WARNING! WE ARE NOW IN THE RED ZONE

I am not writing this newsletter to scare you.  I am writing this newsletter to deliver facts as amateur baseball has kicked off across the country.

A BIG PRE-SEASON ERROR 

Likely the costliest mistake undertaken by teams is scheduling bullpens. Most programs have their pitchers pen every other day. During the early part of the year, especially with front office members, coaches, and other players watching, the adrenaline in bullpens is relatively high.  

We know from exercise physiology that the worst part of soreness is typically at 48 hours post eccentric contractions. During this time, we have the most cellular degradation from the chemical effects of our immune system in its execution of healing micro-damaged tissue.  

So, every time the pitcher takes the mound, there's still underlying chemical damage, microdamage, and inhibited recovery. Coupled with the fact that bullpens increase pitch volume, we perpetuate a problem.  

Within about 7 days is the first game, so the acute effects are high. In this time frame, when athletes are sore, they are likely not going to communicate if something feels wrong. Think about it, they inherently want to compete, and for the guys who are on the edge of making the big league team, they go down with an injury, they lose an opportunity to impress someone and earn a real living.  

These guys work hard to fly in planes instead of ride in buses to games. As a result, they head into the game with increased microdamage, and then it gets worse. But, again, they don't want to say anything, so they do their normal routine and hope for the best in the following bullpen.  

Within 1-2 days after that bullpen, they are in the game, and one throw breaks the camel's back, and the pitcher winds up with a partial tear, or potentially a full rupture. Another critical point is that more throwing arm injuries happen in practice than in games, revealing that bullpens may be the highest risk event for pitchers. Thus, practices need stringent monitoring, just as much as games.

So in response to Allen Iverson's famous words, "Practice? Not a Game? Practice?"…yes, practice is riskier to the throwing arm than games.

AMATEUR BASEBALL IS THE WORST FOR INJURIES

Now I just went through what happens at the pro level, but you may not know that the group of athletes experiencing the highest influx of injuries are pitchers between 15-and 19 years old.  

What frightens me is that TJ reconstructions last about 4-5 years in most cases before revision. Most pitchers do not enter the MLB level until age 27, so the likelihood of revision surgery is relatively high. It is not unusual to see players who have had 3 TJ surgeries in this day and age.  

A first surgery has a comeback rate of 85%, a second is about 40% which is a dramatic drop, and a third TJ is even less.  

The reason is that every surgery has less biological tissue to anchor the ligament graft, and as a result, there's a greater chance of failure. For the past two years, a friend and I have been conducting a research project to explore the reasons for this explosion of injuries.  

One of the biggest proponents of the current injury landscape is the lack of education. You can see our video bumper here. Please get in touch with me if you want to take our survey and add to our study population.

WHAT WE NEED TO DO RIGHT NOW!

Injuries can be prevented through the following features as these aspects are the cornerstones of our company:

• Communication

• Education

• Frequent Monitoring

COMMUNICATION 

We have our Coaches Portal for all performance stakeholders to evaluate the strength and range of motion changes to communicate between themselves. Highly competitive pitchers usually play for more than one team and have a pitching instructor. All those individuals place high effort-throwing demands on the athlete.  

Therefore, our Athlete Management System, called the Coaches Portal, allows all members to adjust their plans to keep the athlete safe. The athlete also has a place at the table as they now have data to discuss with their coaches. It's evident to me, but may not be to a coach, that if an athlete comes to you with a 20% reduction in maximum strength in their throwing arm, something needs to be adjusted.  

I also think it's criminal to run a high-intensity weighted ball program without monitoring strength, as when velocity increases and strength decreases, the athlete is at exposed risk of injury…

That makes sense, right?  

Why would you push a throwing arm that is gasping for air? Sadly, this is going on everywhere. Remember, most injuries happen in practice, and if you are not monitoring the throwing arm with dynamometry and range of motion, you are pushing your athletes off the deep end into a pool of cement. 

EDUCATION

You can enjoy over 30 hours of education between our YouTube Channel and Blogs. There's no excuse here, as we are giving you FREE information.  

We go through everything and give you insights from professional baseball. We have worked with multimillion-dollar athletes, and it doesn't matter if you are a Cy Young winner or an 8-year-old; we believe all throwing arms are priceless.  

In this week's podcast, you will learn some deeper insights into using our product .  

Please see this link if you want to take our Nationally Accredited Certification Course and learn more about data-led training for the throwing arm. 

After being a Certified ArmCare Specialist, you will undoubtedly stand out in your area as someone who fully understands throwing arm strength and range of motion analytics and can individualize your training programs based on data. This type of expertise is a competitive advantage for facility owners and something you can advertise. I promise you that your athletes will benefit from your knowledge more than any technical aspect provided to them on the skill side of pitching.  

Our most crucial ability is AVAILABILITY—if your best pitcher goes down with an arm injury, that could cost you the season, and if you are an MLB or coaching with a college team, it could cost you your job.  

FREQUENT MONITORING

There's no excuse anymore for missing data. Athlete's run the monitoring system – not coaches, not trainers, not strength coaches, not parents.  

Kids as young as 10 operate the dynamometer and app. And think of this…each year, the athlete gains body weight, but are they gaining throwing arm strength?  

Suppose the body weight increases faster than throwing arm strength, then the risk increases. You need to get your ArmScore to 70 or above. If not, you are exposed to risk and poor performance as a weaker arm does not sustain velocity all season long.  

We can get ahead of this by structuring the right training to attack the SPEAR Training Concept for the throwing arm…

• STRENGTH
• POWER,
• ENDURANCE,
• ASYMMETRY,
• RANGE OF MOTION 

The throwing arms need a complete training process, and facts must lead it. No one should be doing the same program.  

Generalization = Hospitalization, in my opinion.  

Athletes are all individual, and we should adjust our training to meet their strength needs and not the other way around.

I WILL END WITH THIS...

When I came into the company, we had 500 athletes using our system, and we are now approaching 6000. 

Everyone in our company is working hard to exceed education, communication, and monitoring standards. I am grateful that I have the opportunity each week to write to you, educate you, and care about you and your career.  

We are moving the needle as out of almost 6000 athletes, we have had only three reported arm injuries to date.  

Given what is documented in research, we should expect 1500 cases. That means that we are beating science by 99.8%. If that doesn't convince you that every pitcher needs ArmCare, please check out our Bulletproof Arm Guarantee.  

Most barriers to using new technology are cost, time, and results. And it's our goal to overcome each of these obstacles.

Regarding cost and results, we will give your money back if you do not see results or if you experience an arm surgery, and time, athletes can test their arms in 6 minutes. Minimal time, maximal opportunity, major ability to handle workloads, even if you're playing for 2-3 teams (which happens to be a huge risk factor for injury.)

But even if all of these benefits and the dismantling of all barriers still don't convince you, we will continue to deliver the highest level of education for strengthening the arm.  

And with enough education, we hope that you eventually value your throwing arm the same way we do. 

I have received excellent advice from people in the medical industry throughout my career, but the best thing I've ever heard is...

"It's easier to stay well than get well."

If you want to stay well during the red zone period, set up a demonstration with Jordan Oseguera and me to show you a better way of managing your throwing arms and individualizing your player development model. 

Stay hot, but don't get burned!

Ryan

[email protected]