Weighted Baseball Training

There is a lot of information out there regarding the use of weighted baseballs on a players arm.  I encourage everyone to read up on both sides of the argument and decide for yourself if this is something that you wish to incorporate into your training or not.  I will simply give you my take on throwing weighted baseballs and why I incorporate them in to the training my pitchers do.

Reason #1.  The use of weighted balls is a great way to get young athletes away from "pushing" the baseball.  Many young baseball players that come to me have been taught there whole lives to just throw strikes and not worry about velocity.  This causes a lot of kids to "push" the ball to the plate to just throw strikes, which in turn will severely damage their arm action and upper torso rotation.  Many believe velocity will come after you learn to throw strikes.  Velocity is going to increase but only because the kid will get older and stronger as he ages.  He will still be behind when it comes to velocity if he is "pushing" the ball.  He very well may be one of the best around at a young age because he throws so many strikes. However, if the end goal is to get noticed by college recruiters or pro scouts, this is not the way to go.  They are not interested in how many strikes you throw if you do not have something on the ball.  To me, parents are wasting a valuable opportunity by following this logic.  Research has shown that focusing on maximum velocity,speed, and/or power is a superior way to teach young athletes how to build efficient rotational force transfer mechanics. Throwing a heavy ball will help pitchers learn what it feels like to "push" the baseball and hopefully either create or restore explosive upper torso rotation.

Reason #2.  The use of weighted baseball increases the amount of external rotation in the throwing arm. I will be the first one to tell you that there is some danger to this.  When we increase the load on external rotation we are putting the pitching elbow at an increased risk.  However, external rotation is one of the main factors in how fast you can throw a baseball.  The more your arm "lays back" the more capability you have to throw the ball at a higher velocity.   Most young athletes lack the necessary external rotation to throw at a high velocity.  When it comes to arm safety, I am one of the most precautionary pitching coaches around.  I do not wish to put anyone in any additional risk on injury.  Studies have shown over and over again that experts have no earthly idea what leads to pitching injuries.  A couple things are very clear:  Pitching is a very unnatural movement and just by throwing a baseball overhead you elevate your risk for injury. When you throw at a high velocity, your risk of injury is elevated even more.  Sometimes, I feel we should just leave it at that.   If you were to take a MRI of a shoulder or elbow of any professional pitcher, most are going to have tears in a ligament either in the shoulder or elbow or oftentimes both.  Its just the nature of the beast.  It just becomes a matter of how severe the tear is on whether or not you have surgery.

I don't wish to scare anyone with Reason #2 especially.  Pitching is an extremely dangerous thing to do and in order to do it at a high level your risk of injury becomes elevated.  There are many ways we go about trying to eliminate as much risk as possible by making sure that we are at a high level of fitness and making sure we are as strong as can be, especially around the shoulders.  In order to play at a high level, you need to be able to throw at a high velocity, and I believe that the use of weighted baseballs is a valuable tool you can use to enhance your training regimen.