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greglomax
1031 Posts |
 Posted - 08/04/2008 : 13:38:22
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Here is a link to the News page for East Cobb. Guerry has written an interesting article on avoiding arm injuries. Thought I would pass it on.
http://www.eastcobbbaseball.com/news/
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greglomax
1031 Posts |
Posted - 08/04/2008 : 14:18:41
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In looking at clubhousegas.com they have an interesting interview with the pitching coach for UVA. He said over 16 years they have not had 1, not 1, arm injury from pitching. Not one Tommy John or Labrum surgery.
He talks about their philosophy and has a great demonstration of the town drill.
http://www.clubhousegas.com/
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clemsonnun
52 Posts |
Posted - 08/04/2008 : 14:43:30
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| Greg, Tim Nun here. Whats up old buddy. The Virginia Coach is great. We have a boy on our team and his older brother will be the ace for them next year. We have been doing the towel drills and pitch count recomendations for a couple years and have not had one arm issue. Great link!!! |
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Pronate
156 Posts |
Posted - 08/05/2008 : 00:16:45
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Nice clip Greg. Alas, the ole ball coach Sir Isaac Newton is spinning in his grave. We will have to look further to see why these kids don't have injuries because a towel has virtually no weight so it won't do anything to strengthen the bones , ligaments, tendons and muscles of the pitching arm.
Now if we say it is the pitch counts that are protecting these children then that runs counter to what the estimable Mr Baldwin says. I'll leave that battle to others.
Let's explore what the coach at UVA has to say that can easily be dismissed. He says that Randy Johnson releases the baseball 46 feet from home plate by pitching as he discusses in this towel drill. Randy Johnson is all of 6'9". So the pitching coach at UVA is telling us that after 16 years of observation, R Johnson releases the baseball 14.5 feet in front of the pitching rubber. Twice his height!!. Now go look at the clip and pay particular attention to the UVA pitching coach's PAS foot when he releases the ball. He barely gets his foot off the mound. This is because he strides so far he can't get his Center of Mass forward. (The COM is the 93% that he refers to in the clip.) So to continue driving his COM forward he is forced to bend at the waist (which is the cause of R Johnson's back problems). The pitching coach actually drags his foot off the rubber in one of the sequences. Think of the back off his body as an anchor on his abilty to drive his COM forward. So Mr Johnson does the same thing. So if his pitching arm side foot is maybe a foot away from the rubber when he releases the ball and he bends at the waist tell me how he releases the baseball over 14 feet in front of the rubber. If Mr Johnson releases the ball 8 feet in front of the rubber I'd be surprised but no way any rational person could see him releasing the baseball over two body lengths in front of the rubber. And in 16 years no player or teacher points it out to this well meaning coach.
The PC bends at the waist so we aee a short guy make himself even shorter. We want the baseball to travel down as many planes as possible.
How would you like to see a pitcher release a baseball in the manner this coach describes and have a 200 lbs of muscle kid standing at home plate with an Exogrid in his hands. Good luck protecting yourself.
As for Coach Newton, the pitching coach strides so far he can't apply any force with his GS foot bacwardly to summate with the force he is applying toward home plate. Among other things.
I suggest putting the towel back on the towel rack where it belongs.
I do congratulate him on 16 years of no injuries. They must have a very caring head coach at that school. It has nothing to do with what's on this clip. I don't follow UVA that closely but if any pitchers were drafted in those 16 years, I guarantee there were plenty of severe injuries caused, in part, by the way they pitched at UVA.
What a beautiful campus!!
e
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Edited by - Pronate on 08/05/2008 08:51:20 |
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justbaseball
72 Posts |
Posted - 08/05/2008 : 15:20:17
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| Any idea why Guerry is recognized for youth league pitching expertise? |
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greglomax
1031 Posts |
Posted - 08/05/2008 : 17:04:11
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| I have heard it from several people. He does not seem to make a big deal about it because I don't see it publicized anywhere. |
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justbaseball
72 Posts |
Posted - 08/05/2008 : 19:49:35
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To greglomax:
I had never heard that before and I've been around EC for years. I know he recruits the top 16 year old pitchers. This year his team had pitchers from Georgia, Florida, and Alabama all pushing 90. Not sure he had many throwing slower. Hard to screw up with a bunch like that.
To Pronate:
The only way I can see getting close to 14 feet is stride plus arm extension (aka the towel drill). Of course anyone who has ever looked at video knows the release point is long before the extension point. We've all heard the stories of how intimidating it is to bat against Johnson as if he's in your face. Maybe his words and his meaning got twisted. Hope so. As far as the towel drill goes, most of the self described "gurus" have abandoned that drill believing that is has caused the ruin of more pitchers than anything else. Just more debate material I guess. |
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greglomax
1031 Posts |
Posted - 08/06/2008 : 09:00:49
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Maybe people are just meaning Guerry's management of pitchers, who knows.
I think the towel drill works good when trying to get 9 year olds that have never pitched before to understand the concept and mechanics. After that, it appears that there is great debate of it's usefulness. |
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justbaseball
72 Posts |
Posted - 08/06/2008 : 10:21:56
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| Agree. You gotta get pretty creative when it comes to teaching the young ones. |
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SportsDad
293 Posts |
Posted - 08/07/2008 : 02:20:44
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Maybe people are just meaning Guerry's management of pitchers, who knows.
Bobby Cox said on an ESPN interview when they asked hin who was going to replace Leo Mazzilla that Guerry Baldwin is the probably the best pitching coach on any level in America he just wont leave ECB for anything.. When it comes to teaching pitching Baldwin is the real deal...Saw him many times at 7AM on the weekend in January and Febuary in the barn at ECB teaching pitching...Didn't seem to mind our kids in their hitting while he was doing it, even showed our 12U kids things to work on...and an added bonuse, you actualy got to see him without his sunglasses on. (sometimes)He is very low key about it...doesn't do it for money, mainly just works with the kids with the 16U Astros or at least that was how it was 4 years ago.. |
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Interesting article on avoiding arm injuries..
