I will admit that towel drills have never looked right to me, but I have come to understand the drill through science and by seeing it in practice with Tom House and our Director of Performance, Jordan Oseguera.
Over the years, the drill has undergone various adaptations to serve different purposes, and it gets taught in different ways. So while it’s challenging to evaluate an exercise that has so many iterations, with a bit of evaluation, here are the benefits of towel drills that I found:
1. Developing Proper Mechanics: The towel drill enables athletes to concentrate on essential aspects of throwing mechanics, such as arm speed, body rotation, and weight transfer. By breaking down the throwing motion into its constituent parts, players can identify and correct flaws in their technique more effectively.
2. Increased Accuracy: The towel drill encourages a more controlled and deliberate throwing motion, leading to improved accuracy. Athletes can concentrate on hitting specific targets with precision, honing their ability to throw strikes consistently, and with increased body and arm speed, they must stabilize and move toward the target, not offline.
3. Reduced Stress on the Arm: Regularly practicing the towel drill can help reduce the strain on an athlete’s arm by focusing on proper sequencing and timing. It promotes a smooth and efficient throwing motion, minimizing unnecessary stress on the shoulder and elbow joints, which can aid in injury prevention and arm care.
4. Augmenting Contractile Velocity: The towel drill uses the towel’s resistance to simulate throwing with an underweighted ball. This can improve the speed and coordination of the muscles involved in pitching. And by holding onto the towel, you practice high-speed deceleration of the throwing arm, which can improve strength and stability to increase throwing velocity and reduce the risk of injury.
COMBINING TOWEL DRILLS
Appreciating the towel drill as a single implement for developing a part of the throwing motion and not an all-encompassing throwing tool is essential.
Overall, it’s a great way to develop arm speed and conditioning and can be combined with other drills for additive effects. For example, I like how towel drills pair with weighted ball holds.
When you combine weighted ball holds with the towel drill, you are working along the force-velocity spectrum to build throwing arm power, a perfect blend of throwing arm strength, stretch, and speed to generate velocity that is delivered more through muscle contraction rather than passive stretching of the joint capsule, ligaments, and other passive restraints.
I also like the potential of higher neural drive to the throwing muscles as you are not letting go of either implement, being a weighted plyoball or towel.
RELATED TO THROWING MECHANICS
The most common misconception regarding the towel drill is that it’s a tool to develop throwing mechanics.
However, research involving 3D biomechanics indicates that the towel drill has a great deal of variability in the distribution of throwing arm force across the shoulder and elbow. This variability can be diminished during towel-throwing with targeting, but again mechanics and arm path are not the primary reason for implementing the exercise.
Ultimately, it’s not the panacea of all things throwing, but if prescribed in the right dose for a certain intention, it’s a fine tool to have in the toolbox.
