Why Flat Ground—Lower Intensity Bullpens And Drills Do Not Help Pitchers Improve

Does it make sense for baseball pitchers to throw flat ground bullpens with less than game intensity in an effort to improve for the next game? Or doing lots of pitching drills?

In the past week I have heard from two college pitchers who are concerned that their velocity is less than it normally is and they can’t figure out why. It’s a complete mystery to them and worse yet to their pitching coaches since it is the pitching coach who plans their throwing routine.

To find out why I always ask some probing questions about their weekly throwing and conditioning routine and their answer usually provides the solution to their problem.

Many pitchers—especially those in the bullpen simply do not throw enough at game intensity in order to maintain their body and their arm for the stresses and intensity of game throwing. And worse than that is that these coaches have their pitchers throwing on flat ground instead of the mound. Or wasting time doing drills that will not convert to game instensity mechanics.

The question that these pitching coaches ought to be asking is simple. Will flat ground throwing at less than game intensity help a pitcher get ready to throw from the mound at game intensity? Even if these pitchers were throwing at game intensity why on earth would you have them practicing on flat ground when they are expected to get hitters with all their pitches under pressure while throwing downhill from a mound?

Wouldn’t it make sense to train the body to throw hard by throwing under conditions that will help it be trained to throw hard for the game.

One of the college pitchers that I heard from said that not only did the bullpen pitchers throw on flat ground but most of their throwing was done with feet spread out and front foot already planted.

Does a pitcher ever throw from this position in a game? Of course not. Then how would that type of throwing which is completely foreign to a pitcher ever be able to help him perform better? It won’t and it can’t.

In fact, this drill—throwing from the plant position is stressful to the arm because the arm does not get the forces that are developed by shifting the weight moving from the back leg to the front leg. This drill is is actually promoting arm injury.

Those pitchers who are asked to throw on flat ground might as well get a javelin and go practice with track and field to get their throwing in since throwing a javelin and throwing on flat ground with feet spread out have no relationship to throwing a baseball in a game.

Why is the solution for improved or more consistent velocity with control for these pitchers so difficult for pitching coaches to figure out? It’s simple—because they do not understand that if you want a pitcher to improve his performance in a game that you must give him the opportunity to throw more precisely under game conditions.

The only way to accomplish mastery in pitching is to throw as much as possible as close to game conditions as possible from a mound at game intensity.

Can college or high school pitchers get better during the season by doing drills or throwing on flat ground? No they cannot.

Can college or high school pitchers improve performance from one game to the next by throwing at less than game intensity…whether throwing on flat ground or while doing mostly useless pitching drills? No they cannot.

But why not? It all has to do with a sports science law called the Principle of Specificity…which is a guiding principle for improvement in any sport. It simply implies that if you want to improve in a sport you had better spend most of your time…especially during the season…doing the activity of the sport at game intensity under game conditions. Neither flat ground throwing or doing pitching drills qualifies as “under game conditions.”

What pitching coaches must stop promoting is the idea that any physical practice that resembles baseball pitching even at less than game intensity or on flat ground or doing drills will contribute to a game performance. Sport science has proven over the past 50 years or so that very little of non-specific activity (non-game) will help get an athlete ready for the game.

The problem is that these non-specific activities keep the pitcher in a general state of training that does not help him be fully trained for the specific act of throwing in a game. This could very well be why the majority of promising high school pitchers do not continue to improve at the college level but remain stagnant pitching at less than their potential. It may also be why these high school and college pitchers are not seeing velocity improvement or performance improvements from one game to the next. And why their pitch command does not improve while throwing at full intensity.

Why then do pitching coaches devise routines that will not help a pitcher perform better during games? Aren’t baseball games the only place where a pitcher will ultimately be judged on his ability to perform?

These non-specific training routines such as inseason weight lifting or throwing on flat ground or doing drills are designed like this because that is what the large majority of baseball coaches think that pitchers should do because they learned it from the larger majority of established or veteran baseball coaches…who also clearly do not know.

The collective pitching coach community has clearly not ever asked the question—how will this activity that I am asking my pitchers to perform help them perform better during games?

For parents and pitchers at the high school level who have the skill and ability to play college baseball, may want to ask these questions when deciding on a school to attend.

After all you don’t want your son wasting his time and his career do you?

Also if you as a parent plan to invest in hiring an instructor, plan to follow a particular program or go to a clinic during the next year, you may want to think twice if you find drills or gimmicks are a large part of pitching instruction.

Dick Mills www.pitching.nexcess.net

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 to improve velocity and control while reducing sore arms you need to get my Free Report. 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, a Little League pitcher 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 by emailing me dickmills@gmail.com