quote:
Originally posted by TPM:
Frequent discussion all weekend, last month there were more injuries in MLB than any other time.
Girardi spoke about too many swings can cause injury, someone said too much time in the weight room and not enough stretches and over conditioning. The higher numbers in velocity of pitchers may cause as well.
Opinions?
Its extremely difficult to point to any one or even series of things that cause injuries, but as I “perceive” things, there’s a definite trend to going back to the old thought that its much better for a ball player to not be restricted by too much muscle. We used to call it “muscle bound”. There’s the crazy workout guys like body builders on one extreme and the do nothing guys at the other, but there’s not a lot of guys at either extreme. What’s difficult is trying to find what’s “BEST” for an individual, because everyone’s different, and many times that doesn’t happen until well after physical and mental maturity have been reached.
So what’s too many swings? When Giradi played, if he was like the majority of players at that time, maybe he took 25 swings a day at most. 2 guys come to mind who played at the same time though who were very different. Albert Belle would not only take 50 swings before a game, he’d often take another 50 to 100 after the game. I watched Manny out in the bullpen taking 20 swings left-handed, 20 right-handed, and I don’t have a clue how many with both hands off the tee, then go take BP!
But the thing is, its just like pitching. Its different for everyone, and for sure so is lifting weights, running, or anything else. More is not always better.
