The Intersection of Enlightenment

Along my career path, I have always wondered about the key ingredients for success at the highest level of play.  What is interesting is that my findings are consistent throughout all of baseball. 

Everything points to:

1. Throwing arm strength,
2. Biomechanics,
3. Motor learning,
4. and Psychology. 

In this week's newsletter, I want to communicate why these aspects are essential to today's pitcher and then connect everything to a special guest on our podcast, Dr. Rob Gray, Associate Professor of Human Systems Engineering at Arizona State University.  

Throwing Arm Strength

Throwing arm strength seems to be an obvious key ingredient, but not in the way you are thinking. Sure, we want our athletes to have a strong arm to throw at faster velocities, but we need arm strength to SUSTAIN velocity.

One of the goals of having high arm strength is to increase pitch efficiency (reduced pitches per inning,) which comes with accuracy.

When arm strength is low, velocities are variable, and far worse, the command goes out the window. As a result, the pitcher is more likely to throw more and contribute to overuse syndromes and injuries.

Biomechanics

Biomechanics have to be efficient to reduce the load on the throwing arm. Good coaching programs work hard to be evidence-based to identify what decreases loads on the shoulder and elbow.

A more biomechanically efficient delivery matched with a super-strong arm lessens load volume and intensity, both suitable for sustainable velocity and staying on the field. 

Motor Learning

Motor learning is where Rob is an expert. We need to identify drills that athletes can comprehend and retain proficient movement in very few words.

The best coaches are the ones that get athletes to an optimal state of performance fastest.

Rob talks about the best way to instruct an athlete and the need for constraint-led drills, where the coach changes the task, the environment, or impacts the athlete's physical status (ie. Adding wearable resistance to the body, pre-fatiguing protocols, etc.) to elicit skill retention in a shorter time block.

He is also an expert on feedback, which is how coaches reinforce desired movement patterns for their athletes. 

Sports Psychology

Again, Rob has a solid understanding of linking movement to the mind and helping athletes overcome their mental biases. 

Specifically, he has an awesome line of work about teaching throwing avoidance (telling a pitcher where not to throw) and found that it's quite a dangerous approach to preparing athletes for competition.  

It's interesting because this is similar to my children. When I tell them what not to do, they do the opposite. If you say to a pitcher where not to throw, they will likely throw it there. Hot-Cold zones may be more effective for pitchers if just the cold zones are present. I definitely saw this with professional pitchers I have personally worked with in the past.  

The danger is overloading our athletes with too much data. We need to give them the right data, at the right amount, or what is otherwise known as being data-informed. There is always some wiggle room for the athlete to determine what they are capable and comfortable with when it comes to a game plan.

Have a Listen!

There you have it...an essential intersection of items that lead to higher-level pitching. Of course, I only scratched the surface here, so please listen to the podcast and check out more educational content from Rob Gray.  

Have a great weekend, and reach out if you have questions!

Ryan

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