Parents will often ask for my opinion on certain “programs” they hear about or read about. I recently was asked by a parent when his son should start the “thrower’s ten” program. (For those who may not be familiar with this specific program, it is a set of exercises utilized by rehabilitation professionals to help overhead athletes recover from injury.)
Our conversation took the direction of discussing arm care in general as it relates to younger pitchers. The main point that was made was simply that “arm care” in and of itself isn’t enough. A baseball pitcher must be able to recruit many different body parts to effectively and efficiently pitch.
To build on this point the pitcher was placed face down on a table. The pitcher was asked to raise his throwing arm towards the sky. The father’s hand was placed on the pitcher’s shoulder. The father could feel how the pitcher was using his shoulder to raise his arm. Isn’t that what is suppose to happen Joe? The shoulder is a part of the process but if it (shoulder) is the only thing working then it (shoulder) will be absorbing all of the stress.
To further illustrate this point of how if the shoulder is the predominant body part being utilized, a light weight was placed in the pitcher’s hand. He was then again instructed to raise his arm towards the sky. The result this time was his low back caved in and his opposite leg came off of the table. In other words the athlete had no stability / foundation over which to raise his arm.
After some instruction on how to recruit the other components of the kinetic chain the pitcher once again was asked to raise his arm towards the sky. The father placed his hand on the pitcher’s shoulder again and was able to immediately feel how the shoulder was the least active body part.
What is the point of this post? Simply to say that there are many options for “do it yourself” conditioning or strengthening. Just make sure you are training your body to dissipate the stress away from the smaller body parts. If you need any help with this, contact me here.
Wishing you health and success,
Joe
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