Posts Tagged ‘Sports’
July 22, 2009 | 
Author Above all, I am trying to write about what I know, and I know how to squeeze more velocity out of an unexceptional arm.
How do I know this? Because I have an unexceptional arm, and I’ve done a lot of squeezing. I learned how to get the absolute best out of it, and for me, I believe the best is yet to come.
As a high school senior I pitched at 78-81. As a college sophomore I pitched at 85-89. By Junior year (before my elbow went) I was sitting at 89-92.
Thing is, I’m not special. I just had good coaching, a great strength and conditioning coach, and a terrible, desperate desire to throw harder and develop into a good pitcher, one worthy of a chance at pro ball. Read the rest of this entry »
You may have heard of the Y-T-W-L circuit, which develops scapular stability by strengthening the shoulders and upper back. Scapular stability is of the utmost importance for overhead throwing athletes like pitchers. Talk to someone with healthy shoulders, and they probably have been using the YTWL.
Yet despite it’s popularity, the YTWL circuit is often done improperly, and actually contains some movement patterns that aren’t useful: specifically, the W.
My shoulder routine has consisted of the YTWL for a few years, coupled with an additional standing shoulder/rotator cuff circuit. However, for the YTWL, it is time for a upgrade, and that is why I have made the switch to the YTLP.
My friend Nick Tumminello at Performance University has been evaluating the YTWL for a while now, and has done a series of videos on how to perform his newly developed L-Y-T-P circuit perfectly, many of which are featured below. Read some of his other great training articles on this page.
Nick has made a lot of changes to the circuit, which I am going to highlight in this article. The biggest is a call to eliminate the W pattern, which he swaps for the (P)ivot Prone. Rest assured, adopting the new circuit is going to give you stronger shoulders and more scapular stability than you’ve ever had before, even if you’ve already been doing the YTWL.
Steroids get a bad rap in sports, and rightfully so. After all, they give athletes an edge over their competition, and can subsequently take jobs away from “clean” athletes who are physically overmatched by “dirty” athletes.
Yet, a fundamental reason we spectators watch athletics is to witness, and vicariously share in and celebrate, the limits and athletic prowess of the human body.
This is one reason the Olympics has forever been successful, despite the fact that it often features sports that are obscure to the masses for the better part of 4 years.
Thing is, increases in human performance are beginning to taper down as we reach our genetic potential. Back in the 1900s one could break a world record in the 100m dash by a half second. Now, world records are lowered only by the hundredth, maybe a tenth if we are lucky.
Where is the fun in that? We can no longer go out and see something we haven’t (basically) seen before. If not for the actual stopwatches, no one would know the speed difference between Usain Bolt or Carl Lewis if not running against each other, because the speed difference that translates to even a huge 1/2 second difference in the 100m is likely not perceivable by the human eye.
And sure, sports have incredible value beyond just the limits of a singular performance, but thats not what is at issue here. I’m talking about the single physical events: the sprint, the distance of the homer, the throw, the swim. These are objective, relevant and salient without mention of other competitors.
Thus, I would like to make an appeal for the greatness of steroids on the grounds that they allow us to continue to explore the limits of the human body, knowing that our natural genetic potential for athletic feats will one day, if not already, be tapped without them. Read the rest of this entry »
I recently had a run-in during a game, in which I threw behind (I missed) a batter who had gotten a hit off of me earlier and then ran his mouth about how easy I was to hit. A brawl nearly ensued, but he didn’t feel safe coming all the way out to me. Understandable. Read the rest of this entry »
Most good things in life can arise from something bad. So is the case with Tommy John surgery. TJ is unique among major arm surgeries in that it potentially provides a greater than 100% recovery. Getting to 100% or above, however, is a matter of capitalizing on the time off, and making the most of a bad situation.
So here I’ve compiled a list of the top 5 good things one can get out of a little elbow-slicing action… Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve been familiar with foam rolling and myofascial release for a few years now, starting when I was told I had a lot of inflexibility that needed to go away. If you’re unfamiliar with myofascial release, check out this article. It’s from wikipedia, but it gives a pretty thorough overview. Basically, though, you maneuver yourself over a foam roller, which compresses the tissues beneath, allowing for connective tissue (fascia) restrictions to loosen. This includes trigger points, which gives a lot of people chronic pain.
I hadn’t done much of it recently, but felt motivated to get back into it. And having experienced good things with it in the past, I made some time after a workout.
I figured I would write a post of milestones of post-surgical activities, as that is a pretty common question people have. I asked other guys all the time when they could do this or that, so here you go. Some of these I can’t remember exactly, so bear with me.
Out of sling: 2 days
Stopped taking painkillers: 1 day
Started forearm rehab: 1 week
Full Range of motion: 3 weeks Read the rest of this entry »
It’s extremely important to pitch using the information a batter provides. On a basic level, this is just understanding what a foul ball means. If you throw your best fastball down the middle, and the batter fouls it off to the opposite field, he is late. If he pulls that same pitch, he is early. To the batter who is late, you force feed him your fastball and move it in on his hands if he starts to catch up. If he is early, it’s probably time to show him an offspeed pitch.
By giving a late hitter an offspeed pitch, or something away in the zone, you’re doing him a favor by accommodating his inferior (in respect to your velocity) batspeed. By throwing offspeed to the early hitter, however, you are exploiting the fact that he is not keeping his hands back long enough in the zone. Read the rest of this entry »
Pitchers are weird people, mostly because of the physical act of throwing. The motion is so violent and powerful that it throws a pitcher’s body out of whack and causes major asymmetries in strength, size, flexibility and range of motion, bone structure, etc.
One major adaptation of the pitcher is in shoulder range of motion (ROM). Pitchers have incredible, otherworldly external rotation. The average person couldn’t dream of contorting his arm in such a way.
My buddy Andrew Germuth showing off his external rotation
My buddy Andrew Germuth showing off his external rotation
And what price do we pitchers pay for enjoying such lavish external rotation? You guessed it! A tight rotator cuff and a subsequent deficiency of internal rotation. (there is always a catch!)
So what? Does it matter if a pitcher has poor shoulder range of motion internally?
The answer to this question is unequivocally “yes.” Any trainer or physical therapist will tell you that a lack of ROM in any joint is pathological and indicative of underlying problems. Normal ROM should exist in all one’s joints, and if not, there is a probably a problem as to why. In many populations these imbalances in flexibility might not impair day-to-day functioning, but for athletes and especially pitchers, inflexibility poses major problems.
Dr. Craig Morgan and colleagues are researching the link between elbow pain (up to and including full blown ligament tears requiring Tommy John surgery) and internal rotation. What he is finding (as he found in me) is that a huge amount of pitchers coming to him have significant GIRD (glenohumeral internal rotation deficiency), and once that GIRD is reduced to an amount within 20 degrees of the internal rotation of the non-throwing shoulder, the pitchers very often return to throwing without pain. Internal rotation deficits are caused by posterior shoulder capsule tightness, which can be alleviated using the sleeper stretch. Restore your internal rotation ROM and you will be throwing healthier and harder. Read the rest of this entry »
If I have learned one thing from my psychology and philosophy classes, it is to recognize bad experimental design and flaws in logic. Chris O’Leary, in his pitching mechanics analyses, is subject to both of these problems and presents superficial and baseless arguments. This is disconcerting because many pitchers read his blog, fall for his arguments, and go about tampering with their mechanics in fear of his false prophesies. Read the rest of this entry »
Getting surgery sucks. It is, however, usually the only option for someone who tears a tendon, ligament, or muscle while playing a sport and wants to play competitively again. So it’s a situation where one needs to suck it up and take some solace in the fact that they are on the road back to the top. Especially with TJ surgery, the prognosis is great and with proper attention to rehab there’s a good chance of making velocity gains on top of having the elbow of a superhero and time off to improve mechanics.
The first 3 months post-op were exciting in the sense that everything was new and changes were dramatic. Things returned to normal rather quickly, and it was all building up to that fateful day when I would chuck that pill again, even if it was only for 30 feet at first. Read the rest of this entry »
In all of the baseball training manuals hand strengthening seems to be ignored. Some of the games greatest hitters would always comment on how having strong hands made them good at their craft, but what about pitchers? And what about that part of the body that actually delivers the baseball? Sure, everyone knows a strong shoulder is required to throw hard, but the hand and the fingertips are the ones who have the last say in what the ball does. That being said, I want my hands and fingers strong.
Easy In-Home Strengthening
In this post we will go into some of the immediate and easy things one can do at home to start developing stronger hands and fingers. Grip strength can be developed in a tremendous amount of ways, but we will just focus on a few today that worked for me and will get you started in the right direction. Read the rest of this entry »
Ever heard someone say, “I just tensed up.”? Chances are you have, within the context of that person explaining why he choked under pressure. Tensing up is somewhat a figure of speech, but also a real occurrence. Muscles contract in uncontrolled ways in response to fear, excitement, anger, etc. Uncontrolled muscles are a bad thing for pitchers.
Tense muscles don’t function as they are supposed to. They don’t stretch, rebound and contract as they are supposed to. Sit down in a chair and flex all of your muscles at once. You won’t be able to get up. Why? Because all the muscle fibers are doing the same thing, all at once. Because of this all-over tension, no work can be performed, and motion becomes impossible. You’ve rendered your muscles useless.
You’ve also heard of pitchers “rearing back” and throwing the ball as hard as they can right by a batter. Problem is, this act of rearing back, of giving it all you got, of putting every fiber into the pitch, is often counterproductive.
As my good friend Zach Clark was explaining to me, your body knows how to throw a baseball as efficiently as it can. It knows which and how many muscle fibers to recruit. Thing is, you have to let it do its work, and that requires relaxation.
Relaxing as best you can when throwing allows your body to choose, and it knows better than you do, which muscle fibers to recruit in throwing the ball. Some fibers relax, and some contract in accordance with the most efficient ratio to throw as hard as possible. Tensing up causes muscle fibers that are supposed to be relaxed to contract, thus hindering the natural way in which your body wants to throw.
In theory, this makes sense and I believe in it. However, in practice it is much more difficult. When one wants to run faster he simply tries to run faster by using more intensity. This usually works until top running speed is achieved. However, as we have discussed, throwing harder is not this way. It requires the delicate balance of effort and efficiency. You have to try to throw hard, but you can’t try too hard. Pitchers have to constantly fight this urge to overthrow, and if they are successful, then they will achieve their best velocity and best control.
My best velocity is always achieved in situations when I perceive that I need it the least. This is my personal affirmation of this theory. I have two standout examples of this. I was facing one of my teammates in an intrasquad game a few years ago, and I got to 3-0 on him. The first three pitches were all 87 mph. The 3-0 pitch was 89. How could this be? Well, I thought nothing of throwing hard, but only of throwing a fat strike because I knew he wouldn’t be swinging. I relaxed.
My most recent example was last week in my first outing throwing to batters since my surgery. I was scheduled to throw 45 pitches, but threw 46 because no.45 was high and outside. I wanted to end on a strike. Keep in mind, this was the highest workload I had had since surgery, and by all rights my velocity should have peaked in the middle and tapered off at the end as I tired. This was generally true, as I was 82-83 the whole time. But my hardest pitch was no.46. I hit (a whopping) 84 on pitch 46. Why? Because I didn’t care how hard it was – I just wanted to end on a strike.
There are other negatives associated with overthrowing. The most obvious is a loss of control. That phenomenon needs little explanation. Another is loss of movement. Sinkerballers must especially keep themselves in check, because they make their money on their fastball movement. Overthrowing will usually cause a lively fastball to flatten out, rendering it much easier to hit.
And after all, the point of having good velocity and movement is to make one’s pitches more difficult to hit. Muscle tension caused by overthrowing is the enemy of a quality pitch, so If one can master his mindset to allow relaxation on the mound, then he will be maximizing his chances for success.
So I tore my UCL in the conference tournament last May. I did not see it coming on that particular pitch, but I realized it probably was in my future. My head athletic trainer had told me that it could go at any moment, seeing how I had partially torn it in both high school and the previous season in college.
From March on I was having forearm and elbow problems, and could barely recover between starts. But I got through it and didn’t miss time, and made it through 5 2/3 innings of my last start of the year. I was actually starting to feel better by time it finally went.
So anyway, I figured I would put together some of the findings of this journey, of which I am almost through (8 months post-op and at 90% of previous velocity)
Today’s Topic: Doctor Discrepancies
Now, I got surgery from Dr. Craig Morgan in Wilmington Delaware. I had heard good things about him, seeing as how is world-renowned, and I trusted him above all others with my pitching future.
Five teammates of mine had this same surgery during my career, and there were differences in all five rehab protocols. And this is interesting, because everyone seems to make it to the finish line just the same. Thus, the question arises- which protocol is the best? If you’re not familiar with the tommy john procedure, check out the link in my About Me page.
That question is hard to answer but from my own experiences, I do have an opinion. I base this opinion on what I went through, what others went through, and what seems to intuitively make sense about the human body and its ability to heal. Read the rest of this entry »
On the weekends, college teams play conference games that count toward their shot at making the NCAA tournament. The games played against conference foes are the most important of the year, and as such call on coaches to put forth their premium lineups.
Typically, a team throws their best starters in order from friday to sunday, and the best relievers get used up in the same fashion. In a three, and especially a four game series, the Sunday games get awfully interesting due to pitching depth.
In Major League games the difference between top relievers and lower relievers is not nearly as great as it is in college. Major leaguers are the top in the world, and every single one can hold his own, or they would not be there.
In college baseball, the effectiveness of pitchers varies much more as one progresses down the depth chart. When the top and the middle-tier arms are used up on Friday and Saturday, Sunday often becomes a slugfest, coming down to the talent left in the bullpen. Teams that are deep in their pitching staffs have the ability to sweep a series, but those who run thin have a tough time finishing with their brooms. Read the rest of this entry »