Pitchers Waste Time On Practice Activities That Do Not Work

by Dick Mills on October 09, 2008

One of the most important and yet least understood areas of pitching improvement by coaches at all levels, including professional baseball, is what to do in practice in order to help pitchers improve. Or what training activities to do during the off-season. 

There is a principle in sports science that is applicable to all sports. It's called the Principle Of Specificity. In simple terms it just means that the more a task is practiced, the better becomes the performance. When applied to pitching it means that the more you practice actual pitching the better you get at pitching. But it must be specific pitching...which would mean pitching from a mound at full game intensity...not 75% intensity.

The repetitions that are practiced must be physiologically, psychologically and mechanically similar to the game as possible. Some baseball coaches or instructors will claim to know about this important principle but most violate it based on what they advise for practice.

The Principle Of Specificity applied to pitching means that if you practice activities that are not similar to pitching your pitching will not improve but it will degrade.

As I have previously stated throwing programs such as long toss, flat ground throwing, weighted balls or drills, do not help established pitchers improve and yet waste a great deal of valuable time that pitchers can never get back. They violate the Principle of Specificity.

The following statement from my coauthor Dr. Brent Rushall on our book - The Science And Art Of Baseball Pitching - is a statement that has been proven in sports science for decades and yet baseball continues to ignore evidence based research regarding sports science training principles.  All that research is in our book which contains over 500 scientific references to back it up. http://www.pitching.com/product/the-science-and-art-of-baseball-pitching/

Those of you who continue to violate these principles because you are still using these activities or an instructor who believes in them, are cutting your son's potential short while wasting his valuable time.  You will not get this valuable practice time back.

If your son has already built a delivery then stop drills immediately, no matter what level he is in his pitching. Use the Pitching Backwards sequence we suggest instead of drills. (I'll speak more on Pitching Backwards in a future article.)

No Sport Activity Violates This Important Principle More Than Baseball Pitching

I know of no sport activity that violates the Principle Of Specificity more than baseball pitching. After all how much time do you actually see pitchers practicing pitching? It seems to me that they do everything but practice actual pitching with such emphasis on long toss or flat ground pitching. But how can these practice activities help pitchers get hitters out? How can they improve velocity. Control or the ability of a pitcher to develop more skillful pitches.  They can't and they never will.

This lack of actual mound pitching at game intensity not only reduces performance, velocity and control but increases the risk of arm injury since pitchers are simply not fit to actually pitch. The only way to replicate the movement speed of pitching is to pitch.

No pitching drill or any amount of extra strength training can do that do. They can only slow down and disrupt actual pitching mechanics.  So the solution for pitching improvement today actually degrades performance and leads to more injuries.

Why Not Practice All Winter Long?

Many of our clients pitch all winter long in their basements, garages or at baseball facilities where they can rent an indoor mound. For those who want to improve their pitching skills then at least two practice sessions a week is warranted. Nothing wrong with three in which case you could pitch Mon., Wed. And Fri. and take the weekend off for recovery.

We of course recommend that sessions be regularly videotaped so pitchers can see which faults are creating problems and also knowing when improvement is happening.  However, most instructors do not videotape for the simple reason that they have scant knowledge of pitching mechanics.

Strength Training Is A Dead End For Improving Velocity

Pitchers and coaches alike must understand that investing time into strength training in the off-season is a dead end road since the Principle Of Specificity applies to training and conditioning as well. Pitching is simply not a strength activity. Pitching requires explosive movements. If pitchers train slow using weight training their bodies will learn to move slow. Thus strength training reduces the ability of pitchers to improve velocity and increases the risk of injury.

Here is Dr. Rushall's statement regarding practice. Keep in mind this could apply to pitching drills, flat ground throwing, weighted balls, just playing catch as well as conditioning.

"What are the skill elements in long-toss that match those of pitching? If there are similar elements how does the body learn to transfer those elements between the two activities? What is the mechanism that provokes the body to make such a transfer? Of course, the answer is that there is no transfer. The body is equipped to tell the difference between activities and is not equipped to realize similarities. Because of this, similar activities lead to performance confusion/degradation rather than performance refinement. When activities are similar, such as with different pitches, many specific trials with discriminatory feedback are required to teach the pitcher the subtle differences between the activities so that the individual pitches can be thrown with admirable levels of control and not display irrelevant elements of the others.     Dr. Brent Rushall, PhD