I understand where you are coming from but I am just not convinced the drills are the problem.
My son has never had an arm problem until his shoulder started to feel a pinch sensation last summer. He blames a poor conditioning and work out regimin in the summer.
Fortunatley the pich sensation has gone after taking anti inflamaroy drugs, stretching and continuing to throw but at a lesser intensity. 1st time ever that he had a problem. I can't say what the cause was for sure but he knows the more he throws the better.
I don't say towel drill is a substitue for throwing and never have. As I have said the towel drill is all about mechanics. My osn is a tall and fall type of pitcher who has thrown CBs since 10 years old and I honestly believe that certain pitchers are more prone to injury than others. House was one of the 1st people to computerize the pitching motion and in my son's case it was very helpful to him.
If you don't throw a BB you won't develop your arm and your skill. It is important to do the towel drill to correct alignment and all the pitchers on my son's teams over the years used it.
I have seen some very impressive pitchers with zippers on their fore arms. They had great mechanics but as I have said before many times, great mechanics are not a guantee that you won't suffer arm problems. Everyone has their opinion on why guys get injured and I feel it is simply because they pitch. It can happen to anyone and a pitcher in the course of a game actullay changes his mechanics slightly.
My son being a LHP had a tendancy to be too upright and it really affected his pitch. Most lefties do that. he was out of balance and it often was the reason he had a poor outting. Also alignment was occassionally a big issue. Video showed this and towel drill helped sove it.
I am not understanding what the argument here is.
I don't think that BHD said it was a substitute for anything. I think that the towel drill is a good drill as long as young players try to understand the concept of why it's used, same with all other drills. As far as Tom House, and other gurus, you take the good with the bad and a pitchers own style is developed. As long as he remains healthy, with decent mechanics, more than one pitch, is what the achievement should be.
Name dropping who you worked with and who you didn't means absolutely nothing in the scheme of things nowadays because not everyone embraces everyone's philosophy. Actually the best coach my son ever worked with when he was young is a no name person and I think he did a heck of a job.
Chill out guys.
I don't think that BHD said it was a substitute for anything. I think that the towel drill is a good drill as long as young players try to understand the concept of why it's used, same with all other drills. As far as Tom House, and other gurus, you take the good with the bad and a pitchers own style is developed. As long as he remains healthy, with decent mechanics, more than one pitch, is what the achievement should be.
Name dropping who you worked with and who you didn't means absolutely nothing in the scheme of things nowadays because not everyone embraces everyone's philosophy. Actually the best coach my son ever worked with when he was young is a no name person and I think he did a heck of a job.
Chill out guys.
TPM I agree. I guess I am puzzled why people have negative things to say about TTD. Perhaps there is a misunderstanding of its purpose. Not really sure,
quote:Originally posted by YHF:
The towel drill is about much more than extension. In fact that's usually the last issue a kid has. More likely, it benefits pitchers that do the following...
1. a pitcher that steps to a closed position and can't rotate his hips enough (if it's properly positioned) can't reach the towel.
2. a pitcher that strides off the 'center line' or straight line to the plate cannot reach the towel.
3. a pitcher who opens his front side too early can't reach the towel.
4. a pitcher that does not control his glove hand (to his pec area generally speaking), cannot reach the towel.
The towel drill can be used as an aid to teaching kids to work out of any of these bad habits.
I went back to listne to what Kuhn said about the TD.
I originally pointed out that the above was a good reason to use teh drill.
Kuhn stated "pitching is linear with a rotational component". According to him the "TD is effective for staying on line as long as you can until it's time to rotate". I would imagine if this is not a problem, the TD isn't necessary.
