A parent emailed me recently about the Throwmax so I thought I would share my thoughts on this product.
The ThrowMax is a bad product and it's not the company's fault for not completely understanding throwing patterns and what actually happens during a throw. The entire 6 phase throwing diagram describes positions. Throwing is not a position. Throwing is a movement through specific positions in order to achieve an end result.
As a Strength & Conditioning coach, having studied biomechanics and kinesiology, the use of this product will most likely decrease velocity and may actually induce shoulder injuries, not elbow injuries.
The reason why athletes have shoulder and/or elbow pain is because of poor teaching of throwing patterns (L Drill or Power T Position), poor ARM ACTION & SEQUENCE training, poor throwing program progressions, poor pre and post throwing protocols and overuse. It's not because of the elbow angle during late cocking and acceleration.
Below are clips that this company has on their website. Pure pushing and pure spinning motions. The arm starts back, point the ball away, classic demonstration, step and throw. This motion is completely incorrect.
http://www.throwmax.com/images/MOV00021_Tmfronts.mpg
Scroll down to the end of the page and find the before and after image on the right side of the page
This image is actually really funny because the kid on the left is correct and the kid on the right is incorrect. I can post some clips of any high level thrower and you will see that they do not perfom the throwing style as posted on the right in the picture. It just doesn't happen.
Kid on the right: has the brace on, points the ball away, glove is tucked, step and throw. Minimal velocity, pure spinning, no separation, possible shoulder injury is going to occur.
Kid on the left: no brace, elbow is above shoulder, thoracic extension occurring, lead arm not doing anything (which is awesome because this allows for thoracic extension and will ultimately lead to max external rotation and max velocity), no spinning motion, shoulder is protected because other structures will be involved to decelerate the crazy internal rotation forces of the throwing shoulder.
If you have any questions regarding the throwmax or what drills you should do in place of the "L" or Power T feel free to email me at austin@wassermanstrength.com
Thanks!
Austin
