heart" is so incredibly grateful, thank you. We would feel honored to contribute a donation to the upkeep of your web-site and also would be interested in purchasing any catcher specific DVD or printed materials. Also, if you have additional suggestion on the care and recovery of an impinged nerve we will implement as possible. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I invite all position players to complete my 315-Day Adult Baseball Pitchers Interval-Training Program. All they have to do is double the number of repetitions that I recommend for my Maxline and Torque Fastballs and do not practice any of my non-fastball pitches. This training program is free on my website to download as is my Coaching Baseball Pitchers book, which, in Chapters Thirty-Six and Thirty-Seven, explains how to perform my training drills and my throwing motion. I do offer my 2004 Baseball Pitching Instructional video. To learn how to obtain my video, please click on 2004 Baseball Pitching Instructional video on the home page of my website. You did not give me symptoms that support a diagnosis of an impinged Ulnar Nerve. That occurs in the elbow. While all nerves that serve the arm do pass through the axillary area of the shoulder, I have never heard of throwing causing any of them any problem. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 167. I have a 17 year old son who pitches. What are the best methods/exercises to help him increase his velocity? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Biological seventeen year old baseball pitchers should complete my 120-Day High School Baseball Pitchers Interval-Training Program. If you click on Pitcher Training Programs on the home page of my website, you can read and download a copy for free. If you click on FREE BOOK!!! on the home page of my website, you can read and download Chapters Thirty-Six and Thirty-Seven of my Coaching Baseball Pitchers book for free. If you click on 2004 Baseball Pitching Instructional video on the home page of my website, you can learn how to obtain your copy. These materials contain the best methods and exercise that will help your son to increase this release velocity and your son will not destroy his pitching arm. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 168. My 13 year old son is a catcher and also plays Water Polo. I was wondering if you have ever studied the water polo throwing technique? The motion seems quite similar to the throwing motion you teach. Water polo players are told to reach back with a relatively long straight arm. They are told not to bend the elbow too much, like a "Traditional" baseball throw, because the water polo ball is much heavier and will put to much strain on the elbow joint. Because the players are chest deep in water, their throwing hand projects straight at the target and slaps the surface of the water. There is no chance for the throwing arm to diagonally cross in front of the body. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The water not only prevents athletes from pulling their throwing arm downward after release, it prevents the pendulum swing glove and pitching arm action of my Transition Phase. I would say that water polo players should learn my Slingshot glove and pitching arm actions for my Maxline and Torque Fastballs. With perfect straight line drive, they should never touch the water with their non-throwing or throwing arms. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 169. Some scouts think that a bigger pitcher is less likely to get injured than one who is smaller. Is there any basis of fact to this? By the way your questioning as to whether Mr. Prior was from Smallville was a classic. That response made my day. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You are asking a five foot eight and one-half inch Cy Young Award winner, who holds all the durability records for major league closers, whether bigger pitchers are less likely than smaller pitchers to injure themselves while pitching baseballs? The 'traditional' pitching motion causes pitching injuries, not the size of the pitchers. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 170. Below you will find a web link where a pitching coach wannabe cites you as an expert (alongside Tom House, ASMI, etc.), takes you out of context, and again proves that he has no idea what he is talking about. This individual is obviously interested in making a buck from damaged pitching arms. http://www.baseballfit.com/baseball-overload-training.htm OVERLOAD/UNDERLOAD TRAINING: HOW IT WORKS AND WHY BALL PLAYERS SHOULD USE THIS TRAINING METHOD By Steven C. Zawrotny, MS, CSCS There are some, particularly online, who continue to spread incorrect and misleading information about weighted ball training. Our discussion here will deal with Overload/Underload (OU) training in general, and its application to baseball and softball in particular. (Who continues to spread incorrect and misleading information about weighted ball training and what do they say that is incorrect and misleading? Every Physiology of Exercise text book explains the virtues of the Overload Principle.) 1. OU Training Defined 2. A Brief History of OU Research and Training 3. Other Sports That Use OU Training 4. The Benefits of OU Training 5. Other Baseball Experts Who Are Proponents of OU Training OU TRAINING DEFINED Athletes use weight-modified implements that are otherwise identical to those used during competition. The weights of these modified tools weigh both more and less than the standard competitive weight. (Gee, I never would have guessed that overload means that athletes use implements that weigh more than competitive weight and that underload means that athletes use implements that weight less than competitive weight.) Such tools allow athletes to train more precisely for their sport. Sport-specific strength and power are developed by movements with resistance or assistance that imitates the joint action of the skill - SPECIFIC RESISTANCE TRAINING. What makes this type of training so effective is that the weights of the modified tools used are heavy enough to produce a conditioning effect, yet light enough to not adversely affect the athlete's mechanical skills. (While every Physiology of Exercise text book explains the virtues of Specificity of Training, I do not recall that they said heavy enough to produce a conditioning effect, yet light enough to not adversely affect the athlete's mechanical skills. In fact, the heavier the weight the less likely athletes are to use improper force application techniques. For example, when my baseball pitchers throw my twelve pound iron balls, they cannot have late pitching forearm turnover, reverse pitching forearm bounce and pitching forearm flyout.) Generally, OU Training is employed to increase an athlete's POWER. Power is defined as the rate at which one can perform work, or the ability to exert muscle force quickly. This ability is related to, but distinct from strength, which is defined as the ability to exert muscle force. As an example, strength is demonstrated as the ability to pick up a 30 oz. bat. Power is demonstrated by the ability to drive a baseball 400+ feet while swinging that 30 oz. bat. (Researchers measure strength by determining the maximum amount of weight that athletes can move through a specific range of motion. When researchers find two athletes with the same strength, they measure their power by determining the time that these athletes require to move that maximum weight through that range of motion. The athlete capable of moving that weight through that specific range of motion in the shortest time is more powerful. How far they hit baseballs is interesting, but not scientific.) As long as the tools used are not too heavy, mechanics are not affected, making OU Training what I call "skill-neutral." According to published data (see below) the ideal weight range for conditioning and performance enhancement is up to 20% +/- the weight of the competitive implement. I do NOT recommend using baseballs weighing more than 6 oz., or softballs heavier than 8 oz. (With this requirement, twenty percent of five ounces is one ounce. So, this means that baseball pitchers should not throw baseballs that weight more than six ounces to overload or less than four ounces to underload. I thought that the overloaded baseballs weighed eight, ten and twelve ounces. I suppose that, when I have my baseball pitchers throw twelve pound iron balls, I must destroy their pitching arms. Since, when I trained for my fourteen year major league baseball pitching career, I trained with a sixteen pound iron ball, I must have completely destroyed my pitching arm.) There is some data that indicates using much heavier balls can negatively affect throwing mechanics, possibly leading to arm problems. Extra motor-units are recruited while throwing these heavy balls that are then not used when the regular competitive ball is used. As relates to our discussion here, the modified implements ball players can use are weighted baseballs and softballs, and various weights of baseball/softball bats, and/or devices attached to these bats. (As I said earlier, contrary to this claim, rather than negatively affecting throwing mechanics, very heavy balls prevent improper force application techniques.) Conversely, this type of training would not be useful for training other athletic skill areas, for example, shooting or throwing accuracy. OU training could help a golfer drive their tee shots further, but it wouldn't help eliminate their slice if they have one, or otherwise help them to hit straighter drives. OU training could help a young basketball player who is having trouble hoisting a basketball high enough to make a shot in a 10 foot hoop, but the shot still has to be accurate enough to go in. Accuracy training needed for a specific skill would therefore be performed apart from power work. (This is the old argument about should athletes train for accuracy or power. The answer is that if athletes ever want to compete at the highest levels, then they will have to perform at their highest power with accuracy. Unless athletes train at their highest power, they will never perform at their highest power with accuracy.) If I was working with a pitcher who had control problems, I would not break out the weighted baseballs and expect training of this type to help him throw strikes. I would look at his mechanics and make any needed adjustments, and possibly suggest some drill work to help reinforce the new concepts being taught. Such a player might also be working with weighted baseballs/softballs as part of their overall training regimen, but this would occur at a different time, and for the purposes of developing more power and speed behind his/her throws as well as conditioning the throwing structures of the arm. (I want to see X-ray evidence that eight, ten and twelve ounce baseballs stimulate increases bone density. I have X-ray evidence that my ten, fifteen, twenty and twenty-five pound wrist weight exercises and six, eight, ten and twelve pound iron ball throws do increase bone density.) A potential side-benefit of OU training is that a player could improve their accuracy by virtue of the increased number of reps or throws they are performing. This would be an artifact of the main goal of improving power, however, and not the main purpose of OU training. (When baseball pitchers increase their number of throws with weighted baseballs, they only increase the unnecessary stress that their 'traditional' pitching motion places on the pitching arm.) A BRIEF HISTORY OF OU RESEARCH AND TRAINING The first research done with OU training was performed in the 1970s by the Soviet Union and East-European track and field teams. A great deal of this research has been published in prestigious, peer-reviewed journals around the world. Shot-putters, javelin, discus and hammer throwers, and sprinters were the early adopters of this training method. (Nonsense. Coaches have used overload training for over a century. This gentleman should try reading Physiology of Exercise text books. They have bibliographies that show that the training world did not start in the 1970s.) Research with baseball players dates back to the 1960s. This is just a sampling of studies involving OU Training and baseball. There are dozens more relating to OU Training generally: 1) Coop DeRenne, Kwok W. Ho and James C. Murphy. 2001: Effects of General, Special, and Specific Resistance Training on Throwing Velocity in Baseball: A Brief Review. The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 148–156. (Kwok W. Ho received his doctoral training at Michigan State University near the end of my nine year doctoral program. By the way, I was not slow, I simply had another job that permitted me to take far more coursework and conduct more research than typical doctoral candidates. Oh yeah, the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research is not a refereed journal. As a result, whatever they print is without scientific meaning or merit.) 2) Escamilla et al. 2000: Sports Med Apr; 29 (4): 259-272 (To my knowledge, the Journal of Sports Medicine is also not a refereed journal.) 3) David J. Szymanski, MEd, CSCS, June 1998: The Effects of Various Weighted Bats on Bat Velocity - A Literature Review. Strength and Conditioning, pp. 8 - 11 4) Coop DeRenne, Barton P. Buxton, Ronald K. Hetzler and Kwok W. Ho. 1995: Effects of Weighted Bat Implement Training on Bat Swing Velocity. The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: Vol. 9, No. 4, pp. 247–250. 5) Coop DeRenne, Barton P. Buxton, Ronald K. Hetzler and Kwok W. Ho. 1994: Effects of Under- and Overweighted Implement Training on Pitching Velocity. The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: Vol. 8, No. 4, pp. 247–250. 6) Coop DeRenne, Kwok Ho and Alan Blitzblau. 1990: Effects of Weighted Implement Training on Throwing Velocity. The Journal of Applied Sport Science Research, 4, 16-19. (I see where Dr. Ho is busy with junk science. To my knowledge, the Journal of Applied Sport Science Research is not refereed.) 7) DeRenne, C., Tracy, R., and Dunn-Rankin, P. 1985: Increasing Throwing velocity. Athletic Journal, April, 36 - 39. (The Athletic Journal is also not refereed.) 8) Bagonzi, J. A. 1978: The Effects of Graded Weighted Baseballs, Free Weight Training, and Simulative Isometric Exercise on the Velocity of a Thrown Baseball. Master's thesis, Indiana University. (I would like to referee this Master's thesis. I doubt that Mr. Bagonzi sufficiently controlled confounding variables, such as force application techniques.) 9) Litwhiler, D., and Hamm, L. 1973: Overload: Effect on Throwing Velocity and Accuracy. Athletic Journal, 53, 64-65. (During my eleven year graduate studies at Michigan State University, Danny Litwhiler was the head baseball coach. He is a really nice guy. But, he does not know scientific methodology.) 10) Brose, D.E., and D.L. Hanson 1967: Effects of Overload Training on Velocity and Accuracy of Throwing. Research Quarterly. 38:528-533. (The Research Quarterly is also not refereed. And, to my knowledge, Dr. Hanson earned his doctoral degree at Michigan State University.) 11) Elias, J. 1964. The Effect of Overload Training on Speed in Baseball Pitching. Unpublished Master's thesis, Springfield College, Springfield, Massachusetts. (Sometime in the early 1960s, I caught John Elias and Mickey Sinks, two baseball pitchers from Michigan State in a Jenison Fieldhouse dance room trying to measure baseball velocity with a string attached to a baseball on one end and a timer on the other end. I do not believe that they secured reliable data. A few years later, I met John again. When I pitched for the Expos, he worked the scoreboard at Park Jarry in Montreal.) 12) Egstrom, G.H., Logan, G.A., and E. L. Wallis 1960: Acquisition of Throwing skill Involving Projectiles of varying Weight. Research Quarterly 31:420-425. OTHER SPORTS THAT USE OU TRAINING Over and underloaded implements and techniques are used very effectively by athletes in many sports to augment performance: Track & Field: heavier and lighter discuses, javelins, shot balls (shot putters) and hammers; sprinting with resistance, such as pulling weighted sleds, wearing weighted vests, and downhill running on a slight downward slope, being towed while running, and running on a high speed treadmill (overSPEED training). Swimming: wearing swimming gloves that allow for more water to be pulled during an arm stroke; swimming while dragging an implement or otherwise artificially producing drag on a swimmer. Heavier footballs (over the standard 15 oz) are thrown by quarterbacks; heavier basketballs are used by basketball players. Boxers train with different weights of boxing gloves. Note that ALL of these training implements are used to improve POWER and/or SPEED through the joint range-of-motion (ROM) in the activity being trained, which can lead to enhanced performance. THE BENEFITS OF OU TRAINING Benefit #1 Appropriate strength and conditioning regimens, such as OU Training, can reduce and even prevent arm injuries related to throwing by increasing STRENGTH/ENDURANCE. Strength helps prevent injury. Endurance helps maintain throwing velocity, allows for more pitches to be thrown. (Proper force application technique prevents injury. Aerobic training increases endurance. Increased endurance requires increase capillarization and substrate storage in the baseball pitching muscle fibers.) The muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones (even nerves) of the shoulder and arm in general will positively adapt to an appropriate increase in training load. They become tougher and more able to handle greater workloads. Such training must conform to the following two guidelines: 1) The training load is sufficient to produce the desired training effect, yet not so great as to negatively impact throwing (or hitting) mechanics. (As I said before, the training load must be sufficient to stimulate increases in bone density and require proper force application techniques. I estimate that means at least an eighteen hundred percent increase, not the twenty percent that this author believes.) 2) The thrower's program introduces OU training gradually and systematically, employing a training principle known as Progressive Overload (Clarkson & Watson, 1990). This principle states that "strength and endurance cannot be increased unless the muscles are stressed beyond their normal workload. To increase the workload, increase the frequency, duration and intensity of your exercise program." To effectively and safely increase throwing velocity, intensity is increased by using 20% +/- OU balls, duration is increased by gradually increasing the number of OU throws performed with each workout, and frequency is increased by the number of days of throwing workouts. Arm/shoulder structures trained in this manner are more capable of handling the regular competitive game requirements, which are less than those imposed by the OU conditioning. An arm conditioned for making numerous throws with a 6 oz ball will more than likely out-perform an arm trained only to perform under a 5 oz. load (ability, mechanics and over-use considerations aside). Dr. Mike Marshall, in his Pitching Book (Chapter 32, pp. 5 & 6), describes a concept he calls "Plioanglos Training" as a means of training the external rotator cuff muscles (decelerators). This is similar to the ideas expressed above: "Plioanglos training means adding resistance to forward ballistically speeding pitching arms to increase capacities of lengthening deceleration muscles to stop." (This is a precise quote from my Coaching Baseball Pitchers book. However, it is not similar to the ideas expressed above. I do not recall where anybody explained how the decelerator muscles are more important than the accelerator muscles. Certainly, weighted baseballs do not train the decelerator muscles.) Perhaps this is best summed up by way of the well-known conditioning principle S.A.I.D. - Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands (Wallis and Logan, 1964). This principle states that the body will adapt to stress imposed on it (as long as it is not excessive, in which case the body breaks down). One safe and effective way of doing this is with OU Training, employing the aforementioned guidelines. (Gee, someone decided that the concept of Specificity of Training needed a new acronym, SAID. It is clever, but unnecessary.) Benefit #2 Improved on-field performance - increased throwing velocity (or bat speed). Increased arm speed throughout the throwing Range of Motion (ROM). This attribute is developed by throwing a ball weighing 20% less than the competitive ball. Because the ball weighs less, the arm moves more quickly through its ROM, leading to increased throwing velocity. Throwing lighter balls has been shown to be one of the best means of increasing throwing velocity. Swinging appropriately lighter bats helps develop increased bat speed. This is also known as overSPEED training. (As I said before, I doubt the researchers understand how to control confounding variables. I seriously doubt that throwing four ounce baseballs improves anything.) Benefit #3 Enhanced neuromuscular conditioning. According to Vern Gambetta, Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Chicago White Sox, the primary source of fatigue in baseball pitching is not metabolic, but neural. The metabolic demands - conditioning - are just not that great in baseball or softball. Don't misunderstand - I'm speaking here of the skills required to be a good hitter or pitcher. Being well conditioned is still important, as this will help prevent injury, but no doubt you've seen players like John Kruk, David Wells and others. High level performers who are not very well conditioned. (Are we talking about the renowned Strength and Conditioning coach for the Chicago White Sox? How did he determine that baseball pitching fatigue was neural, not metabolic? Did he measure acetylcholine levels at the motor end plates? Mr. Kruk and Mr. Wells may not appear physically fit, but the measure of fitness for any activity is the ability to perform their activity well. With that evaluative method, they were very well conditioned.) Neural fatigue occurs at the motor-unit level. In the act of pitching, for example, the Central Nervous System sends a nerve impulse to a motor unit (MU) in the shoulder involved in this process. The ability of these MUs to transmit these signals, with optimal frequency and speed, diminishes over time. This "breakdown" occurs at the nerve synapse/biochemical level, which THEN leads to slower and weaker muscle contractions. (Did he measure at what point during baseball pitching when muscle cells no longer can resynthesize sufficient adenosine tri-phosphate molecules to attach to every myosin cross-bridge?) In baseball pitching, throwing muscles and tendons in the shoulder are stretching and contracting repeatedly while accelerating and decelerating the arm during an overhand throw - constant biochemical activity at the neuromuscular junction. As neural fatigue sets in, it becomes manifest in mechanical problems. For example, a pitcher dropping their shoulder later in the game, leading to a loss of control or velocity. The tough thing is, this "fatigue" is usually not felt by the pitcher, but it occurs nevertheless. This is where proper conditioning (OU Training) comes in. Research has shown that neurons adapt to stress much like muscles do. Motor neurons exposed to high-frequency impulses end up with more developed neuromuscular junctions which appear more capable of handling high-intensity impulses better than those not exposed to similar stress. The S.A.I.D. principle in effect again. Does this mean OU Training is fool proof, and has never harmed a player? Of course not. Most any type of conditioning, performed incorrectly, can cause problems or injury. Throwing itself, be it footballs, baseballs, rocks or whatever, has harmed many a throwing arm. Running is the cause of many knee and ankle injuries. Shoulder problems amongst swimmers are common. Ice skaters often suffer from some very painful leg ailments. I could go on, but you get the point. All of these injuries and problems occur as a part of the athlete's regular practice and competitive activities. Performing them properly minimizes the risk, of course. So does a variety of strength and conditioning methods, including OU Training. OTHER BASEBALL EXPERTS WHO ARE PROPONENTS OF OU TRAINING Dr. John Bagonzi. Former pitcher with the Red Sox. Known as the "Pitching Professor" and author of the highly regarded book, "The Act of Pitching." Dr. Tom House. Former pitcher with the Rangers. Author/co-author of several books, including "The Winning Pitcher" and "Power Baseball." Personal pitching coach to Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, Mark Prior, and others. Dr. Mike Marshall. Former Cy Young Award winner with the Dodgers. Author of the book, "Coaching Pitchers" and the pitching training DVD, "Dr. Mike Marshall's Pitching Instructional Video." (I do not recommend underload training for baseball pitching.) Dr. Coop DeRenne. Former professional player, instructor and consultant to the Chicago White Sox and Texas Rangers. Probably this country's leading baseball researcher, supervising 16 hitting and pitching warm-up, biomechanical, and visual research projects using over 600 amateur and professional hitters and pitchers as his subjects. Co-author (with Tom House) of the book, "Power Baseball" and other baseball training books. ASMI - The American Sports Medicine Institute All of these experts possess impeccable credentials and favor some type of weighted ball training. (In my opinion, this is unsupported garbage.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 171. I wonder why MLB, still in spring training, has almost 60 pitchers on the injury list? Last time I checked, there were 37 shoulder and elbow injuries; some season ending. If these injuries occur simply because of mechanical breakdown then these major league pitchers are out-of-shape, inept athletes. On the other hand, if these injuries occur because the mechanical design for throwing pitches is flawed, their coaches are indeed negligent. Gee, I wonder where the truth lies. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We know that the pitchers on the Major League Baseball injured list are all 'traditional' pitchers. How they apply force is the cause. Their force application technique is so destructive that they do not dare train during the off-season and their in-season pitch counts compound the problem in a never-ending downward rest-atrophy, then competitive pitching injury spiral. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 172. Please check out the attached paper. Also, I find your writing very fascinating. I am a writer myself (business books). But I also find it tough to read because your are writing on a very technical and complex subject. For example, when I read this " After release, my forearm continues to pronate until my palm faces outward." I have to think about that because it sounds to me like "turning over the ball", the opposite of a "cut" fastball, more like the way Bill Lee or Bill Campbell threw the ball (or the way Mike Marshall threw the ball?). Why don't you come out with a book beyond the web based one. I know what you told me, you are a Perfectionist, like so many inventors and innovators, but there must be some message that you can get out there. I have four children and I have gone through the little league thing, AAU etc. So many idiots are coaching teams and telling pitchers all the wrong stuff. Even if you could get across issues like why young guys should be pitching only a few innings, how to take care of the arm, how Dads and coaches should learn about pitching etc. etc. You would be doing a great service and get some money for it. You got some content, some great knowledge, and some really great stories (i.e., Gene Mauch stuff, Koufax etc.). Mike, get something out there for the common Joe to read. Finally, if I can't change my son's motion from the "traditional" one to what you recommend, what's the next best strategy? (I know that questions is probably going to make you crazy). Would a good trainer help the kid to build the right muscle and exercise right to help minimize his risk of injury? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I read Mr. Magnusson's report. Unfortunately, he relies on research from Dr. Andrews, Dr. Fleisig, Dr. Jobe and others. They only report what 'traditional' baseball pitchers do, not what baseball pitchers should do. Pitchers should pronate their pitching forearm with the release of all pitches, not just my Maxline Fastball Sinker and Maxline True Screwball. As soon as I complete my 2005 Baseball Pitching Instructional Video, I will get to work on editing my Coaching Baseball Pitchers book. I wonder whether some publication would be interested in some of my questions/answers. You have to become your son's baseball pitching coach. You have to teach him my pitching motion. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 173. I have been an avid student of your site and tapes and really enjoy discussing your technique with other baseball parents. With the great scientific evidence you provide, I believe your technique will be found to be safe and effective. My son recently hurt his arm above the elbow in wrestling when a heavyweight landed on it while he had his arm bent. He was X-rayed at the hospital and told to go in a sling because it was broken. At a follow-up visit with a specialist, it was determined that the elbow was not broken, but the open space was part of his normal development. Yes, I could've made that diagnosis since it mimicked the X-rays on your DVD. Anyway, those X-rays show a chronological 16 year old, (just turned 16) with physiological development quite close to that 14 year old picture, definitely not the 15 year old picture. Last week, the school held the baseball tryouts for the sophomore baseball team. He is 5 foot 6 inches tall and weighs 125 lbs. He can hit very well, a good infielder and a catcher. He did not even try to pitch as he lacks velocity compared to the bigger kids. Coach told him he has outstanding accuracy in his throwing, great with the glove, but not fast with his arm or foot speed. They chose only 16 out of 35, so the cuts have to come somewhere. He loves to play baseball and wants to make the team next year. Realistically, we think his only chance is to pitch. However, according to your recommendations, he is not skeletally old enough to begin your program. Do you have any rules of thumb or research comparing velocity for 16 year olds versus 14 or 15 year olds? How often would you X-ray to see if he has reached 16 year old status? Do you have any other words of wisdom for a delayed maturer with a great attitude? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When a chronological sixteen year old is a biological fifteen year old, he adds an extra year to his growth spurt. Until the bones in the pitching arm are completely mature, youth pitchers cannot achieve their maximum release velocity. I recommend that parents X-ray both arms their youth pitchers from mid-forearm to mid-upper arm from the front and side every year within one week of their birthday and compare their growth plate development. At biological fourteen or fifteen years old, your son should complete my First, Second, Third and Fourth Youth Baseball Pitchers Motor Skill Acquisition Programs. When he masters the skill of the First, he should start the Second. When he masters the skill of the Second, he should start the Third. When he masters the skill of the Third, he should start the Fourth. My words of wisdom for delayed maturers with great attitude is that, because they never stopped mastering their skills, when a delayed growth spurt kicked in, many delayed maturers with great attitude became outstanding athletes. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 174. My son is an outfielder not a pitcher. He has a strong arm and will be playing on scholarship at a Div I school next year. Is your program beneficial for position players that want to increase there arm strength and avoid injury? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I strongly recommend that position players complete my 120-Day High School Baseball Pitchers Interval-Training Program, but, instead of learning how to throw my non-fastball pitches, they should simply double the number of repetitions of my fastballs. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 175. My son has had pain in his arm for 9 months from baseball pitching. It started last July in the elbow. He had an MRI of the elbow which showed no problem so the doctor determined it was tendonitis. He had 3 months of physical therapy after last year's baseball season (yes, he did continue to pitch with the pain). He is 16 years old and plays high school and AAU baseball. We went to two other doctors for second opinions after the first doctor. The second doctor agreed with the first diagnosis and after the pain persisted into January said he would try one cortisone shot. The shot did help the elbow, but now he has pain from the back of the shoulder down the back of his arm. This is a fairly new pain. We went to a third doctor this week, and this doctor said he has microinstability, which he said is common in baseball pitchers. He did have an MRI of the shoulder as well, and the MRI indicated there may be a slight fraying of the labrum. All three doctors did not think another MRI was necessary. Any suggestions what else we should do? He is back in physical therapy for the shoulder. Tomorrow, I plan to call the second local doctor for an office visit, and I will request another MRI. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is time to stop with the doctors and the MRIs. Cortisone shots soften bone tissue, they will not fix the problem. Doctors treat the symptoms, not the cause. You have your son in the downward spiral of pitching, pain, doctor visit, rest/atrophy, improper rehabilitation, pitching, more pain, doctor visit, rest/atrophy, improper rehabilitation and so on and so on. To break this cycle, he has to stop pitching, learn how to properly apply force to his pitches and properly train his pitching arm to withstand the appropriate stress of baseball pitching. The 'traditional' pitching motion causes the pain that your son is suffering. Late pitching forearm turnover with its associated reverse pitching forearm bounce caused the pain on the inside of your son's pitching elbow. Pitching forearm flyout with its associated pitching arm pull across the front of the body caused the pain in the back of his pitching shoulder. Your son needs to learn how to drive his pitches in a straight line toward home plate with powerful pitching forearm pronation releases. Until he completes my 120-Day High School Baseball Pitchers Interval-Training Program where he should properly strengthen his pitching arm and master my pitching motion, he should not pitch competitively. To get your copy of my 120-Day Program, please go to the home page of my website and click on Pitcher Training Programs. To read Chapter Thirty-Six, Dr. Marshall's Interval-Training Programs and Drills, please click on FREE BOOK!!! To see how my pitchers perform my wrist weight, iron ball and baseball drills, please click on 2004 Baseball Pitching Instructional Videotape. If you have any questions about how to do my 120-Day Program, please email me and I will talk you through the program. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 176. I also failed to mention that my son is a lefty. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The 'traditional' pitching motion does not discriminate. It eqyally destroy right and left-handed pitchers. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 177. That is fine that you will not identify his name. I was wondering if this author who calls himself, "the Coach," who wrote this was one. "Although Dr. Marshall lists every lecture title he has every given in his website, there is not one name of any player that has ever utilized his pitching metholdology to enjoy any success. My exposure to Dr. Marshall's teaching is purely anticdotal. I had a pitcher play for me in the fall of his SR. year. He was 6'4" 235 RHP who could touch 90 and a prospect. Unfortunately, he was very academically challenged (590 SAT) and was ineligible in the spring of his SR. year. He played one year of JUCO before deciding that he would never pass college and headed off the Dr. Marshall's school of pitching. I saw him the next summer pitching in a college league. He had the most bizarre pitching delivery I have ever seen. He could no longer break 78. He was shelled. He never made it past the second inning. His ERA must have been 30.00. Half way through the season, he was only playing 1B. His career as a pitcher was over! The front and back of his shoulder felt great. His stride knee was fine! Only his NECK HURT FROM THE WHIPLASH HE HAD SUFFERED FROM TRYING TO WATCH THE SHOTS THAT WERE ROCKETED OFF HIM!" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have no idea who wrote this. He describes himself as a high school baseball coach. I also have no idea which pitcher he was talking about. I cannot think of anybody who has trained with me who comes close to fitting that description. Until he identifies the pitcher, just to me, I cannot respond to his claim. However, I can respond to his statement that 'there is not one name of any player that has ever utilized his pitching methodology to enjoy any success.' It reminds me of Joe McCarthy that, to make this false statement, he would use the fact that I will not invade the privacy of those with whom I work. Many of the pitchers I have trained had succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. And, no pitcher that I have trained has ever suffered a pitching arm injury. Whether pitchers master the skills depends on their ability to learn motor skills and their commitment to do so. I can only guide and cheer them on. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 178. Now that baseball season is upon us I was reviewing your DVD set and had a couple of questions. (1) You stress the importance of pronating the hand/forearm to protect the elbow. Why is that such a critical factor? How does that work? (2) To review the upper body portion of your throwing motion (and I apologize for the simplification, but this is the way I visualize it. (a) Pendulum swing a relaxed, straight arm to driveline height, palm is facing up, arm pointing towards 2nd base. (b) Will the arm then fully flex, ball to ear, as the shoulders rotate 180 degrees? (c) With the pitching arm shoulder rotating towards target, forearm extends and pronates. (d) I normally finish pointing my hand at the target, but I noticed on your DVD, "Certification" chapter, that your student pitcher finishes after release with his hand driving toward the ground. Not diagonally across his body, but not pointing at his target. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When 'traditional' baseball pitchers powerfully supinate their pitching forearm throughout the Acceleration Phase, they: 01. sling their pitching forearm laterally away from their body, (which forces them to contract their elbow flexor muscles, eliminates the Triceps Brachii muscle from accelerating the baseball and enlarges the coronoid process of the Ulna bone, which decreases their elbow flexion range of motion.) 02. slam their olecranon process into its fossa, (which causes loose pieces of hyaline cartilage and bone spurs or fractures the olecranon process, but, at the very least, decreases the elbow extension range of motion.) 03. pull their pitching arm across the front of their body (which unnecessarily stresses the decelerator muscles on the back of the pitching shoulder and, because they are applying force along a curved pathway, decreases their force application and release consistency.) and 04. cannot separate the pitching forearm arm action from the pitching upper arm action (which decreases the force application and release consistency). When baseball pitchers powerfully pronate their pitching forearm throughout the Acceleration Phase, they: 01. do not sling their pitching forearm laterally away from their body, (which enables them to drive their pitches straight toward home plate, enables them to use their Triceps Brachii muscle to accelerating the baseball and does not decrease their elbow flexion range of motion.) 02. do not slam their olecranon process into its fossa, (which protects their pitching elbow and its extension range of motion.) 03. do not pull their pitching arm across the front of their body (which enables them to use bigger, more powerful muscles to decelerate their pitching arm and, because they are applying force along a much straighter pathway, increases their force application and release consistency.) and 04. separate their pitching forearm arm action from the pitching upper arm action (which increases the force application and release consistency). Please try this simple experiment with me. Stand straight up and reach both arms straight forward at shoulder height in front of you. Leave your glove arm in this position and, like an archer, pull your pitching hand straight backward in a line close to your pitching ear. Now, reach as far behind your head as you can along that straight line. From this position, I want you to compare what happens when you pull your glove hand straight backward and drive your pitching hand straight forward to full pitching elbow extension. Being very careful not to extend your pitching arm too powerfully, with your first pitching elbow extension, I want you to turn your pitching thumb upward. Notice how you 'lock' your pitching elbow. Can you imagine the damage that you would do if you did this action with your pitching elbow moving at ninety miles per hour? Now, as powerfully as you want, with your second pitching elbow extension, I want you to turn your pitching thumb downward. Notice how you do not 'lock' your pitching elbow. When they powerfully pronate the releases of all pitches, pitchers can safely accelerate their pitching arm as fast as their genetics enable. With regard to my Pendulum Swing glove and pitching arm actions, please read my latest revision of Chapters Thirty-Six and Thirty-Seven. During the pitching arm's pendulum swing, I changed how I want pitchers to position their palm. Because too many of my pitchers were turning their pitching palm outward too early, which causes them to lose the vertical swing of their pitching forearm, which generates backward horizontal centripetal force, which takes their pitching forearm laterally behind their body, which requires that they return their pitching hand to their pitching arm side before they can drive their pitches toward home plate, which causes a curved force application pathway, which decreases release velocity and consistency, I now recommend that pitchers start their pitching arm pendulum swing with their palm facing inward. Please try another simple experiment with me. Stand straight up and reach both arms straight forward at shoulder height in front of you. Leave your glove arm in this position and, with the palm of your pitching hand facing inward and with your acromial line perpendicular to the driveline to home plate, while you continue to stand straight up, slowly swing your pitching arm in a straight line from home plate to second base. At about forty-five degrees behind vertical, without either bending your body forward or rotating your body to your pitching arm side or turning your pitching palm to face outward, you will no longer be able to swing your pitching arm straight backward. This is the moment when, to continue the pitching arm pendulum swing, I recommend that baseball pitchers lift their glove foot off the ground, reverse rotate their acromial line to point at second base and turn their pitching palm to face outward. To continue to prevent the introduction of any backward centripetal force, I recommend that pitchers continue their pitching arm pendulum swing to driveline height with their palm facing outward and reach as close to second base as they can. I call this, my 'Ready' position. Without hesitating at my 'Ready' position, I recommend that baseball pitchers immediately assume my 'Loaded Slingshot' pitching arm position for whatever pitch they wish to throw. With regard to those I use to demonstrate my drills and pitches, because I base my pitching motion on scientific facts, it is a theoretical pitching motion. It is easy to tell everybody to simply copy some pitcher du jour, that is how we got in this pitching arm injury epidemic. I do not have a single pitcher without some flaw, but the beauty of my pitching motion is that even with some flaws, my pitchers greatly improve the quality of their pitches and never injure their pitching arm. I continually tell the pitcher of whom you speak to drive his pitching arm horizontally straight toward home plate. It would increase his release velocity and consistency, but, as yet, he still drives low to high and, as a result, he has to pull his pitching arm downward through release. However, you will notice that he does not pull his pitching arm across the front of his body. This means that he is powerfully pronating his releases. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 179. Which of the traditional pitching techniques could lead towards pain in a pitcher's upper tricep area near where it connects to the shoulder? The pitcher was at a 64 pitch count and told me the back of his upper arm was hurting. I pulled him from the game immediately. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I suspect that what appears as the upper Triceps Brachii area in the back of the pitching arm is actually the Teres Minor muscle. This means that because of his excessive pitching forearm flyout, he has to use this tiny muscle to decelerate his pitching arm. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 180. While watching a Braves/Astros spring training game recently, I noticed that Braves pitcher John Smoltz has his front leg sort of locked at the knee when he delivers the ball toward the plate and also finished his motion without really bending forward at the waist. While he doesn't seem to apply all of your motion techniques to his delivery, is this an example of what you mean when you say to "Stand Tall, Keep The Shoulders Level and Rotate"? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When I recommend that baseball pitchers stand tall and rotate, I want them to use their glove foot as a base around which they move their pitching leg straight forward to in front of their glove foot. It sounds as though Mr. Smoltz keeps his pitching leg behind his glove foot. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 181. My 13 year old son suffered a growth plate injury early last summer. Rested the shoulder for 3 months and then resumed pitching with no pain. We believe he has injured the growth plate again (have a doctor's appt). My son just turned 13 and is 5'10" and about 170 pounds. He has a lot of strength. We have been counting pitches and don't believe its overuse. However, he does throw with great velocity. Could it be that because he is growing so much the he may need to tone down the velocity since that area is so vulnerable? Are there major leaguers who have battled this problem and have gone on to have careers? My understanding that this condition is usually limited to kids until they stop growing. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At biological thirteen years old, the growth plates at the distal end of the Humerus bone in his pitching arm should have matured. However, he should still have open growth plates in his lateral epicondyle, his olecranon process, his medial epicondyle and the head of his Radius bone. Because he is so big and strong, I suspect that you son is an accelerated maturer, which means that he may be biologically fourteen or fifteen. That he injured the growth plate of his medial epicondyle indicates that it is still open, so he is not biologically sixteen years old. You have two problems to consider. One is that he still has open growth plates. If you want him to get his full pitching arm growth, until X-rays show that the growth plate for his medial epicondyle completely matures, he has to stop pitching baseballs. The second is that he uses the 'traditional' pitching motion has numerous flaws that destroy even mature, powerful major league pitching arms. He has to learn my pitching motion. I recommend that he complete my First and Second Youth Baseball Pitchers Motor Skill Acquisition Programs this year and my Third and Fourth next year. He should not pitch competitively, he should simply learn how to properly apply force to and how to release his pitches. Please go to the home page of my website and click on Pitcher Training Programs. To learn how to perform my drills, you should click on FREE BOOK!!! and read Chapters Thirty-Six and Thirty-Seven. To obtain my latest video, click on 2004 Baseball Pitching Instructional Video. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 182. Do you know of a good winter high school pitcher's camp for next winter (February school vacation, which is always the week of President's day)? Florida would be okay. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sorry. But, if you and your son want to visit my Pitching Research/Training Center in Zephyrhills, FL, I will gladly show him how he needs to train. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 183. My son's pain has subsided so we are thinking it's just a muscle pull (I am still keeping his doctor's appointment, just in case). He has not pitched since, but experiences no pain while throwing the ball. I will review your website on the different programs you offer. He does drop his arm incorrectly (per his trainer) and they have been working on his mechanics. We do travel to Florida on occasion, so at some point you may be seeing him. I really appreciate your email and will try and figure out if they injury he had last year is what you are describing. I am not too familiar with the medical terms, but I will try and figure it out. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If, when he pitches again, he experiences pain, then you should make the adjustments that I recommend. We would love to have you and your son visit my Pitching Research/Training Center. Please email me with any questions. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 184. Whenever I see a pitch analyzed, whether by slow motion overhead TV camera, QuesTech, a baseball video game, the ball always seems to cross the front plane of home plate as part of its journey to being considered a strike. Conversely, if it fails to intersect this plane it is considered a ball. Yet, it is not difficult for me to imagine some curveball that bypasses the front plane and "backdoors" the strike zone from one of the two perpendicular sides. Perhaps, I have just not seen enough pitches analyzed. Can you please explain from both a physics and an umpire's point-of-view (if indeed they differ) what parts of the strike zone are possible to be intersected with a pitched ball? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Home plate is seventeen inches wide at the front, eight and one-half inches deep on both sides and seventeen inches deep at its point. Because, rather than seventeen inches, the sides of home plate are only eight one-half inches deep, the chances of pitches moving laterally catching some part of home plate behind its front edge decreases by fifty percent. But, it could happen. The more interesting possibility is for breaking pitches that are above the front edge of the strike zone, but dipping downward. If these pitches are in the middle of home plate, then they have a greater chance of passing through the strike zone than if they are on either side of home plate. During the 1970s, someone developed a laser strike zone. However, it suffered from some inconsistencies and break downs. You would think that with today's technology, someone could develop a reliable automated strike zone. I was in favor of one back when I pitched and would be in favor of one now. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 185. I'm a 12 year old pitcher in the little league organization. Recently, I've adopted a third pitch. It is a sidearm fastball. From what I know, it doesn't put any strain on my arm. But, I want to hear your advice about the pitch. It's a really great pitch. When I come to the side, the right-handed hitters jump out of the batters box and it is an easy 3rd strike. Anyway, I just want to hear your opinion on it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With regard to how baseball pitchers apply force to their pitches, one of the keys to preventing pitching arm injuries is that, before their glove foot contacts the ground, they move their pitching hand into position to drive behind the baseball. I call this, the 'crow-hop' pitching rhythm. When baseball pitchers throw sidearm, because they move their glove foot forward before they move their pitching hand into proper position, they have to pull their pitching arm forward. This causes unnecessary stress on the front of their pitching shoulder and the inside of their pitching elbow. Another important key to preventing pitching arm injuries is for baseball pitchers to drive their pitches in straight lines. When baseball pitchers throw sidearm, they swing their pitching arm in circles, first behind their back, then out to their pitching arm side and, finally, across the front of their body. These actions not only unnecessarily stress the front of their pitching shoulder and the inside of their pitching elbow, but it also decreases their release velocity and their release consistency. That is, they frequently cannot control where their pitches go, especially when they tire. A third point, although not related to preventing pitching arm injuries, is for young pitchers to learn pitches that improve the quality of their game. Side arm pitchers only intimidate pitching arm side batters who are afraid of the baseball. High school, college and professional batters are not afraid of the baseball, such that pitching arm side pull hitters hit side arm pitches very hard and glove side batters love to see side arm pitchers. I recommend that you master the skills that I teach in my First, Second, Third and Fourth Youth Baseball Pitchers Motor Skill Acquisition Programs. With these pitches, you will get all batters out all the time and you will not unnecessarily stress your pitching arm. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 186. Thanks for the detailed reply. I may be thick here but after re-reading your chapters I am still missing something. I interpret your Loaded Slingshot as: Acromial line reverse rotated, pointing to home plate, straight pitching arm pointing to slightly to short stop side of 2nd base, palm now facing outwards, and hand just above ear. During the acceleration phase, as my acromial line rotates (pitching shoulder moving toward home plate), will my pitching elbow fully flex, then extend with a pronating forearm? That is what I am missing here. I don't think you are keeping your arm extended throughout this phase, but I can't find a reference to a flexing movement. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I want baseball pitchers to drive the baseball straight forward toward home plate along a line that is slightly above their pitching ear and directly behind the middle of the back of their head. Because to get their pitching forearm inside of vertical at release, after pitchers move their pitching leg in front of their glove foot, I want pitchers to lean their shoulder line forty-five degrees to their glove side and, thereby, they prevent them from driving the baseball into the back of their head. To more directly answer your question, to keep their pitching hand on the driveline that I describe, pitchers have to keep their pitching forearm horizontally inside of vertical, which means that, although I do not want pitchers to actively flex their pitching elbow, the angle of their pitching elbow should be very acute. I prefer that pitchers focus on pronating their pitching forearm throughout their driveline. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 187. If I can give you one constructive thought. I believe you do need, either in the website or your DVD, some sort of slow motion visual representation of what you view to be the optimal throwing mechanics. There are so many moving parts on this or any motion, that it boggles the mind. As a viewer I found it a bit confusing when you have multiple students showing their motion, all with a variety of flaws. Perhaps you should be the demonstration subject or alternatively a computer generated figure. Have you considered this? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have thought of those suggestions and more. I asked my video guy to help me do all of them. Unfortunately, he has a very sick son who requires his total devotion and I do not have the money to hire someone else. Without his help to this point, I could not have offered as much as I have. As a result, at this time, if someone wants to see my pitching motion, in the hope that I can one day recoup the costs of making the video, they have to purchase my Baseball Pitching Instructional video and make the best of the best pitchers I have showing my motion at five hundred frames per second. In case that you have not noticed, I do not charge anything for people to go on my website, I do not charge readers to answer any and all questions and I do not charge readers to copy my Coaching Baseball Pitchers book. I do not know how much larger of a website I will need to include video or what that will cost, but I do not solicit advertisers or sell whatever useless crap I can get you to buy. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 188. Your name was given to me by a man when I was trying to fine my son baseball cleats. We are from the northeast and my son is a senior in high school. He is looking for a fit for his college baseball game play and education. He is a very tall boy, who is 17 years old. His speed is not where the D1 schools want, however, he has very good location and control. I would like to know if you could give us some advise, maybe a good JR. colllege to help him develope. He is throwing in the low 80's. I truly do not think he is done growing. These last few months he has just started to develop. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- College coaches are not interested in pitchers with good location and control. They want ninety plus release velocity and great non-fastballs. Your son has to spend the next year training to become the very best pitcher that he can become. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 189. I really enjoyed your website. I have always been interested in biomechanics. I play racquetball and I noticed that you wrote a racquetball book in 1983. Is this book similar to your e-book in terms of detailing the mechanics of the racquetball swing? Or is it just the “basics” of a racquetball swing. I am a fairly advanced player, but I am always looking for extra tips that I can gain from other sports, since I am not a great athlete I have to make up for lack of ability with better mechanics and anticipation. Have you ever analyzed pro racquetball player swings? I would be interested in learning anything you have gleaned from their form. It seems that golf, pitching, hitting and other major sports have reams of data on biokinetics, but racquetball sadly has very limited information. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the early 1980s, when I was an Adjunct Professor at St. Cloud University in St. Cloud, MN, I high-speed filmed a high-quality racquetball player. Ray Collins used that film in his book. I can tell you that, on the forehand, just like in baseball pitching, hitting forearm pronation is critical. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 190. I have read in a book by Dusty Baker that hitters position their upper hand to improve the likelihood of a hit to right or left. In general, if a hitter is trying to hit to right, should you concentrate on up and in and conversely, should you concentrate on low and outside if it is determined that a hitter wants to hit to left field? I work with JV high school pitchers and spend a lot of time perfecting their mechanics, fastballs and changeups. (It appears to me that most kids at this age, 14-15 yrs old, get too comfortable throwing curves and then when they go up a level and can't place a fastball and changeup effectively, they get hammered! So, I avoid talking about breaking pitches until a pitcher can master a fastball and changeup.) Any additional classroom training I can give them on strategy is always a plus. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For baseball batters to successfully hit baseballs to the opposite field, they have to drive the center of mass of their baseball bat toward the opposite field. I believe that you are asking me what baseball pitchers should throw to baseball batters when those baseball batters are trying to hit the baseball to the opposite field. I call those batters, 'spray' hitters. Therefore, we have pitching arm side 'spray' hitters and glove side 'spray' hitters. However, until baseball batters show that they can easily hit the baseball hard to the opposite field, I tell pitchers to consider all hitters 'pull' hitters, that is, they are trying to hit the baseball to the pull field. After these hitters convince pitchers that they can easily hit the baseball hard to the opposite field, then and only then, should they consider these hitters 'spray' hitters. In Section VI of my Coaching Baseball Pitchers book: What Pitches Should Pitchers Throw First, Second and So On?, I discuss how I researched pitch sequencing to get the four types of hitters out. With special attention to Chapter Twenty-Six and Twenty-Eight, please read Chapters Twenty-Three through Twenty-Eight. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 191. Do you sell a training DVD that will teach proper mechanics/add velocity for a 10 year old? If so, have you had feedback stating it is easy to understand and apply? In you q&a, you mention that a maxline curve is ok for an 8 year old. I've been told a curve is the best way to ruin a youth arm. What's the difference with the maxline pitches. In your q&a, you disagree with dick mills teaching method. Could you explain why? I ask because I am looking to start my son on the right course and have found a lack of proper pitching instruction out there. Dick Mills' all about pitching course seemed to be one of the better choices available for home coaching. Then, I came across your site, which has captured my interest as well. My son's little league coach was planning on using him as a pitcher this year, but I am considering holding off for now. Do you think limiting him to 50 pitches/3 innings per game per 7 day week fastballs only would be okay? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We both want to prevent any harm to your son's pitching arm. Because you have read my Question/Answer files, I know that you know that I recommend that, until they are biologically sixteen years old, youth pitchers throw baseballs for only two consecutive months per year, wait until they are biologically thirteen years old before they pitch competitively in games against opposing team batters and pitch only one inning per game twice a week. On my website, under Pitcher Training Programs, I have First, Second, Third and Fourth Youth Baseball Pitchers Motor Skill Acquisition Programs. I recommend that your son master the drills and skills that I teach in those programs. Chapter Thirty-Six of my Coaching Baseball Pitchers book explains how he should perform those drills and skills. I have a 2004 Baseball Pitching Instructional video that shows how to perform those drills. I am working on a 2005 video that includes the adjustments to my 2004 video I have made. If you get the 2004 video, when it is ready, I will send you the 2005 video free. Because my Maxline Pronation Curve teaches baseball pitchers how to pronate the release of their curve, pitchers of all ages can throw curves without unnecessarily stressing their pitching elbow. I strongly disagree with how Mr. Mills teaches pitching. In my 2003 Question/Answer file, I include an article that Mr. Mills wrote for Collegiate Baseball News and provide my critique. To locate that discussion, please go to my 2003 Question/Answer file and Alt-Edit-Find Dick Mills. He destroyed his own son's pitching arm, he has no problem with destroying your son's pitching arm. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 192. My son is a Babe Ruth league player (14 yrs. old), plays infield and is an excellent hitter. My question is: Can what you are teaching pitchers help my son to understand pitchers? Wouldn't the knowledge you are imparting assist a hitter? I am arguing that I should study your video to help my son's hitting! Additionally, would the throwing techniques you are teaching help any player to throw the ball harder and more accurately? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At this stage in his baseball career, I doubt that what I teach my pitchers will help your son. However, if he learns how I want my pitchers to throw their Maxline and Torque Fastballs, then your son will throw the baseball harder and more accurately. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 193. Just dropping you a note to see if you still do a summer camp for high schoolers junior year and above? I remember seeing it on your sight before, but didn't see it when I recently looked. My son is a 6'3" lefty pitcher who will probably end up around 6'4"-6'5" or so. He enjoys the game and really wants to work hard on improving as a pitcher. He's only a sophomore right now and he wouldn't be looking to come to your camp until summer of 2006. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I tried teaching to-be-high school juniors and seniors, but I decided that eight weeks is not sufficient for them to master the pitching skills that they need. I recommend that you and your son complete my 120-Day High School Baseball Pitchers Interval-Training Program. You can find that program, my Coaching Baseball Pitcher and 2004 Baseball Pitching Instructional video on my website. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 194. I came upon this site via a link from a Seattle Pilots site. I was 16 in 1969 & went to several Pilots games. I get pain in my R. arm when I throw a ball, by that I mean a pain in the upper bicep area. One MD said that I had a ruptured bicep! I can't remember, specifically, when this injury may have occurred, but I can remember when I played JV baseball, in high school. That it was around then that I first noticed it. I have an indentation in the top lateral bicep area that is quite different from the lateral bicep. I also experience a "tremor" when I mimic a slow punch motion with my right hand. This is curious in that it only occurs with a closed fist, with an open hand there is no tremor. I work out & have no problem doing bench presses, bicep curls, etc. I do notice that the lower portion of my R. bicep seems to be developing to a larger extent that my L. bicep. The weakness I alluded to previously seems to be mostly with an overhand throwing motion, w |