What’s Wrong With Baseball Pitchers Using Weighted Vests

There is actually a program right now that many of you may know about that recommends the use of not only weighted balls but also weighted vests.

Why would a pitcher not want to use a weighted vest? And why does it violate a what a pitcher is trying to ultimately achieve?

Response:

Speed. Quickness.

When I ran track, over 30 years ago, we would work in the weight room and do overload pulling drills to build strength. After each exercise we were immediately required to stretch the muscles we were working. The reason given was that long , thin muscle tissue contracts further, and faster, than short bulky muscle tissue. Makes sense to a layman like me that shorter cells, no matter how fat, cannot contract as far, or as fast, as longer thinner cells that have equal strength.

Bulk is the enemy to quickness. Which is faster, the cheetah or the rhino, lineman or wide out? I know which ones are stronger and faster. Pitching is a whiping motion, the arm and associated muscles need strength to resist injury but flexibility and quickness are crucial ingredients in developing velocity.

When you use overload equipment your motion speed decreases and creates slower muscle memory. It is counter to building speed or explosiveness. To me it seems like a one step forward two step back program.

Can stretching help someone who does these overloads, yes — but slower muscle memory is still created. How can you overcome that?

To me working on core strength seperately from working on quickness, bypassing the issues of muscle memory, seems like the logical way to go.

My response:

You are right on.

When we train and condition we are teaching the muscles through our nervous system how we want them to react and respond. If we use overload training (additional weight) in an activity like pitching that is dominated by the element of speed, we are training the muscles to move slower.

Explosiveness is about how quickly we can put a muscle on stretch. Strap on a 10 lb weighted vest and we are telling the system to slow down. Makes no sense.

The same goes for weighted baseballs.

We also know that static stretching prior to throwing adversely effects velocity and that is why we want to do a dynamic warm up.

If you train slow in the weight room, do distance running or do something really stupid like strap on a weighted vest, you are teaching the body how to be slow. That is not a good prescription for developing more explosiveness and ultimately more velocity.

If you have questions 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 what works and what has been proven to work. I show you a comparison between two high school pitchers and a major league pitcher who throws mid to upper nineties. Find out why you do not have powerful mechanics.