Today what I have for you is some video of myself and a local high school pitcher, Andrew Connors, throwing with and without the Phantom weight sleeves. Andrew has been using a sleeve for a number of weeks now, but this was the first time we got to compare his mechanics with and without it side-by-side.

Now, don’t be too critical of us, because neither of our mechanics are picture-perfect. Andrew is working on getting his arm up sooner, as his arm reaches way behind and drags. I have numerous kinks that I am working on as well, so be kind to us both. Nonetheless, what is salient here is whether or not our mechanics change when we put on the weighted sleeves.

Everyone around me who has thrown with the Phantom sleeves so far has remarked that they don’t seem to affect their throwing motion. But, what does the high-speed videography say?

Now, I don’t have the multi-thousand dollar equipment that the video labs do, but my camera gets a decent job done at 420 frames per second. And, with some good natural light, I think the video shows us what we need to see.

The following videos are of both of us making a throw to a net at about 120 feet, after we had just come in from long tossing. These were close to max effort throws, but I would say not quite maximal. These first two are of Andrew, who is a good high school pitcher at Old Mill.

I didn’t edit these videos, so I apologize for the delay in a few of them. An extra second pause before the throw turns out to be a REALLY long pause because of the slow-motion. These last two are of me…

What Do You See?

Did you find a difference? I found one.

Look at the elbow in these two photos - there is a slight difference

It appears that there is about a 2-3 inch difference in elbow height at the same point in the delivery. Without the sleeve, you can see that my elbow almost eclipses my ear, whereas with it on, it is at about jaw-height.

Now, what does this mean? I’m not exactly sure. The elbow isn’t low at release, just lower. And, if you watch the path of the elbow, it fights to stay high and doesn’t get quite as high as without the sleeve. Other than that, I don’t see a whole of difference.

So, is this difference in elbow path significant? Again, I’m not sure. Now, with Andrew the difference is even more slight than with me. His elbow is only lower by about an inch, if that.

The elbow difference in Andrew Connors is slight

Now, Andrew has been throwing regularly with the sleeve. Has he adapted to it, explaining how he can get his elbow higher than I can? It’s plausible.

I don’t have access to the biomechanical-stress analyzing software that exists in expensive facilities around the country, so I can only give the play-by-play and hypothesize about what is going on.

So, here’s my summary of what these throws are telling us:

1. Overall mechanics are VERY SLIGHTLY affected.
2. The elbow has difficulty gaining its natural height when the weighted sleeve is worn. Yet, keeping one’s elbow up with the sleeve on might be coachable and height restored with conscious attention paid to it.
3. Continued use of the sleeve may result in an increase in elbow height, as the wearing gets stronger. If this is true, then throwers with low elbows might benefit from wearing these, as they would be forced even more to get their elbows up. Yet, this is just speculation and I have no data on this as of now.

Do You See Something I Don’t?

If you do, leave a comment and let’s hear it.