Baseball Pitching Long Toss Disputed In May 5, 2010 Philadelphia Daily News Article

Here is an article that appeared in the May 5, 2010 Philadelphia Daily News regarding baseball pitching loss toss and why it is mostly a waste of valuable time for improving pitching performance or for reducing the risk of injuries. Bill Conlin is the sports writer.

Long toss also has been proven to increase elbow stress at distances greater than 180 ft. Studies have also proven that trying to improve arm strength for pitchers does not occur from more throwing since the non-throwing arm has proven to be just about as strong as the throwing arm.

Bill Conlin: Exposing the hazards of long-tossing | Philadelphia Daily News | 05/05/2010

I have written many articles about why long toss does not improving pitching performance and reduce the risk of arm injuries. In my book The Science And Art Of Baseball Pitching, which I co-wrote with Dr. Brent Rushall, we provided much evidence based on sports science training principles as to why long toss cannot possibly improve pitching velocity, performance or reduce the risk of injury.

Unfortunately long toss advocates such as Alan Jaeger have no understanding of sports science training principles. If he did he would not continue to perpetuate long toss nonsense which is one of the big reasons why so many pitchers never quite reach their full pitching potential today since they are not practicing how to get hitters out by improving their ball command or all their pitches.

Baseball is stepped in faulty beliefs made up every day and perpetuated endlessly.

There is no other sport that devotes as much practice time to such a completely irrelevant activity as is long toss for pitchers. Football quarterbacks do not invest time seeing how far they can throw a football. They only throw to specific moving targets. Why? To improve accuracy not arm strength. Tennis players do not serve long or hit longer than the court dimensions. Why? Accuracy is the key to winning…not power. Golfers to not just go out and try to hit longer and longer. Again…as Tiger Woods would tell you it is all about accuracy.

As Tommy John has said – long toss is for outfielders not for pitchers. And they do less of it than pitchers.

How is pitching accuracy or ball command today? Very poor indeed. Why? Not enough specific pitching from a mound with enough volume of pitches. Too many interfering practice activities that have no relationship to throwing from a mound to a target with all a pitcher’s pitches.

Here is a view from my co-author Dr. Brent Rushall, Ph.D regarding long toss. This is the scientific thinking and supported studies as to why long toss makes no sense for either improving pitching performance or reducing the risk of injury.
If you want to make some warm-up throws by throwing longer then fine. But a routine of long toss is interfering with actual pitching.

Long toss advocate Alan Jaeger would do well to answer some of the following questions and statements that reveal what sports science has to say about long toss. But since Alan Jaeger has a long toss school he has much at stake at perpetuating all the faulty beliefs about the value of long toss. The fact is there is NO evidence that proves long toss work to improve pitching velocity, performance or to reduce the risk of arm injuries.

Here are some statements regarding loss from Dr. Brent Rushall, Ph.D regarding what science has to say about long toss:

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, Ph.D

1. The long toss release angle is upward at anywhere from 20-40 degrees (not 45 degrees as is theoretically the best) while a pitcher throws flat or down mostly and has to organize all the segments to finish to project the ball almost flat or down. Thus, each demands a different trunk angle and support-leg position to achieve the required release angle.
2. With a long toss, you are not restricted as to what can occur at the start or finish of the throw and so actual forward momentum from a few lead up steps and follow through steps compensates for the single-leg and big trunk momentum of pitching (which is a substitute for the linear velocity developed from long-toss “running”).
3. Often with long toss, the aim is to get rid of the ball as soon as possible and that abbreviates some movements as long as the ball gets to its target with as little elapsed time as possible. Long tossers do not take the seconds that are usually consumed in the wind-up actions of many modern pitchers. While a pitcher wants substantial ball velocity, that can take as long as one likes but that is not what long toss or outfield throwing is about.

You just have to say “no matter what is hoped from long toss, or believed occurs in long toss, the brain does not record anything of value that is transferred into the movement patterns that are required for pitching”. That is the reality of it. That is the science of it. This fact has been known for well over a half a century. We included in our book on page 8.2:

Some historical elements in the development of the specificity of neuromuscular patterning. The most impressive early discussions (~90 years ago) mostly involved Frank Gilbreth’s recount of Sperry’s work, which disputed Poppelreuter’s Law. That work showed when an arm was extended vertically downward and the index finger slowly traced a 12-inch circle, a pattern of sequential firing of the shoulder muscles was displayed with most muscles assuming a propulsive (agonistic) function at one time and a control (antagonistic) function at another. However, when the same circle-tracing was sped-up, the sequence and functions of all the muscles were totally changed despite an observer seeing the “same action” done at a faster velocity (Arthur Slater-Hammel, personal communication, October, 1967).

Frances Hellebrandt (1958, 1972) summarized much of the main implications of the research on motor learning specificity that existed before the late 1950s. There has been little new information on this topic since then. Some of her conclusions and their implications are listed below.

“If muscles participate in more than one movement, as most do, they must be represented diffusely in the cortex. Presumably different centers connect via internuncial neurons with groups of peripherally disposed motor units. . . . motor units are activated in a definite sequence which varies with the movement elicited. As the severity of effort increases, those involved primarily in one movement may be recruited to assist in the performance of others” (Hellebrandt, 1972, p. 398).
Dr. Brent Rushall, Ph.D…END

Focusing on improving arm strength can have little to do with improving pitching velocity since the arm is basically along for the ride. The arm is used to control the ball but not to improve pitching velocity.

Without a video analysis most pitchers are just guessing about why they can not maximize their performance.

A video analysis is your best insurance policy against poor instruction, guaranteed improvement and added arm insurance against injury. http://www.pitching.com/video_analysis/

Our Explosive Pitching DVD program teaches parents how to help their sons use their bodies to pitch instead of just their arms. Not only does this improve velocity but reduces the risk of arm injuries. We also teach them proper conditioning.

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