Welcome to The SPEAR Training Concept

I have been observing arm care programs for quite some time and have not seen a comprehensive approach to conditioning the throwing arm for high-intensity stress.  

For the most part, training programs would involve light dumbbells and cuff weights, which provide little to no muscle irradiation.  As a result, the activation of the shoulder musculature and elbow would be less, leaving extra performance improvement on the table.   

We also need to consider throwing as a form of training.  

Throwing instills repetitions of muscular effort, and the amount of load placed on the arm per throw is so much higher than what is currently imposed on the throwing arm in training. Therefore, we must find a way to narrow the gap between throwing and training stress.  

By looking at the total pounds of force per activity, it should be clear that we have a real problem.  Most arm care programs are not training athletes well enough, as the total loading is less than 7% of what is experienced in a competitive outing for a starting pitcher throwing 90 mph.  

That means there’s a total loading gap of 93% between training and competition related to shoulder compression force (the highest total force exerted by the shoulder in throwing).

Before I was hired by ArmCare.com, I was thinking about what depicts high-powered throwing best and started to consider throwing arm training for different sports such as cricket and javelin.  

It dawned on me that evolution is the greatest teacher for high-performance throwing.  

During the time of our prehistoric existence, being able to throw was considered essential for survival. Prehistoric man had to project a spear toward the animal hard enough to pierce its body to obtain meat to eat for animal protein. To think of a throwing effort based on survival had me think on a deeper level of what throwing is all about. Throwing is not about endurance exclusively; that's only something we have morphed into the sport of baseball. The very essence of throwing is strength and power and clued me to think of the SPEAR. 

The approach to training the modern-day baseball player must have a specific training order, and SPEAR is the perfect acronym:

1. You need to improve strength (S). Without being able to produce maximal effort, all other strength qualities are less than optimal.
2. You need to apply speed of strength, or power (P), or else arm speed is sacrificed.
3. You need endurance (E). not low-level activation sustained in traditional arm care programs, but rather the ability to repeat maximal efforts.
4. You need to lessen asymmetries (A), as muscular imbalances can lead to poor performance and injury throughout the throwing arm.
5. Range of motion (R) needs to be a factor in comprehensive arm care training to apply muscular effort over a greater range of motion, but at the same time not causing instability for the throwing shoulder and elbow.

If we can keep SPEAR at the forefront of our minds in designing programs, we will have greater outcomes in performance and health. 

 SPEAR is integral to our data-led training approach, and you can find out more with some examples in this week's ACIQ, which is Part 2 of our State of Arm Care Series. 

Keep training hard, and remember, strength matters most!

Ryan