It’s Difficult To Fight Baseball Pitching Beliefs About Weight Training
by Dick Mills on November 15, 2004
Here is an email that I got recently regarding an article on my website that this person does not agree with. I assume this is either a high school or college pitcher. He did not say.
Can you see how belief has clouded his understanding of what we are saying. I am not saying never to do any weight training but rather that most of it is wasted time and effort. This pitcher believes that what professionals do must be the right thing to do and that their two hours of conditioning after games is the reason for their success.
He also believes that scouts are educated in training techniques.
He finds the information confusing because he has a belief that he wants to support very badly. He doesn't want to know that pitching success is mostly related to your mechanics, your ability to command your pitches and how explosive your body is. And your growth and development. Especially if you are a late developer. And that pitching is far more about skill than strength.
Kids would much rather work in the weight room because they can see results fairly quickly. They can say—"see I am getting stronger, therefor I should be able to throw harder." And if after an offseason of weight training they see that their velocity improves what do you think they reason is the cause- the weight training of course. They have no understanding of growth and development.
Mastery of pitching requires lots of practice, patience and perserverance. Gains do not necessarily come quickly. Kids want instant success. And you can get lots of good looking results from weight training by simply looking in the mirror and the results will show.
Can you see what we are up against. But when you know this you cannot lie about it. We do not want people to waste time that they cannot get back.
"Even the most general of scientist would agree with me that a good basis of strength and condition along with flexibility would benefit anyone including pitchers, Eric Gagne works out 2 hours after games he only had 80 saves in a row, your scientific studies are based on people who never picked up a baseball in their life, I see what your saying about Clemens and being heavier, but do you not think all that preparation and conditioning helps him throw 90+ mph at 42 years old, along with Nolan Ryan who threw his 7th no hitter at the age of 41 or something like that ( Ryan was still throwing 95+ at 41)
The basis where you get your information from is scientific yes but these are the same people that told Lance Armstrong he could probably never ride again when he had cancer.
Pitching is an explosive action I agree with you there but let's look at another sport, power lifting? If Olympic power lifters never lifted nor did anything explosively do you believe they could put up the same amount of weight they do now?
Now that maybe a far stretch but its based on the same principles. With that being said and you saying "strength training does not improve even football performance and much of football does require strength."
Justify why scouts use the bench press at columbines for draft picks? It just doesn't add up, makes no sense and is confusing to even the likeliest of readers, sorry Dick." End…
More than likely this same pitcher would not even believe the following study. And there are many, many like this that baseball strength coaches do not want you to know about.
TO IMPROVE SPEED MOVE FAST AND FORGET STRENGTH TRAINING Kluckhuhn, K. L., Signorile, J. F., Miller, P. C., Webber, B. C., & Garcia, M. (1997).
An analysis of high-speed isokinetics and pitching. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 29(5), Supplement abstract 1273.
The importance of strength, power, and acceleration were investigated in baseball fastball pitching. The only variables that related to pitching were those associated with speed. Acceleration and power at the fastest movement speeds accounted for almost all fastball pitching variance (99%).
Strength was not related to speed of movement and therefore, should not be a variable considered when training for speed.
Implication. To improve pitching speed it is necessary to train for speed first. This is best done by consistently trying to move and exceed previous maximum velocity. Any training that does not allow maximum speed in a trial will be useless and could be detrimental.
The use of strength training, which does not allow maximum movement speed, will not enhance speed of movement.
Video analysis is the key to pitching improvement. And so isn't building functionial strength and flexibility. This is what I have been focusing on in our Explosively Pitching DVD program since 2004. We teach parents how to help their sons use their bodies to pitch instead of just their arms. And how to get specifically stronger for pitching without losing flexibility. Not only does this improve velocity but reduces the risk of arm injuries. http://www.pitching.com/products/
"My 14 year old son's velocity jumped 12 mph, his control improved dramatically and his arm pain vanished. For the first time since he has been pitching, he finally understands what he is doing...what causes the ball to do what it does and how his body functions to be effective...now that is priceless."
Mark A Smith, Downers, Grove, IL
