Mark Prior’s Shoulder Surgery: Did The Towel Drill And “Scap Loading” Ruin His Career?

Scapula loading, or “scap load” as popular instructors refer to it, as a way to improve pitching velocity, may go down as the most irresponsible piece of coaching advice since weighted baseballs.

Then we have the famous towel drill, designed to help a pitcher get more arm extension so he is closer to the plate at ball release. This too does not work as proposed and is far from a valuable tool for improving pitching mechanics.

And yet, Mark Prior has been using both of these techniques to draw him closer and closer to shoulder surgery over the past four years. Now he will finally go under the knife of Dr. James Andrews, the noted orthopedic from Birmingham. This is the same Mark Prior who supposedly had perfect mechanics after his first full season in the major leagues when he went 18-6 during 2003.

Since then he has been on the disabled list 8 times with elbow, shoulder, and leg injuries. I feel badly for Mark Prior. His mechanics have been suspect from day 1.

Not only does he not use his lower body properly to get his trunk and throwing arm closer to the plate but the “scap loading” of his shoulder coupled with his poor lower body mechanics has been in the spotlight for all to observe for the past four years.

And yet, nothing has changed. Kerry Wood, Mark Prior, Rich Harden, Carl Pavano, Jaret Wright. These are all pitchers who were highly regarded and yet have had constant arm problems over the past several years. I call them “upper body” throwers. They all try to get their velocity from their upper body and arm instead of by using their lower bodies to take the stress from their arm.

This reminds me of a client, who was a highly ranked college left-handed pitcher who was a shoe-in to be a late first round or second round draft pick. But he wanted another 3-4 mph on his 88-91 mph hour fastball going into the draft. He turned to a pitching guru who proposed the towel drill. This pitcher used the towel drill because it was a Mark Prior arm action tool. Be careful whom you follow because you may just follow them over the cliff.

The father of this top lefty called me the following Spring concerned that his son’s fastball was now floating between 83-84 mph…far off the upper 80s and low 90s he was accustomed to. I had observed his son’s mechanics many times and once made a special trip to see him pitch against ASU…as a favor to his father. I asked his father what had changed. When he told me who he had worked with I asked about the towel drill. He said yes, he had been doing it regularly because it helped Mark Prior. I knew then why his velocity had dropped. But it was too late.

The towel drill had changed him and under the pressure of the biggest season of his life, he could not change back. He got drafted in the 23rd round, which cost him close to $1 million dollars or more in lost bonus money. And in just two years he was out of baseball.

Both he and his parents were devistated. All because of poor coaching advice. We know that every parent, player, or coach wants to know how to improve pitching velocity, but only a very, very few understand how to do it. Why? Because improving pitching velocity has little to do with improving arm strength…despite what most coaches and players believe.

Sports science research does not support this idea. Or fooling with the arm at all. Sports science supports the idea that if you want more pitching velocity and less risk of injury then focus on gaining more forward momentum into a longer stride. That not only will improve velocity, but will take the pressure off the arm.

In fact, if pitchers focus on the arm as the source of velocity they will not only waste time but will get closer to injury. Because of the focus today on building arm strength, we see many “upper body” pitchers who don’t use the momentum of the lower body to speed up the arm. They have coaches telling them to stride out to what is comfortable or to stride shorter. These pitchers end up with arm injuries or constant sore arms. And never reach their full velocity potential.

Studies have proven that the non-throwing arm is just about as strong as the throwing arm. So if activities such as long toss or weighted balls improved arm strength, wouldn’t the throwing arm be much stronger than the non-throwing arm? The evidence and science say no.

What parents should understand is that velocity increases in high school pitchers come mostly from normal growth and development. High school pitchers, without doing anything else, will see improvements of as much as 20 mph in four years.

Over-coaching pitchers is actually what is hurting them because coaches do not understand enough about pitching mechanics or how the body works to develop velocity. Most coaches believe velocity is a strength issue.

The important question all parents, players and coaches should ask is that if weighted baseballs or long toss or some remarkable conditioning program worked to improve velocity in high school pitchers, why doesn’t it work to continuously improve velocity in college or professional pitchers who are finished growing? Shouldn’t it work for everyone? Wouldn’t professionl baseball put every mid-eighties velocity pitcher on a weighted ball program? But they don’t. Because the only “seem” to work on growing and developing pitchers.

About six years ago, an individual by the name of Paul Nyman invented something that is referred to now as scapula loading as a new way to improve pitching velocity. I opposed this from the very beginning as something that should never be taught.

Then some other pitching instructors jumped on the bandwagon and started to irresponsibly promote scapula loading. Scapula loading is now being taught and heavily promoted at clinics across the county and those promoting it and the coaches and instructors who teach it are clearly misinformed and have not considered the negatives. I believe this is going to hurt a lot of aspiring pitchers.

So what is scapula loading, why shouldn’t it be taught and why is it dangerous to pitchers of all ages and levels of pitching? Scapula loading is when the pitcher, as part of the action of his arms lifts his arm up toward shoulder height but then also pulls his elbows back behind his shoulders…or intentionally pinches his shoulder blades together in order to provide more range of motion and added extension of the throwing arm so that more elastic energy is available to help whip the arm through.

However, scap loading is not a natural action, but is a forced action. Forced actions where joints are pushed beyond normal ranges of motion are dangerous. Mark Prior would be a good example of a pitcher who uses scapular loading as part of his throwing arm action.

Notice that Mark Prior has been continuously injured over the past four years and is again injured this year. Mark Prior also makes things even worse by not using his lower body properly. If you watch video clips of Mark Prior, it is clear that he does not stay on a bent front leg long enough but rather begins to extend and stiffen his front leg much too early which puts additional stress on his throwing arm…and actually prevents him from releasing the ball closer to the plate.

I believe Mark Prior’s arm problems for the past four years are possibly because he has been preoccupied with his arm action instead of focusing on using his lower body explosively and efficiently. This may have been due to his using the towel drill to gain more arm extension in an effort to get closer to the plate.

However, not moving fast enough using a longer stride and staying on a bent leg long enough actually pushes his trunk back instead of allowing him to rotate and flex his trunk forward so his arm is closer at ball release. Lifting the throwing elbow up so that it is positioned above shoulder level or is extended back behind the shoulder puts additional pressure and is much more stressful on the shoulder joint. Plus this should never be coached.

Pitchers should reach natural ranges of motion and because throwing is a natural action, the pitcher’s body understands this better than a coach. Pitchers will reach their natural and normal range of motion if they are left alone. To coach this into a pitcher’s arm action may be dangerous.

There are many hard throwers who did not extend their arms back like scapula loading. Nolan Ryan is one. His focus and his velocity came from an explosive lower body and an exceptionally long stride well beyond his height…rather than focusing on what his arm was doing. In fact, we have identified a slightly low elbow as possibly a presciption against shoulder injury because there is less stretched and stress forces on the connective tissue at the shoulder.

Two pitchers come to mind. If you look at photos of both Barry Zito or Mark Buehrle, at the landing position, notice their slightly low elbow position. Also check out Nolan Ryan. Is gaining possibly 2-3 mph hour by “scap loading” at the expense of a pitcher’s shoulder important? It is far easier to gain velocity by focusing on lower body speed and the momentum from the large muscles of the entire body rather than on the arm which provides very little total velocity.

If pitchers want to get very friendly with an orthopedic surgeon, then scapula loading may be one of the best ways to do that. For improved velocity with less risk of injury, pitchers should shift their focus on to building more momentum for increasing their stride length to at least 100% of their height or preferably several inches beyond…like Tim Lincecum, the 5’10″, 170 lbs pitcher for the Giants who throws 95-100 mph. He too does not scapula load his shoulder.

As mentioned previously, he gets his velocity from forward momentum and a stride that is 123% of his height. The arms when left alone and directed in a path in line with the pitcher’s trunk will normally take care of themselves. After all throwing is a natural activity that has been around for millions of years. 99% of professional pitchers were not coached in their arm action. Those that were are the ones who end up with arm problems.

It is our coaches today who continue to over-coach every little aspect of a pitcher’s delivery which is actually producing the opposite effect intended…a slow, robotic and mechanical delivery that produces over-thinking pitchers.

WARNING: Scap loading and weighted baseballs should provide a big red flag for all parents and pitchers. When coaches begin to tell you that by doing these types of “arm actions” or certain arm strength activities that you will improve pitching velocity then run the other way as fast as possible. The arm is not the source of pitching velocity. It is the momentum of the body into a long stride that provides velocity.

In our book, The Science And Art Of Baseball Pitching, we discussed why both of these activities not only do not work but are dangerous and time wasting. What the masses are doing you should stay away from because that’s where you will find mediocrity and disappointment. Do what others are not willing to do because you have the knowledge.

Don’t follow the crowd of pitchers or coaches over the cliff. There are proven ways to improving pitching velocity and none of them I know of has to do with the throwing arm.