The progression of a pitching arm injury starts first with muscle pain. There are two types of muscle pain.

• Muscle Soreness
• Muscle Damage

Muscle soreness is when the pain is at an uncomfortable level but you still have your strength. When that feeling of discomfort grows more intense and evolves into muscle weakness, then this is a good sign of damage. Damage can mean a few things. Either you have a few small muscle tears or frays which is causing high amounts of inflammation, or you have a good size muscle tear. Whatever the damage, it is going to take some time to heal. Because this post is about the signs of damage, I will not go into how to heal a damaged arm in this post. I will list here some of the main side effect of muscle damage in the pitching arm.

Signs of Damage in the Pitching Arm

1. Loss of Range of Motion – If you can NOT move your arm in all directions, like you could before, then this could be a sign of damage or future damage.
2. Loss of Strength – If you can move your arm in all directions but you are very weak in some areas then this could be  a sign of damage or future damage.
3. Sharp Pain Only When Pitching – If you experience a sharp pain when your arm is abducted behind your head or fully externally rotated then this could be a sign of damage or future damage. This usually means you have an impingement which can cause serious damage to your rotator cuff.
4. Big Drop in Velocity – If your velocity drops a good 10 mph then this could be a sign of damage or future damage.

If you or someone you know has experienced one of these signs then I recommend you see a Sports Medicine Doctor. Do not waste your time with a General Practitioner who has worked on very few baseball pitchers. Find someone who is experience in sports related injuries. This will save you a lot of time, money and maybe your career.

Dr. James Andrews at ASMI put together a study of low velocity pitchers to high velocity pitchers to determine the difference in pitching mechanics. It was a good feeling after reading this study because the same information coming from Dr. Andrews is the same information Top Velocity has been preaching for years. It proves why I overcame a rotator cuff tear and was able to reach 94 mph on my fastball post surgery.

What these high velocity pitchers where doing different was transferring more momentum to the ball faster and more efficiently than the low velocity pitchers. There was four significant differences and these differences did not start until front foot strike. This means it doesn’t matter how you build momentum but you must build as much momentum as you can, then when your front foot lands your front leg must stabilize and continue to extend back into the hips before ball release. This front knee extension mainly occurred with the high velocity group of pitchers. The next major component of high velocity came with maximum external rotation of the arm when the trunk was tilted all the way over the front foot due to the excessive amounts of momentum generated into front foot strike. The study states that the reason for this maximum external rotation is because

“Greater shoulder external rotation causes a stretch of the internal rotators allowing energy to be stored in these muscles, and creating greater internal rotation during the arm acceleration phase.”

This leads into the next and most important component of the study. This component is by far a major component of not only velocity but arm health and pitch location. The study finishes with describing the importance of early elbow extension and internal rotation once the arm begins its launch to the target. I can’t stress the importance of this component enough. I have to admit that Top Velocity has not focused enough on this component and doesn’t have it in the Ace Pitcher Handbook. This will be added soon!

Early elbow extension and internal rotation is even more important when throwing a football. This is because to throw a good spiral you must have early elbow extension and early internal rotation to spiral the ball to your target. I recommend using a football in your warm ups to help improve on this component. The key to getting early elbow extension and internal rotation is keeping the arm relaxed the entire pitching delivery. The main focus of the arm is to be in position to receive the transfer of momentum and to transfer that momentum quickly and almost effortlessly. The only part of the arm doing work is the forearm. It is holding onto the ball with the finger tips. This is what controls pitch movement and location.

To learn more about this study please read the reference article here:
Comparison of High Velocity and Low Velocity Pitch Deliveries