I was gong to put this on Causes of Arm Injury thread, but felt it'd be better here.
From the NPA book The Art & Science of Pitching:
"A lot of instruction is based only on what coaches think they see. Remember, the human eye can only see about 32 frames per second, while most of the critical movement in pitching takes place at 250 to 750 frames per second. Therefore, for decades, coaches developed their instruction based on flawed data. Coaching was based on conventional wisdom repeated so often and for so long that everyone began to accept it as fact."
"The following are some opinion-based pieces of conventional wisdom that are actually myths,"
• To create the release-point angle, left-handers should stand on the left side of the rubber, while right-handers should stand on the right side
• Pitching is an unnatural movement
• Stay tall and fall
• Stay back
• Don't rush
• Slow down
• Push off the rubber
• Drop and drive
• Step straight to the plate
• Point your toe to home plate
• Land on the ball of your foot
• Don't land on your heel
• Get on top of the ball to create angle
• Pull your glove
• Throw over the top
• Reach down and grab grass or dirt
• Come to a good balance point
• Shorten your stride to get on top of the ball
• Don't overstride
There is more in the book, but this should give some idea for the type of myths that go around.
When I went to a coaching symposium/clinic over 6 years ago where Tom House started off his presentation by asking the coaches in the audience by item if they taught this to their players. Proud hands went up for each of the items he called out. And Tom then said he taught this too. . .but he doesn't do it any more as the science data he's been gathering has recently shown this all to be bunch of %$@^#! ****. (He said it in such a way I remember us all chuckling)
IMHO, while what you coach in terms of physical performance can be tested by science, how you coach is an art and how good that art is shows up in the results.
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