Pathomechanics

Biomechanics of Elbow Injuries During Throwing

Elbow injuries in pitchers can be divided into three types, based upon their location within the joint. All three types of elbow injuries are related to the large rotational force – called “torque” – needed to slow down the cocking of the arm and accelerate the forearm, hand, and ball forward. Elbow torque is greatest when the arm is in its maximum cocked position.

Medial Elbow Injuries – The Ulnar Collateral Ligament

From the cocked position, the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) pulls the forearm forward with the rotating upper arm. The tremendous tension produced in the relatively small UCL is close to its limit. When improper mechanics are used or arm muscles become fatigued, the load placed on the UCL may be increased to more than it can withstand, causing small “micro”-tears in the UCL. Microtears in muscles or ligaments can heal when given enough recovery time. In fact, microtears during exercise followed by healing is how muscles become bigger and stronger. However, when a pitcher continues to tear his UCL without allowing enough time for it to heal, the microtears add up to be one large tear in the ligament. Pitchers with UCL injuries often describe feeling or hearing a “pop” in the elbow on one particular pitch. These types of stories lead many people to believe that a pitcher blows out his UCL on one bad pitch – such as the first pitch on a cold day or a poorly thrown breaking pitch. Really, this is usually not the case. Quite frequently the one bad pitch was really just “the straw that broke the camel’s back” and was the final microtear that led a series of microtears to become a large tear.

Lateral Elbow Injuries

At the same time the medial elbow is under tension, the lateral side of the elbow is compressed. The compression between the forearm’s bone (the radius) and the upper arm’s bone (the humerus) helps the forearm stop cocking back and start rotating forward. This large crushing force on tiny bone surfaces sometimes results in small bone chips breaking off. These bone chips float in the elbow joint and may result in pain, loss of elbow motion, and diminished pitching performance.

Posterior Elbow Injuries – “Valgus Extension Overload”

From the arm-cocked position, the arm rapidly rotates forward at the shoulder and straightens out at the elbow. The elbow straightens out so fast that it takes less than a tenth of a second (0.1 sec) to go from the 90-degree bent position to the nearly straight position at ball release. The combination of this rapid elbow extension and the large torque generated to rotate the arm forward can cause a grinding injury in the posterior-medial elbow (the “funny bone” area of the elbow). Small bone chips can break off and float in the elbow joint, which may result in pain, loss of motion, and diminished pitching performance.

Copyright © 2000, American Sports Medicine Institute
October 05, 2004

The picture here of Roy Oswalt illustrates this optimal “Triple Extension” and “Separation.” Good separation from back hip to back shoulder builds torque in the core. An indication that a pitcher is developing that torque is noticeable in the twisting of the front of the jersey which is obvious in the picture of Oswalt. This is the most difficult position to master in the pitching delivery. It is a challenge to learn the muscle memory that allows the shoulders to stay back while the hips drive forward. The reason for the difficulty is that this requires a lot of core and leg strength. This is why I promote a very intense lifting program for pitchers that develops fast twitch muscle fibers and optimal core and leg strength. You will not master this position or this core torque until you are strong enough to achieve it.

Watch this video here or read my article on, “Olympic Lifting Increases Pitching Velocity” to learn more and purchase the “Ace Pitcher Handbook” to start the lifting program.

The best way to achieve separation is with your hips. You must understand that there is a delay from your hips to shoulders. This means your hips start first and your shoulders hold and when your hips stop, your shoulders commit. Just like the picture above, you must see the component “Separation” as a split perspective. Your lower half and then your upper half. Your lower half works first, then your upper half follows. Most young pitchers do this in reverse. This will cause arm problems and poor velocity. This happens because if the upper half starts first then the lower half is left behind and has no opportunity to be used.

I recommend you take a picture of yourself during the point of “Separation” and cover up first the upper half of your body in the picture. You want to see your hips completely open to the target like the picture above. Then cover your lower body and you want to see your shoulders in line with the target like the picture above. If you do not see good separation then you need to work on getting your hips moving faster while delaying your shoulders until just before front foot strike.

Notice the picture here of Mariano Riviera. The greatest closer in the game. His hips have started his delivery and are driving towards the plate while his shoulders stay back.  His arms are relaxed and waiting for his hips and legs to reach full stride, before the shoulders are ready to fire. The shoulders must fire after the back leg has triple extended and the back hip has completely committed to the target. This is the point of Separation.

This split perspective is essential to developing good separation. You must see this as a split second delay in your lower half to upper half and the hips leading the process. This is a challenge to learn and perform well but this component alone is what separates average pitching from above average pitching. Combining good “Separation” with a total body Olympic style strength and conditioning program, equals a Top level Pitcher.

Most coaches do not coach “Separation” because it is a challenge. The only way to coach this component and to perform this component correctly you must focus on the “Hip Slide.” What I mean by “Hip Slide” is that your hips should be seen as a slide or car and when you first lift your leg to start your delivery, the slide must start down the mound. Everything else on your body must stay back while the slide is heading down the hill. Therefore the faster you can get your slide down the hill while holding everything else back, the faster your velocity. It is also just as important to velocity if the slide comes to a complete stop at front foot strike. The hips/slide must stop, so the momentum it generated, is transfered up the core, into the shoulders, into the arm and finally the ball. The reason you must focus on the hips to develop “Separation,” is because if the hips move faster than the shoulders, you will create good “Separation” naturally.

Driving your slide down the hill as fast as possible and slamming the slide into your front leg to completely stop its momentum, is your best opportunity to generate your potential top velocity. It is also just as important the distance the slide covers before it is stopped by the front foot strike. This distance is called your stride. A good stride is at least your body length. A good stride means that you had more time to generate momentum before front foot strike.

When your slide is building momentum down the mound while you are holding everything else back, which is called “Loading,” this will increase your stride length. The best way to perform this is by “Loading” hard on your back side until your back knee starts to straighten out. Once it begins to straighten, you must triple extend your back leg, to add that last push to your slide which will build more momentum and increase your stride. Read my article “Lift for Show, Load for Doe” to learn more about the “Load.”

The USA men’s weightlifting head coach at the 2004 Olympic Games, Hatch was inducted into the USA Strength and Conditioning Coaches Hall of Fame’s inaugural 14-member class in August 2003, along with Baton Rouge’s Alvin Roy; and the USA Olympic Weightlifting Federation Hall of Fame in April 2002. He received the NFL Strength & Conditioning Coaches Society “President’s Award” for his role in developing the profession at the 2005 NFL Combine. Hatch served as meet director of the 2000 USA Olympic Trials. In 2007-08, Hatch worked at LSU as basketball strength and conditioning coach after his program helped the 2006 Tigers reach the Final Four.

The Baton Rouge, LA resident has won 12 national Coach of the Year honors from USA Weightlifting. He has coached 43 national champion lifters who set numerous American and junior American records. Among his best-known athletes are 1984 USA Olympian Tommy Calandro and 1988 and 1992 USA Olympian Bret Brian. He has had athletes named to more than 50 USA teams competing internationally. Hatch also has helped shape the careers of several notable strength coaches in the college and professional sports ranks. LSU’s head strength coach, Tommy Moffitt, and Tennessee’s head strength coach, Johnny Long, both attribute their recent national football championships in part to the Hatch strength program. Hatch was a dynamic basketball player for Northwestern State in 1960-62 who was drafted to play professionally. While at Northwestern, Hatch led the Demons in scoring, rebounding and field goal percentage before he was chosen by the Chicago Majors of the American Basketball League, forerunner of the American Basketball Association which eventually merged with the NBA. Hatch set a school record in his senior year by shooting 57.7 percent in 1961-62, a mark that ranks 10th in school history some 40 years later. Hatch established a school mark for scoring with 18 field goals made in a game against a 21-4 Kentucky Wesleyan team, missing only three shots in an amazing performance. He was elected to the American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003. He is in six Halls of Fame, also included in the Catholic HS, Northwestern State athletic, Northwestern State alumni halls, and material on him was included in the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of the American Indian when it opened in 2005.

From Basketball Star to Strongman
by Jimmy Peyton

Coach Hatch continued his strength training after his basketball career, and he went from a strong man to a super-strong man. I was amazed when I first met him. He stood 6 feet 6 inches tall and weighted an athletic 290 pounds.

Strong-man contest such as the Scottish Highland Games were not televised back in those days, but with Coach Hatch’s height, athletic ability and freaky strength, I believe he could have won a world championship. We just didn’t know such contest existed. Olympic lifting and power lifting were the only strength sports we knew about. I saw Coach press 290 pounds for 6 reps behind the neck, and curl 4 sets of 6 with 240 pounds. I watched him do full good mornings with 400 pounds for 5 reps with ease. Coach Hatch also did a pinch grip exercise with the old York 45 pound plates smooth side out for 5 to 10 seconds. I saw him dead lift 855 pounds out of the power rack with the pins set so that the plates were 3 inches off the floor. I also saw Coach bench press 450 pounds 6 times with a fractured bone in his forearm. He didn’t flinch, and he didn’t say a word after he finished the set except to get on our butts for standing around watching him. “Get back to work,” he said and we hopped to it. That made it hard to tell a man like that you had a nagging injury. If you were hurt that was one thing, but nagging injuries you worked around them. I saw him pick up 300 pounds that a lifter missed on a jerk off the rack and do a forearm curl and re-rack the weight like nothing. Bob McCarron, a current master lifter and I just stood there and looked at each other in amazement. Coach didn’t say a word.

Coach Hatch was also undefeated in arm wrestling. He actually had competitions at the state weightlifting and powerlifting meets. The entry form would read “Gayle Hatch vs. all comers $200.00 per match to the winner”. That was big money for those days, but of course his winnings went to the team to buy equipment. The favorite Coach Hatch story that old timers still talk about today is when the town bully challenged Coach Hatch to a street fight. After being told by so many people that there was one man he couldn’t whip, the bully just couldn’t stand it anymore. This man worked for gamblers and loan sharks and made his living beating up people who were late on their payments. He also liked going into bars just so he could beat up on someone. If you know Coach Hatch at all then you know he doesn’t take any garbage. The time and place was set, and the fight was on. After the massacre, the bully was taken off to the hospital.

Coach is still powerful today even though he is in his sixties. I recently saw him do something that blew my mind. I watched two lifters of good strength trying to move a squat rack that was stuck. The pins completely came out and the medal bar that held the weight slid down and became stuck. Both lifters were pulling and banging on the rack with medal plates, but the bar didn’t move. Coach walked over to them and with one hand grabbed the stuck bar and pulled it back up exactly to its proper position.

Coach Hatch has always been known as a fearless man. He had that reputation as an athlete, and he has it as a man. He received a certification of appreciation from the Baton Rouge Police Chief, Willard Ashford. The certification reads, “In recognition of unusual and outstanding service of the city by assisting the police department in the performance of their duty. Hatch was cited for an act of bravery on December 16, 1974. On that date, he saw a man running at full speed through a parking lot. About two blocks behind, he noticed two men who appeared to be plain clothed detectives giving chase and losing ground. Hatch took off after the man and apprehended him after a few blocks of running. The police then arrived, arrested the man and charged him with two counts of felony. The presentation was shown on television.

John Thrush one of American’s top weightlifting coaches said of coach Hatch that if you get past the technical aspects which he is obviously an expert in, he has a real presence about him, a real rapport with the athletes. Thrush said, “He’s kind of a commanding guy. He reminds me of Patton”. Most of his lifters compare him to John Wayne. 2001 American Open Champion, Buster Bourgeois found a life size poster of “The Duke”, brought it to the training center and pined it on Coach Hatch’s office door. Luckily for Buster Coach found it amusing.

1984 Olympian Tommy Calandro say’s Coach Hatch, a better man you’ll never meet. You’re a better person just being around this guy, and I trained under him for years. He is a great Coach. I didn’t go to the Olympics we went. Without Coach Hatch I’m not there. 1988 and 1992 Olympian, Bret Brian, said without Coach Hatch I would not be an Olympian. He made my dream come true. He has every quality that a coach should have and manages to impart that to the athlete.

I was a member of Coach Hatch’s first team to attend a national meet. The 1974 National Collegiates at Montclair State in New Jersey. This was a shootout between two of America’s greatest lifters, Phil Grippalli and Mark Cameron. The crowd went crazy and Phil edged out Mark to win the 198 pound class. Our team, LSU, placed second to Montclair State. The LSU Team consisted of Lim Ko Hup, Mike Neal, James Stefanski, John Black, Mike Edwards, Charles Heard, Roy Cefalu, Quan Bryce and me, Jimmy Peyton. It never entered my mind at that time that the Gayle Hatch Team would one day win over forty national championships and have representation on four Olympic Teams and still counting. Keep an eye on Matt Bruce for 2008.

Coach Hatch is a member of both the USA Weightlifting Hall of Fame and the USA Strength and Conditioning Coaches Hall of Fame. LSU, Tennessee and Miami have all won BCS National Championships in football. The head strength coaches have all been students of Coach Hatch. LSU and Miami baseball teams have also won national championships with strength coaches who were trained by Coach Hatch. He has helped the careers of many other notable strength coaches in the high school, collegiate and professional ranks. One other note about the 2004 Olympic Games, Coach Hatch who is a member of the American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame donated the uniform he wore at the opening ceremonies in Athens, Greece to the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C.

Denis Reno sometimes refers to coach Hatch as the “Ghost Coach”. This is because he usually arrives right before his first lifter lifts and leaves soon after his last lifter has lifted. This is not because he is not sociable in fact he is sociable. But years ago he became disenchanted with the political infighting that went on between different factions of the Federation. He felt once the competition was over, he had completed his job. He and his lovely wife Peggy usually go out to dinner and enjoy a quite evening. Speaking of Mrs. Hatch, the team absolutely loves and respects her. In the early years you could see her working at the score table from the local meets to the national and international competitions. Coach and Peggy were college sweethearts. Coach has told me more than once how lucky he is to have her for his wife. “She helped bring out the best in me”, Coach would say.

Coach Hatch is more than a weightlifting coach or strength coach. He is an “All American”. From head to toe, he is loyal to the American Flag to the max. He believes in the right moral tings to live by, and he teaches and expects his lifters to follow his lead. There are no ifs or buts about it. You follow Coach, listen to his wisdom and you will profit in life. He believes right is right and wrong is wrong. He never waivers from the truth. If you do right, he will be loyal to you for life.

The Gayle Hatch Weightlifting Team is one of the greatest weightlifting programs in the history of America, and I am proud to be a part of it.

I am not talking about hormone levels like body builders talk about hormone levels. I am speaking for athletes who are always looking to grow more athletic. Your hormone levels are a major component to your athletic ability, so it is essential that you learn about your Endocrine System. The chart below comes from the National Strength and Conditioning Association. This chart describes how to manipulate your hormone levels naturally to gain athletic benefits.

What this chart teaches us athletes is that performing lifts that recruit major muscle groups and as many muscle fibers as possible, will cause more muscle fiber damage overall. In return the body is forced to heal this massive  event of controlled muscle damage as quickly as possible, to prevent damage from continuing. The body then sends out and army of natural occurring anabolic hormones to heal up the damaged muscle fibers.To make sure this event doesn’t continue, the body builds more muscle fibers for future events.

The difference in training muscles without recruiting as many groups of muscle fibers per repetition, like with aerobic conditioning or light weight training, is the body dumps only a small about of testosterone and GH to heal the small amount of damage. This is why body builders are bigger and more powerful than long distance runners.

To take advantage of this new information, it is important that you train smart. Training smart is not going one extreme to the other. So DO NOT take off with this new information and start throwing on weight that you can’t handle and perform 1-2 reps a set. That is unsafe. Just like pitching everything must be controlled and you must make small adjustments for a healthy career. This information should motivate you to start working for quality lifts instead of quantity. Another important piece of advice is not to take this mentality of bigger, stronger, faster into the weight room while in season. This is an off season mentality only.

The reason we need 5-6 servings of vegetables a day is because the natural whole food vitamins and minerals are essential to all of our muscular functions as an athlete. It is also essential to muscle recovery. Read my article on Pitching Nutrition and Supplements to learn more on this topic.

Here is a product that offers you 5-6 servings of vegetables in a pill form.

www.StartJuicingNow.com

www.StartJuicingNow.com

If you would like more information on a nutrition product please post your request in the comments below and I will do some research for you.

When I speak of long toss, I mean throwing the ball more than 120 feet. This means throwing the ball farther than from home to second base. To make this easy to understand and for you to base your opinion, I will break long toss down into a list of pros and cons.

The Pros of Long Toss:

It is a max effort exercise which is pushing the body to generate more force to the ball. If performed with total body mechanics, this can train and help develop the total body. Long toss mainly trains the “Load position.”

The long distance toss increases the chance of error in locating the target. This is training accuracy for long distance.

The Cons of Long Toss:

It is a max effort throwing exercise which is putting a lot of stress on the arm. Especially the decelerator muscles. If a pitcher has poor mechanics and throws with more arm than body, then long toss can be very destructive to the pitcher. If you are looking for an overall total body training program I would suggest mixing Olympic lifting and plyometric training with a throwing program that does not over throw the arm.

It is training long distance accuracy which is a different release point than 60 feet pitching accuracy. If performing long toss, it is important to finish throwing  from at least 60-65 feet after throwing long, to re-establish your pitching release point.

The mechanical difference from long toss to pitching on the mound, is almost the same difference as playing home run derby as opposed to hitting off of a live pitcher. There is a mechanical adjustment from hitting slow pitches intended for home runs, to hitting hard pitches intended to strikeout the hitter. This adjustment is proof that throwing long toss to pitching has a placebo effect (A placebo is anything of no real benefit which nevertheless makes people feel better.) For example, hitting the home runs in a home run derby would build confidence, which then would effect how you perform against a live pitcher. Just like throwing the ball 350 feet would give you more confidence when you start throwing the ball at 60 feet. It is now a shorter distance and it requires less effort, so you feel a lot more powerful. This is because throwing the ball 350 feet gives a visual measurement of your strength. To help you understand this point I ask this question. Which way do you think it is easier to tell who is throwing harder? The difference between a pitcher throwing 85 mph to a pitcher throwing 90 mph, or the difference between a pitcher throwing 310 feet to a pitcher throwing 350 feet.

There is a difference in mechanics for a pitcher throwing at max effort from 70 feet away to 350 feet away. The difference is in the release point. A pitcher should always throw with the same release point because it is crucial for velocity and accuracy. Continuously changing release points from throwing long toss to pitching on a mound will effect a pitchers consistency. Therefore, the only reason to perform long toss is for the placebo effect. It is just like taking an over the counter supplement that says it will increase your muscle mass. It gets you all excited and pumped up, but this doesn’t mean it is actually working. If this feeling is all that matters to you, then keep playing long toss. Otherwise, if you feel the placebo effect is a waste of time and emotion, then I would suggest you train your pitching delivery the same ever day. Constantly making mechanical adjustments to increase your velocity on the mound, without putting a lot of throws on your arm. You will see more velocity gains from a total body training program than from a long toss program any day.

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.

Pitching can have the characteristics of both anaerobic and aerobic conditioning. The issue is conventional wisdom and has been training athletes like long distance runners for years. When I think of a top level pitcher, I see an athlete built more like a sprinter than a cross country runner. When we pitch we do push into aerobic exercise. The problem is this usually means we are pitching to fast and throwing to many pitches. This will effect velocity because after 8-10 seconds of performance without rest, the body uses oxygen to produce ATP. This involves the heart, lungs and blood vessels. This is a slower process and effects the amount of ATP levels in the muscles. This is why the longer we perform a lift in the weight room, the slower our contractions. This is the  same for pitching. The longer we pitch without rest, the slower our bodies are moving, which in return decreases velocity. This is why it is important to pace yourself in between pitches and condition your system to run more anaerobic.

If pitchers train their systems to run more anaerobic than aerobic then they will pitch more anaerobic than aerobic. This means pitching with controlled explosive strength as opposed to pitching more like a batting practice pitcher. To train more anaerobic, do not run long periods of time at a slow pace. This is developing slow twitch muscle fibers and training your system to be conditioned for aerobic performance. Instead perform short explosive sprints and rest a good 2-3 minutes between sprints. This will develop more fast twitch muscle fibers and your system will be conditioned for anaerobic performance.

Purchase the 3X Pitching Velocity Program for an excellent anaerobic training program.