Shoudn’t We Begin To Question Some Of Baseball Pitching Absolutes?

by Dick Mills on December 04, 2004

One of the ideas behind this blog…besides just pitching information is to make people think about the time they are spending trying to improve a pitcher's ability to become better at the skill of pitching.

There seem to be many baseball pitching absolutes about pitching mechanics, throwing programs, pitching strength and conditioning ideas that I believe should be questioned.

One of the biggest problems and confusion lies in not understanding that baseball pitching is first a skill activity…not a strength activity. For a pitcher to be successful he must ultimately take his skill to the mound and get hitters out. The less he does of that activity the less chance he has of being successful using better mechanics, developing velocity and of course command of his pitches.

Here is an idea that has floated around baseball for years and taken as a pitching absolute that I believe should be questioned by coaches if they want more effective pitchers who can go deeper into games. The idea being that you should not throw from the mound but instead should throw from flat ground because throwing from the mound is too stressful—or "a tearing down process." The focus of course being apparently to "save the arm."

Or to also throw short pitch bullpens of 30-40 pitches in order to get ready to throw a 100 pitch game. Can the developing pitcher—the high school, college or minor league pitcher get himself ready for 100 pitch game by throwing 30-40 pitches…maybe even at less than game intensity? I seriously question that.

This is the thinking by the flat ground throwing advocates: "You will throw harder off a mound because you are helped with acceleration from the decline, but as far as building arm strength and quickness the mound is not the way to go."

The idea here I don't believe makes much sense—to not do the only thing that can possibly make a pitcher more effective and more successful at getting hitters out…throwing from the mound at game intensity. That is how a pitcher will ultimately build his body so he has the capability to pitch deeper into games at full intensity. There is no other place to duplicate that than throwing from the mound. You just can't get it throwing from flat ground…even long toss.

In the effort to save the arm the pitcher prevents himself from getting better since pitching mechanics on flat ground are completely different than pitching mechanics throwing from the mound. The pitchers weight shift and weight transfer is different therefor his stride length on flat ground will be shorter. Because his stride is shorter his front leg will not stay flexed as long which will adveresely effect his ability to rotate his trunk properly. And because his stride is shorter his arm will not get into the correct throwing position. Trunk flexion position will also be different because the trunk will be more upright at ball release than while throwing from the mound.

Because everything is so different while throwing on flat ground then a bullpen thrown on flat ground or mechanics work on flatground will not transfer to throwing from the mound. A pitchers control or command of pitchers will also be different because his release point will also be different. The two activities are completely different and the pitcher's body will interpet them as completely different. This means that a pitcher who throws on flat ground will not get better for throwing from the mound.

For pitchers who have control problems no amount of flat ground throwing is going to help them get better for games because they are two completely different mechanical activities. If pitchers want to improve their mechanics, their control and their velocity they should follow the sports science Principle of Specificity which says that whatever activity you want to perform better at…in this case throwing from the mound in a game…you had better do it as closely as possible to the activity you will perform in game competition.

The pitcher's body must be conditioned to throw a certain number of pitches in game competition. For his body to be fully conditioned to throw downhill at game intensity it would not seem to make sense to not do that activity which is the only way possible to become better conditioned for game throwing.

No other sport that I know of has uses this type of training methodology to help an athlete get better. I know of no sport where athletes save themselves for the game. Their practices are as game specific as possible in order to get better for the next game. Pitching from the mound is about acceleration and deceleration. A pitcher's body must fully be trained to do both of those things at full game intensity if that is what he is expected to do in a game.

Could it be that the idea of saving the pitcher's arm by doing activities at less than game intensity or throwing on flat ground instead of the mound is one of the many reasons that pitchers are becoming injured more often…and why they cannot go deeper into games? It might be something that baseball should address since I do not see pitching getting any better with all the new training methodologies out there.

We seem to forget that pitching is a specific skill—a simple "two phase" movement that to be mastered must be done with proper mechanics as specifically as possible a lot of the time. And throwing from the mound at game intensity is the most specific activity that a pitcher can do to get better at hitting the glove, perfecting his pitches and ultimately being more effective making hitters more uncomfortable than they currently seem to be.

Playing catch on flat ground is certainly as activity that pitchers do regularly. However the idea that we should save pitchers by having them throw a bullpen on flatground is not going to help them improve for games or make them more successful.

If you have questions about this blog post or on any phase of pitching—mechanics, strength and conditioning, mental training, strategy send those questions to dickmills@gmail.com and I will answer them here.

If you want an explosive body and explosive mechanics you need to get my Free Report at www.pitching.nexcess.net. We won't waste your time. We show you how to recognize exactly what is holding back most pitchers…find the problem—fix the problem. I show you a comparison between two high school pitchers and a major league pitcher who throws mid to upper nineties. You will see the biggest problem that reduces velocity in the majority of pitchers.

(If you are a high school or college coach, ask for our special Free Coach's Report.)