Pitching Instruction; The Big Black Box

Isn't it the same for batting?

I was just talking to my dad about that.
Baseball, unlike the other sports, has more "belief based" coaching then any other sport.
They tell pitchers to throw 3 oz balls, 10 oz balls, instead of what they will throw in a game, a 5 oz ball.
You never see a QB coach saying "Okay Brett, throw this 15 pound football."
It just doesn't happen.
I've read a lot about pitching... and I have someone that has helped me alot, namely Joe Janitske, which he has a lot of similar views of Dick Mills, but not all.. but Dick Mill's is smart.. although other people are offended by it..

But to answer your question as to why there are so many training methods is because most of it is "belief based" Not a lot of it is actually proven

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But to answer your question as to why there are so many training methods is because most of it is "belief based" Not a lot of it is actually proven

Yep, and I caught complaints here when I suggested that 1/3 of sports medical research proves to be erroneous.

Those spirited weighted ball arguments are especially silly. No one knows a thing. It's not like anyone has raised 1,000 kids entirely on heavy balls versus 1,000 kids on light ones to compare how they turn out.

One thing for sure: with millions of people playing some variety of baseball, training is huge business. Much is driven by profit motives. Look to the enormous diet industry as a model for why training advice varies so much, and is becoming increasingly costly.

This is kind of off topic, but I thought I would share it. Besides coaching at a higher level, I also volenteer for a youth team. There is this 9 year-old who drops his elbow and short-arms every throw. So much so, it looks like a shot-put. He actually throws pretty hard; not hard, but alright. I explained to him and his father that we need to change his arm motion slowly over time to help not only increase velocity and accuracy, but to prevent injury. Now the second part of my reason to the father, I was really beginning to doubt its truthfullness. I have always heard that short-arming has a higher rate of shoulder injury but never have I experience it. But, I don't usually coach at the youth level and never have came across such a drastic short-arm thrower. To cut to the chase here, this kid hurt his shoulder at the beginnig of fall-ball. Don't know to what extent, but he is done. This is just another reason that I default to "common baseball knowledge" and not the newest trend. But to get back to the original post; wouldn't it be great if there was an undisputed pitching encyclopedia. Something like "The Sailers Guide to Sailing". It was printed in 1850 and is still considered the best blueprint off sailing technique.

"Don't know to what extent, but he is done. "

Permanently? How do you know? Very rare at nine but possible, I guess.

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The Sailers Guide to Sailing". It was printed in 1850 and is still considered the best blueprint off sailing technique.

Maybe when we've been playing baseball as long as humans have been sailing, we'll get it all figured out. The penalty for failure is also higher at sea.

This is definitely not proven but my opinion is that a "short armer" would probably have more elbow
problems. And this is just from personal experience from developing a shoulder problem in "A" ball-I was a long and loose "slinger" and after three trips to Jobe and Kerlan(orthopoedic drs. in LA) and
numerous cortisone shots with little relief, I decided to change my delivery to short-arming and had
little pain in the shoulder. My velocity dropped but my control increased(along with wins ) and was
able to pitch a few more years.

Who knows? I know one thing I believe for sure-If the muscle strength is increased around both shoulders it should lessen the chance for injury and prolong the life of a "pitching" arm.

Actually XFactor there are weighted footballs.

Pitching mechanics are all taught basically the same way at the pro level. Tom House is one of the few that has taken the time to analyze the best pitchers and develop an approach that identifies the commonalities. There are many old school coaches that disagree with House's ideas but his mechanics are pretty close to what other Pro coaches teach.

My son had to unlearn most of what I taught him about pitching. It took real professionals(guys who coach pitchers in the pro's for a living) for him to develop solid mechanics. Even though I probably know more about pitching mechanics than most HS coaches now, I am still just a rank amateur. Most of what is taught by us Dad's is anecdotal and therefore suspect.

Well, I hear there is a really good book coming out. This is what one of the co-authors had to say about it:

"We are shooting for the holidays. Hopefully by Thanksgiving.

This is not really a book as you think of most baseball books that have already been printed rather it is a designed to be a reference manual or a text covering every aspect of pitching thus you will not sit down and read this in one sitting.

This will be something that every coach, trainer, conditioning coach or parent will want to refer to when they need an answer to something about pitching including mechanics, psychology of pitching, and fitness and conditioning.

It is to be referred to when you have a question on pitching where you would like evidence or proof as to the reason for doing something rather than following some coach's blind faith.

I would be very surprised if anyone has a question about some aspect of pitching that is not answered in this text. " Dick

Talk about short armers, Greg Maddux's injury history amazes me.