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Strasburg Meets his Ultimate Challenge

Brent Pourciau — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 06:32:26 +0000

I want to feel bad for Stephen Strasburg for tearing his ulnar cruciate ligament in his first MLB season but I remember that his signing bonus was $15 Million and then I don’t feel so bad. Having Tommy John surgery today isn’t that rare. Just view the list below of the 187 MLB and some minor league ball players who have survived the surgery and there is a lot more. Most say that you will come out of Tommy John surgery throwing harder but this is a misconception. Studies show that those pitchers who increase velocity post Tommy John surgery is mainly because they develop more of a focus on their training program along with making mechanical corrections. My experience with surgery is if you can survive it, you will come out better, not physically better but better prepared for life. If Strasburg is going to come back and be the next greatest thing again he is going to have to overcome a major hurdle in his professional career. Mark Prior is a pitcher who was dealt a similar hand than Strasburg and he is still trying to make his come back after his career ending injury. Mark Prior is now learning that his best years may be behind him.

The biggest question about the Strasburg injury is how did this happen? His mechanics looked good and he is young and strong, so what happened? This is a tough question. This shows that the MLB is still very behind in the health science world. They should have had ASMI analyzing every pitcher that they have spent $15 million dollars on or should I say that their insurance company should have required this of them. I believe that Strasburg is a perfect example of the superhero expectation of professional athletes along with an abusive minor and major league schedule. Velocities are increasing and game schedules are still excessive. 162 games a season is just insane. Do the math, a minor league or MLB pitcher throws around 200 innings a season, that could equal about 3,000 pitches a season or more, at an average speed of 95 mph equals extreme amounts of abuse to the pitchers body. I mean honestly do you really believe that Stephen Strasburg has a mechanical issue? I believe that his genetics are impressive but not freakish. My suggestion to his recovery would be that he needs to not throw his slider so hard. Before my rotator cuff tear happened in my career I remember having serious elbow problems. I had about six shots of cortizone in the elbow to deal with the pain, then before I knew it I am having shoulder surgery. I credit my elbow problems to my curve ball. Scouts told me I had a Major League curve ball and it became a problem because when you throw hard and use your ulnar cruciate ligament (UCL) to flex your forearm to fight against gravity and the speed of your arm to throw a curve ball or slider you are putting a lot of excessive forces on your UCL. As your UCL breaks down so does the rest of your arm. It becomes a chain reaction. I credit my ability to overcoming a major shoulder injury to not throwing my curve ball again. I never threw it again because just the thought of it post surgery made me want to throw up. I missed the hell out of my curve ball but I had to say goodbye because I wanted to continue playing this game at a professional level. This must have helped, along with my excellent training program and mechanical corrections that I have put in the Ace Pitcher Handbook, because I never had arm problems again. Once I got on the new program and made the mechanical corrections and stopped throwing my curveball my arm rarely ever hurt again and my velocity increased dramatically. This to me was a miracle and it was also a major transition in my life.

If we are going to see Strasburg emerge as the next best thing again he too must make a major transition in his life to overcome this major injury. Best of luck Stephen!

Tommy John Victims

Nick Adenhart
Brian Anderson[8]
Rick Ankiel [9] (converted to outfielder)
Andy Ashby [10]
Luis Atilano
Mike Aviles (shortstop)
John Axford
Luis Ayala [11]
Brandon Backe [12]
Danys Baez [13]
Rocco Baldelli [14] (outfielder)
Grant Balfour [15]
Rod Beck [16]
Erik Bedard [17]
Ronald Belisario
Francis Beltran [18]
Jeff Bennett [19]
Kris Benson [20]
Jason Berken
Adam Bernero [21]
Brent Billingsley [22]
Ricky Bones [23]
Joe Borchard (outfielder)
Zach Braddock [24]
Bill Bray
Dewon Brazelton
Doug Brocail
Taylor Buchholz
Ambiorix Burgos
A. J. Burnett
Paul Byrd
Jorge Campillo
José Canseco (outfielder; injured while pitching)
Chris Capuano (twice)
Chris Carpenter
Rocky Cherry
Matt Chico
Shin-Soo Choo (outfielder)
Todd Coffey
Tyler Colvin(while in the minors) (outfielder)
Chris Coste (catcher)
Neal Cotts
Ben Davis (catcher)
Ken Dayley
Manny Delcarmen
Ryan Dempster [20]
Chris Denorfia (outfielder)
Jorge DePaula
Joey Devine
Thomas Diamond (minor leaguer)
Brendan Donnelly
Octavio Dotel
Darren Dreifort
Phil Dumatrait
Brian Duensing
Adam Eaton
Dave Eiland (twice)
Willie Eyre
Ryan Feierabend
Scott Feldman[25]
Jesse Foppert
Chad Fox (twice)
John Franco
Frank Francisco
Éric Gagné [20]
Jaime García
Luis Gonzalez (outfielder)
Mike González
Tom Gordon [20]
Rusty Greer (outfielder)
Lee Gronkiewicz
Angel Guzman
Mike Hampton
Sean Henn
Pat Hentgen
Runelvys Hernández
Shawn Hill (twice)
Matt Holliday (outfielder)
Norris Hopper (outfielder)
Tim Hudson
Philip Humber
Todd Hundley (catcher)
Eric Hurley
César Izturis (infielder)
Jason Isringhausen
Tommy John [2]
Kelly Johnson (infielder)
Josh Johnson
Steve Karsay
Jimmy Key
Josh Kinney
Billy Koch [20]
Bobby Korecky
Hong-Chih Kuo (twice)
Scott Lewis[26]
Cory Lidle
Jon Lieber [20]
Brad Lincoln (minor leaguer)
Jesse Litsch[27]
Mike Lincoln (twice)
Francisco Liriano
Rodrigo Lopez
Matt Mantei
Shaun Marcum
Scott Mathieson (twice)
Joe Mays
Macay McBride
Seth McClung
Dustin McGowan
Mark McLemore
Jon Meloan
Zach Miner
Sergio Mitre
Paul Molitor (infielder)
Matt Morris [20]
Peter Moylan
Xavier Nady (twice; outfielder)
Tim Naehring (infielder)
Joe Nathan
Pat Neshek
John Odom
Russ Ortiz
Josh Outman
Juan Padilla
John Parrish
Carl Pavano
Scott Proctor
Bill Pulsipher
Chris Ray [13][20]
Carlos Quentin (outfielder)
Britt Reames
Al Reyes
Anthony Reyes
Arthur Rhodes
Jose Rijo (three)
Matt Riley (three)
Ricardo Rincón
David Riske
Mariano Rivera
Nate Robertson
Fernando Rodney
Kenny Rogers
Francisco Rosario
B. J. Ryan
Ángel Sánchez[28] (infielder)
Aníbal Sánchez
Humberto Sánchez
Scott Schoeneweis
Jae Seo
Alfredo Simon
Andy Sisco
John Smoltz [20]
Kyle Snyder
Joakim Soria
Rafael Soriano
Tim Spooneybarger
Denny Stark (twice)
Eric Stults
Junichi Tazawa
Clete Thomas (outfielder)
Brian Tollberg
John Tudor
Merkin Valdez
Rick van den Hurk
Óscar Villarreal
Edinson Volquez
Billy Wagner
Paul Wagner
Don Wakamatsu[29] (catcher)
Tyler Walker
David Wells
Jake Westbrook
Scott Williamson
C.J. Wilson
Brian Wilson
Vance Wilson (twice; catcher)
Mark Wohlers
Randy Wolf
Kerry Wood [20]
Mark Worrell
Jaret Wright
Tyler Yates (twice)
Matt Young
Mike Zagurski
Víctor Zambrano (twice)
Jeff Zimmerman (twice)
Jordan Zimmermann

Pitch Accuracy and the Front Side

Brent Pourciau — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 22:11:01 +0000

Most of the articles on this site pertain to pure velocity but what is the value of Top Velocity when the pitcher can not locate his pitch? Zero is the answer. There is no value in Velocity that doesn’t end in a strike. I have witnessed many hard throwing pitchers or should I say throwers in my career who could not hit “the broad side of a barn.” These guys never made it anywhere because of this major problem of poor accuracy. The problem with coaching accuracy is that most pitching coaches over do it. They create pitchers who look like they should be throwing darts instead of fastballs. This is why I focus on velocity first and then I teach my pitchers how to control it.

I recommend that you read at least three articles on this site about velocity before continuing on with this article.

Pitch location is as important as velocity. For a pitcher to be successful on the mound he must disrupt the batters timing. There are many ways a pitcher can do this. Pitch speed, pitch movement and pitch location. I believe the two most effective is pitch speed and pitch location. If you can reach your top velocity and locate your pitches then you can make it into minor league ball with just a fastball and change up. I would recommend you use this stratgey in your own career because if you start throwing breaking balls and you have poor mechanics, it can be devastating to your arm. So why take the risk when you can be just as effective or even more effective with top velocity and good pitch location?

Before you can start hitting your spots with pin point accuracy you must understand how to control your pitches. Conventional wisdom would talk about the balance point and go on about it for hours. I will show you a different perspective.

Accuracy is controlling your momentum. To control your momentum you must be balanced but that should be second nature. The goal is to control your momentum without effecting it. This is where most pitchers fail. They try to control their momentum to a point that it slows it down. This is no good. This is why I teach top velocity until it becomes second nature and then I teach how to control that velocity.

The control comes from the front side. You must take aim with your front side as you begin to start your momentum to the target. This is important because once your hips start building momentum towards the target, you must do everything in your power to release every ounce of explosive energy from your body, while using that energy to fire certain muscle groups at specific times in your delivery. So once you lift your leg and kick that butt out to start your load to building momentum you must setup your front side for pitch location. To do this you must separate your hands and relax your throwing arm while closing off your glove hand. You must also slightly turn your lift leg foot inward to close off your hips. Notice the picture above of Jon Lester performing this setup. This is a similar moment in the delivery as a sprinter would perform just before taking off. The sprinter would setup his body for take off to control his launch and gives his body the best opportunity to reach his top velocity as quick as possible, which is the same thing we are trying to do as pitchers.

The reason for closing off the front side is because it makes it easier for our momentum to travel straight to the target. If the glove arm was to open early or the lift leg, then this would throw our weight off to the side and more than likely the pitch would follow. So staying closed is important because it keeps our momentum going straight to the target. Just like a sprinter wouldn’t want to start leaning to his left before he fired out of his stance.

Another important tip is to stay closed as long as possible because of the same reasons and also because it will help you build more torque in “Separation.” “Separation” is when your hips have opened to the target and your shoulders are still closed like the picture below. Building more torque means more velocity.

Do not forget that you must not effect your velocity when adjusting your mechanics for pitch location. To prevent this you must close your shoulders and hips off first and then the rest of the delivery you must keep them closed while hitting all the key components of velocity that I have described in detail on this site. This is a lot of coordination but remember not everyone has the ability to pitch in the top levels on the game.

What You Need to Know About the Shoulder.

Brent Pourciau — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 09:33:05 +0000

This article is for every athlete out there. I am an athlete, who overcame a career ending rotator cuff tear in college, to pitch again and make it to minor league ball. I was told, I would never pitch as hard as I did before the tear. I topped out at 94 mph my last season for the San Diego Surf Dawgs, over eight years later. That was more than 8 mph from before surgery. It was a long road and I am here today, to teach you everything you need to know on how to prevent this from happening to you.

To prevent or overcome shoulder surgery starts here with this diagram.

You must learn these small muscle. These muscle are your career. They are here to internally and externally rotate your arm. The most important information to remember about these muscles are that they can only handle around 5 pounds of pressure each. The deltoids take over if the pressure exceeds this amount. So this means, all we need is 3 to 5 pounds to strengthen the rotator cuff muscles. Anything more will prevent you from isolating them properly, for development.

The most important muscle of the rotator cuff, for throwers, is the supraspinatous. This muscle lives under the acromion tip of the clavicle. This is the end of the collar bone. This muscle takes a lot of abuse, when the elbow is above the shoulder. This is because it is being impinged by the acrominon tip. If your arm is internally rotated to far forward, when you pull your arm back to throw, this can cause the supraspinatous to “pop” or “grind” under the acrominon. Over time, this can tear the muscle. To prevent this impingement, you must learn good throwing mechanics and how to build joint integrity. You can not do one without the other, to prevent an injury.

You can learn the correct mechanics to prevent injury from the Ace Pitcher Instructional Videos. To build joint integrity, you need two 3 or 5 pound weights to get started. All of the exercise you will need are listed in the AcePitcher Handbook. You can then stream the instructional videos on how to perform the exercises on this site.

The first sign of poor joint integrity is posture. If you are someone who slouches over when sitting or standing, this could be a sign of poor shoulder joint integrity. Another sign is when the ball of the shoulder socket is protruding forward past the chest and the shoulder blade is sticking out like a wing. This means that the anterior muscles are stronger than the posterior muscles. This is the definition of poor joint integrity. This will lead to a shoulder injury.

Common pain that is a sign of an impingement is usually referred pain from the supraspinatous. Most of the pain from the cuff is referred pain. Referred pain means pain that originates in one part of the body, but is felt in another part of the body. If you feel pain on the outside of your arm, between the bicep and tricep muscles, just below the mid deltoid, then this is an impingement. Don’t be alarmed, it isn’t a tear. The supraspinatous is probably inflamed. This can be remedied with ice. You should only ice your arm for 15-20 minutes on and 15-20 minutes off. You can repeat the process but anymore than 15-20 minutes on, can cause nerve damage. Always finish with ice. Never finish with heat. Heat inflames the muscle tissue, and when the tissue is inflamed, it isn’t healing. It is also not a good idea to ice an arm just after pitching. It is best to flush the system. This is when you do some good sprints, to get your heart beating, so you can get your blood pumping. This will help flush the breakdown of waste from pitching out of your arm. Then you can ice. Also never ice your Ulnar nerve. You can also take anti inflammatories, recommended by your Doctor. This is a symptom you can pitch through, but remember when the supraspinatous is inflamed, this will cause more wear and tear on the cuff. So try hard to take care of it ASAP.

The sign of a rotator cuff tear is very obvious. You have considerable loss in movement in your arm, with serious pain. If the supraspinatous is torn, which is the most common tear for throwers, you will not be able to turn your hand thumb down and raise it straight out in front of your body. This is because this movement requires a lot of work from the supraspinatous. If this is the case I am sure you have already seen a Doctor and unfortunately you need surgery. This was my case. It is a hard reality to face. Especially when you are 18, like I was. There was one moment that got me thinking positive and it was a saying I saw on a wall just after the Doctor diagnosed the tear. “Where there is a Will, there is a Way.” Ever six months the body regenerates itself. This means ever muscle has grown new tissue from the inside out. Like your skin. If you can get yourself on the right track, you can start over again and this is exactly what it will feel like. You are starting over at this point and you may not get another chance. It is a tough road but laced with so many rewards. If you are someone who is post surgery and needs a little boost to get back to the game you love, then please contact me and I will get you on the right track.

In conclusion, your rotator cuff is your life support as a pitcher. It is like a par of tires that you can never change on your race car. It is vital that you learn how to take care of it, if you want to play well into your twenties and beyond. I hope this article gets you going and please contact me with any questions or post them in the discussion board.

How to Prevent or Overcome Shoulder Surgery?

Brent Pourciau — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:40:56 +0000

To prevent or overcome shoulder surgery starts here with this diagram.

The Importance of the Fastball

Brent Pourciau — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:26:58 +0000

Having too many pitches causes too many problems. Your success as a pitcher is riding on your fastball. Ever pitch you throw should be based off your fastball. This is why a slider is effective. This is why a change up is deceiving. If you are in high school and your best pitch is a curveball, your longevity is very limited. Scouts want to see a 1-4 ratio of offspeed pitches to fastballs. They see throwing offspeed pitches like sliders and curveballs at a young age as a sign of high levels of wear and tear on the arm. This is a big mark against you.

My advice to you is take two pitches as far as you can. You will see the best pitchers in the game taking two pitches through high school, college and even low A minor league ball. I know this may be upsetting to you but don’t take it negatively. When you see the improvements you will make as a pitcher when you focus on your fastball and one offspeed pitch you will be pumped.

Where should you go from here?

Start with reading my articles on velocity because these articles are teaching you the perfect delivery for your fastball. There is also a mental leap involved here. The reason a lot of young guys throw many pitches is because they do not have the confidence in their fastball. You must gain this confidence. I didn’t say find this confidence, I said you must gain it. So, set your sights on an explosive fastball and you will earn it. Your mental training starts with visualizing this goal. I want you to see yourself dominating with your fastball. See yourself throwing with perfect mechanics that you read about on this site or watched in the AcePitcher instructional videos. Using these visualizations along with reading and watching the material here you will with no doubt gain a top level fastball. We are here to support you.