Strength in Numbers #158
Transfer of training effects means you can transfer your training approaches to on-field performance.
This is truly the essence of player development and injury protection. If you train an athlete in a particular attribute, shouldn’t it translate to greater performance?
If that were the case, there would be no performance regressions and no injuries, and the All-Star Teams would be overflowing with players of the same caliber. Simply put, we make mistakes as coaches, sometimes coaching one athlete off the success we had with another, and the room for error is much less with elite athletes who need everything individualized to be optimized.
I am a research associate at Louisiana Tech. We are motivated by proving ourselves wrong and identifying what should be prescribed to improve performance. Our key advantage is that Dr. David Szymanski has been the Director of Baseball Performance and can blend the art and science of baseball high-performance training.
This comes with training-based studies, which can look at longitudinal periodization (the organization and curriculum of training programs) that enhance modifiable factors strongly tied to strength and coordination approaches.
Our industry often takes a biomechanical approach to a strength solution. Integrating biomechanics and strength flows through our Strength and Coordination Decision Tree, taught in the Certified Pitching Biomechanist Course.
Suppose your perception is that biomechanics is the primary and strength is the secondary approach to your player development and injury prevention mode. In that case, I am not telling you that your perception is further away from reality than what you think – I will allow our student’s work at Louisiana Tech to speak through this article that may change your mind.
TWO MIND-BENDING STUDIES FROM TWO YOUNG MINDS
Enter the work of Austin Reedy and Chris Watson. These two separate Master’s theses took throwing arm strength analyses to a whole new level, looking at ball flight process metrics and their intersection with traditional baseball statistics.
Austin’s multi-layer thesis involved the association of traditional statistics with throwing arm strength characteristics, and Chris’s graduate research undertaking focused on spin characteristics with predictive merit on spin efficiency.
STUDY 1: SPIN EFFICIENCY IS IMPACTED BY FOREARM STRENGTH
Understanding Spin Efficiency
Spin efficiency, often referred to as “active spin,” measures how effectively a baseball pitcher’s spin rate contributes to the ball’s movement. It is expressed as a percentage calculated by comparing the actual spin rate to the useful spin rate.
A high spin efficiency means that a large proportion of the spin rate contributes to the ball’s movement, whereas a low spin efficiency indicates that much of the spin is wasted.
For example, a fastball with a high spin efficiency will have a tighter, more consistent movement, making it more difficult for batters to hit.
Conversely, a pitch with low spin efficiency might spin rapidly without generating the desired movement, making it easier for batters to predict and hit. However, in some instances, low spin efficiency can play for some pitchers with unique delivery features.
The app view shown here is from the PitchLogic baseball, a company that has partnered with ArmCare and one that has been incredibly helpful for my work with private clients in scaling workloads, identifying ball movement issues, evaluating a change in throwing arm slot, and providing a whole host of opportunities in remote player development that my pitching specialists who work alongside me with players can guide individual pitching development plans.
Impact on Pitch Movement
The movement of a pitch is crucial in deceiving batters and maintaining a pitcher’s effectiveness. Spin efficiency directly influences this movement:
- Fastballs: For four-seam fastballs, higher spin efficiency results in greater backspin, causing the ball to resist gravity and “ride” through the strike zone, appearing to rise. This can lead to more swings and misses or weak contact.
- Curveballs: A curveball with high spin efficiency will have a sharp, downward break, making it more difficult for hitters to track and connect.
- Sliders and Cutters: These pitches benefit from high spin efficiency by enhancing their lateral movement, making them more deceptive and more challenging to hit.
A fastball with low spin efficiency may drop more than expected, while a curveball might not break as sharply. Both of these make the pitches easier for batters to hit, and if tunneling is off, batters can predict ball flight from a mile away.
Training Spin Efficiency
High-level pitchers focus on improving their spin efficiency through various methods:
- Biomechanical Analysis: Using high-speed cameras and motion capture technology, pitchers can analyze their mechanics to identify inefficiencies in their grip, release, and follow-through. This detailed analysis helps pitchers adjust and maximize their spin efficiency.
- Ball Flight Tracking Technology: As we mentioned in the example with the PitchLogic ball, advanced tools that measure spin rate, spin axis, and spin efficiency in real time are essential. By providing immediate feedback, pitchers can experiment with different grips and arm angles to find the most effective way to increase their spin efficiency.
- Grip Adjustments: Small changes in grip can significantly affect spin efficiency. Coaches work with pitchers to find the optimal grip for each pitch type, ensuring that the maximum amount of spin translates into movement.
BUT HERE IS WHERE I AM SAYING STRENGTH MATTERS MOST! Chris discovered that increasing throwing arm forearm strength can improve spin efficiency. He profiled forearm strength characteristics in D1 pitchers and found that the combination of an athlete’s pronation/supination strength was used to determine whether they were more supinators of pronators in addition to pinch grip strength using the ArmCare platform. Collectively, the strength qualities could predict their impact spin efficiency without ever putting an athlete’s fingers on the ball or capturing their 3D motion.
STUDY 2: STRENGTH AND STATISTICAL PERFORMANCE
You could scour the research, go on Google Scholar, PubMed Central, or any other major search engine for research, and you will be hard-pressed to see research associating throwing arm strength and statistical performance in baseball pitchers.
Chris’s work focused on a critical process metric for ball flight. Austin’s work focused on statistical performance, outcome measures, and the numbers determining whether teams win or lose or whether players make seven figures coming out of college.
Can throwing arm strength really be related to walks, strikeouts, wins, losses, innings pitched, etc? The answer is a HELL YES. Throwing the ball requires your arm, so measuring its form and function really matters.
I am going to further break down this chart that was presented at Austin’s thesis defense:
- ArmScore (Lean Mass)
When the ArmScore was calculated based on a player’s lean mass, the higher number was associated with lower walk rates. The moral of the story is to increase your throwing arm strength relative to your muscle mass for command.
2. Total Strength (Pounds of Force)
When looking at total throwing arm strength, pitchers with the strongest arms in total pounds had the most wins and the most innings pitched; they also had the most hits and runs because they had the most innings so that accumulative metric follows. In contrast, the pitchers with the strongest arms also had the most strikeouts. The message from this finding is that you get more opportunities to pitch and accumulate stats with a strong arm. Think Nolan Ryan. He leads in offensive categories because he pitches so much but also dominates in strikeouts.
3. Internal Rotation Strength (Pounds of Force)
This is another accumulative influencer: Greater IR strength, the muscles that accelerate the arm forward after maximum layback, and the muscles that slow down the layback of the throw arm increase runs, yet they also increase wins. This muscle is often weakened in players with Tommy John Surgery, so it’s a double whammy: You can protect your elbow while putting up Ws.
4. Scaption Strength (Pounds of Force)
Again, we hit on all the cumulative metrics because guys with long arm strength throw often. Scaption strength also helps promote a consistent release point, and we talk about this in the podcast about what can be seen on the PitchLogic ball and how changes in scaption strength can alter release point angles and cause athletes to tilt through the acceleration phase of the delivery. That’s a no-no as it relates to injury risk. Scaption strength is important.
5. Grip Strength (Pounds of Force)
Now we are getting into some interesting measures that coordinate with Chris’s thesis, looking at what three-finger, or baseball grip strength, can mean to the athlete’s ball fight metrics and performance. Fastball spin rates increase with increased baseball grip strength, and curveball velocities lower, which is a good thing, making the pitch velocity differences more noticeable and making it harder to discern what is coming. Changeup spin also increases, which may be a component of greater friction on the ball across all pitches. Win percentage is highly correlated with this measure, but so are all the accumulative stats because guys with strong pinch grip pitch more. This measure has the most associations with ball flight outcomes as both commands are improved with lower walk rates and swing and miss with greater strikeouts. It’s time you take a hard look at your grip strength programs with your pitchers.
6. Relative Grip Strength to Body Weight (%BW Grip Strength)
Here, we normalize the strength measure to be representative of the pitcher’s size. This allows us to compare players of all different body weights to determine pound for pound what the strongest arms can do on a baseball field. Relative grip increases fastball spin, wins, innings pitched, hits, and strikeouts. Burn this in my mind that it’s not just important to have high grip strength, but even better when it’s higher relative to your body size. Being the Incredible Hulk in size but weaker in the forearm than smaller players could expose you to injury risk and poor performance.
7. Relative Grip Strength to Lean Body Mass (%LBM Grip Strength)
Okay, let’s get back to the Incredible Hulk. Now, we have players who not only have great size but also greater muscle mass. Here, we are looking for players who have great forearm contractile strength relative to the mass that contracts. The dudes with the power pack on their throwing arms and have them chuck breakers like Thor’s hammer.
These guys spin the fastball and changeup, slow their breaking ball speed, making greater deceptive differences in velocity. They win more, pitch more, command more, and strike out hitters more than any other strength attribute—notice all the pink highlighted correlation coefficients that indicate a moderately high correlation.
REAFFIRMING STRENGTH IN NUMBERS
It’s awesome to see a connection from the past to the present. We started thinking of a good name for our articles and weekly newsletters.
Strength in Numbers just felt right. The thought process was that through our education, weekly emails, app, testing protocols, message, and platform, we would grow our tribe that goes against groupthink and conventional wisdom and seek deeper understanding.
People like you are part of it, considered outlaws, and protect players’ health, help them acquire velocity safely, and create opportunities for them that change the landscape of sports.
The crazy thing is that the work performed by these amazing Louisiana Tech students, although early studies, shows us what the future could be. It tells me we are on to something. The more intuitive we can make the findings, the better.
I always try to imagine how I would explain the results of research to a 12-year-old, as it will be impactful for everyone. There is serious strength in numbers right now.
To sum it up, if you want your pitches to play better and get more innings pitched, focus on strengthening your arm.
Simple right?
And yes, STRENGTH really does matter most.
Ryan
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