Youth Baseball Pitching Instruction

In this day and age of advanced technology and analytical evaluation, it is very easy to be caught in a web of paralysis by over analysis. Many times I have witnessed the young ball player focused on data and information that contributes zero to the advancement of his feel for the art of pitching. This data overload has taken us away from the focus of winning baseball games and in a pitching sense, executing the next quality pitch. The advancement of technology has created an excellent way to analyze performance but it has not improved the concepts of coaching and instruction for youth baseball players, especially pitchers. The concept of analyzing performance is a good one, but the need to understand what the feeling of a particular motor skill or movement pattern that results in a positive performance should be the primary goal.

Everywhere on the internet, you can be bombarded with advertisements for increasing velocity. Very rarely do you see “pitching gurus” promote the concept of the art of pitching. Control, command and the execution of the next pitch are a few of the areas that are being forgotten in today’s game. The largest misunderstanding being perpetrated is an increase in velocity is the only way to get noticed by recruiters and scouts. This creates a cause and effect relationship between the two that is short sighted and many times harmful for the young pitcher.

"Youth baseball players, especially pitchers, face the challenge of the general unnatural motion of pitching and this force upon their bodies. Combine the force of pitching with potential poor throwing mechanics and there is little doubt as to why there is an increase in overuse injuries." (Augustine, E. L., 2017). The primary goal in developing young pitchers is not velocity. The proper primary goal should be the the improvement and refinement of proper throwing techniques and pitching mechanics. The efficiency of movement through the kinetic chain to produce force on the baseball is the key. A majority of these "improve your velocity" programs focus on increased strength levels and movement patterns that create excessive torque on elbows, shoulders, knees and backs.

Another side effect of the focus on velocity is the overwhelming amount of data and concepts that overload the mind of the youth pitcher. When a 12 or 14 yr old pitcher asks what was his spin rate during his bullpen session, the overload is definitely mind numbing. Once the analytical portion of the brain kicks in, the feeling part is shutdown. During a bullpen session, the emphasis should be on the feel of repeating the movement patterns of the pitching delivery. Words, data and concepts are a definite hinderance to the development of feel in the throwing motion.

"If you compare multiple pitchers who throw the same mph, some will have higher torques than others. Not everyone who throws 92 mph is experiencing the same torque on their arm. Furthermore, one pitcher could throw 91 mph, another could throw 95 mph, and they both could experience the same elbow torque, on average. This clearly suggests that mechanics play a role in limiting elbow torque during a baseball pitch, but that topic is outside the scope of this post." (O'Connell, M., 2019). For now we know there is a correlation between velocity and torque. Even though torgue levels are not necessarily the same in different pitchers. Using these facts, we can reason that the pure emphasis of improving velocity can also increase the possibility at injury. Throwing techniques and improvement of pitching mechanics is essential for long term health. Improvement in these areas is directly tied to the development of feel for the individual's movement patterns.

The importance of feel becomes essential for not only long term health but also execution of the next quality pitch. Remembering that each pitcher is unique and their training and development should be tailored to what is best for them to improve the feel for what they are doing.

References

Augustine, E. L. (2017). Overuse Injuries on the Rise in Youth Baseball: Why?. BOC: Board Certification For Athletic Trainers. https://www.bocatc.org/blog/overuse-injuries-on-the-rise-in-youth-baseball-why

McConnell, M. (2019). Injury Risk, Performance, and Velocity. Driveline Baseball. https://www.drivelinebaseball.com/2019/03/injury-risk-performance-velocity/