Pitching coach told my son that he has an "inverted W" and that he has to fix it or he is going to hurt himself. I understand what it is, but can anyone explain why it causes injuries. What's so bad about it.
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Google it. You'll find that it's not exactly settled science. And the guy who has the strongest opinions on the subject has no medical or professional baseball qualifications or experience. That doesn't mean he's wrong, though.
If you saw a video of the alleged expert pitching you would pee your pants laughing. He's not even an athlete in any shape or form. His expertise is an opinion based on reading other's opinions. He used to be on this site. He was rideculed and laughed off the site. As previously mentioned he may not be wrong. But it's not where I would turn for expertise. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
The problem with the inverted W may be that it causes the forearm to turn over later which appears to place more stain or stain for a longer dwell time on the UCL. No guarantee that your son will be injured by it. I do prefer for the forearm to be above the elbow before the hand is accelerated forward but I don't have any proof that it is really any better or safer.
Good luck,
Ted
Coach Wolforth at the Texas Baseball Ranch has touched on this in an interview but basically having an Inverted W will allow you to throw harder but as Ted said it puts alot more strain on the UCL which will ultimately end in an injury, guys like Joel Zumaya had this problem which ultimately ended his major league career
You can read through some of the science on Kyle's site (Driveline).
Briefly, as Ted mentioned the inverted W tends to point to a pitcher that has timing that will increase stress on the elbow. It doesn't always mean the pitcher will have elbow problems. There are a bunch of other things that go into it as well.
A few years ago I Googled "Tommy John surgery." It listed pitchers who had undergone the procedure. Of the first 20 or so on the list, I could find youtube video on 18. 17 of the 18 used "inverted W" mechanics. While that isn't scientific proof, it was strong enough a correlation to convince me that the mechanics are dangerous. As has been mentioned, the problem isn't the "inverted W" per se, but the late external rotation that inherently comes with this particular set of mechanics.