Before I remedy you and save your pitching career, we need to understand first why this is a problem. Unfortunately, there has been zero studies to date on this so called, “Red Flag.” This means it is all in just theory that your pitching career is over, so you really should not loss much sleep over this but it is an important subject so let’s fix the problem.

Why the Inverted W is a Red Flag in the Pitching Delivery?

To prove this all you need to do is stand up and throw your elbows way up above your shoulders, like you are trying to scratch your ears with your elbows. Do you feel the pain? If not, do this a hundred times a day until you do!

This should easliy prove to you why this is not good for the shoulders and elbows. This simple exercise to understand the threat of this mechanical flaw here is enough to take this subject personally for you from theory into reality. If you are a pitcher with this issue then you do need to drop everything and correct it, before moving on. If this isn’t enough proof that this problem can make you prone to injury then just study the careers of Mark Prior, Kerry Woods, Anthony Reyes and many more with this mechanical flaw.

You can also learn from the medical field that throwing the arm above the shoulder or even behind the back, puts the shoulders and elbows in a vulnerable positions. Some physical therapist call this the “Red Zone.” This is the area that the shoulders and elbows are most at risk. This “Red Zone” would be the inverted W or L position.

The Pitchers Cure to the Inverted W and L

I discovered this cure after I had developed the 3X Drive Drills in the 3X Pitching Velocity Program. These drills train the pitcher to move quickly and effectively through a series of pitching drives. What I found was that slow pitchers who struggled with moving quick enough through the series of drives, would throw their elbows high above their shoulders to help assist their poor leg power. I call it “Flapping.” They look like chickens trying to take flight. I then noticed the more they improved their drive power or speed through the drill, the lower they threw their elbows up. This is when I determined that the inverted W or L is a power or speed issue. It will cause a timing issue but it is the main result of poor drive power.

If you study the pitchers mechanics who have evidence of the inverted W or L you will also find that their strides are slow. This means the pitchers cure for this serious mechanical problem is increasing stride speed or power. The 3X Drive Drills in the 3X Pitching Velocity Program have proven to be the perfect remedy!

It isn’t enough to only increase stride speed or power in your pitching delivery to cure the inverted W or L. The pitcher must have developed good stride mechanics like in the 3X Pitching program for the increased stride speed to effect the arm motion. To learn more about this revolutionary approach to pitching velocity checkout this video called, “Pitching 101.”

Let’s face it, throwing the ball at your top velocity is risky but so is returning punts in the NFL. If we are going to enhance our ability while promoting a long and healthy career, we must understand how our bodies work and how to prevent injury. The American Sports Medicine Institute has already informed the public that pitching injuries spawn from three main factors; Overuse, Poor Physical Fitness and Poor Mechanics. To take this information further, I will list here the top 10 pitching secrets to prevent injury in order from the most significant to the least but still significant.

Pitching injury prevention secrets

1. More Hip to Shoulder Separation – This is not only a major pitching velocity secret but it is also a major injury prevention secret. You know it is a good tip when it will increase both velocity and prevent injury. It will prevent injury because it allows the arm to stay relaxed while the body builds the power instead of the arm working to build the power. Optimal hip to shoulder separation will put the throwing arm behind the ball through release. If the pitcher has poor hip to shoulder separation then his arm will get out front early, preventing proper pronation. This is also critical for good deceleration which promotes arm health.
2. Increase Your Stride Distance and Power – I would bet that pitchers who have longer strides, have less arm issues than pitchers with shorter strides, but I have no research to back this up. I am making this claim strictly from my experience playing, coaching and analyzing this game through my career. The theory is that a short stride will prevent the pitcher from building more stride power which will force the arm to generate most of the velocity. This will then lead to more wear and tear on the arm and then eventually an injury. Increasing your stride distance is the first step towards injury prevention. The next step is increasing your stride power.
3. Do Not Swing Your Arm - The arm should never swing out of the glove, especially behind the back or way above the shoulder before the shoulders fire towards the target. This is what leads to the infamous inverted W or in laymen’s terms the M. It puts the arm in what is called the “Red Zone,” this is the zone where the shoulder and elbow are most vulnerable because there is more torque being applied to the joints based on the positioning. To prevent over abusing the arm, we must train it to follow the body and not lead the way. The revolutionary approach to pitching velocity called 3X Pitching has proven that when the arm starts the delivery, the body takes a back seat which reduces velocity and leads to injury. This swinging of the arm is a sign that the arm is taking control and in return, most of the stress.
4. Do Not Pull Down to Release – It feels strong when your arm is firing towards release and you start pulling down on your forearm to force your arm through its final path to the target. This pulling down of the forearm makes it feel like the ball is screaming out of your fingers tips. This may increase velocity but it comes with a big price. The price is the effects of overworking the forearm muscles. These are small muscles that when they fatigue, the body losses the fine motor skills of the hand which will effect your pitch grips. Most important, it will put more wear and tear in your elbow. This pulling down of the arm is not a component of hard throwers. It is what pitchers do when they are struggling with transferring stride power into core torque and then the velocity of the ball. Instead of pulling down to release, work on more hip to shoulder separation and good forearm pronation.
5. Build Joint Integrity Weekly – Just like eating, taking a shower or brushing your teeth, if you want to pitch at your top velocity through a long career then you must perform rotator cuff exercises to strengthen your cuff two times per week. You would be surprised the amount of pitchers who never do this. Post rotator cuff surgery, if I miss a few weeks of joint integrity training while in-season, my shoulder stability begins to fail. It is amazing how quickly I can loss this stability and strength. This loss of stability overtime will definitely lead to injury. For a complete rotator cuff program check out the 3X Pitching Velocity program.
6. Develop More Core and Leg Strength -  If you have weak legs and core then where will your body get its power? The shoulders and arms. I have worked with pitchers who are so weak in their core and legs that when they try to increase their stride distance, their arms start flapping like a bird trying to take flight. If you look at some of the biggest legs of pitchers in Major League Baseball you will find a ton of healthy, hard throwing pitchers. Nolan Ryan is probably the best example of this in my lifetime. He stayed in the upper 90′s even into his 40′s. He has tree trunks for legs and he never had a serious pitching injury.
7. Quality Throws over Quantity – If you want to “strengthen your arm” do it with your strength and conditioning program, like in the 3X pitching Velocity program. Do not do it with your throwing program. Your throwing program should be used to improve your mechanics with drills and a low volume of throws, like in the 3X Pitching Velocity Program. Do not use your throwing program as your strength and conditioning program, this will only lead to overuse and abuse of your shoulder and elbow. This is why I do not support extreme long tossing.
8. Avoid Machine Lifting – Machine weight training is terrible for athletes. It promotes pattern overload and will make a pitcher more vulnerable to injury. This is the case because when using machines for lifting weights, like with a press movement, the machines forces the pitcher to take the same path of movement every single rep. When using free weights, the pattern of movement is always different. There is a mechanism in the body to prevent the overload of one muscle or muscle group which will prevent over fatigue of a single muscle or muscle group. By changing the path of movement, the body uses different muscles or muscle groups to share in the work load. When a muscle is fatigued and the reps continue, other muscles take over to over compensate for the malfunction. In the shoulder, this will change the efficiency of the movement and force the shoulder to rotate off axis. This has been proven to lead to serious joint injury.
9. Eat like a Pro – If you do not give your body the building blocks to a healthy pitcher, in its diet, then how is it going to maintain itself as a healthy pitcher? This is the most neglected secret of injury prevention. Most athletes and especially pitchers believe they can eat whatever they want whenever they want. This is complete ignorance. If you can take the time to learn the basics of a healthy diet and how to feed your body what it needs then you are at least giving your body the chance to stay healthy.
10. 10 Hours of Quality Sleep Daily – If you are not sleeping at least 10 hours when training or pitching then you are not giving your body what it needs to repair itself. If you can follow secrets 1-9 then this last pitching injury prevention secret will work wonders for your career. A quality nights sleep can mean the difference between a great days performance and a good days performance. Losing sleep overtime prevents the body from fully recovering and rebuilding which eventually leads to injury.

The article on TopVelocity.net that has been getting a lot of attention and the one that Jaeger is not happy with, is the article called Long Toss and the Placebo Effect. You can view it by selecting the title. The comments are below the article. Everyone thinks that I am against Long Tossing and the truth is that this isn’t true. I believe in Long Tossing up to about 120 feet. What I DO NOT agree with is “Extreme Long Tossing” like Jaeger promotes which can exceed distances of 350 feet. I feel that this is reckless because if you do not have efficient throwing mechanics you are taking a big risk with the health of your arm at these levels. This is why I preach against Jaeger’s Long Toss program because he does not work intently on correcting mechanical flaws before pushing his pitchers to these extreme distances. A great example is Joel Zumaya. This is Jaeger’s claim to fame whom he has put all over his website. Just this past MLB season Joel Zumaya broke off his shoulder bone. This is a major mechanical flaw that caused Zumaya’s shoulder bone to snap and you would hope his pitching coach could have prevented this major shoulder injury. If I was his pitching coach I would have at least taking responsibility for his injury.

Another reason I do not support this “Extreme Long Tossing” is because I like many other pro pitchers did not use this in my professional career. Actually before I tore my rotator cuff in college, I would perform extreme long toss. I am not saying that this is why I injured my arm. What I am saying is I never used it again and was able to add 8 mph on my fastball which got me into pro ball.

The day I broke 90+mph post surgery, which I had at 18 years old when I was throwing 86 mph with horrendous mechanics, is because of a new program I was on for about 6 months to a year. The day I found this program was the day I decided to stop making this stuff up and seek professional help from those who I felt knew what they were talking about. I found Tom House who is a well known pitching coach and Doctor and Kurt Hester who is a nationally recognized strength and conditioning specialist. Tom House taught me about hip to shoulder separation, which I had none and Kurt taught me speed and strength like you wouldn’t believe. With this combination I experienced an 8 mph increase in velocity.

I wasn’t long tossing past 250 feet plus. I wasn’t using weighted balls. I was performing the Olympic lifts, plyos, and sprint work, 1 hour a day, 5 days a week while I was playing for a travel team in the summer. If I pitched on a day of a lift, I would not change my program. I would lift at full intensity and then pitch a 7-9 inning game one hour later. This is because the lifting program was lower body dominate. I wasn’t pounding my arms. I was pounding my legs. I also was working on good hip to shoulder separation during practice and before the games. I thought at this time, that with the lifting intensity and the pitching of 7-9 innings that my body would give out and it did the opposite. I would finish a 9 inning game with higher velocities than in the first inning. I continued this program and it is what I believe put me into pro ball after doctors told me I would never be able to compete again.

The program I used is now the Ace Pitcher Handbook. I am aware that this program isn’t for everyone and that just because it worked for me, doesn’t mean it will work for you. I understand this but you will never know if a program like this will have the same effect on you if you don’t give it your best.

I also believe that the reason arm injuries have increased by 700% in the past ten years is because pitchers are training outside of the mechanics of the pitcher. Extreme long toss mechanics is a lot different than on the mound mechanics. I explain this here

The Proper Research on Why Long Toss is Bad for your Arm

This is also the case in the weight room. This is why I believe the Olympic lifts are the only intense lifts you should use because they have a lot of similarities in mechanics to pitching. You can read more about this point in the first article I wrote on this site.

Olympic lifting Increases Pitching Velocity.

I am glad that “Extreme Long Tossing” is getting this much attention with this site and Jaeger’s but I hope that those who are using this approach are educating themselves on the dangers. I also hope those who use my approach are educating themselves on the dangers as well. Which are, just like learning good throwing mechanics before you try to throw your arm off you must learn good lifting mechanics  before you try to move a house. Be smart, work hard and always listen to your body!