Better Swings

Thanks for coming back. We’ll be talking about weighted implement training and how it can increase throwing velocity. This will be the first of a few posts on this topic as we have been studying this aspect of training for over 10 years.

Weighted implement training began in the old Soviet Union back in the 1950′s with their track and field athletes such as javelin, discuss, shot put and hammer throwers. The Soviets started experimenting with training with heavier implements. Then they added lighter implements to their training. How does this increase velocity?

One of the foremost authorities in the US writing on this subject for baseball and softball training is Dr. Coop DeRenne from the University of Hawaii. He has conducted many studies with athletes throwing weighted baseballs and has come to the conclusion, in every study, that done properly weighted implement training absolutely increases velocity.

Here’s an interesting link you might want to read:

http://www.sbcoachescollege.com/articles/OverloadUnderloadBaseball.html

In my next post I will give you a more detailed explanation on why you need to doing doing overload/underload training to increase your throwing velocity

Ed

My last post on throwing velocity introduced the possibility of increased velocity through exercise, mechanical changes and effort. I would like to begin expanding into the area of exercise.

Almost everyone would agree that you can strengthen your arm through the correct exercise program. But, there are disagreements, discussions and disputes as to which exercise, program, means and training regiment to use. I would like to propose the use of elastic resistance tubing as a starting point to increased throwing velocity.

First of all, how does any exercise, free weight or resistance tubing, increase throwing velocity?

1. It provides resistance overload to the muscles being used in the exercise. In order to change the strength of any muscle overload is necessary.
2. Exercise provides progressive overload. If you have ever lifted weights you know as you get stronger you need to add more weight to keep progressing. Both elastic tubing and free weights accomplish this.

Obviously there is much more that goes into this but for this forum those are the very basics.

Why elastic tubing and not free weights? Several reasons really:

1. Elastic tubing is, generally speaking, less expensive. You can obtain many different resistance levels for not a lot of money.
2. Elastic tubing does not rely on gravity to provide resistance. Because free weights rely on gravity to provide resistance they can only be used on a vertical plane. Elastic tubing, on the other hand, can be used for the very sport-specific throwing motion. Most trainers will tell you that the closer you come to moving any or all parts of your body in the exact motion you use to play your sport, the greater benefit you receive using that exercise.  In a study conducted at Louisiana State University in 1993 on collegiate baseballs players it was discovered that exercising with elastic tubing strengthened the rotator cuff muscles better than a program using free weight dumbbells. One point for elastic tubing.
3. Elastic tubing provides continuous tension to the muscles being trained, actually increased tension as the elastic is stretched. As the tension in the muscle increases the number of Type II (fast twitch) muscle fibers are activated, increasing throwing speed. When you use dumbbells there is a certain point during each exercise where the weight is not providing any tension to the muscle because there is no gravitational pull. Plus two for tubing!
4. Elastic tubing can be used in conjunction with free weights. In a study conducted in 2004 at Truman State University in Kansas it was found that athletes who used elastic resistance bench press training in their programs had significantly greater increase in bench press strength and power than those who used only free weights. Three points for elastic tubing.

Next time we will discuss overload training with weighted implements. If you would like to purchase elastic tubing you can go to our website here:

http://www.howelltosports.com/servlet/the-Resistance-Training/Categories

Welcome to our blog. I apologize for not posting for some time. I will attempt to post 2-3 times per week from now on.

This is a question I am frequently asked, what can I do to throw harder or throw farther? The answer is complicated yet simple. There are biological factors involved. The way your creator designed you determines your maximum velocity. Not everyone was created to throw 90+ mph. If that were the case we would have many more major league players so there are some obvious limitations. So simply put you can only throw as hard as you were designed to throw.

But, there absolutely is the possibility that you can increase throwing velocity through exercise, mechanical changes and effort. That is where the complicated part comes in. Over the next few posts I will endeavor to give you some ideas as to what and how you can strengthen your arm and learn how to throw harder. So, stay tuned!

Ed

I know most have you have started your season and that’s great. I have just begun using the TCB weighted training balls for my college softball team and they do work great. We use them 2-3 times per week and some of my girls have improved their swings because of them. Check them out at

http://www.howelltosports.com/servlet/the-83/TCB-Atomic-Ball/Detail

In Keep Your Eye on the Ball Part 2 we asked the following questions:

Bahill & LaRitz concluded, from earlier studies, that there are three startegies for tracking the pitch:

1. Track the ball with only eye movements
2. Track the ball with head movements and smooth pursuit eye movements
3. Track the ball over the initial part of the trajectory with smooth pursuit eye movements, then make a saccadic eye movement to a predicted point ahead of the ball, continue to follow it with peripheral vision and then finally at the end of the trajectory go back to smooth pursuit eye movements.

Which of these worked best? We will find out next time so check in again.

The authors conclusion was that option 3 was the one used by major league baseball players. They also concluded that strategy was indeed the optimal tracking strategy. If you use one of the first two you will not be able to see the ball well enough to anticipate where to swing. Most good hitters use option three subconsciously but this strategy can also be practiced and improved upon. Stay tuned for our next post with some practice suggestions.

Ed

Bahill and LaRitz studied the use of the four basic types of eye movements in hitting. These eye movements include:

1. saccadic eye movements – side to side eye movements
2. smooth pursuit eye movements – the movement used when tracking an object
3. vergence eye movements – the movement used when focusing on near and then far objects
4. vestibulo-ocular eye movements – the eye movement used to maintain fixation on an object when your head moves

In addition to these four movements the batter can also use head movement to supplement tracking.

Bahill & LaRitz concluded, from earlier studies, that there are three startegies for tracking the pitch:

1. Track the ball with only eye movements
2. Track the ball with head movements and smooth pursuit eye movements
3. Track the ball over the initial part of the trajectory with smooth pursuit eye movements, then make a saccadic eye movement to a predicted point ahead of the ball, continue to follow it with peripheral vision and then finally at the end of the trajectory go back to smooth pursuit eye movements.

Which of these worked best? We will find out next time so check in again.

Ed Howell

According to about.com Sports Medicine these are the six principles of sports conditioning:

1. The Principle of Individual Differences
2. The Principle of Overload
3. The Principle of Progression
4. The Principle of Adaptation
5. The Principle of Use/Disuse
6. The Principle of Specificity

You can take a look at the explanation of these principles at:

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/training/a/Ex-Science.htm

How do these factor into your baseball and softball training? Stay tuned for our explanation soon.

Ed Howell

I just started rereading a really good book by Robert Watts and Terry Bahill, Keep Your Eye on the Ball. Even though this book was copyrighted in1990 it has some very relevant information on how vision effects baseball & softball performance. In a study done by Bahill and LaRitz in 1984, they found it is impossible to track a 100 mph fastball as it crosses the plate. Here’s a quote from p. 151 on Keep Your Eye on The Ball, “tracking such a ball as it crossed the plate would require head and eye rotations in excess of 1000 degrees per second: a century of scientific literature says that humans cannot track targets moving faster than 90 degrees per second.”

This would preclude tracking a ball going even 60 mph. So how do major league hitters ever hit the ball? Stay tuned for the Bahill and LaRitz answer in our next post.

Ed Howell

Here’s an interesting study if you are a golfer and are frustrated with your putting. Where/how should your vision work on the putting green?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21749280

Ed

For those of you interested in soccer here’s an interesting article regarding the ability of less physically talented athletes to keep up with those of superior athletic ability.

I beleive this is the case with every single sport. What do you think?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110630220002.htm

Ed