I am always interested in finding out how professional teams train, analyze and develop their players. When injured and rehabilitating, I always check to see what kind of progress the athletes are making and what the teams are doing to speed up or enhance the rehabilitation to get them back to playing as soon as possible.
The information reported in the papers is usually scarce in these areas. But what does become available is sometimes quite enlightening. For example, in baseball pitcher rehabilitation it appears that they use a trial and error method. In This is coupled with keeping good records on the number of pitches thrown.
By trial and error rehabilitation I mean that the rehabilitation is based on the progress that the athlete is making on his own and not through the efforts of the team. Note that when the athlete is getting ready to play again they are usually to the minor leagues. For example,, there was a pitcher who is coming off reconstructive elbow surgery and who was scheduled to begin throwing again.
As he began to throw he experienced pain and the throwing stopped. The team then stated that they would let him rest for another two weeks before he would throw again. To me this is trial and error; if it hurts don’t do it, if it doesn’t hurt, let’s continue. Of course, not throwing when it hurts is a wise decision. An athlete should never perform when he is hurting despite the current trend toward “sucking it up” and continuing.
What is troublesome here is that I see no attempt made by the teams to find out why the pitcher is experiencing pain on throwing. After all, he was given the go-ahead to throw by the doctors and physical therapists. Thus, if he is experiencing pain, it indicates that something is amiss.
When you’re dealing with a multimillion dollar a year pitcher, it behooves the team to know everything about him so that they know when he may be predisposed to injury. They should know and understand his throwing mechanics. This should be foremost. Only in this way would they be able to know when there is a deviation from effective and safe pitching so that it can be corrected immediately. It should not take a rocket scientist to figure this out if they understand what is involved in an effective throwing motion.
When the pitcher experiences pain the team personnel should know why he is getting the pain. Without knowing why, there is an excellent chance that he will experience pain again once he resumes his throwing program. In other words, the team should know what he’s doing to cause the pain or injury.
It should not be as one manager stated, “It can happen on a single pitch.” This is very true but the possibility for injury was building up over many days, if not weeks or months. There was plenty of time to determine if he was predisposed to injury and to make corrections before the injury occurred.
Ineffective technique and lack of strength specific to the technique almost always lead to injury. It is usually not immediate, especially on the professional level. We may see this occur in a youngster but should not see this in an experienced athlete who has been playing the game for many years. On the highest levels the key to prevention is to make sure that the pitching mechanics are effective and there is sufficient strength of the muscles involved in the pitching motion.him him
However, in order to determine if the pitcher’s mechanics are ineffective or if specific strength is lacking, the teams need specialists in this area. Because coaches are not looking at the pitchers mechanics, it indicates that their present coaches are not capable of doing such analyses.
They need specialists who not only understand pitching mechanics, but who can pick out the ineffective actions that can lead to injury. They must be able to identify and understand the actions that take place. However at present the best that most teams do is to look at certain static positions of the limbs or body rather than the dynamic actions that take place.
Teams should be able to identify any potential problem in the mechanics (actions) and they must know how to make changes in technique to eliminate the possibility for injury. When this is done, the potential is there to make the throwing even more effective, especially when the changes are accompanied with specialized strength exercises.
Being able to analyze technique and to correct it with specialized strength exercises is not a new concept. It is has been around for many years. This includes being able to determine ineffective or injury producing actions. It is something that I have been doing for many years.
For example, I most recently worked with Troy Green a high school quarterback who had a similar elbow joint reconstructive problem. In the rehabilitation of this athlete doctors and therapists said he was now ready to begin throwing but he experienced pain right from the very beginning of his resumed throwing.
His father, Tim Green, a well-known former Atlanta Falcons football player, after consulting many of the top quarterback coaches and trainers in the NFL, could not find anyone who could diagnosis and fix his problem. As a last resort he flew out with his son and performance coach to see me for an analysis and correction of the problem.
Analyzing the cause of his pain was relatively simple as it was found to be in his throwing technique. I then spent two days in evaluating his physical abilities relative to his throwing and working on modifying his technique. To enhance the changes and to make his throwing even more effective, I prescribed the 1×20 RM program with many specialized strength exercises.
It took over a month to do this but we were able to get him ready to begin throwing in preparation for the season. At this time he was capable of throwing pain free and the throw was more effortless and more effective. As a result he had a successful season and the team was ranked number one in the state of New York.
For more information on throwing technique see Build a Better Athlete. For exercises specific to throwing see Biomechanics and Kinesiology of Exercise.