Strength in Numbers #124
I’m writing this late on Thanksgiving, and everyone in my in-law’s house is overloaded with tryptophan from the turkey and fast asleep. Yet, I have made some discoveries that I’m excited to share with you.
While catching up on emails, I stumbled upon a late-night gem through an old email from one of our partners, Backyard Baseball Labs.
As I looked through their treasure trove of data across all age divisions in baseball, I thought about some research we will be publishing at Louisiana Tech about the transfer of training effects between arm strength data and on-field performance.
However, it’s only D1 college players. So I quickly downloaded the data from Backyard Baseball Labs and ran correlations to identify associations between Mean ArmScores and Total Throwing Arm Strength in relation to Mean Fastball and Change-Up Velocity.
In the dynamic world of baseball, the ability to unleash a high-velocity pitch is the holy grail for pitchers to reduce time for batters. While a combination of factors contributes to this, none holds as much sway as the strength of the throwing arm.
No research has shown that velocity enhancement training using weighted balls improves arm strength, which is a recipe for disaster.
GENERATING TORQUE
Throwing a baseball at high velocity requires generating significant torque. The throwing arm, particularly the muscles around the shoulder and elbow, acts as a torque generator.
The stronger these muscles, the more torque they can produce, translating to a faster ball release.
Our Strength-Velocity Ratio shows that those with less than 1.6 LBs per MPH are at the most risk.
These athletes are generating velocity more through passive tissue stretching, needing to rely on greater layback range of motion and not from contractile force from muscles.
The image on the left indicates data from an adolescent pitcher who is under 70% body weight strength for throwing, as indicated by an ArmScore of 65. Below, note that the Strength-Velocity Ratio is under 1.6, which places this athlete in a “Watch” category alert. This athlete came to me for velocity enhancement advisement. Needless to say, velocity enhancement was not advised as further velocity improvement was programmed through maximum throwing arm strength training and the use of Crossover Symmetry bands.
OPTIMAL MUSCLE COORDINATION AND ACTIVATION
A well-conditioned throwing arm ensures optimal muscle activation and coordination. From the rotator cuff to the fingertips, each muscle group plays a vital role in achieving maximum velocity.
Strengthening these muscles not only enhances their ability to generate force but also contributes to the overall stability of the arm during the complex motions of pitching.
Two important kinematic features owed to throwing high-powered pitches are internal rotation speed for the shoulder in accelerating the throwing arm forward and elbow extension speed.
If you lack the brakes, you cannot take off the training wheels to accelerate these joints faster as they will be more exposed to tearing or stress reaction fractures of the olecranon, which I commonly see.
DOES STRENGTH MATTER MOST?
Now, this is where the data comes in.
Throughout my professional career and reading a lot of research articles on strength, it should be intuitive that having a stronger arm means it is less fatigable.
If it’s less fatigable, it recovers better.
If it recovers better, it has less chance for compensation, and with a more consistent movement pattern, the chances are the muscles and tendons won’t be overloaded.
If the muscles are not overloaded, the ligaments underneath them will be shielded from stress overload.
One study that comes to mind when I think of this relationship is that you can download and read here. This study screams why high-intensity weighted ball training without a data-led approach is deadly.
You lose IR strength from fatigue and cannot decelerate layback with light balls, you gain external rotation range of motion on the catapult with heavy balls, your elbow is the hinge, and it can only handle so much from an unbalanced arm and one with excessive stretching.
Although the Strength Matters Most movement makes sense to increasing Innings Pitched and Games Played, does it matter to velocity?
The answer is YES in the mixed group of athletes across youth to professional ranks from Backyard Baseball.
With the data provided, the ArmScore did not correlate to velocity, which I have seen in professional pitchers, as strength-to-body weight ratios are more geared toward health and durability.
Yet the Mean Total Strength values from the athletes in this case study had a high correlation with Mean Fastball Velocity (r=0.73) and were able to explain over 50% of the differences seen in velocity, which indicates a statistically strong predictor of why velocity could be increased or decreased with changes in strength (R2=0.52).
In a nutshell, you can have your cake and eat it, too, as the icing on the cake from a data-led and individualized approach to training your throwing arm means more than just being durable.
It means you have a greater likelihood of throwing harder and safer as a result of overcoming fatigue, poor recovery, weakness, imbalance, and greater reliance on stretch versus strength in solving your velocity issues.
Fastballs get a bad rep, but I love them, knowing that you can throw hard and throw often with a super strong arm.
If you want to learn all about data-led velocity enhancement using arm strength and range of motion metrics as your guide, consider taking our Velocity Program Monitoring and Adjustments Course as part of our Bulletproof Arm Series. Do high-intensity weighted ball training the right way by being informed.
