With the growth in popularity of travel ball and pitch counts, coaches and parents alike are confused as to how much or how little their son should throw. Having sent close to 300 players to MLB and thousands of athletes into college baseball over my 50+ years of coaching I will stick with my old tried and true pitcher development programs. The ridiculous number of arm injuries and major surgeries today should be an indication that something is drastically wrong with today’s philosophies.
Two of my friends who were famous pitchers were both clocked in the 100 mph range way back in 1954 at Fort Dix Army base. Bob Feller from Iowa and Ray Narleski from New Jersey both came from similar backgrounds before pitching for the World Champion Cleveland Indians. They both did a lot of manual labor growing up on farms and they both believed in throwing tires on the side of a barn all the time. Both men were not very tall but they were very strong and explosive within their own frames. They both practiced throwing pretty much year-round, often throwing footballs when the weather changed. Throughout their careers, they pitched occasional doubleheaders where their pitch counts approached 200+ pitches and I can assure you they didn’t slow down much either!
Not to be a skeptic or sound like an old timer (which I am), but let’s look at some of the modern-day pitching trends. First off, pitchers are pitching in games pretty much year-round. NOT GOOD! That’s a recipe for disaster! MLB records show that when an MLB pitcher exceeds a certain number of pitches in a season (around 2900), surgery usually follows the next year! Heck, some of these 10-year-old travel players are throwing that much in a year. Dr. Andrews, one of the foremost authorities in the world on arm injuries, recommends a mandatory shutdown period where a pitcher refrains from competition for several months. As pitching guru Tom House has said for years, there is seven times more stress on the arm throwing off a mound as there is on flat ground. We recommend our players throw on flat ground except during the season when they limit themselves to so many starts.
Since most damage is done when the pitcher puts his arm in muscle failure, we must be very careful not to throw without significant rest and recovery. Young players are in the development stage and the key to the whole deal is not to rush it, get a college hat and shirt that won’t mean anything when you hurt your arm. We recommend Arm Care meters to monitor how much throwing our guys should do each day and at what intensity but we also keep an eye on pitch counts. A pitcher can put himself in muscle failure by throwing too many pitches in a game or by throwing too many pitches in an inning. If one of our pitchers exceeds 30 pitches in an inning he is done after that inning. Game pitch limits vary from pitcher to pitcher and this has to be constantly monitored from day to day. Feller and Narleski could throw 200 pitches a day as could many of the Japanese pitchers before they came to America. Once here we put them on an 80-100 pitch count and the next thing you know, that becomes their limit.
Here is a simple formula:
Ask the pitcher if his arm hurts, if it is numb, clicks, or is so stiff he cannot get loose. If any of those things occur, don’t throw another pitch. Of course, the first thing a coach has to do is to train his pitchers to let you know right away. We do this by saying your arm hurts a little, doesn’t it? It’s stiff or just feels funny, doesn’t it?
Like any other physical activity, pitching requires strength and the only way to build it is to throw a lot. It’s like a chromium battery. If all you ever do is throw 80 pitches, eventually that will be all you can do. Our young pitchers stay clear of weighted balls and focus more on Long Toss, Hand Speed Drills, and throwing some every day. We throw only flat ground work in the Off Season then add mound work twice a week at varying intensity levels as the season approaches. I honestly believe that throwing with a digital display is the reason so many players are throwing so hard these days and I believe the weighted balls help kids who are fully grown and still lack strength. I am not a gambler though and having had so many of my guys throw hard enough to make the big leagues I would not take the chance with my son throwing weighted balls until he’s full-grown.
Once again many of the pitching programs that recommend weighted balls are selling them to youngsters who really shouldn’t risk using them. The key is to stay healthy for many years so you can take the ball and pitch if you can find someone dumb enough to give you the ball. Pitch on the best team that you can be first string on. To be the man, you have to BE THE MAN!
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