NPA/RDRBI (S.T.A.T.) Assessment

(Weak Link Screening - Skills Talent Testing - Movement Assessment - Cross Specific Training)

Over the last 20 years in baseball, we've proven that to be effective, strength training protocols for pitchers must complement, or be cross-specific, to the rotational/directional mechanics of their delivery. It's only logical, that, strength training protocols cannot be effective unless they also are cross-specific to effective skill training protocols. It's equally logical that there must be an effective assessment/screening process to identify strength, endurance, and flexibility problems before any training can be initiated. Logic dictates that throwers and strikers train for functional strength, endurance, and flexibility in positions and movements specific to the skill requirements of their sport. There is no reason to train absolute, prime mover, strength and power before training for balance and parity with strength and endurance in joint, connective tissue and secondary movers. We call it Foundation Fitness. Here are two visual aids to help illustrate the concept.

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    Pitchers, like any throwing/striking athlete, are only as efficient as their worst movement and only as strong as their weakest link. Performance and health are a function of their 1) pitching mechanics; 2) useable strength endurance and flexibility; and, 3) practice, competitive workloads.

     

    Let's assume in this article, that a pitcher's mechanics are efficient and an assessment/screen has identified any fitness issues. Now, our theoretical pitcher with the help of a fitness professional can pick appropriate protocols from the following conditioning menu, prioritized in order of importance from foundation bodywork to fine-tuned, cross-specific implement work.

     

    Strength Training Menu

     

    1. Total body stability, mobility, flexibility, durability work, (feet to fingertips, isometric, closed chain, position specific, body resistance for time.)
    2. Hot spot, or weak link work (detrain to retrain muscle imbalances in those areas that get extra stiff/sore from practice/competition work loads using pulsing closed chain position specific body resistance for time.)
    3. Total body resistance work for power (heavy weight moved linear and explosive in reps/sets.)
    4. Total body resistance work for speed (weight, to tolerance, moved fast, rotationally, in reps/sets.)
    5. Body segment work for velocity of skill implement (i.e., using actual competitive driver, a 20% heavier driver, and a 20% lighter driver, moved at maximum intensity with optimal mechanical skill.)
    6. Aerobic work/anaerobic work for increasing capacity of delivery system (heart, veins, arteries, capillaries) and VO2 max (increasing capacity of lungs) to maximize the body's prepare, compete, and repair (recovery) cycles.

     

    Conclusion

     

    There is an effective strength program that can be individualized for every pitcher. The key is:
  • Implementing an effective assessment/screen that can identify each pitcher's strength, endurance, flexibility issues, then;
  • Designing an individualized, cross-specific, conditioning program with the menu of protocol choices.

     

    Finally, it's important to emphasize that strength training should never impede the timing or sequencing of biomechanical skill development and/or maintenance of any pitcher's signature. Strength training should always compliment biomechanical skill development. So, take a look at your strength training routine and see if they follow the order above and include protocols that enhance your development as a pitcher.

  • Common Sense Conditioning for Pitchers

     

    In our travels around the baseball world, the NPA is observing a growing disconnect between strength training pitchers in the weight room and skill training pitchers on the field.

     Obviously, there are elements of fact and fiction coming from both sides of this preparation for health and performance landscape. We are writing this article to elevate the awareness (for all of baseball's concerned parties) with some new science and some significant paradigm shifts in the design and implementation of protocols being used to train and prepare pitchers to better handle their mechanical efficiencies and/or their throwing workloads.

    Our San Diego based National Pitching Association (NPA) research and development complements an ongoing collaboration with the Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) and Dr. Greg Rose, out of Carlsbad. This collaboration is yielding some surprising data. For example, recent studies in our motion analysis labs have determined that, 1) 80% of velocity is generated by hip/shoulder separation to maximize (torque) and delayed shoulder rotation (to maximize angular momentum) as shoulders square up perpendicular to the target, while the throwing forearm lays back into it's pre-launch (external rotation) position, and 2) 20% of velocity is generated by the total body moving from back foot to front foot, as fast, and as far forward as strength and flexibility will allow (to maximize total body linear momentum), while low back hyper-extends and flexes just before the throwing forearm snaps straight (from external to internal rotation) into release point.

    This kinematic sequence of rotational and directional movements translate energy through body links, stabilized and mobilized by muscle and connective tissue with range of motion flexibility, in a kinetic chain, from feet to fingertips.

    Understanding this kinematic sequencing of the body with regards to rotational and directional momentum invalidates a lot of traditional thought on the value of force/power gains generated by explosive heavier lifting. Force power curves, by definition, are strictly linear quantifications and don't necessarily contribute to a pitcher's velocity, health, and/or performance.

    In effect, no matter how directionally strong and explosive an athlete can build muscle size, density, and/or fast twitch/slow twitch composition, there will be a 'regulator/governor' in each rotational body link. Stability, mobility, flexibility and durability will determine how much energy can be translated up the system to deliver rotational (angular) momentum. This series of events has to occur at the right place, at the right time, with the right feet to fingertip sequencing. A rotational body link must start, speed up, slow down, and stop it's rotation delivering energy up the chain to the next rotational body link. The next link then stabilizes/loads, mobilizes/torques, flexes/fires, and all of this takes place while the total body and torso are moving forward very, very fast! It's as much about timing as it is about time.

    In other words, training an athlete to move heavy weight fast doesn't necessarily translate into improved velocity with his competitive implement, especially if protocols adversely affect joint stability, mobility, flexibility, and durability. In fact, our ongoing collaboration is indicating that explosive heavy lifting should be avoided by rotational athletes (throwers and strikers). It's just too hard on joints and connective tissue. Arm speed, bat speed, club speed are actually enhanced (safely) by giving maximum effort in the total skill of movement using lighter weighted implements (but never lighter than 20% of his competitive implement weight). This influences and recruits fast twitch/slow twitch muscle fiber throughout the body, especially in the forearm which is in the last link before release point/contact, without the excessive wear and tear imposed on joints and connective tissue when moving heavy weight fast. There are also fewer of the balance and flexibility issues caused by muscle hypertrophy in the prime movers of athletes who train using Olympic or power lifting protocols. OK, so we are looking for cross training resistance and flexibility protocols that will, 1) safely facilitate functional biomechanical movement, 2) safely support the accommodation/adaptation of muscles/connective tissue and joints in the body's stabilizers/mobilizers, and 3) safely optimize the timing and sequencing of muscle, fascia, tendons, ligaments and joint movements for maximum angular and linear velocity.

    Think of these stability, mobility, flexibility and durability body link exercises as 'Flexercise', or, protocols that simultaneously combine position, movement, resistance, and speed work with closed chain body work and light implement, range of motion training, specific to the movements of skill required in competition.

     

    Conclusions

     

    • A pitcher is only as strong as his weakest link. Weak links are usually identified as 'hot spots' or areas that get extra stiff or sore with intensity and/or workloads. These weak links can also be identified in training. For example, 1) when resistance training, a pitcher should be just as strong in all 3 positions. If not, work harder on the weak link. 2) We've also found that changing foot/hand positions (straight, supinate, pronate) on a stationary bike will also change heart rate. Pronation increases heart rate even when RPM's are held constant. Pronation occurs in deceleration and weak accelerators will impede accelerators (i.e., velocity).

       

    • Improper strength training protocols create imbalances that impede kinetic energy/biomechanical efficiency and adversely stress joints and/or connective tissue.

       

    • Building strength out of sequence causes strength to be recruited out of functional sequence in training and competition, thus resulting in inadequate or wasted strength distribution.

       

    • With a 5 ounce baseball, 1) strength without flexibility will diminish real velocity; 2) flexibility without strength will diminish accuracy and increase stress on joints/connective tissue. Think of it this way; in the world of golf, clubs are fitted to the athlete's strength and flexibility. When a player has, A) functional strength and flexibility, he can use a stiffer shaft to deliver a club head of 'X' weight with speed for accuracy and distance. When a player has, B) functional strength, but limited flexibility (no rotational momentum) he is fitted with a more flexible shaft to generate rotational speed with a club head of 'X' weight, but he is not going to be as accurate. C) When a player has diminished strength and limited flexibility, he must use a more flexible shaft and a lighter than 'X' club head to generate energy but will still have less speed and less distance to maintain accuracy. In baseball, pitchers have their body, a fixed weight of 5 ounces, and accordingly, must condition their strength and flexibility to accommodate/compensate for what the club does in golf.

       

    • A pitcher's kinetic (energy link) chain, must be strengthened and supported by his feet to fingertip stability/mobility (body link) chain, (i.e., foot stability, ankle mobility, knee stability, hip mobility, lower back stability, upper back mobility, scapular stability, shoulder mobility, elbow stability, wrist mobility, hand stability).

       

    • Position, movement, resistance, and speed training for stability, mobility, flexibility, and durability is more important to a pitcher's velocity, health and performance than heavy machine, free weight training.

     

    Imbalances in stability, mobility, flexibility, or durability, will not only result in a less efficient body movement and thus less velocity, but they are also the precursors to stress, strain, and ultimately injury. All four areas must be addressed in a pitcher's conditioning program to ensure efficiency and endurance.
  • Conditioning coaches seem to be distancing themselves from injured arms by voicing a variation on this theme; 'pitchers don't hurt themselves on my watch, they come up lame on the mound.'
  • Pitching coaches, on the other hand, often point the finger at the weight room saying 'my pitchers never had arm problems until they started lifting weights.'

    • by Tom House, Phd
    National Pitching Association