Posts Tagged ‘Baseball’

This is my first season pitching within a true 5-man rotation. In college and summer ball, there often are too many off-days to make the rotation stable. Weekend series in college mean that starters generally pitch once a week, giving ample time for physical and skill work in between outings.

But in the professional season, off-days are few and far between, and the rotation gives each starter 4 days to prepare for his next outing. Everyone is different in what he needs to prepare, but I’ll share my own preparation schedule that I feel gives me the best chance to succeed and stay strong throughout the season. Read the rest of this entry »

This video is of Frostburg freshman Adam Baxley banging out a box drill.  We use this to develop both foot speed and conditioning.  Having him block increases game carryover as well, and will give him the stamina to perform pop-ups from his knees into the late innings.  Hip flexor, leg and core strength are all stressed in this drill.

Applying the deliberate practice principles to your throwing

In my last post, I talked about the deliberate practice principles laid out in the book Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin.

To refresh, deliberate practice involves

• Working on a specific aspect of performance
• High repetition
• Continuously available feedback
• Highly demanding mentally
• Isn’t (usually) much fun

In this post I’m going to talk mainly about the third piece of the puzzle, focusing primarily on how it relates to improving throwing mechanics and velocity.

Feedback and throwing mechanics:

To start, you’re probably wondering why “throwing mechanics” and not “pitching mechanics.” Paul Nyman of SETPRO was the first to make the clear distinction between these two activities. Pitching is about doing everything you can do get the batter out, whereas throwing refers to the specific movement patterns/sequences that your body goes through to apply force to the ball. When you hear people talking about posting leg position or hand break timing or whatever, what they are really referring to is a player’s throwing mechanics.

Feedback is particularly under-appreciated when it comes to players and velocity development. When was the last time your pitching coach brought a radar gun to your team’s bullpen sessions? I can tell you that, in my experience, at the high school level and below this form of feedback is almost nonexistent.

So how do you make sure that you’re applying the continuous feedback principle and aren’t wasting your practice time on empty repetitions? Here are a couple ideas…

Read the rest of this entry »

Grip strength is critically important, and I have been harping on it for some time. EVERYONE can use increased grip strength, and the implications it has on throwing harder, swinging harder and preventing injury are huge.   Grip, or hand strength can be classified in many different ways, but today we are going to focus on just open and closed hand strength, the differences between them and their implications for pitchers and hitters.

Closed Hand Strength

This is just what it sounds like, holding things with a closed fist.  This is the most important type of strength for a hitter to have, as gripping the bat is done with closed fists.  This isn’t meant to be groundbreaking info, but I want you to see the carryover from the weight room to the field for both pitchers and hitters.

Closed hands gripping a bat

Read the rest of this entry »

If you haven’t already realized, I love grip training and my favorite piece of equipment is my rock rings.  These versatile rock climbing holds feature four different grips to challenge one’s open hand strength.  They make for some super hard chin and pull ups, but can be tied to basically anything…like dumbbells!

Rock Rings rigged to dumbbell with carabiner

Close up of the three finger pocket in use

Pictured here is Adam Baxley, a freshman catcher at Frostburg U.  What we did with him was a 4 hold drop set – he started with the most difficult grip (3 finger shallow pocket) then when he couldn’t hold anymore, picked the weights back up with the next easiest grip, ending with the big sloper hold.  This way we were able to get his hands under tension longer, which resulted in a really tough grip exercise (he’ll attest to that).

Hand and finger strength is really under-appreciated and under-trained in the baseball community.  This blows my mind, as the last thing a thrown ball is in contact with is the (drumroll please) fingertips!  Sure, doing wrist curls, holding heavy things, etc. etc. develops grip and forearm strength, but it’s just not the exact type of strength I see as most important- fingertip strength.  If you haven’t been to your local rock climbing wall recently, you’ll realize how lacking your finger strength is – even if you have monster forearms and a great closed hand grip.

I’m hitting the rock climbing gym 2-3 times a week right now.  Do I expect it to help me throw harder?  Yes.  I do.  Can’t imagine how it wouldn’t.

I jotted down notes about my bullpen or general throwing sessions from months 7-9.5 of my recovery.  I discovered it while cleaning my place.  I’m just rewriting what I had down, so I may or may not be able to clarify if you have any questions.

March 22 – Good, not sore

March 24 – Good, not sore

March 26 – 7 months – Good, not sore

March 28 – 15 Changeups; good, but not perfect

March 30 – 10 changeups, discomfort on 1/3 of them

April 1 – 3/4 speed; no changes, no pain, 66-71 mph. felt ok, not perfect next day

April 3 – felt good, not perfect; 45 pitches @ 3/4 (speed)

April 6 – 1st two digits had pain when pressure applied

April 9 – mid to upper 70s, little pain; felt good after 4 days off prior

April 17 – no pain! 65 pitches at 3/4

April 19 – long tossed to 240 no pain

April 21 – felt good. into low 80s maybe

April 23 – gun read 75-77. TIRED! but no pain

April 25 – 8 months – Hit 81, consistent 76-79 50/30 pitches

April 28 – long toss to 270, 45 pitches at 85%

April 30 – 30 + 45 vs hitters. 82-84. Felt good

May 2 – VERY tired from April 30.  Arm achy and slight pain, very dead. threw 70 at 2/3 speed

May 4 – flat ground, 15 curves at 50 ft. pain still, arm not recovered from previous.

May 7 – Hard pen, felt good. 80 pitches at 90%

May 9 – good long toss, felt great.

May 11 – 100% from mound, 100% changes, 50% curves (15). felt good, no pain, but knotted up on forearm after.

May 14 – 100% fast + cu, no curves. Still knot in forearm but no pain

May 16 – 45 fast-curve-change, 75-75-50% respectively. less tightness, no knot next day.

May 18 – Light pen, 30 curves

May 20 – In game, 28 pitches. 30 curves beforehand. Bicep Dead, big knot afterward.  No throw 21-24.

May 25 – In game 35 pitches, no knot after, felt good

May 27 – 70 pitch pen, 30 90% curves, felt good, bicep better

May 29 – 50 pitch, 70%, curves getting sharper!

May 31 – 60 in game; arm felt slow, but great after. 55 fb/ 5 curves. No tightness at all.

June 2 – Long toss, hard but not too many throws. Need to get intensity up and let go. Felt good next morning.

June 4 – Bullpen 20 max effort, 85-90.  Arm felt achy, some occasional pain twinges, and very dead.  Decent next day. Fatigue in bicep/tricep still, but not terrible.

Thats the whole log.  Wish I had done more of that during it all, but I was more interested in getting after it than writing it all down.  Hindsight…

A working knowledge of the anatomy of pitching and throwing is important for every player and coach to have.  The more informed you are about your body and how it works, the more you can control your training and adjust it to get maximum results.   Once a player realizes where he needs to be strongest to throw harder and decrease injury risk, it is often easier to motivate them to do the additional work.

So, today we’re going to discuss the main upper torso and shoulder muscles that accelerate and decelerate the baseball…

Anatomical Terminology

Anterior: in or toward the front of the body (when divided by the coronal plane)

Posterior: in or toward the rear of the body (when divided by the coronal plane)

Internal Rotation: to bring toward the body’s midline by  joint rotation. (When the arm is abducted, this brings the hand forward)

External Rotation: to carry away from the body’s midline by joint rotation (When the arm is abducted, this brings the hand backward)

Adduction: to bring toward the body’s midline on the coronal plane (ex: bring hands to your sides

Abduction: to move away from the body’s midline on the coronal plane (ex: raise arms to the side)

Medial: (describing the position of a bodypart) toward the midline of the body

Lateral: (describing the position of a bodypart) away from the midline of the body

Showing the 3 planes of movement

The Accelerators

Most of the upper body and shoulder muscles that accelerate the arm are internal rotators. They take the arm from…

1. Subscapularis

Subscapularis (Anterior View)

The most powerful muscle performing a given movement is called the prime mover, or agonist. The prime mover of internal rotation is the subscapularis, which is a member of the “rotator cuff” group.  This muscle covers the anterior portion of the scapula (shoulder blade) and inserts on the lesser tubercle of the humerus (upper arm).  The subscapularis, along with all of the rotator cuff, contributes in stabilizing the shoulder joint which helps prevent injury.

2. Teres Major

The Teres Major is another internal rotator, which originates on the posterior aspect of the scapula and inserts on the medial lip of the intertubercular groove of the humerus.

Muscle action can be figured out by knowing the origin and insertion, as they act just like hydraulics – lengthening and shortening to create movement.  Since the teres major inserts on the front of the humerus, when it contracts the arm will rotate internally. Read the rest of this entry »

By Steve Eagerton, Pitcher & Tommy John Patient @ Jacksonville University

The most painful part of coming back from my experience with Tommy John was restoring my range of motion. I was removed from a semi hard cast at two weeks post op., and the next day I started range of motion exercises.  It took me about 5 weeks to get full range of motion with my therapist moving my arm and almost 8 weeks to get full range of motion on my own. I literally thought my elbow would explode some days- it hurt so bad.  Of all the people I know who underwent Tommy John, I seem to have had the most pain. I think maybe it was because I had a lot of scar tissue, or maybe I am just a sissy (just kidding!).

Full range of motion for me, using my left arm as a guide, was 0-147 degrees. I think the first day I reached 20-88°. We tried to increase the ROM about 10° a week. I got full extension pretty quick, within about 3 weeks, but I made shorter strides in gaining flexion.

For TJ patients, I recommend making sure you keep it moving outside of rehab because if not you won’t progress as quickly. For the first week or two I was so sore that I would just keep my arm immobile on non-rehab days. Eventually I realized I needed to move it, even if just a little, to keep it from stiffening up.

I just want those who think they are hurting a lot while trying to reach full ROM just to know you aren’t the only one, and to grind it out.

The chin up v. pull up debate has been mulled over by the baseball community for quite some time now.  We all know that performing either or both of these exercises is the key to developing strong, wide back.  Yet, some say pull-ups are harmful for throwing athletes, and it’s hard to know what to believe.

First off, the difference: a chin-up is done with a supinated (palms facing) grip, as opposed to the pronated (palms away) pull-up grip.

The baseball fitness community seems to be accepting of chin-ups just fine; the issue is with pull-ups, which are supposedly the cause of too much rotator cuff stress, hypertrophy, and tightness.

Why are pull-ups associated with such negatives for throwing athletes, whereas chin-ups are not?

The noteworthy difference between the two, as far as rotator cuff stress is concerned, is in the arm placement.  On pull-ups, especially with wide grips, the arms are externally rotated, which causes more recruitment (and stress) of the rotator cuff.  I agree with avoiding wide pull ups because of the high amount of rotator cuff strain.

A wide pull up - note the externally rotated arms

Chin up; note the arms are tucked close to the body, keeping the focus on the back

Because of the supinated grip on chin-ups, the arms track closer to the body, resulting in far less rotator cuff recruitment.  The arms simply cannot flare outward as easily on chin-ups, until the grip gets extremely wide.  Yet, the arms can stay tucked on close-grip and neutral grip pull-ups as well… Read the rest of this entry »