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In a time when arm injuries are occurring at an alarmingly high rate in all levels of baseball, throwing programs are a hot topic. This is especially true for those who have undergone a surgery.When it comes to throwing programs some experts believe that you should long toss to increase arm strength and promote health. Others believe that you should add weighted balls to your regimen, and some even think that you should cap your throwing distance.
One of the top experts in this field is Allen Jaeger, the founder of Jaeger Sports. He is constantly promoting about ways to help improve the arm through listening to and understanding your own arm and body. On his website, Allen posts both an off season and in season throwing program. One of the keys to Allen’s programs is to constantly push yourself beyond your own perceived limits of how far you can throw in a controlled and safe manner. As Allen stats in an article for Collegiate Baseball Newspaper “isn't one of the most fundamental principles of training and development to push beyond your limitations (which is why you run more to build up endurance, lift more if you want to get stronger).”1
In recent years, Allen’s ways have taken hold in the baseball community, and as people normally do, they become more aware of things and they add there own twist to things and see what they can improve upon. One company in particular to do that is Driveline Baseball run by Kyle Boddy. Driveline baseball takes the same concept of continually pushing one to their limits by using a weighted ball program that deals with under and overloads training to help with both fastball velocity but also arm durability.2
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Lastly on the other end of the spectrum there is the school of thought by some organizations, even in the MLB that a player should not throw past 120 feet. Some of the reasons behind this are, that by staying within the 120ft range the player is keeping a consistent release point as well as not overusing the arm and putting to much of a workload on it. There are holes in this type of thinking though, as stated by Marcus Elliott, Director of Sport Science and Performance for the Seattle Mariners “The 120 ft program is a model that was developed a couple decades ago for rehabbing throwers. This is important, but it wasn't created with an interest in athletic performance or maximal development.” 3
At the end of the day whether you're a coach, player, or parent, you have many choices in what type of throwing program best fits you or your athlete. What needs to be decided is how does the arm feel, what does it need, and what is it capable of on that given day. By knowing these things the athlete will be able to put themselves in a better position to succeed.
References
1.Jaeger, A. (n.d.). Throwing Programs Of Elite Pitchers. Retrieved January 26, 2015,
2.Boddy, K. (2010, October 27). Weighted Baseball Training for Pitchers -
Overload/Underload Principles. Retrieved January 26, 2015, from http://www.drivelinebaseball.com/2010/10/27/weighted-baseball-training-for-pitchers-overload-underload-principles/
3.Jaeger, A. (n.d.). WebBall.com - Why 120' long toss is not enough. Retrieved January
26, 2015, from http://www.webball.com/cms/page4581.cfm
everyone was told growing up that throwing weighted balls will hurt your arm. How does this weighted ball program help develop arm strength and prevent the pitchers arm from getting hurt?
ReplyDeleteIn high school and growing up I was always told to not lift any heavy weights when training for baseball. I was under the conclusion that heavy weight lifting of any kind would tighten up your muscles. Our baseball coach told us that heavy weight lifting during baseball season would increase risk of injury. Is the heavy ball training different from heavy weight lifting?
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