Baseball Pitching Magic Bullets—Are They A Smokecreen For Not Understanding Mechanics

It seems that pitching has more and more hyped up “magic bullets” every year. Weighted baseballs are on top of the list.

Weighted baseballs have been around for over 30 years with little interest or success. They resurfaced a few years ago mainly because of the internet. For the unknowing, the appear to be an easy sell. And yet their is no known reason based on sports science principles as to why they could possibly work to produce more velocity. And now we have weighted vests as a new means to help boost pitching performance.

Why are these training aids then so popular and embraced by coaches and instructors alike? I believe because they are used as a smokecreen by instructors and coaches who simply do not fully understand the biomechanics of pitching. They know just enough to be dangerous. Teaching the skill of pitching mechanics requires a thorough understanding in order to make it simple to understand. Most coaches out there cannot do that. It is much easier to give a pitcher a drill to do or some activity that keeps them busy rather than show them the one thing that they must master if they want to throw at maximum velocity with consistent and better control—learn the skill of pitching mechanics…which requires lots of practice and patience. That is what other professional pitchers have had to do to get where they are. There is and never will be an easy way to learn an athletic skill such as pitching.

I spoke to a world reknown sports scientist a couple of weeks ago, who regularly consults for me and I mentioned the idea of using weighted vests to help pitchers…and he just laughed. He laughed because he has heard it all when it comes to coaches who make unfounded claims regarding ways of how to boost sports performance. The use of training aids such as weighted vests are backed by claims that sports scientist regularly refute based on extensive study and scientific proof. In other words they do not work but sure do sound good and so the public gets preyed upon once again looking for new and easier ways to reach the next level. We wonder why that new training ideas made up out of thin air are not really working to help produce more and more better pitchers.

Sports science, by the way, is backed by scientific principles that have been studied for years. These principles are similar to scientific laws such as the law of gravity which says that if you jump out a window you will always go down. Similarly, sports science has proven that the large majority of training aids and most drills do not produce better athletes. (more on the subject of drills in upcoming posts—why drills are not what they are cracked up to be and why most are a waste of time)

Baseball for some reason has not studied sports science to find better ways to train that have proven to work. Instead baseball gets away with inventing activities that will have no impact on better performance but instead will waste players time…such as the use of weighted baseballs or weighted vests. Or even the idea that long toss is going to produce more velocity.

What baseball parents, players and coaches must understand is that there is no magic way to better performance whether it’s velocity, control or injury prevention. But the public continues to look for the easy way. And pitching websites and coaches will continue to give them what they want. The easy way that will not work to reach better performance.

While at my home doing some consulting for All About Pitching a few months ago, this sports scientist viewed footage of the video that was produced by a former college pitcher whose website promises 5-13 mph velocity boost by using weighted baseballs, weighted vests and all sorts of special drills. After 5 minutes of watching the video he simply said: “rubbish.” In other words more hype with no basis in fact…used by these online instructors who have no understanding of how to train a pitcher but who come up new ways that have already been proven to be a waste of time.

One of the drills was to have the pitcher start at the top of the mound and then “crow hop” down while throwing as hard as possible. Does this make sense? I can tell you this that doing a crow hop while throwing is going to produce more velocity but that is not what pitchers do while pitching. This means none of what you do or accomplish while crow hopping will transfer to throwing while pitching. It all sounds good but it is a waste of time and energy.

Pitching from the mound requires starting from a stationary position while trying to generate energy moving the body away from a stationary back leg onto the front leg. There is little similarity between the two. This foolish drill violates one of the major principles of sports science—The Principle of Specificity. This means simply that if you crow hop throwing down the mound you will get better at crow hopping down the mound. But that movement will not transfer to pitching from a stationary position because it is not specific enough. The body interprets both as two completely different movements. Pitchers do not crow hop down the mound ever. Doing a drill that encourages this is encouraging pitchers to waste their valuable time.

This man, a PhD in sport science for over 30 years, is also a leading sports psychologist as well as a biomechanist who has spent his life studying athletic performance in all sports. He is a former Olympian and has consulted with dozens of world class athletes. One of his daily activities is to read six sports science studies and papers each day. Let’s just say that he has seen and read it all. But he is always looking for things that have proven to work.

Weighted baseballs for pitching or weighted vests have not proven to work and there is no sports science principle that will back up any claims that they should work…despite anecdotal testimonials that they do. The Principle of Overload does not apply because even weighted balls 6-14 oz are not heavy enough to make any pysiological change in the pitchers shoulder muscles. And even if they did, that additional strength would not be able to be used since pitching is not about strength anyway…it is about speed and explosiveness and how quickly all the muscles in the body can be put on stretch…not just the arm.

Baseball pitchers are no different than other athletes. Their bodies should train specificly to the explosive skill of pitching. The activities that a pitcher engages in should be as specific to the movement of pitching as possible. If they are not then they are a waste of time.