Articles
Want to be notified by email when a new article is posted? Subscribe to our free article feed.
Weight Training Causes Shoulder Surgery For 15 Year Old Pitching Phenom
by Dick Mills on October 01, 2008
Weight training can lead to injury for high school, college or professional pitchers. A high school PE teacher recently forced a top phenom high school pitcher do perform a maximum effort bench press. This foolish act caused a severe shoulder injury that lead to surgery. This story below is about this 15 year old high school freshman pitcher, who was throwing 88 mph prior to getting injured at the hands of a misinformed PE teacher. This should be a wake up call to parents, coaches and players. And to conditioning coaches who believe that strength training is vital for all sports activities. They have not read the research. You had better. Read more.
Off Season Training Can Improve Velocity And Reduce Pitching Arm Injuries
by Dick Mills on October 01, 2008
High school and college pitchers who are looking for more velocity next season will not find it from excessive weight training. In fact, weight training may be a leading cause of pitching arm injuries while actually reducing pitching velocity. The preoccupation of doing lots of "arm care" exercises does not seem to have reduced the amount of pitching arm injuries. Focusing on keeping the arm strong is a dead end since it has been proven that velocity comes from elastic energy from the explosive stretching out of the pitcher's body into a long stride. Read more.
Pitcher’s Training Activities For Building Arm Strength
by Dick Mills on September 24, 2008
Coaches and instructors continue to invent pitching training activities designed to build more arm strength and thus more velocity. Here are two from a high school coach. Will these two work to help get pitchers to 90 mph quickly? Read more.
Off Season Training For Pitchers Can Waste Valuable Time
by Dick Mills on September 22, 2008
The claims of how pitchers should train during the off-season are coming high and hard from baseball schools all over the country and from roving clinics. This will go on into the offseason. Here is one claim below that is very enticing. This philosophy is being sold all over the country in the form of a franshise to baseball schools and even college coaches who apparently are just stupid and desperate. Investing time during the off-season on these types of actvities will make it impossible for pitchers to improve or be ready for next season. Many will end up injured and far less skilled than before they started these programs. Read more.
How To Boost Velocity During The Off-Season Like Tim Lincecum
by Dick Mills on September 17, 2008
If pitchers want to improve pitching velocity then just maybe coaches should try eliminating time-wasting activities such as drills, long toss or flat ground pitching and then educate themselves about pitching mechanics. What if instructors instead taught their students how to videotape their mechanics and find those actions...those hidden common faults within their delievery that prevent all pitchers from producing more force and thus why most never maximize their pitching velocity. So what should pitchers do during the off-season to maximize their velocity for next spring? Read more.
5 Pitching Workout Myths That Waste Pitcher’s Time And Don’t Lead To Improvement
by Dick Mills on September 10, 2008
First of all there are no pitching velocity exercises that will help improve a pitcher's fastball. None. Hopefully you know why. Pitching is not a strength activity. And investing too much time on flexiblity exercises can reduce velocity and lead to arm injuries. The large majority of high school, college and professional coaches do not understand that. They all believe that extra strength and flexibility is important. But why do they feel that way? Read more.
A Pitching Workout Emphasizing Flat Ground Pitching - Does It Make Sense?
by Dick Mills on August 31, 2008
A pitching guru who claims to be a best selling author and who has 100 something videos on YouTube recently said that he recommends pitchers spend 80% of their pitching workout time pitching on flat ground and only 20% pitching from the mound. Does this make sense to anyone? It shouldn't. In fact, it is foolish. Let me explain why. Read more.
Is A Slow And Controlled Delivery Killing Your Pitching Velocity?
by Dick Mills on August 27, 2008
Many pitching instructors will tell pitchers to slow down their delivery in order to improve their mechanics. But does this make sense? Find out why If your pitching practice workout is always at a slow pace why then you cannot maximize your velocity. If you train slow then your arm will move slow and your velocity will suffer. Read more.
Minor League Pitching Coach Says Today’s Pitching Instruction Is Hogwash
by Dick Mills on August 25, 2008
St. Louis Cardinals Minor League pitching coordinator Brent Strom recently admitted that today's pitching instruction is not only flawed but is basically HOGWASH. He basically said that not much of what is being taught today makes sense such as teaching the balance position, pull the glove in, slow down or stay back. Strom has recently begun studying the old time pitchers and feels they used their bodies more effectively because they moved more naturally rather than having been coached. This should get parents to sit up and pay attention to who they are hiring or listening to as a pitching instructor for their sons. Read more.
Giants’ Tim Lincecum…Apply 5 Steps To Boost Any Pitcher’s Velocity
by Dick Mills on August 23, 2008
Is Giants' Tim Lincecum a freak of nature because at 5'10" 170 lbs. he is able to throw 95-100 mph fastballs using explosive pitching mechanics? I don't think so and I will explain why many more pitchers may be able to reproduce what Tim Lincecum is doing to boost their velocity and overall performance. Yes, even small skinny guys. Read more.