Weighted balls for baseball

If they'll ship to Australia, try http://www.wasupply.com They have the lowest prices I've found on weighted ball sets. It's virtually impossible to 'make' them at home _ I know because I tried, failed, then just spent the bucks on the real deal.

EDIT: never mind; I just checked and they do not ship internationally........

thanks for tryn!

i really wanna train wit weighted baseballs but over here they are like $15-20 per ball and thought about filln tennis ball and failed like you.

If you know of anyone travelling to the States this summer (sorry, winter), you could ask them to pick up a set for you...........????

make a little slit in the tennis ball and fill it with pennies. then glue or ducktape the ball so they wont fall out and it is a perfect weight.
cheap (only about a dollar and ten cents).
but be very careful with weighted balls, they should be used only for loosening your arm and not to throw long or hard with becuase you can hurt your arm very easily with it. but they are good for loosening your arm before throwing by just tossing.

it is up to you weather to take my advice or not.

nuh i would use them for longtoss!

pennies in a ball? i would have thought that would be bad for your arm because its not an even distribution of weight throughout the ball?

if you fill up the ball fully its even.
i have one and its fine for me

for me in the outfield throwing the ball far was important, so before games and during innings, i use a wiffle ball filled with pennies then duct taped. it makes the ball much lighter, try it

ive gotten tendenitis from that-how long is the right amount of tossing the weighted ball?

only 15-20 throws shood do it u dont wanna use it as a regular baseball

Use BB's or fishing weights in the tennis balls. I don't recommend long tossing them, lift with them and like it was said before use them to loosen the arm and stretch it.

Most times when you order a set of weighted baseballs from a company, it comes with the proper throwing program including distances and appropriate weights to use. These programs can be incredible for velocity gains and the injury prevention for your arm over the course of a season, but if you aren't careful or follow a strict program you will definitely cause more harm than good.

Like any other strength and conditioning program, common sense and caution need to be apply. Now, WB is an alternative to strength arm pitching muscles. *Some guidelines should be applied before throwing WB. Good mechanic, Wb, long toss and arm excercise with weight that mimic the pitching motion should be include to strength the arm. If it is not done correctly dont expect good result.

To throw hard you need good mechanic, arm strength, rotational strength and legs strength. None by itself would do much improvement because to pitch hard, arm strength, rotational strength and legs strength need to interact together.

By the way, what work for someone else probably won’t work for you. Find what work for you and stick with it.

* Its recommended an eight (8) week strength and conditioning program before throwing WB. So if you begin throwing WB right away its wrong. You get hurt not because the WB it’s because you don’t follow the guidelines.

Please stay away from using weighted balls. Rotator cuff surgery is not cheap. I know first hand cause I'm paying big time for my mistake!

Top_Prospect,

Don't discourage people from getting better just because of your misfortunes. Weighted baseballs are not responsible for hurting your arm, maybe you not following the program could be though.

try getting a ball waterlogged by just soaking it in water...this makes it a lot heavier

Under no circumstances should you use weighted baseballs. They are too light to make a physiological difference. If you have poor mechanics (and you do) the weighted baseballs will only hasten the destruction of your arm.

While I'm very hesitant to using the weighted balls, there have been several research studies done on the issue and it appears that they may aid in increasing velocity. I'm afraid of injury and possibly a negative effect on mechanics but the studies do show that they improve velocity. However, I would make sure you arm is in good throwing shape and that you warm up well before attempting to use them.


Mike Griffin
No Excuses Baseball

Use heavier and lighter balls for the greatest gains in velocity. You can order them in sets or individually.

www.ballsonline.com

Like any other training device, use common sense and follow the instructions. They will increase your speed.

R.

If weighted balls worked they'd be a lot more popular in the Majors (WB have been around for over 30 years... I don't think they've caught on yet)

Use them if you don't want to be in the College or Pro ranks someday.
Hey Mike do you know where those studies are? I'm curious to look at em

Edited: And I'm not being mean or anything, but to those who say they increase velocity, how do you know it just wasn't you (or your kid, friend, w/e) was just growing and that naturally added some MPH and not the weighted balls? And.. could you explain exactely how weighted balls increase someone's velocity? I don't think anyone has ever told me

If you're not a fan of weighted balls, that's great. I don't understand why you care so much. You have your opinion firmly embedded, so what does it matter what other people think? I don't understand your point at all.

Xfactor

1 reason that the weighted baseball overload/underload program is not that popular in the majors is because most major league pitching coaches have their head up their butt and only teach the old school techniques they know. Passing off all new technology or theories as wrong or not worth it. It appears that from most of your comments that you have no idea what the hell you are talking about though so as long as no one pays attention to you we should all be ok!

Did Brett Favre throw weighted footballs to get that God-like speed on his throws? Do golfers (which golfing and pitching are pretty similar) swing with a 20 pound club? I don't see Tiger Woods doing that. I don't see Tiger Woods swining a 6 ounce club, then a 3 pound club, then go to his regular club and swing away.

Please explain to me why no other sport advocates weighted footballs to get great velocity on their throws. Weighted clubs to get more distance on their golf balls. Weighted basketballs so you can shoot full court.

I'm pretty sure I know somewhat of what I speak of

XFactor,
I'm going to say this again there are weighted footballs.

I know that, but you missed the point. The point is.. how many pro QBs do you see throwing weighted footballs to get where they are now? Or that still throw weighted footballs? I'm going to take a wild guess and say <1%

What is the point of throwing a 3oz ball if your not going to throw a 3oz ball in a real game? Shouldn't you just be focusing on throwing a 5oz ball?

Once again, the problem with weighted baseballs is that they are not heavy enough to make a physiological adjustment. The weight does not recruit enough muscle fibers. The bigger problem is that they are not heavy enough to prevent incorrect throwing technique. They are heavy enough, however, to exacerbate poor technique.

weighted balls are really good, i think you should get them any way you can, even if they are expensive... beacuse they really help... ALOT! over a course of a year using them a few times a week, you can add a several miles to your fast ball.

Kharma has got it right.

You must get this principle - velocity is not about the arm or arm strength...period. The arm is the source of control only. The large majority of pitchers and coaches at all levels do not understand that. That's why they think long toss or weighted balls or weight training aids in boosting velocity. Yes, even major league pitchers believe it. (There is only so much weight training you can do before it just won't carry over to the mound. That doesn't mean you shouldn't do plyos, sprints, or med ball work though, just don't go and bench 350 and expect to throw harder)

Resistance training is not going to aid in moving the body faster since you cannot use force at high speeds. This simply means that if you are helping a friend start his stalled car by pushing it, you use strength when the car is not moving but as you start to get the car going you use less and less force. Once you are running down the street pushing the car speed now takes over and strength is not required. Does that make sense to you guys?

Pitching requires such speed of movement that all the strength training gained in the weight room is virtually useless in putting force on the baseball.

The most important aspects of developing velocity are the first movement away from the rubber (with good posture and weight shift) and then getting the body into a good landing and the arm in a good cocked position. Once the lead foot is on the ground you cannot do anything more to aid velocity. The kinetic energy developed because of your first explosive movement is just transferred up the chain upon landing.

So what then does it make sense to work on to improve velocity? Be explosive away from the rubber and get into a good cocked position.

Yes professional football player do throw weighted footballs. Why does mariano revera Ny throw a weighted baseball in the bullpen prior to working relief? I think there is the possibility of velocity improvement by overloading and underloading with both throwing and hitting.

I also think some of the philosophy of throwing weighted and light baseball is the same principle that track people are sometime pulling another person and sometime being pulled as to train the muscles to feel what is neccessary to move faster. Swimmers also do this were they are pulled through the water by a chord and sometime they are pulling the chord for strength. Just a thought.

quote:

Once the lead foot is on the ground you cannot do anything more to aid velocity. The kinetic energy developed because of your first explosive movement is just transferred up the chain upon landing.

X:

Once the lead foot hits the ground you must apply Newton's third Law of Motion; Reaction. In other words, you must powerfully push back toward second base while drive the pitching arm in a straight line toward home plate. This is called force coupling.

quote:

X:

Once the lead foot hits the ground you must apply Newton's third Law of Motion; Reaction. In other words, you must powerfully push back toward second base while drive the pitching arm in a straight line toward home plate. This is called force coupling.

Okay, so let me get this straight. A pitcher striding out to full length, as soon as his foot hits the ground, that is when the pitching arm should be cocked and the ball should be opposite to the plate. Your saying you must push back towards second and drive your arm towards home plate in a straight line? Drive your arm in a straight line? Am I hearing that right?

Yes that is correct. Except you should not stride off the mound. You should walk off the mound, When you stride off the mound as you teach, you lower your center of mass and you are not able to drive your pitching leg ahead of your glove leg. Also, your arm is still going backward while your body is moving forward. Look at pictures of pitchers throwing and you will see them driving the ball forward with their elbow with the ball laying backward. As you drive your elbow forward, your forearm goes backwards, This stresses the subscapularis attachment to your rotator cuff and blows out UCL's. You must obey all of Newton's 3 Laws of motion for maximum release velocity.

quote:

Originally posted by Kharma:
Yes that is correct. Except you should not stride off the mound. You should walk off the mound, When you stride off the mound as you teach, you lower your center of mass and you are not able to drive your pitching leg ahead of your glove leg. Also, your arm is still going backward while your body is moving forward. Look at pictures of pitchers throwing and you will see them driving the ball forward with their elbow with the ball laying backward. As you drive your elbow forward, your forearm goes backwards, This stresses the subscapularis attachment to your rotator cuff and blows out UCL's. You must obey all of Newton's 3 Laws of motion for maximum release velocity.

I don't know what you mean when you say "walk off the mound" Now when a pitcher loads his weight on his back leg and starts going foreward, he should lead with his front hip. Explosively, but under control. You don't want to rush. You want a type of.. "controlled fall" off the mound. Pitchers don't try to throw with their elbows. When a good pitcher throws at high speeds, it looks like his arm is bending back, but that is not what you want a pitcher to try and do. And what do you mean by "Not able to drive your pitching leg ahead of your glove leg."

quote:

Originally posted by Kharma:
Once again, the problem with weighted baseballs is that they are not heavy enough to make a physiological adjustment. The weight does not recruit enough muscle fibers. The bigger problem is that they are not heavy enough to prevent incorrect throwing technique. They are heavy enough, however, to exacerbate poor
technique.

dude i started this topic open minded, and everyone is entitled to their opinion...but you just contradicted yourself in that post, the ball is heavy enough to exagerate poor mechanics, but is unable to strengthen your throw???
btw im pretty sure alot of ML players use weighted balls when theyre warming up!, to roll their arm over.

sayn that ive started to use a 10oz baseball just to roll my arm over before i pitch and i find it very effective.

Just another thought x-factor, you said with an increase in velocity how do you know it wasn't that the player just grew? I don't know about you but before starting any program of strength conditioning including throwing weighted balls or over underload swining most trainers would measure and weigh the player so you could consider that in the results. Some of the increase is probably from increase in size as most plyers deligent enough to folow a throwing program are also working out and adding strength. The kids I've worked with with weighted balls have increases. Check out the athletic pitcher program, however due it with an open mind, not just drop and drive for everyone.

X:

By walking off the mound I mean to walk off the mound. You should never move your glove foot to parallel to the pitching rubber. You should never lift your stride foot to waist height (unless you want to join the long, sad line of blown out arms). As for the your statement that the elbow looks like it is leading the throw with the forearm lying backward. Not only does it look like that but that is what is happing. This is why pitching arm injuries cost Major League baseball around $100MM per year.

quote:

Originally posted by el3ctro:

quote:

Originally posted by Kharma:
Once again, the problem with weighted baseballs is that they are not heavy enough to make a physiological adjustment. The weight does not recruit enough muscle fibers. The bigger problem is that they are not heavy enough to prevent incorrect throwing technique. They are heavy enough, however, to exacerbate poor
technique.

dude i started this topic open minded, and everyone is entitled to their opinion...but you just contradicted yourself in that post, the ball is heavy enough to exagerate poor mechanics, but is unable to strengthen your throw???
btw im pretty sure alot of ML players use weighted balls when theyre warming up!, to roll their arm over.

sayn that ive started to use a 10oz baseball just to roll my arm over before i pitch and i find it very effective.

El:

If you were doing bench presses and lifted 8 ounces (the weight of s weighted basesball, do you think it would make you stronger. Go onto a baseball site and look for pitchers throwing. You will note that often you will see that their forearms and upper arms form a straight line away from their body. They are slamming their olecranon process of the ulna into the olecranon fossa of the humerus. They are slinging their arms out. They do not realize they are doing this but they are. Now put a weighted baseball in their hands. Picture that arm slinging out with the extra weight. As a responsible adult, you decide.

yeh i understand that, but you would never throw a weighted baseball as hard as you can, as i said i just use it to rol my arm over, throwin maybe 50% or less.

E:

I suppose if you are simply warming up with the weighted ball at very reduced intensities, it would be ok. 50% intensity would be too much. You must, however, practice pitching at maximum intensity assuming you plan on throwing at maximum intensity in a game. Teens should go nowhere near weighted baseballs.