Kyle wrote:

After reading your article on long toss, it made a lot of sense and had truth to it. I was wondering how you felt about the overload and underload training technique when it comes to throwing. Here is my training for throwing:
Warm-up by playing catch with a regular 5oz ball
120 feet with 6oz ball 10-15 throws
60 feet with 6oz ball 10-15 throws
120 feet with 4oz ball 10-15 throws
60 feet with 4oz ball 10-15 throws
Cool down by playing catch with a regular 5oz ball
The 6oz ball is designed to build arm strength by overloading the rotator cuff muscles and the 4oz ball is designed to increase arm speed, as if you were performing plyometrics for your rotator cuff muscles.
Your thoughts?

Seth wrote:

I respect your opinions but it seems that is strictly what this article is – an opinion. I applaud your energy and attitude about helping others in this misinformed baseball world, but please show us what research has led you to your conclusions.

The weighted ball program you show in the picture is indeed a terrible program. You are only supossed to throw 20% of the orignal weight of a baseball – less or more. Basically meaning a 20% of a 5oz. ball is 1 oz. Consequently only work with a 4 oz ball and a 6oz balls during weight trainig. VDP (velocity development program) has an excellent SAFE weighted ball program. Google it.

Anything more than 6oz and less than 4 oz you are putting major stress on your shoulder capsule and can lead to serious injury (see: the author of this article).

"The underloading with the lighter ball gave me the illusion that I was throwing harder but it really is only an illusion. Just like the illusions of throwing harder when you move from throwing 300 feet to 60 feet."

Really? That is not why underloaded balls are used. Underloaded balls are used to train the tiny fast twitch muscles in your arm. Strengthening them does not directly make you throw harder. Instead, by strengthening your fast twitch micro-muscles your arm trusts itself to be thrown harder. Your brain will only accelerate your arm as fast as it knows it can decellerate it. AKA Your brain will only allow your arm to go as fast as it knows it can slow it down after you let go of the ball.

I've enjoyed your articles including long distance running, poor posture and scap loading. But please, before you advise uninformed kids to eliminate very beneficial weighted ball training (IF DONE WITH PROPER MECHANICS) please do research, talk to people. And read about the NPA (National pitching association), backed by Tom House a doctor with 40 years in baseball and has taught thousands of kids and hall of famers (Nolan Ryan, Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson, etc etc).

Let me know what you think…

Seth,

I appreciate your response to my article. Don't take this the wrong way but I am not writing out of my ass here. I have a tight network of professionals and I have many years of experience. Most importantly I overcame a torn rotator cuff my freshman year in college due to a small subacromial space in my throwing shoulder. I was given a lot of worthless information and advice during my recovery and was eventually told I would never be able to play competitively again because I would never be able to throw close to as hard as I did before the surgery. I was only throwing about 84 mph. I have been obsessively educating myself on the body and biomechanics for the past 12 years. This is the reason I was able to play professionally and throw 94 mph 5 years after the surgery.

I am not a scientist and I do not have the finances to do clinical studies. I do not trust clinical studies anyways because there is always some information left out. My research is all over this site. If you have been reading my articles from the first one, you will see that the article on Overloading and Underloading is a continuation of my philosophies.

Seth wrote:

Underloaded balls are used to train the tiny fast twitch muscles in your arm. Strengthening them does not directly make you throw harder. Instead, by strengthening your fast twitch micro-muscles your arm trusts itself to be thrown harder. Your brain will only accelerate your arm as fast as it knows it can decellerate it. AKA Your brain will only allow your arm to go as fast as it knows it can slow it down after you let go of the ball.

If you are saying, Overloading and Underloading is only to strengthen the decelerators so the brain will trust the body to throw harder, then why do shoulder injurys occur in the first place? If the brain will only let us do what we are strong enough to handle then why do athletes pull hamstrings and tear tendons? Does this also mean it will prevent someone from jumping in front of a car? Is it really a trust issue between your brain and body? Do you know anyone who's brain doesn't trust their body? Yes, I am being sarcastic but I hope it is proving a point. To say Overloading and Underloading increases velocity because, by it strengthening your decelerators your brain will trust your body and allow it to throw harder, is silly. Any pitcher can overuse his arm, throw to hard and damage it, while the brain witnesses it happening.

Joint integrity is important and can help in increasing velocity but there are better ways to strengthen your decelerators without putting unnecessary wear and tear on your rotator cuff. Good joint integrity will help with velocity because without a functioning rotator cuff you have no ability to generate velocity. Your rotator cuff is one of your life lines as a pitcher. I just believe that it will stay healthier if you do not overuse it. The problem is we all want to throw harder and overuse becomes a problem quickly. This is why I promote good mechanics and a good strength training regime to build velocity with the core and legs, over throwing drills like Overloading and Underloading with weighted balls.