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Separation, the Safe Zone and the Power Curve

October 11, 2008

I just read Chris Oleary’s article on the “Safe Zone.”

http://chrisoleary.com/projects/Baseball/Pitching/PitcherInjuryAnalysisProject/Patterns.html

It is always nice to find unconventional thinking when it comes to pitching instruction. I recommend you read his article. I was forced in my early career to overcome a serious shoulder injury, because I wasn’t taught this important piece of information. Ever sense my almost career ending injury, I have been coaching this theory, but never referred to it as the “Safe Zone.” I will now!

Here is another article from Dr. Harding at Wellington Orthopaedic, talking about the “Safe Zone.”

http://www.wellingtonortho.com/health/shoulder-safe.html

This theory of injury prevention, which you can read about in full detail in Chris’ article, is based around this picture of Mark Prior. Mark Prior suffered a rotator cuff injury after this picture was taken. What he is doing is “Scap Loading” with his elbows way above his shoulders. The problem here is he is impinging his supraspinatous muscle with this movement. Read my article on “How to prevent or overcome shoulder surgery?” to get more details on the rotator cuff and impingements. Chris recommends, in his article, that a pitcher should “Scap Load” with the elbows below the shoulders to prevent this impingement of the rotator cuff, which causes more wear and tear. I recommend this as well, because it not only will prevent impingement, it will increase “Separation” and create what I call the “Power Curve.” The “Power Curve” refers to acceleration in either a straight line or a curve. In learning about centripetal force, which I first studied for a science project in elementary school, you will find information about this “Power Curve.” I listed it here:

“The direction of an object in movement around a circle is changing; hence, its velocity is also changing and this in turn means that it is experiencing acceleration…..The acceleration of an object in rotational motion is always toward the center of the circle.”

This means that acceleration has more of an opportunity to increase when curving around a point in time, because velocity increases when either the direction changes or the speed of the object increases. If you have ever heard that old saying, “Thumb to thigh, then palm to sky” or “Get into the T position,” you have been coached to pitch like what Mark Prior is doing above. This also means, when your “Palm is to the sky,” the direction of the ball from that position to the release point, is more of a straight line. If you “Scap Loaded” in the “Safe Zone,” like Greg Maddux here, when the shoulders rotate and the elbow hits the “Wall,” your hand and ball is pulled behind your head like Tim Lincecum below. This means the path of the ball or the direction of velocity, is going to be more of a curve. Therefore more potential velocity and less wear and tear on the rotator cuff.

In conclusion, you must read Chris’ article because this will save your career and it questions these conventional thinking pitching coach’s about physics and how it applies to their coaching theories. Any questions please comment or post in the discussion board.

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Written by Brent Pourciau · Filed Under Pitching Articles 
Tagged: acceleration, baseball, coach, elbow, elbows, full detail, harding, impingement, injury, injury prevention, instruction, learning, load, mark prior, muscles, oleary, orthopaedic, physics, pitch, pitcher, pitchers, pitches, pitching, power curve, rotator cuff injury, safe zone, science, science project, separation, shoulder injury, shoulder surgery, shoulders, speed, straight line, supraspinatous, surgery, timing, Velocity, wear and tear, wellington

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