It took steroids in the game of baseball to wake up the MLB. They learned quickly that the old school mentality that baseball weight training will not make a baseball player better probably was dead wrong but instead of the MLB opening the game to the latest advances of the strength and conditioning world, they decided to fold.
Now why would they fold such a big hand that was dealt to them with a hard slap across the face? This is because of the pressures of the United States government. Congress threatened the MLB to a point of no return. To remove steroids from the poisoned roots of Major League Baseball they pushed out everything that resembled the disease. This meant strength and conditioning practices that juiced athletes used to develop their steroid-induced gains.
MLB Turns on Baseball Weight Training for Old School Training
Evidence that the MLB folded this hand is in articles like this here on MLB.com. The title says it all, Coach wants methods to catch on in bigs - Jaeger's old-school, unorthodox regimen preserves arms. What will they do next, MLB forcing their pitchers to run longer distances for conditioning! This is just mind blowing. Alan Jaeger's reason for his old school approach, over the new school approaches of the MLB which are still old school in my book, is in his quote here from the article.
"Among nature's mightiest, most majestic creations are the Great Redwoods, which stretch skyward to heights of 350 feet and beyond.....But what might happen if you planted a baby Redwood tree in a greenhouse with a 10-foot ceiling reinforced with steel? The tree, much like a young Geisha girl's feet shoved into unusually small shoes, would never reach its intended growth capacity. Both are examples of natural development being stunted, unnaturally. This, says Alan Jaeger, is the plight of pitching arms in America -- and, by extension, many arms in Major League Baseball."
The fact that this is the language that Jaeger uses to coach pitchers through his program is child's play. If I was forced into a debate over this rhetoric I would have to counter his analogy with an analogy that is similar and defines the new school approach of Bigger, Stronger, Faster. My analogy would go something like this.
"Among nature's mightiest, most ferocious creations is the Awesome Lion, the King of the jungle, who has the strength and speed to catch a Gazelle and rip his flesh to pieces.......But what might happen if you caged this Lion in a 30 foot cage reinforced with steel and barbed wire and force him to attack and kill large elephants and hippos? Much like the way Michael Vick raised his pit bulls for cage fighting. The day the lion was freed from his cage he would more than likely devour everything in his path. This, says Brent Pourciau, is how I train my pitchers to grow Bigger, Stronger, Faster so they can reach their potential velocity or maybe even exceed my expectations."
The fact that the likes of Nolan Ryan would actually entertain this old school approach on arm health for his Ranger pitchers makes me believe that major league baseball is going backwards again. Just when I thought the likes of Tim Lincecum had pushed the MLB into a new school revolution I was wrong. I believe the only hope that the MLB has is Dr. Andrew's. If he finds the time to convince the MLB with his scientific studies of why arm injuries occur when unorthodox methods like Jaeger's "air it out" throwing program are used then maybe the MLB will step into the future of strength and conditioning. Until then I am going to remain an MLB outcast and preach against this nonsense!
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Hey, Brent,
MLB folds under pressure, hits the nail right on the head, "DEAD CENTER,"
My main dissatisfaction with the ML organizations is their total disregard in relation to their pitchers , and them knowing that those who are throwing, not pitching with just their arms only are subject to unnecessary chronic sore arms and various surgeries and do nothing in relation to alleviating the possibilities of these problems by "TEACHING THEM TO "learn how to use their whole body's from the ground up in a forward side ways, led, driven by the rear hip movement to front foot touch down, with absolutely no forward rotation to this point, with a stride of at least matching one's body height, there should at this point be a most important separation of the lower body, hips and upper torso, shoulders, "LET THE BODY DO THE WORK," "NOT THE ARM," there are other body and arm movements and position involved to complete the throwing and follow through which I will not mention at this time, maybe I should just detail out the whole , whole body pitching movements and reasoning from start to finish, if anyone reading my comments here deem it necessary for me to do so , please feel free to let me know.
In my opinion as far as long toss is concerned and my past involvement in doing so many many times as a youngster who spent many hours doing long toss, not as a particular pitcher only though, until after I signed a professional ball contract of which then I did very little of including many very important practice sessions, playing every day takes one away from those very important practice sessions necessary to enhance one's basic abilities, I can still at[ 78] throw decent batting practice to high school and college age youngsters, at [40] feet of course, I contribute this to many hours of outfield, infield, pitching and throwing during many practice sessions. Now I absolutely do not advocate long toss over [90 to 120 feet] and no crow hops, Throw to a target, preferably a catchers glove in bullpens and from the spot of a pitchers trade, craft, "THE MOUND" I see way too many who spend way too much time doing senseless drills in place of proper constructive bullpens and mound work or those who only work on pitching just prior to a game.
As you say in your comments above about Lincecum pushing the MLB and the whole baseball world into a new school revolution are good hopeful thoughts but again as you say they are going backwards in many aspects of the game, I am convinced that the MLB people throughout the whole MLB systems are a bunch of self centered people who actually are not capable of "TEACHING" and that players are a bunch of self centered, satisfied , complacent primadonnas who cannot be talked to about making adjustments until they personally ask for help, Pitchers are just plain air headed and except for a hand full of the smart experienced ones who know how to think are just a bunch of throwers who have no idea that hitting is all about timing and pitching is also all about timing and most importantly, about destroying a batters timing, they stand out there and throw the same pitches, 3 or 4 in a row in the same area and wonder why they get bombed, no wonder the home counts will get enormously high, Then there are those air headed batters like Ryan Howard who admittedly state that he is not concerned with the field shift confronting him, I will just keep on swinging to make contact in that direction and see what happens, He does not make much contact though, It just irritates me to no end to see those with so much talent and nothing between their ears.
You do know that pitching with one's whole body from the ground up is only for Tim Lincecum, don't you? as is many comments I hear from those I consider to be uneducated baseball amateurs.
Thanks again for asking me to write comments on your site.
Don ervin
kom_ervin@yahoo.com