Dick Mills The Baseball Pitching Rebel

Pitching Arm InjuriesPitching Arm Injuries - Was Fransico Liriano Just Not Fit To Pitch?

All About Pitching...Since 1995  "Using An Evidence Based Approach To Baseball Pitching"

Fransisco Liriano has been put on the 15 day disabled list. 

What caused Twins' lefty pitching sensation Fransico Liriano's arm injury?  He is now going on the 15 day disabled list.  This 15 days could be an opportunity for the Twins to find out exactly or at least narrow down the cause of his elbow injury.

I believe what you will hear from the Twins is that because he is only 22 years old his arm just fatigued faster than normal because of his age.  I am assuming that Fransisco Liriano has finished growing so my question is what does his age have to do with it?

Do Olympic athletes have to be fully grown and developed to compete?  The last I heard the majority of Olympic athletes are teenagers.  What makes baseball training so different than other sports?  That is the big problem my friends.  It is not just perception but a total lack of understanding sports science training principles which must be applied to all sports.

The biggest pitching myth that is being perpetuated today is that the arm is the major source of pitching velocity and that more arm strength will improve velocity and reduce injury.  And when young pitchers get injured it is because their arms are not quite ready to pitch a certain amount of innings.

Why aren't young and yet fully grown and developed pitchers like Fransisco Liranio ready to pitch the maximum amount of innings whose ceiling seems to have dropped over the past thirty years from 350 innings per year to now 250?  Where did that 100 loss of innings pitched go?

It went into less pitch counts and less overall specific pitching practice.  Now pitchers long toss, do drills, weight train and play a lot of catch.  They now pitch far less from the mound which is the most specific activity in order to have a pitcher fit to pitch in games.

Fransisco Liranio is more than likely another victim of not being fit to pitch or not being fit to pitch because his mechanics are suspect.  I believe it is both.

The only reason a young pitcher like Liriano cannot pitch 250 innings earch year is because he is not trained to pitch 250 innings.  He should be physically fit to pitch and he should be constantly training his body to specifically pitch by throwing a higher volume of pitches from the mound at full game intensity.  The sports science literature indicated ways to do this that do not place more stress on the arm but because the body and arm are constantly trained there is less stress. 

If a pitcher is only pitching 30-50 pitches in a bullpen how does that prepare him to pitch 100 or more pitches in a game?  It does not.  So every starting pitcher is always pitching with a 50-70 pitch training deficit. 

Baseball instead tries to protect a pitcher by having him throw less in practice than in a game in order to save his arm.  This is a mistake that has not worked well in baseball.  I believe there are more arm injuries today than ever.  This of course should be confirmed.

The myth continues to perpetuate that the arm is the source of power and must be protected.  And yet the sports science literature clearly proves that the arm is not the source of power at all  (see The Science And Art Of Baseball Pitching book). The arm is mostly the control device of the ball while it is the elastic energy production of the body that provides the forces to accelerate and whip the arm through.

If the body delivers the arm then shouldn't baseball understand that if the body is not trained to throw 100 pitches in practice that the body will fatigue in games sooner and because the arm is along for the ride, it may end up in a mechanically weak position because the body is always pitching in an untrained state.

Baseball forgets or maybe never knew that pitchers don't improve because of game performance. Pitchers can only improve because of what they do in practice since pitching is a skilled activity not a strength activity.  And yet pitchers must also keep their body fit to pitch.  Once the body has reached a state of general fitness, the only possible was to remain totally fit to pitch is to pitch a high volume of pitches in practice.

"We're going to miss him out of our rotation -- a great arm like that," said Twins manager Ron Gardenhire.

Another article stated that Liriano felt great playing catch and experienced no elbow discomfort.  Is playing catch relevant to pitching?  Should we assume then that Fransisco Liranio was given a clean bill of health based on his practice session of playing catch with no arm pain. 

Pitching and playing catch have no relationship.  One is a throwing activity on flat ground at less than 50% game speed while the other is  game intensity pitching from a mound.  One is slow and controlled while the other is one of the most explosive and stressful acts in all of sports. 

If you want pitchers to remain more injury free you had better make sure they are able to throw a lot of pitches at game intensity from a mound in practice. 

Also weight training is not going to reduce arm injuries. In fact, it is my belief that they are one of the main causes of so many injuries today.  Remember pitching is not a strength activity. 

Mechanical Issues

I have watched Fransisco Liranio pitch several times.  I like his quick tempo and explosive delivery.  What I don't like is how his body is moving off line toward third base as he delivers the ball.  He is not taking his body directly toward the plate.  And he also has a poor arc of deceleration which can be identified by stopping his arm suddenly rather than finishing up with a fully flexed trunk in a parallel position.  His arm is clearly taking too much stress.  His shoulder may go next.

However, this is easily seen by videotaping.  My question is has the Twins pitching coach Rick Anderson videotaped Fransisco Liriano to identify these faults.  Probably not since I have never seen any major league pitching coach use videotaping during a bullpen practice session when it is impossible to see the fastest human motion known by just using the naked eye.  I hope Rick Anderson is an exception. 

There are common sense ways to identify what causes a pitching arm injury. I will talk about those in the next upcoming issue.

Dick Mills, All About Pitching

If you have questions about this blog post or on any phase of pitching - mechanics, strength and conditioning, mental training, strategy send those questions to:

dickmills@gmail.com

Get me Free 30 page pitching report.  Click the link below. We won't waste your time. We show you how to recognize exactly what is holding back most pitchers...find the problem - fix the problem. I show you a comparison between two high school pitchers, a Little League pitcher and a major league pitcher who throws mid to upper nineties. You will see the biggest problem that reduces velocity in the majority of pitchers.

If you want an explosive body and explosive mechanics you need to get my my 30 page free report. It will explain much of the misinformation about pitching that is ruining pitchers.

30 Page Free Report mailed by first class mail.

How To Choose A Baseball Pitching Book

Baseball Pitching Books. How to choose a baseball pitching book.

There a literally dozens of books on baseball pitching.  But how do you go about deciding which one is going to help you improve your pitching? 

There is a simple way and one that is rarely used to help pitchers, coaches or parents make a sound decision.   

Start by looking in the front of the book and at the end of the Table Of Contents look for the word References.  If there are none don't waste your money.  If there is something important in the book that explains how to produce a certain result such as more throwing velocity, better control or reduces arm injury risk, then check to see if those points have references.  More than likely they will not.

This may be the single most important indicator about the quality of the contents of the book.  If there are no references then you will know immediately that every point made in the book is all based only on the beliefs of the author...no matter who that author is.  Because the author is a former college or professional pitcher or coach does not mean that the information has value.

When we learn in school do we learn what the teacher believes to be true or does the teacher base his teaching information on evidence?  If you look in the back of all your science books you will see several REFERENCES that provide evidence of why what is said in the book is not only meaningful but true. 

If you go to the doctor do you want him using what he believs to be the best way to treat your illness based on just his experience or do you want him maintaining his knowledge based on current evidence that has been fully researched?   I want him basing his treatment on science not his beliefs. 

I was talking to one of my friends at the gym yesterday.  He is a retired orthopedic surgeon who now uses his time to stay educated on every imaginable news item.  Like me he is an informaiton nut.  He only focuses on evidence based research when it comes to science or medicince.  He told me yesterday that unfortunately about 50% of what doctors practice is not based on scientific research but on the doctors beliefs.   Doctors also are only accurate in diagnosing illness correctly 37% of the time.  You may wonder why our medical system is not leading the world anymore.  We are down on the list.   

Certainly, experience is important however we want to follow experience that is fundamentally based on researched evidence rather than just someone's beliefs.

Let's get back to baseball pitching books.  I have read most of them going back to the early 70's. I have written along with my wife Ginny - two.  None contained references.  They were my beliefs which I had obtained by listening to the beliefs of the most experienced coaches. I had studied and come up with these beliefs ever since I stopped playing professionally back in 1971.

The most recent book on pitching that I coauthored with a sports scientist contains over 500 scientific references. 

Unfortunately, I found out back in early 2004 that many of my pitching beliefs had no basis in fact.  I learned by following evidence based sports science research that much of what I had been teaching was not only wrong but counterproductive.  So I stopped teaching what I believed to be true.  And some of our customers didn't like it.  But my responsiblity is to provide the best pitching information available. 

Now I only teach what I can verify with evidence based research.

Go the bookstore or look online at all the books on baseball pitching.  See if you can find one that has several dozen references to back up what the author is telling you to do.  You will find very, very few if any.   Out of dozens that I have read I only found two that had references and there were less than 20 in each book out of a couple of hundred pages.   

There is a temptation regarding baseball pitching instruction to use the coaching beliefs of major league pitching coaches or former successful college or professional pitchers.  For example, here are some of the beliefs that have been used by some experienced major league or college pitching coaches or former players or online instructors:

1. Throwing a football builds pitching arm strength
2. Crow hopping down the mound helps pitchers direct their bodies toward the target
3. Playing catch on flat ground helps prevent pitching arm injuries
4. Long toss builds arm strength, pitching velocity, stamina and reduces injury risk
5. Weighted vests help improve velocity
6. Kneeling drills, towel drills and other drills help improve mechanics
7. Weight training builds throwing velocity and reduces injury
8. Stretching before throwing reduces arm injuries and can improve velocity
9. Weighted balls improve velocity
10. Leg strength helps improve velocity
11. Throwing shorter distance, lower volume of pitches or less intensity bullpens reduces arm injuries

Etc, etc.....

One new book that came out recently by a pitching guru and former major league pitching coach explains that pitching velocity is 80% the result of hip and trunk rotation.  That statement is absolutely false.  Hip and trunk rotation is a result of increasing forces going into landing not a cause of pitching velocity.  The hips and trunk aid in transferring energy but are not responsible for creating it.  The book is nearly 180 pages long and contains not one reference to back up the authors claims.  I recently read that book cover to cover.  It takes pitchers and coaches down a blind alley toward improvement and will simply waste more of their time.

Sports science has disproven every one of those points and yet few if any current pitching coaches or instructors have looked at the researched evidence.  Because of current coaching beliefs pitchers will waste valuable time practicing activities that have little to no value in helping them reach their full potential. 

High school, college and professional coaches are shooting themselves in the foot every day because their lack of evidence based information is preventing them from helping every pitcher on their staff improve dramatically from one year to the next.  This is costing them more wins, more money while wasting  a lot of valuable time of every pitcher on their staff.

When you are deciding on investing in a pitching book (or DVD or lessons) find information that is backed up with references (evidence based research) rather than just the beliefs of the author, the coach or the instructor.  Turn to the back of the book or if you are purchasing online send an email to the web site that is offering that book and ask how many references are there.  You will know then whether you are wasting your money or not. 

If you have questions about this blog post or on any phase of pitching - mechanics, strength and conditioning, mental training, strategy send those questions to:

dickmills@gmail.com

Get me Free 30 page pitching report.  Click the link below. We won't waste your time. We show you how to recognize exactly what is holding back most pitchers...find the problem - fix the problem. I show you a comparison between two high school pitchers, a Little League pitcher and a major league pitcher who throws mid to upper nineties. You will see the biggest problem that reduces velocity in the majority of pitchers.

If you want an explosive body and explosive mechanics you need to get my my 30 page free report. It will explain much of the misinformation about pitching that is ruining pitchers.

30 Page Free Report mailed by first class mail.

Another Foolish Pitching Drill That Wastes Time And Destroys Pitching Mechanics

All About Pitching...Since 1995

Here is another pitching drill that will waste more time.

The following article was written by a former professional pitcher and posted on a his blog who regularly gives out  very poor pitching advice.  But because he was a former professional pitcher, people automatically think he understands mechanics and training principles. I will not mention his name as any indictment should be against baseball not just an individual since most coaches and instructors all erroneously believe much of the same things about how to improve pitching performance. 

This particular instructor wants you to believe that because he was a professional pitcher ( only reached low A ball) that you too will get a college scholarship and play pro ball by following his advice. He made it to pro ball more than likely using only his talent as so many other pitchers do. His  ceiling of success was probably reduced because he wasted time on irrelevant activities. He is now giving advice to players and coaches to follow exactly what he did as a player. 

This former professional, because he follows his beliefs which were passed down to him from other belief based coaches, will be responsible for ruining even more pitchers.

The article he refers to  apparently appeared in Collegiate Baseball magazine and is about Charlie Greene, a longtime successful junior college coach who uses typical belief based coaching. He regularly recommends lots of  drills and is a fan of 'throwing programs' all designed to improve pitching performance. 

Many of these instructors have  been reading my blog for some time and still don't understand. I don't think they ever will.

Notice what benefits in the article that Charlie Greene attaches to this drill. The confounded benefits provide the exact opposite result. A pitcher gains no practice benefit which he can transfer to the game. But his mechanics will get worse and he will learn how to create more arm speed using a dowel.

Imagine...a louder swish is the goal of this drill because this indicates more hand speed. Do even the "best " college coaches have a good understanding of  how hand speed or arm speed is created? According to this article apparently not. 

This drill will make you a good "swisher" but a terrible pitcher.

Arm speed is created by energizing the elastic properties of a pitcher's muscles by lunging smoothly or striding from his back leg to his front leg.  This explosive move is a full body action.  Once the pitcher's front foot lands he can not produce any more potential ball velocity.  The energy that is produced by the lunge movement can only be transferred from the large muscles and finally to the small muscles of the arm. 

Arm speed is created by lunging more explosively.  The body delivers the arm.  No amount of arm action drills or arm exercises  or weight training will improve arm speed.  Arm speed is created by the speed of movement of the body.  Few coaches at all levels fully understand this.

Some coaches continue to believe that velocity is the result of rotational forces of the hips and trunk.  Those actions are not a cause but a result of the lunge movement from the back leg to the front leg. 

This  is an especially terrible drill.  Because many former professional pitchers like the one whose blog this came from do not understand pitching mechanics or training and conditioning principles, what signal does posting this drill send to all aspiring pitchers and uneducated baseball coaches?

The signal it sends is that by working on a certain arm action drill that you can create more arm speed.  These coaches, even though they pitched professionally or have coached at the college level for decades, do not have a good understanding of mechanics.  If they did understand how the body works to deliver the arm at high speed it would then be their duty to denounce this type of drill to all pitchers and explain why this will not work and why it is actually counterproductive.   In the case of this professional pitcher, it seems he is trying to make friends with coaches so they tell their players or students to buy his book.

His book, like all other pitching books out there, contain no references. Just the author's beliefs which should be thoroughly questioned.  A pitching book with no references can lead pitchers down a dead end road where there is no performance benefit at the end.

I have repeatedly said that the towel drill is the worse drill ever invented. This "dowel drill" is similar.

Coaches read this and actually believe it. So all their pitchers are required to do it in practice. 

Whenever an instructor recommends any drill, or long toss or tells you to do what they did, always ask: Show me the evidence why this works. How will this action aid and transfer to pitching in a game? 99.9% of the time it will not provide any benefit but will only waste time...valuable time.

This type of  free information should be used as an example as to why pitchers are not improving and why drills such as this are killing pitching performance.

What is preventing pitchers today from ever reaching their full potential is wasting time practicing activities that have no benefit for improving game performance.  Practice time today is largely a waste of time that pitchers at all levels will not get back.

Dick Mills

All About Pitching

www.pitching.com
___________________________________

February 15, 2006

A Closer Look At Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Columnist Charlie Greene's Throwing Recommendations I've been a subscriber to Collegiate Baseball newspaper (baseballnews.com) for some time. Comes out a couple of times a month and usually has some discussion-worthy pitching articles.

Coach Charlie Greene (at right), a columnist for Collegiate Baseball and former head coach at Miami-Dade Community College, wrote about some preseason throwing recommendations in his latest article "Throwing Schedule Essential" (Feb. 10, 2006). Instructor Dick Mills dismissed it on his blog. Said it was inept. But I think it's a good effort on Coach Greene's part to suggest that establishing a daily throwing program is necessary in becoming a successful pitcher. How can you argue with that?

I e-mailed Coach Greene today to have him further explain his "dowel drill" for pitchers. I'm not advocating it's use. I'm not against it, either. Although I never trained with a dowel, I understand where Coach Greene's coming from. I simply feel that more information was needed than what newspaper space had allowed.

Coach Greene suggested using a 2-foot wooden dowel that's 3/8-inch round. The dowel is taped at one end. That's the end a pitcher will hold in his throwing hand. The pitcher then performs his pitching mechanics, without throwing, of course. The benefit of the drill, said Coach Greene, is that a pitcher gets the opportunity to work on his mechanics, but save his arm from the strains of throwing - because he isn't throwing. This drill is a lot like the "mirror drill" pitchers perform in front of a mirror. Coach Greene's version simply introduces a wooden dowel.

"You hold the dowel like a band leader holds a baton," said Coach Greene in his e-mail to me. "Arm action will cause the dowel to create a swishing sound. The louder the swish the faster the hand."

If you have questions about this blog post or on any phase of pitching - mechanics, strength and conditioning, mental training, strategy send those questions to:

dickmills@gmail.com

Get me Free 30 page pitching report.  Click the link below. We won't waste your time. We show you how to recognize exactly what is holding back most pitchers...find the problem - fix the problem. I show you a comparison between two high school pitchers, a Little League pitcher and a major league pitcher who throws mid to upper nineties. You will see the biggest problem that reduces velocity in the majority of pitchers.

If you want an explosive body and explosive mechanics you need to get my my 30 page free report. It will explain much of the misinformation about pitching that is ruining pitchers.

30 Page Free Report mailed by first class mail.

Why Baseball Pitching Throwing Programs Are Mostly A Waste Of Time

All About Pitching...the science of pitching Since 1995

Why Baseball Pitching Throwing Programs Are Mostly A Waste Of Time

Baseball pitching coaches or instructors,  me included, have a tendency to use pitching and throwing synonymously. We shouldn't, because they are not anything like eachother. 

For example, we tend to use "throwing program" as an activity that is beneficial to pitchers. It cannot be beneficial because throwing and pitching are two completely different activities. The body will interpret both of them as different so there is little if any transference between the two. The only similarities are the baseball. Everything else is different including mechanics.

Pitching at game intensity from a mound is not like throwing on flat ground. Pitchers and coaches must understand this. A developing pitcher must understand this so that he knows why certain activities do not improve his pitching skill or his performance.  Or his velocity.

The question that you should all be asking is: How can a pitcher improve if his practices comprise activities that have no relevancy for pitching in a game? Where is the practice effect? How will improvement come?

Long toss is a very popular activity for pitchers in-season and off-season. Pitchers will use it on game days to warm-up prior to going into the bullpen.  They will use it supposedly to keep their arms strong, as a stretching device in between games or to maintain stamina.  It will actually provide none of those benefits.

One of the most important and yet least understood areas of pitching improvement by coaches at all levels, including professional baseball, is what to do in practice in order to help pitchers improve.

As previously stated throwing programs such as long toss, flat ground throwing or drills, do not help established pitchers improve and yet waste a great deal of valuable time that pitchers can never get back.

A statement that follows from my coauthor Dr. Brent Rushall on our new book - The Science And Art Of Baseball Pitching - is a statement that has been proven in sports science for decades and yet is continuously ignored by baseball.

Coaches or instructors who violate these principles because of their beliefs in these various throwing programs, are preventing pitchers from improving while wasting his valuable time.

Here is Dr. Rushall's statement regarding practice:

"What are the skill elements in long-toss that match those of pitching? If there are similar elements how does the body learn to transfer those elements between the two activities? What is the mechanism that provokes the body to make such a transfer? Of course, the answer is that there is no transfer. The body is equipped to tell the difference between activities and is not equipped to realize similarities. Because of this, similar activities lead to performance confusion/degradation rather than performance refinement. When activities are similar, such as with different pitches, many specific trials with discriminatory feedback are required to teach the pitcher the subtle differences between the activities so that the individual pitches can be thrown with admirable levels of control and not display irrelevant elements of the others."
                                                                                                                               Dr. Brent Rushall, Ph.D, R.Psy

Because pitching and throwing are two different activities, I would advise against using the terms interchangeably because "throwing" is synonymous with irrelevant practices. We should try to be consistent. Always talk about "pitching" because it is distinct from "throwing". Using that restrictive term always reinforces the differentiation you are trying to make.

Shouldn't coaches also understand this?

I recently saw a photo on a pitching blog of Met's pitching coach Rick Peterson observing Pedro Martinez while Pedro was long tossing.  Why would a pitching coach want to observe a pitcher doing long toss since throwing long toss is not relevant to pitching from the mound.  What valuable adjustments in Pedro Martinez's long toss throws will transfer when he pitches from the mound.  The answer is none. 

Met's pitching coach Rick Peterson, who used to write columns in my newsletter in the late 90's, loves long distance throwing programs.  Is pitching a long distance throwing activity?  If not then why waste valuable time doing it when pitchers like Pedro could also be improving to become even better at pitching while spending more valuable time throwing from a mound.

Leo Mazzone, Orioles pitching coach, believes flat ground throwing in the outfield at low intensity helps pitchers improve and maintain the health of their arms.  If pitching was a flat ground activity at far less than game intensity then this would be a valuable activity to practice.  However, pitching is not like playing catch in the outfield.

We have heard for years online that "you must be a good thrower" first before a good pitcher. Why? That would mean that a great shortstop or right-fielder will automatically make a good pitcher because of his throwing ability. But that is not true.  Pitching from the mound requires a completely different set of skills.

Pitching is moving from the back leg to the front leg, from a mound, shifting the weight downhill while focusing on getting into a consistently good throwing position with proper timing and sequencing of the body with the intention of hitting a target.

Pitching is a skill in and of itself. It does not comprise less than game intensity throwing or throwing using a crow hop as irrelevant activities.

When baseball understands these distinctions, only then will you know that we are making headway and all present pitchers will then have an opportunity to improve greatly.

I will try my hardest to stop using those two words interchangeably. I suggest you do too. This will be a tough habit to break.  But it is extremely important to know the distinction.

Dick Mills

If you have questions about this blog post or on any phase of pitching - mechanics, strength and conditioning, mental training, strategy send those questions to:

dickmills@gmail.com

Get me Free 30 page pitching report.  Click the link below. We won't waste your time. We show you how to recognize exactly what is holding back most pitchers...find the problem - fix the problem. I show you a comparison between two high school pitchers, a Little League pitcher and a major league pitcher who throws mid to upper nineties. You will see the biggest problem that reduces velocity in the majority of pitchers.

If you want an explosive body and explosive mechanics you need to get my my 30 page free report. It will explain much of the misinformation about pitching that is ruining pitchers.

30 Page Free Report mailed by first class mail.

Improving Velocity For High School And College Pitchers

All About Pitching...the science and art of baseball pitching  Since 1995

This summer and fall high school and college pitchers will be chasing after more pitching velocity but wasting a lot of valuable time trying to find it.

Most of these pitchers will be told by their coaches to get bigger and stronger in the weight room, long toss or throw weighted baseballs.  None of those solutions has proven to work for  pitchers at any level. 

So why then do coaches continue to recommend what has not worked? Because they have continuously relied on 'belief based' coaching ideas instead of 'evidence based' research. 

Coaches, sports writers and baseball commentators continue to believe that the pitching arm is the source of velocity.  In the new book The Science And Art Of Baseaball Pitching - A Coach's Handbook For Scientific Pitching, a study that has been around for over 20 years disproves that belief and clearly shows that during the acceleration phase of pitching there is little muscle activity going on in the pitcher's arm.  The arm is basically along for the ride.  The pitcher's body provides the energy to whip the arm through.

This lack of information is why coaches encourage long toss or hitting the weights.  They still believe that strength is the missing component for improving velocity.  However, the missing component is better mechanics which provide the pitcher with improved speed of movement of the body. 

The biggest single problem for pitchers today is wasting time on an activity that will not help that pitcher improve the skill of pitching.  Most coaches today seem to believe that added strength is more important than improving skills.  And yet, prior to the mid to late 80's pitchers did not do long toss or lift weights or throw weighted baseballs.

The question remains how then did those pitchers , which included many, many with above average velocity, gain that velocity.  Or how is it that skinny pitchers or smaller pitchers are able to throw with above average velocity? 

If coaches can't answer that question then they would be better off not giving out advice on how to improve pitching velocity. 

I have repeatedly stated that if pitchers stopped doing long toss and put that effort into pitching from the mound using a higher volume of pitches at game intensity, while improving mechanics, then they would be more adapted to throw a higher number of pitches in games.  Together with  proper full body conditioning, not weight trianing, this routine would also provide more stamina.  Pitchers would break down less not more. 

Long toss is one big time waster for all pitchers.  According to coaches, it's value apparently is in building more arm strength.  But how can long toss improve arm strength for pitchers when it does not work to improve arm strength or ball velocity for outfielders?  How many weak armed left-fielders are we seeing being converted to strong armed right-fielders?  None. 

Long toss has little value accept during the offseason as part of an overall full body conditioning program.  It cannot improve velocity or pitching skills. 

Dick Mills

If you have questions about this blog post or on any phase of pitching - mechanics, strength and conditioning, mental training, strategy send those questions to:

dickmills@gmail.com

Get me Free 30 page pitching report.  Click the link below. We won't waste your time. We show you how to recognize exactly what is holding back most pitchers...find the problem - fix the problem. I show you a comparison between two high school pitchers, a Little League pitcher and a major league pitcher who throws mid to upper nineties. You will see the biggest problem that reduces velocity in the majority of pitchers.

If you want an explosive body and explosive mechanics you need to get my my 30 page free report. It will explain much of the misinformation about pitching that is ruining pitchers.

30 Page Free Report mailed by first class mail.

Should Pitchers Ice After They Pitch? Not According To The Research.

            All About Pitching...The Science Of Pitching Since 1995

Icing a pitchers arm after the game.

Should baseball pitchers ice their throwing arms after pitching in a game. Instead of getting opinions why not look at the research.  Based on the research their is no evidence that icing a pitcher's arm is beneficial.

Pitchers would be better off to do some running for twenty minutes or so while keeping their arms moving to aid flushing the waste products that build up around the joints after pitching.

So why do major league pitchers wrap their arms in ice after games?  Because they 'believe' it works.  It appears then that icing after games works about as well to aid performance and reduce injury as eating a favorite food before a game. 

It's mostly superstition. 

Now we will see just how smart major league pitchers really are. Will they ice or won't they after games? 

Recovery/Massage

ICE MASSAGE INEFFECTIVE IN RECOVERY FROM MUSCLE DAMAGE

Howatson, G., van Someren, D. A., Hortobagyi, T. (2006). Ice massage does not attenuate reductions in muscle function following maximal lengthening contractions. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 38(5),

Supplement abstract 2121.

"Ice massage is a commonly used method of cryotherapy in the treatment of muscle soreness after exercise; however the empirical evidence that supports its use is somewhat limited and equivocal". This investigation examined the efficacy of ice massage for reducing markers of muscle damage and soreness following maximal lengthening contractions. Male subjects (N = 12) were randomly assigned to an ice massage or placebo treatment. The protocol was designed to induce muscle damage to the forearm flexors using an isokinetic dynamometer and consisted of 3 x 10 sets of maximal lengthening contractions at 30°/s. Treatments were administered immediately post-exercise and at 24 and 48 hours post-exercise. The ice massage consisted of a 15-minute treatment and the placebo was a five-minute sham ultrasound treatment. Variables monitored were creatine kinase, delayed onset muscle soreness, limb girth, maximal voluntary isometric torque and maximal voluntary isokinetic torque at 60°/s and 210°/s. Measurements were taken pre-exercise, immediately after, and at 24, 48, 72, and 96 hours post-exercise (but before the post-exercise 24 and 48 hours treatments with ice).

A significant time main effect for all six variables indicated the occurrence of muscle damage. Of these six variables, only creatine kinase showed a significant treatment x time interaction with lower levels at 96 hours after ice massage compared with the placebo.

Implication. Ice massage failed to reduce muscle soreness, limb girth, and the decrement in torque production, suggesting that it was ineffective in promoting muscle function recovery following exercise-induced muscle damage. The reduction in creatine kinase efflux at 96 hours suggests that ice massage may have attenuated secondary cellular damage resulting from the lengthening contractions.

If you have questions about this blog post or on any phase of pitching - mechanics, strength and conditioning, mental training, strategy send those questions to:

dickmills@gmail.com

Get me Free 30 page pitching report.  Click the link below. We won't waste your time. We show you how to recognize exactly what is holding back most pitchers...find the problem - fix the problem. I show you a comparison between two high school pitchers, a Little League pitcher and a major league pitcher who throws mid to upper nineties. You will see the biggest problem that reduces velocity in the majority of pitchers.

If you want an explosive body and explosive mechanics you need to get my my 30 page free report. It will explain much of the misinformation about pitching that is ruining pitchers.

30 Page Free Report mailed by first class mail.

Why Pitching Drills Are Stopping Pitchers From Improving Mechanics

All About Pitching...The Science Of Pitching Since 1995

Should baseball pitchers who want to improve their pitching mechanics, their pitching velocity or their pitching control engage in doing pitching drills? 

Not according to the sports science literature or according to motor skill experts.  An article is posted below from the co-author of our new book The Science And Art Of Baseball Pitching...Dr. Brent Rushall, Ph.D.

The main idea that sports science has studied about drills for decades is that a drill is actually considered a separate movement skill...all by itself.  In other words when you do a drill you are establishing a movement pattern specific to that drill.  That means that no matter what the intention is of the drill to improve a pitcher's mechanics, the drill will not transfer and will not aid in improving overall mechanics.  The pitcher only gets better at doing the drill.

When you do drills you get good at doing the drill.  You improve the skill of doing the drill but do not improve your actual pitching throwing skills which are performed by throwing at game speed from a mound.  That is mainly where pitchers should be trying to make adjustments in their mechanics since that is where they are expected to be successful...throwing from the mound.

Based on that premise and the article that you can read below, why would a pitcher practice drills?  Why would a pitcher practice on flat ground since flat ground throwing requires a different movement pattern than throwing from the mound?  The two are considered by the pitcher's brain to be completely separate. 

Keep in mind that there is no such thing as muscle memory.  Movement patterns happen in the brain and that is why you must practice the pitching delivery as one fluid movement rather than partial movements that are considered drills.  Only beginners should do drills. However, once they have built a delivery, they should stop the drills. They have no further use after that.

The question you should ask regarding the value of doing pitching drills is:

If one does not practice a skill (pitching from the mound at game speed), one does not improve/learn the skill. By practicing everything but the skill, (towel drills, long toss, throwing weighted balls, flat ground work) all of which should improve because they are being practiced, how can the non-practiced skill (pitching off the mound) improve?

When do the neuromuscular patterns and their supporting bodily resources change?

This is why drills and those other mentioned irrelevant activities are a waste of time, useless and some dangerous.  Those activities are what prevent pitchers from improving to the best of their ability.

I believe that pitchers are currently wasting nearly 50% of their practice time on activities that cannot possibly help them improve. And many parents are wasting money on instructors who use their beliefs as the basis of their instruction.

We fully understand that coaches mean well, however, in baseball too much of their instruction is solely based on their beliefs with no supporting evidence.

There are some drills out there that even smart parents are beginning to question. For example, the famous 'towel drill'.  Does snapping a  towel feel like throwing a baseball?  When you throw a baseball do you let it go or continue to hold it?   Where does a pitcher build in a proper release point and understand how to adjust it if you continue to hold on to a towel? 

The towel drill may be the most foolish drill and yet most practiced drill. Why? Because some belief based coach said it would improve mechanics and aid in arm intension.  Show me the evidence. 

How about the 'kneeling drill'?  If the lower body in a pitcher's mechanics is the stimulus for moving the pitcher's body explosively to landing, how will taking the lower body out of the pitching delivery aid in helping improve mechanics?  This is almost common sense.

It is a toss up as to which drill is the worst for pitchers.  However, if you look closely I am sure you will find more that make no sense.

Coaches should consider that there just might be a better way to help pitchers improve...even dramatically.

Remember drills are an invented activity by coaches who did not understand motor learning. They are a quite recent activity in baseball's history.  I do not recall seeing any drills in baseball prior to about the early 90's. 

Always be asking: show me the evidence with references that support why I should follow your recommendations.

DRILLS WITH AND WITHOUT EQUIPMENT FOR SERIOUS ATHLETES - A STEP BACKWARD

Brent S. Rushall, February, 1997. Reply to question asking what are the best drills to be used to promote swimming excellence.

One of the commonest activities in training programs in some sports (e.g., swimming, rowing, kayaking) is the performance of drills, activities that are purported to train in isolation aspects of a total movement pattern. Drills are repetitive training activities which do or do not use equipment. They are intended to stimulate a part of a complex movement (e.g., an upper arm movement) or an elemental segment of a movement chain (e.g., the transition from a take-off to a jump). They train activity parts out-of-context. When equipment such as paddles in swimming, parachutes in running, and "trailing buckets" in rowing are used, the activity elements are distorted because of the requirement to accommodate the non-competition-related equipment. Drills are inappropriate training content for serious or highly-trained athletes. The only exception to "no drills" is when they are part of learning progressions prior to the attainment and practice of some terminal (final) skill.

Each drill that is practiced should be considered to be a discrete activity. The greater the similarity between a total competitive skill and a restricted practiced drill, the greater is the likelihood of negative transfer between the two. The learned drill will compete with and disrupt the competitive skill. The following are known about skill training.

Training resources that could be applied to developing higher levels of a competitive skill are used (squandered) on irrelevant drill activities. Thus, the level of accomplishment that is possible in a competitive skill will be reduced by "drilling."

It is assumed by many coaches that "drill practice will improve an element imbedded in a total competitive skill." Unfortunately, the manner in which the body learns movements does not accommodate that assumption. For example, learning how to move legs in one activity (e.g., kicking while holding one arm in the air in backstroke) does not produce high-level kicking skill in the competitive activity when the artificial posture and dynamic movement requirements are vastly different. The body constantly attempts to develop specific adaptations/learnings to particular stimuli as a basic requirement for survival.

In fatigue, the body seeks to maintain a level of functional output by recruiting extra resources. If there are movement patterns developed through drills which are either cognitively or conditionally associated with a competitive skill, the recruitment will first gravitate to those strengthened options. When fatigue starts, an athlete will start to perform with many characteristics of doing a drill rather than maintaining a high degree of competition-appropriate movement function and performance.

When extra resources are recruited in fatigue, the recruitment is not done gradually or by degree. It occurs suddenly and relatively completely so that obvious changes in performance occur. Since drills do not train total function, when a "drill movement" is recruited into a contest it should be expected that performance will deteriorate rapidly, dramatically, and obviously.

Drills originally were only meant to be preliminary activities to be used as a step in a progression on the way through to learning a "terminal behavior." But now they have become training items which means that athletes' progress is halted at a less than terminal stage of skill development and competing patterns of movement are established.

When athletes develop faults, they need to be re-taught the element in question and the steps that follow that element. It is teaching the element in context of the preceding movements that is important. Instructing the element in isolation ("correction drills") is poor pedagogy.

Any device ("training aid") that is used in a drill alters neuromuscular patterning to form a unique movement skill. A device artificially trains competing movement patterns and introduces inefficiencies. Many devices have no acceptable data to support their claims of benefit. Most respectable research shows them to have no value or negative benefits. Since the form to be used in a competition is what should be trained, why would one adulterate that form through distortional (device) training?

Except at very low levels of performance (e.g., when learning a skill) movement elements learned in one activity do not transfer with any benefit to another.

The body does not have the capacity to determine the intention of some training activity. For example, an activity which requires an athlete's posture to be different to that which will be employed in a competition, although it is "meant" to be beneficial, does not benefit the competition performance. The body learns the incorrect posture for the trained activity and depending upon the strength of specific/relevant training will sustain correct or incorrect postures in a contest.

Since most high level performers are discriminated from each other on the basis of skill efficiency, one of the most important factors for differentiating medalists from non-medalists, the level of performer skill should be maximized. Drill practices and the use of training devices work contrarily to that aim.

Many proponents of "drills" argue that the changes in technique they produce are only minor and are therefore, relatively inconsequential. That might be acceptable for individuals in the early stages of skill learning, but it is not acceptable for highly-trained individuals. Any competing movement pattern or disruption to a highly-refined skill has detrimental consequences. This is why the following coaching lore exists:

"If serious athletes change techniques they have to be prepared to perform worse for a period of time before they have a chance to improve."

The situation is even more critical for very experienced (senior) athletes when it may be of no value to attempt to alter a technique flaw, the impact of the existing flaw possibly being minimized through years of training. There comes a time in every athlete's development when skill errors have been performed for so long that attempts to change them would never be effective enough to elevate the performance further. This is particularly so in highly-repetitive cyclic activities such as running, swimming, and sculling.

There is a movement instruction science, in this context it is called "sport pedagogy." There are principles that are known to be beneficial and others which are known to be detrimental to performance development and change. It is necessary that knowledge of these principles be a prerequisite for any individual partaking in a coaching activity. Ignorance or a lack of knowledge of those principles is unethical and cannot be overlooked in an expedient decision to hire or appoint a coach.

Swimming is perhaps the sport which advocates training with drills (what coach does not have his/her own special activities?) and the use of training devices (special bags are now marketed to carry all the paraphernalia onto the pool deck) more than any other sport. Since swimming is the one "world sport" in which its top performers are regressing rather than improving, it could be argued that this decline has somewhat matched the increased growth in drill training and the use training devices. Most top swim teams in the USA do very little swimming but much finning, paddling, drills, and whatever. It is a mystery why the importance of training competitive movement patterns is so popularly disdained.

One cannot beat the principle of specificity for training when getting ready to perform in a serious high-level competition. If the best performance is desired, then a lot of training had better give the body the opportunity to practice and improve in the activities it will be asked to perform in the competitive setting. Drills and training with artificial devices work against that purpose.

Footnote

There are no references listed to this description. The knowledge has been around for at least 40 and more like 50 years. It has not changed since then. It is so well accepted in the psychological literature that no one experiments with it any more. There are likely to be no new discoveries. What is amazing is that so many coaches are ignorant of this information! It should be part of the core-knowledge of coaching education and is so basic that it should be known by any coach, particularly one who derives income from coaching as a professional capacity. Any individual who persists with large amounts of training using drills and training devices should be charged with MAL-practice.

Here is a link to my co-author's website.  If baseball coaches, players and parents read the articles (thousands) on Dr. Rushall's website and actually used that information pitchers would be dominating hitters and thousands more pitchers would be highly successful.   

However, an easier way to get specific sports science information rather than reading thousands of articles is to read our new book.  Honestly, there are far better ways to improve mechanics than wasting time on drills.

http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/dept/coachsci/csa/vol31/table.htm

Always be asking coaches - show me the evidence of why I should follow your instruction?

We have done that with our new book The Science And Art Of Baseaball Pitching - A Coach's Handbook For Scientific Pitching...608 pages,  with over 500 scientific references and 58 chapters which will support every post I have written on this blog and supports my complete Explosive Pitching DVD instructional program. I know of no other "evidence based" fully researched pitching program out there today. I wish there were more.

Dick Mills

"Nationally, (my son) is one of the top pitchers at the high school level after being recruited by more than 150 colleges and began to work with Dick Mills' pitching program in 2000 at the age of 11. The ideas and principles in Dick Mills' new book, The Science And Art Of Baseball Pitching, will help Mark to become an even better pitcher, and more importantly will permit him to avoid many aspects of the "conventional pitching wisdom community." Dr. Rushall (coauthor) has opened up to us a new world of evidence based sports training principles and applied them rigorously to pitching. The result of Dick Mills' and Dr. Rushall's work is a new paradigm for pitching instruction and training. The practical consequence is that pitchers and their coaches have a scientifically based roadmap for success. The tenets of this book give great clarity to what pitchers should focus on and what they should avoid. This book leapfrogs beyond other pitching books on the library shelf"

Dr. Scott Adzcik, M.D.

Harerford, PA

"I received my copy of The Science And Art Of Baseball Pitching three days ago. All I can say is that it's AWESOME. This book puts so many things under one cover and in reseasonable, easy to understand language and with research that is documented and footnoted. I can tell you this - your book will cause massive cognitive dissonance for those that are open minded enough to read it. Your book belongs on the top rung of baseball pitching books. I can only hope that your book and method finds its way throughout the pitching universe. I will never be without this book."

Richard Dondes

East Brunswick, NJ

If you have a questions about how to get the book you can email me at

dickmills@gmail.com

subject: Pitching Science book.

Dick Mills - All About Pitching

www.pitching.com

If you have questions about this blog post or on any phase of pitching - mechanics, strength and conditioning, mental training, strategy send those questions to:

dickmills@gmail.com

I will answer them here.. We won't waste your time. We show you how to recognize exactly what is holding back most pitchers...find the problem - fix the problem. I show you a comparison between two high school pitchers, a Little League pitcher and a major league pitcher who throws mid to upper nineties. You will see the biggest problem that reduces velocity in the majority of pitchers.

If you want an explosive body and explosive mechanics you need to get my my 30 page free report. It will explain much of the misinformation about pitching that is ruining pitchers.

30 Page Free Report mailed by first class mail.

Why Shouldn't Little League Pitchers Throw Curveballs?

All About Pitching...Scientific Pitching Since 1995

Why Shouldn't  Little League Pitchers  Throw Curveballs?

Last week I was asked to provide a response to a question on a discussion forum focused on baseball injuries...specifically about the risk of injury for throwing a curveball at the Little League level.

Here is a response by Little League Baseball and my response follows:

As of today, there is no concrete evidence showing that breaking pitches are harmful. Most pitchers who throw breaking pitches also are throwing more pitches. And those who play in so-called "elite" or travel leagues are probably going to throw more pitches, and a wider variety of pitches. These pitchers, then, seem to be at the highest risk for developing arm problems, and some would assume it is because of breaking pitches.

However, there is evidence that throwing too many pitches causes arm problems. That is why Little League is taking steps to ascertain if a limit on the number of pitches thrown can be effectively implemented at the local Little League level.

We realize that limits on pitch counts in Little League probably will not reduce the number of arm injuries, because the regulations would apply only to Little Leaguers pitching in Little League games. Twenty years ago, this was not a problem. But today, many children are being asked to pitch in games outside of Little League's control, and go far beyond the six innings per week currently permitted in Little League play. Hopefully, parents will realize what the limits should be, and act accordingly for the best interests of their children.

Little League also is looking at ways to determine if breaking pitches are harmful. But because there is no concrete proof that breaking pitches are harmful to young arms (as there is with high pitch counts), Little League has no plan to ban breaking pitches at this time.

Patrick Wilson
Vice President of Operations
Little League Baseball and Softball
_________________________________________
Here is my response to the curveball question:

I believe the reason why kids at the Little League or pre-high school levels of baseball should not throw a curveball should be based on which skills are important to learn and master first? I believe any result of injury is based on not so much the mechanics of the curveball but rather on the ability of a youth pitcher to be able to consistently get his body into a consistently good throwing position so that the body is put in a strength position to deliver the pitch.

There is only one way that coaches can detect that. They must have the knowledge of proper mechanics and then have the ability to videotape pitchers, find and correct mechanical faults during every practice session.

When was the last time you saw a youth or high school pitcher being videotaped during a bullpen practice session so that the pitcher was getting feedback rich instruction? It is very, very rare and yet it is the only way to know whether a skill is being learned or not. The naked eye is not enough no matter what the experience is of the instructor. The pitching movement happens too fast.

The other question is - why do pitchers at the youth or even high school level even need the curveball? When a pitcher has proven he can throw his fastball 70% of the time to multiple locations at differing speeds while being videotaped...only then should another pitch be considered. That second pitch I believe should be a changeup because it is easier to learn and master than a curveball and should be less stressful.

A curveball must be considered a completely different skill to master than the fastball. It is not just a different grip that the pitcher must learn and even with a proper grip the pitcher must still have the ability to position his body correctly to deliver the curveball without undue stress. That takes a lot of practice time...usually years.

This is also true for throwing the fastball or other pitchers. However, most youth and high school pitchers are not able to accomplish command with their fastball and as my son's high school coach used to say - Why let a kid throw a curveball when he can't throw a fastball with proper mechanics or command?

Baseball pitching, like golf is a mechanical and nueral (mental) skill sport. It clearly takes years to master the mechanics of throwing a fastball with the focus being to hit the target 70% of the time with consistency. When a pitcher is able to accomplish that he needs little else in his pitching arsenal. That fact was clearly stated in an interview with Astros pitcher Roy Oswalt during the World Series.

How many pitchers are you currently seeing at the youth or high school or college levels with outstanding command of their fastball? I believe very few. Professional baseball has the same problem.

One of the main problems at all levels today is that few pitchers at any level are being trained mechanically and mentally using videotape for feedback to throw enough pitches in practice to provide enough of an overload effect so that the pitcher's body is fully trained to deliver the arm and throw whatever number of pitches that are required in the game.

The sports science Principle of Individuality states that you will get a different response in training from each athlete. So we as coaches must consider each pitcher individually. We cannot train everyone the same way. We must look at their strengths and weaknesses.

I believe there are very few pitchers, if any, at the Little League, youth and high school levels who could pass the mechanical consistency test so they are able to get into a good throwing position during an extended number of pitches...no matter what that pitch is.

I personally have never seen a Little League, youth or high school pitcher who really needed to throw a curveball when he can locate his fastball to multiple locations and can change speeds.

The question then goes back to - why do we need the curveball at the Little League or youth levels anyway! Let us first teach the mechanical skill of throwing a fastball with consistency and proper training. That is what will drastically reduce pitching arm injuries at the youth levels.

As for the reason for so many injuries with pitchers today we should look at the Principle Of Specificity for the answer.

Pitchers at the high school, college and professional levels are becoming injured because they are spending too much time on irrelevant activities such as long toss, drills, throwing weighted baseballs, throwing on flat ground, trying to get bigger and stronger in the weight room. Pitching is the skill of throwing from the mound, shifting the weight downhill with the assistance of gravity from the back leg to the front leg without a crow hop while focusing on hitting a specific target.

The more time a pitcher spends on irrelevant activities the less time he has to master the skill of throwing from the mound...which is how pitching success is measured.

Pitchers need to be throwing enough game intensity pitches in practice bullpens from the mound in order to train the body to deliver the arm for throwing that volume of pitches in the next game. That provides the needed training effect or the overload. Trying to always 'save the arm' for the game is the biggest mistake for creating pitching arm injuries today.

We must remember that it is elastic energy or putting as many muscles of the body on stretch as possible that provides the power in the pitch as was proven back in 1983 in a study by Dr. Frank Jobe. It is not muscle contractions that provides arm speed.

When a pitcher continues to throw fewer pitches in practice, his body is always at a specific training deficit which causes the body to fatigue and not position the arm in its optimum non-stressful position.

When bullpens are thrown in blocked sets of five pitches with recovery time between pitches and sets of pitches while being videotaped every five pitches, a typical 10-15 minute bullpen becomes an hour...which is the amount of time a major league pitcher stands on the mound during a complete game. This one hour bullpen allows the pitcher to be fully recovered at the end. He will not be fatigued. And he will maintain his training effect for the next game.

These are some ideas that sports scientist have instituted in other sports. I believe baseball needs to look at some evidence based training ideas that other sports have found to bring success with less risk of injury instead of what is believed today by baseball coaches.

If baseball continues to use the same training ideas and beliefs they will continue to get the same results.

These are the reasons why injuries are going up and pitching performance is not improving...at all levels.

Always be asking coaches - show me the evidence of why I should follow your instruction?

We have done that with our new book The Science And Art Of Baseaball Pitching - A Coach's Handbook For Scientific Pitching...608 pages with over 500 scientific references which will support every post I have written on this blog and supports my complete Explosive Pitching DVD instructional program. I know of no other "evidence based" fully researched pitching program out there today. I wish there were more.

Dick Mills

"Nationally, (my son) is one of the top pitchers at the high school level after being recruited by more than 150 colleges and began to work with Dick Mills' pitching program in 2000 at the age of 11. The ideas and principles in Dick Mills' new book, The Science And Art Of Baseball Pitching, will help Mark to become an even better pitcher, and more importantly will permit him to avoid many aspects of the "conventional pitching wisdom community." Dr. Rushall (coauthor) has opened up to us a new world of evidence based sports training principles and applied them rigorously to pitching. The result of Dick Mills' and Dr. Rushall's work is a new paradigm for pitching instruction and training. The practical consequence is that pitchers and their coaches have a scientifically based roadmap for success. The tenets of this book give great clarity to what pitchers should focus on and what they should avoid. This book leapfrogs beyond other pitching books on the library shelf"

Dr. Scott Adzcik, M.D.

Harerford, PA

"I received my copy of The Science And Art Of Baseball Pitching three days ago. All I can say is that it's AWESOME. This book puts so many things under one cover and in reseasonable, easy to understand language and with research that is documented and footnoted. I can tell you this - your book will cause massive cognitive dissonance for those that are open minded enough to read it. Your book belongs on the top rung of baseball pitching books. I can only hope that your book and method finds its way throughout the pitching universe. I will never be without this book."

Richard Dondes

East Brunswick, NJ

If you have a questions about how to get the book you can email me at

dickmills@gmail.com

subject: Pitching Science book.

Dick Mills - All About Pitching

www.pitching.com

If you have questions about this blog post or on any phase of pitching - mechanics, strength and conditioning, mental training, strategy send those questions to:

dickmills@gmail.com

I will answer them here.. We won't waste your time. We show you how to recognize exactly what is holding back most pitchers...find the problem - fix the problem. I show you a comparison between two high school pitchers, a Little League pitcher and a major league pitcher who throws mid to upper nineties. You will see the biggest problem that reduces velocity in the majority of pitchers.

If you want an explosive body and explosive mechanics you need to get my my 30 page free report. It will explain much of the misinformation about pitching that is ruining pitchers.

30 Page Free Report mailed by first class mail.

Pitching Velocity Improvement - Pitching Instructors Continue To Invent Time Wasting Plans

All About Pitching...Scientific Pitching Since 1995

Velocity Improvement - Pitching Instructors Continue To Invent Time Wasting Plans That Sound Good

In Collegiate Baseball's April 7, 2006 issue, Ron Wolforth, a weighted ball and long toss advocate, who runs a pitching school out of Houston wrote an article titled Velocity Improvement. Unfortunately, Wolforth provides no references or evidence based research as to why his plan should work based on common sports science training principles. In fact I will provide several reason why his plan will waste a pitcher's time and increase the risk of injury.

Wolforth is no different unfortunately than most other coaches or pitching instructors out there. You can throw a dart at a listing of all baseball pitching related web sites and you will get similar ideas on velocity improvement...none unfortunately that are based on researched evidence. Wolforth is not unique in that sense. The large majority of baseball coaches follow a "belief based" for pitching improvement.

All pitching improvement plans are mostly invented ideas that sound good and are based only on the coach or instructor's beliefs. No research goes into creating these performance improvement plans for pitchers.

We should understand two things. There is no evidence that long toss works to improve velocity. None. Why would there be evidence of something working when it cannot work for that intended use based on common scientific principles. The main principle of sports science that long toss violates is the Principle Of Specificity. In a nutshell, the Principle Of Specificity simply means that one activity or movement skill that is somewhat similar but not the same will not transfer to the other activity. This means wasting time.

It is quite obvious that the large majority of baseball coaches are not aware of this principle that guides all movement skills and ultimate improvement in sports. If coaches did understand it then pitchers would not be wasting their valuable time on long toss, throwing on flat ground, doing pitching drills, throwing weighted balls or spending time in the weight room trying to get bigger and stronger. It is my belief, that baseball should back up with research, that these are the main causes of pitching arm injuries and a lack of performance improvement in pitching today.

Why do coaches believe that long toss can transfer to helping a pitcher improve his throwing off the mound? After all, pitching success is measured by how a pitcher performs while throwing from the mound in a game against live hitters while throwing the ball to various locations at varying speeds using different pitches. Long toss cannot possibly improve throwing off the mound. How could it?

Long toss and throwing off the mound have only one thing in common...the baseball. All other movements and mechanics are dissimilar. Long toss cannot possibly help a pitcher improve.

Since pitching is not an arm strength activity, as is believed by most baseball coaches, the idea that throwing the ball longer will improve velocity is erroneous. After all long toss does not help outfielders improve the velocity of the ball coming out of their hand or the distance of their throws. If it did then all weak armed left-fielders could turn themselves into strong armed right-fielders. Have you seen that as being successful in baseball yet? Of course not.

If long toss works for pitchers, then shouldn't throwing off the mound aid outfielders? Doesn't this sound silly? But that is how baseball coaches like Ron Wolforth and thousands of other high school and college coaches think. Professional and major league pitching coaches should not be left off this list. They violate these scientific principles just as much. These instructors and baseball school owners want you to invest your money and time in their pitching improvement plans but provide no evidence as to why they are supposed to work.

Always be asking: "Show me the evidence as to why I should follow your program. The scientific evidence...not self-serving testimonials."

If long toss or weighted balls worked, they would allow all professional pitchers to improve velocity year after year. The same goes for wieght training. Are those activities producing far better pitchers today at the professional level? I do not see it.

Ron Wolforth, who would like you to believe he has a scientific background, completely violates the Principle Of Specificity in his "velocity improvement" plan. He shows in this article that he has no understanding of its value. He would rather advocate activities that have no proven value. Any activitiy that is not specific to pitching off the mound cannot aid in velocity improvement.

Here is what Wolforth says is another value of long toss:

"Long toss gives us exceptional and immediate feedback on how efficiently the ball is exiting our hand. It gives us great feedback on the quality of that neuromuscular dance." This foolish explanation which may sound good to the unknowing father or uninformed coach, completely violates the understanding of the Principle of Specificity.

Wolforth is correct in one sense but fails to explain it specifically. He says long toss gives immediate feedback on how efficiently the ball is exiting the hand. He is correct. But it only gives feedback during long toss. It does not however, give feedback when throwing from the mound since that is a completely different activity using different throwing mechanics.

Long toss is a complete waste of time when thinking about improving a pitcher's mechanics, his velocity or his control. The only possible use of long toss is as a small part of an offseason conditioning program. It has no other specific value for pitching. It cannot possibly transfer improvement to throwing off the mound downhill to a target.

Do you know of any sport that has anything similar to long toss? I don't. Football quarterbacks don't use it. Tennis doesn't use it. No other sport such as soccer, bowling, cricket, basketball, golf, or shooting pool using anything as foolish as long toss.

Remember prior to about the early 80's, long toss was just about non existent in baseball. That means that all the successful pitchers at all levels up to the early 80's accomplished their success with velocity and control without the need for long toss. Think about that for a minute. Thousands upon thousands of pitchers were highly successful without long toss, drills or weight training.

As a weighted ball advocate, Wolforth does not want you to believe that we should assume that his program is primarily a weighted ball workout. Here is what he says about the value of weighted baseballs:

"Weighted balls are only a very small portion of the total program. Weighted balls are simply a tool. Nothing more. Tools can be helpfull or they can be misued."

Why is a weighted ball a valuable tool? He should explain that. Where's the evidence that it is a good tool?

I would like to know how using a completely irrelevant instrument can possibly help improve a skill. Should a drummer use weighted drumsticks to improve his hand speed while drumming so he can get a better job in a big name band. How about bowlers! Would a different weight bowling ball seem to aid a bowler where the feel of the bowling ball is everything for success. Isn't the feel of a real baseball in the pitcher's hand everything for having the feel of the ball?

When a pitcher is throwing a different weighted ball such as a 7 oz. ball, the body knows the difference and will treat that throw as a completely different skill based on the Principle of Specificity. This means that throwing anything different than a 5 oz baseball is a complete waste of time.

So how would throwing weighted balls be a good tool for pitchers? Wolforth cannot explain this.

If Ron Wolforth advocates long toss and weighted balls, which are nothing more than time wasting activities for baseball pitchers trying to improve the skill of pitching, then you should ask what else in his program are just invented beliefs that sound goodl but will only waste more time?

You should always be asking: Where is the researched evidence that supports your claims. There are none for long toss. However, there is a study that proves throwing 180 foot throws is more stressful on the pitcher's elbow.

There are 11 studies on the value of weighted balls improving throwing velocity. However, in our new book The Science And Art Of Baseball Pitching, my coauthor, Dr. Brent Rushall, refutes the value of those studies as being confounded. We provide 16 pages of supporting evidence as to why all the studies on weighted baseballs are based on erroneous conclusions that have continued to be passed from one study to the next.

Ron Wolforth and all the other weighted ball advocates should read that. Then they would realize they have been putting out bad information while encouraging coaches and pitchers to waste valuable time on an activity that cannot improve throwing velocity. This is wasted time that no player will ever get back.

Worlforth, it seems, is pushing his philosophy by targeting uninformed high school and college coaches through pitching clinics. This is bad news for the high school and college pitcher who wants to improve because they will now have coaches who will follow Wolforth's plan which in only based on Wolforth's beliefs...many of which he has gotten from other "belief based" instructors and coaches. Wolforth did not come up with his ideas on his own. He borrowed them. He made a very poor decision on whom to believe.

Why do I seem to be picking on Ron Wolforth? Because he is now targeting coaches at clinics with his erroneous beliefs that are not backed up with any evidence based research. His influence on coaches will influence how high school and college coaches spend their time. If these coaches embrace his training tools, then pitchers will be wasting the most valuable tool they have for improvement - TIME.

Pitchers who waste time will never be able to reach their God-given potential for velocity or control. The less time they devote to improving their mechanics while throwing off the mound, the less success they will have long term. Any time that they waste on irrelevant activities such as long toss or throwing weighted balls or constant weight training may be the biggest reasons for increasing the risk of injury.

These are the reasons why injuries are going up and pitching performance is not improving.

Always be asking these coaches - show me the evidence.

We have done that with our new book The Science And Art Of Baseaball Pitching - A Coach's Handbook For Scientific Pitching...608 pages with over 500 scientific references which will support every post I have written on this blog and supports my complete Explosive Pitching DVD instructional program. I know of no other "evidence based" fully researched pitching program out there today. I wish there were more.

Dick Mills

"Nationally, (my son) is one of the top pitchers at the high school level after being recruited by more than 150 colleges and began to work with Dick Mills' pitching program in 2000 at the age of 11. The ideas and principles in Dick Mills' new book, The Science And Art Of Baseball Pitching, will help Mark to become an even better pitcher, and more importantly will permit him to avoid many aspects of the "conventional pitching wisdom community." Dr. Rushall (coauthor) has opened up to us a new world of evidence based sports training principles and applied them rigorously to pitching. The result of Dick Mills' and Dr. Rushall's work is a new paradigm for pitching instruction and training. The practical consequence is that pitchers and their coaches have a scientifically based roadmap for success. The tenets of this book give great clarity to what pitchers should focus on and what they should avoid. This book leapfrogs beyond other pitching books on the library shelf"

Dr. Scott Adzcik, M.D.

Harerford, PA

"I received my copy of The Science And Art Of Baseball Pitching three days ago. All I can say is that it's AWESOME. This book puts so many things under one cover and in reseasonable, easy to understand language and with research that is documented and footnoted. I can tell you this - your book will cause massive cognitive dissonance for those that are open minded enough to read it. Your book belongs on the top rung of baseball pitching books. I can only hope that your book and method finds its way throughout the pitching universe. I will never be without this book."

Richard Dondes

East Brunswick, NJ

If you have a questions about the book you can email me at

dickmills@gmail.com

subject: Pitching Science book.

Dick Mills - All About Pitching

www.pitching.com

 

If you have questions about this blog post or on any phase of pitching - mechanics, strength and conditioning, mental training, strategy send those questions to:

dickmills@gmail.com

 

I will answer them here.. We won't waste your time. We show you how to recognize exactly what is holding back most pitchers...find the problem - fix the problem. I show you a comparison between two high school pitchers, a Little League pitcher and a major league pitcher who throws mid to upper nineties. You will see the biggest problem that reduces velocity in the majority of pitchers.

If you want an explosive body and explosive mechanics you need to get my my 30 page free report. It will explain much of the misinformation about pitching that is ruining pitchers.

30 Page Free Report mailed by first class mail.

Shouldn't Major League Pitchers Be In Mid-Season Form Coming Out Of Spring Training?

All About Pitching...Since 1995 The Science Of Baseball Pitching

Professional baseball players may be the most poorly fit paid athletes in the world. This factor may be the biggest reason why complete games in professional baseball are dwindling.

We can certainly see the result of this during the first week of the this season. Pitchers are not expected to throw complete games early in the season because they are simply not fit to pitch a complete game.

Coaches at all levels do not understand how pitchers should be trained to be "fit to pitch" game after game during an entire season. For example, major league baseball wants starting pitchers to throw at least 100 pitches per game and yet these same pitchers are throwing less than half that number in practice because coaches believe it will save their arms for a long season.

What coaches are not taking into account is that the arm is not the source of power in the pitch. The body delivers the arm. If the body remains in an untrained state because it is not constantly overloaded by continuing to throw a high volume of pitches in practice, then the arm is at the mercy of the untrained body. Not only is that the reason for injury but also why performance is poor. After all, pitching is a skill, not a strength activity. The skill of pitching can only be improved by throwing a higher volume of pitches more often from the mound.

When a pitcher's body fatigues, because it is not trained in practice to throw a high volume of pitches, then the arm will not be in a consistently good throwing position. That adds stress. Besides poor mechanics, this is what may be causing so many arm injuries...throwing less pitches to save the arm when the arm is basically along for the ride. The body delivers the arm so the body must be in a high state of specific fitness to pitch those 100 pitches game after game.

The absolute most specific form of fitness for a pitcher is to throw from the mound at game intensity using blocked sets of pitches while focusing on specific goals toward improvement. Throwing a bullpen should be an activity of both physical and mental training with specific goals. These bullpens, in order to be much more effective can be thown in blocked sets with continuous feedback while mentally pre-mapping each pitch in the pitcher's mind. The inclusion of feedback and pre-mapping (mental focusing) during each session makes every practice pitch more powerful and influential on pitching performance change than established irrelevant and ineffective training.

Why Long Toss Does Not Improve Performance And May Be A Leading Cause Of Injury

I believe one of the biggest contributors to more injury and less pitching skill is the idea of long toss during the baseball season. Long toss has not proven to have any specific benefit to a pitcher's performance or skill improvement. Studies have shown that long toss of 180 feet or more contributes to elbow injuries. Baseball continues to erroneously believe that long toss contributes to arm strength. However, as I have continuously started on this blog, pitching is not an arm strength activity at all. Pitching velocity comes not from muscle contractions of the arm, but from stored elastic energy.

Long toss, no matter what the good intentions are, does not transfer to throwing off the mound since each is a completely different activity. Long toss is a long distance throwing activity that requires the pitcher to use a crow hop on flat ground while releasing the ball in an upward trajectory with no intended specific target. Pitching from the mound requires shifting the weight from one leg to another with no crow hop, moving the body downhill with the aid of gravity with the specific goal of hitting a target.

One completely different athletic activity such as long toss will not transfer any benefits to another acitivity such as throwing from the mound. That is exactly what the sports science Principle of Specificity is all about. It should be almost common sense, since long toss is a fairly new activity that only started back in the early 80's. Prior to that pitchers did not long toss and had little difficulty throwing at above average velocity. It also seems, and studies should be done, that there are far more injuries today than ever. Does doing an irrelevent activity such as long toss contribute to those injuries. Baseball would be advised to look at this.

If baseball eliminated inseason long toss and had pitchers put that energy into throwing more volume of pitches off the mound, then I believe you would see less injury and far better overall pitching performances rather quickly.

Starting pitchers, who throw a complete game, will be out on the mound for approximately 60 minutes. And yet in practice bullpens of 40-50 pitches they are normally only on the mound for ten to fifteen minutes because they are throwing 4-6 pitches every minute. That is not what happens in a game.

If instead, pitchers were to simulate game conditions by throwing in blocked sets of five pitches over a one hour period, rather than 10-15 minutes, gaining valuable feedback after each set of five pitches, while taking up to 30 seconds between pitches thrown, and a couple of minutes between sets of pitches, then these pitchers would not only improve skill because of the increased volume of pitches, but would be fully recovered by the end of that one hour throwing session. Throwing 40-50 pitches in a 12-15 minute session is far more fatiguing and provides far less skill building.

As you listen to major league baseball this month you will constantly hear the idea that pitchers right now are just not in mid-season form. The question is - why not?

Baseball wastes this first month of the season and uses it as a 'second stage' Spring Training where pitchers start to build up their pitch counts. It is truly amazing that a sport that pays huge salaries doesn't understand the value of specific fitness and how much money it could save in injuries over the course of a season. What about pitching performance improvement?

Here are the results from Friday April 7th games: Most of the starting pitchers in these games we will assume were the fifth starters for each team.

- 13 games played
- 26 starting pitchers
- 127.6 total innings
- 155 hits
- 45 walks
- 5.2 average innings pitched
- 92 earned runs
- 6.48 E.R.A.

After the first week of the season, combined E.R.A.s in each league stand at about 5.00.

Baseball would say that the poor performances were because of a lack of experience in their fifth starters plus being their first start. That however, is poor justification for poor results. If these fifth starters worked at throwing blocked sets of pitches, with much higher volumes, while being videotaped with specific goals in mind, they would gain much more skill. Skill would equal performance improvement.

How about a lack of training, fitness, and skill as a better explanation of poor results? All due to poor coaching and a lack of fundamental pitching performance education!

However, even when these pitchers are in mid-season form they are still unfit to pitch. Few starting pitchers will throw anywhere near 500 pitches over the course of five starts, which is what they are being paid to do - aren't they? In games where they do not reach 100 pitches because they are taken out early, their pitching training deficit begins. Even with that deficit, they will still throw less than 50 pitches in practice bullpens...sometimes at less than game intensity to "save their arms" for the next game. Early in the season the deficit of pitches builds for starters as hitters get better timing and feel more comfortable at the plate while putting more balls in play or fouling more off.

Relievers also throw less volume of pitches in practice so their arms "stay fresh." This idea puts them at risk of injury as well because they are not fit to pitch either.

As the season wears on pitchers remain untrained to pitch the required number of pitches. They are always pitching with a specific fitness deficit.

Coaches continue to keep them in an untrained state...to protect their arms. Actually, this belief increases the likelihood of injury rather than preventing it. So what is protected.

How much rest do you believe a major league closer needs if he is throwing only 20 pitches per game? Is throwing 20 pitches stressful? Why should it be if the closer is trained to throw 20 pitches day after day at full game intensity? Shouldn't a closer be able to throw day after day...maybe only resting one day a week? After all, pitching is not a lacit acid building activity...and certainly pitching is not a fatiguing activity because there is rest and recovery between pitches. What's the thinking? The thinking is that pitchers only have a certrain number of "bullets" in their arms. However, the human body of an athlete does not work like that. It responds to proper training.

In our new book The Science And Art Of Baseball Pitching - A Coach's Handbook For Scientific Pitching, we show the studies of how quickly a pitcher should be able to recover after throwing a complete game. We also show the study that proves why sitting in the dugout between innings is more stressful than if the pitcher continued to throw between innings. Baseball has little understanding of this. We suggest they look at what other sports are doing for training their athletes. Why should baseball players be any different?

Baseball continues to "baby" pitchers because of nothing more than ignorance regarding proper training techniques using sports science training principles and how to specifically train a pitcher to be fit to pitch an entire season...with less risk of injury and much improved performance.

We wonder why injuries continue to go up...and performances do not improve!

Here is an interesting article that appeared in the Sunday April 9th edition of the New York Times Sports Section:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/09/sp...=1&oref=slogin

In the article written by Benjamin Hoffman, it is clear that Mets' pitching coach, Rick Peterson, does not understand the idea that pitchers are neither fit to pitch nor skilled to pitch.

Rick Peterson says this: "Injury is a factor of poor deliveries, poor conditioning and overuse; it's that simple." he said.

Injury may be due to poor mechanics in some pitchers and if so why don't pitchers get videotaped during bullpens to see if mechanical faults are being corrected. There is no pitching coach on the planet who can "eyeball" the fastest human motion in sports... a pitcher's arm acceleration.

Peterson also says that injuries are due to poor conditioning. I ask whose responsibility is it to make sure that million dollar pitchers are fit to pitch? I believe it should be a joint effort between the pitching coach and conditioning coach.

Peterson says injury is also overuse. This is where I believe he is dead wrong. It is "underuse" - the lack of enough volume of pitches in practice with feedback that is the problem that contributes to pitchers remaining unfit to pitch game after game for a full season with less likelihood of improvement.

Rick Peterson seems to have aligned himself so much with preventing injury, which is certainly commendable, because I believe he has spent a lot of time at the American Sports Medicine Institute in Birmingham- with biomechanist Dr. Glenn Fliesig and famed orthopedic Dr. James Andrews - that he has forgotten that trying to reduce injury by lowering pitch counts also detrains pitchers, actually increases the risk of injury and also reduces skill improvement.

This lack of understanding of pitching specific fitness, with continuous fitness deficits has professional pitchers reaching the performance levels of a talented weekend golfer.

Dick Mills, All About Pitching

"I received my copy of The Science And Art Of Baseball Pitching three days ago. All I can say is that it's AWESOME. This book puts so many things under one cover and in reseasonable, easy to understand language and with research that is documented and footnoted. I can tell you this - your book will cause massive cognitive dissonance for those that are open minded enough to read it. Your book belongs on the top rung of baseball pitching books.

I can only hope that your book and method finds its way throughout the pitching universe. I will never be without this book."

Richard Dondes

East Brunswick, NJ

"Nationally, (my son) is one of the top pitchers at the high school level after being recruited by more than 150 colleges and began to work with Dick Mills' pitching program in 2000 at the age of 11. The ideas and principles in Dick Mills' new book, The Science And Art Of Baseball Pitching, will help Mark to become an even better pitcher, and more importantly will permit him to avoid many aspects of the "conventional pitching wisdom community." Dr. Rushall (coauthor) has opened up to us a new world of evidence based sports training principles and applied them rigorously to pitching. The result of Dick Mills' and Dr. Rushall's work is a new paradigm for pitching instruction and training. The practical consequence is that pitchers and their coaches have a scientifically based roadmap for success. The tenets of this book give great clarity to what pitchers should focus on and what they should avoid.

This book leapfrogs beyond other pitching books on the library shelf"

Dr. Scott Adzcik, M.D.

Harerford, PA

If you have a questions about the book you can email me at dickmills@gmail.com subject: Pitching Science book.

Dick Mills - All About Pitching

www.pitching.com

If you have questions about this blog post or on any phase of pitching - mechanics, strength and conditioning, mental training, strategy send those questions to:

dickmills@gmail.com

I will answer them here.. We won't waste your time. We show you how to recognize exactly what is holding back most pitchers...find the problem - fix the problem. I show you a comparison between two high school pitchers, a Little League pitcher and a major league pitcher who throws mid to upper nineties. You will see the biggest problem that reduces velocity in the majority of pitchers.

If you want an explosive body and explosive mechanics you need to get my my 30 page free report. It will explain much of the misinformation about pitching that is ruining pitchers.

30 Page Free Report mailed by first class mail.