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First I am not sure if “the really good and famous throwers never learned from a professional coach” I don’t have the data on this but I suspect many did and most now do. I agree great athletes can probably do anything without good coaching, however I am not sure if this statement is accurate.
I am assuming from what i have studied that a lot of the old pitchers like Bob Feller and Walter Johnson pretty much had their own self taught style. Walter Johnson, according to a lot of pitching philosophies today, should not even be able to throw like he did for 20+ years. I am not sure on all of the real data, perhaps they had pitching coaches, but it appears to me they developed their own styles short of any professional telling them what to do.
I agree with you though that pitchers today for the most part throw harder on average than those of yesteryear, I attribute most of that to the popularity of the sport coupled with the extreme competetiveness of the sport at the junior level. Travel ball certainly has contributed to building players to be so dominant at the college and pro level.
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Second, arm problems are on the rise, significantly in fact. Much of this is overuse at a young age, but some is also because athletes are pushing their bodies farther and farther than in the past.
I agree fully that arm problems are on the rise. I have watched several kids around my area burn up their arms in high school trying to win at all costs. Coaches are very guilty of teaching kids to throw even if it hurts, ya know- "lets just get this win then we'll rest you"! Parents can be equally as bad telling their son to "suck it up, we need the win".
I am in the camp of "kids don't throw enough". By this I don't mean they should pitch more. I actually believe in pitching less and training more- utilyzing planned and carefully watched throwing drills and bullpens on off days to better condition the arm. In games, both coaches and the players themselves get too caught up in the moment and allow pitching when fatigued. Better conditioning through more throwing could help alleviate this problem. It's always a warning sign to me when kids start getting warmed up and within 10 minutes of throwing their arms already hurt- and they are not even throwing real hard! This tells me they are not properly conditioned to throw- it's no wonder when they go in to pitch that they have really sore arms and fatigue way too soon.
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The problems of finding a knowledgeable coach can be difficult when you get outside of the larger cities or centers of baseball. The beauty of today is that the Internet has become a balancing factor. Information is so readily available that you can become knowledgeable enough on your own if you spend the time doing the research. An example of this is the article that CADad posted a few weeks ago by the Journal of Sports and Science. It is a marvelous article if you take the time to read it carefully. I just picked up two excellent resources from ASMI for $20. I am amazed at the information they provide for $10!
There will always be a few nut cases in any field, and pitching probably has their share, but if you talk to coaches who are current in their trade, really take the time to study and improve their knowledge, and stay current with the technology you will be surprised how consistent they are in their approach.
It's funny- I read that artical CADad posted and it took like two separate readings just to decipher it. Then I got out footage of son and watched each little thing they talked about in that article and felt quite relieved that it appears that at least what they say in their terms is what I have always thought and taught in my terms and that son is or may be doing things right mechanically speaking.
Maybe all we really need is more good interpreters between the jocks and the doctors! ASMI has done a wonderful and thourough job in their analyzing. They don't seem to have many pet theories- just watching footage of what the best already do and translate that into possible theories. Plus, I like their angle of coupling research to find better velocity with research also leading to better arm care. I have read all of their free stuff.
I guess my main problem I see is that there is the angle of one "naturally" being able to pitch all on their own without much professional help teaching them and that sometimes ill-informed coaches or instructors do more harm than good because they do not understand the correct fundamentals to mechanics. I have been studying it for 5 years now and still am pretty clueless on what is proper and what is not. The things I do know are so simple and fundamental that most coaches just overlook it thinking it should be more complex. perhaps they just want to be "know-it-alls" and not really discipline themselves into correctly knowing what is good and what isn't. I will say this- I can count all of the good pitching instructors I have run into on one hand and still have fingers left!
