THE FACTS ABOUT BREAKING BALLS A Training Challenge
thereby requiring the most time to pronate and thereby the most time to decelerate efficiently. Fact No. 5 : Most youth pitchers are inefficient in their mechanics and tend to begin their rotation very early; therefore, a vast majority of them fail to release the baseball significantly out in front and subsequently do not pronate/ decelerate efficiently, adding significant stress to soft tissue in elbow and shoulder. Fact No. 6: Every prepubescent pitcher’s growth plates are wide open for stretches of their early baseball career, so their soft tissue and bone are already more at risk from the stress of throwing a baseball at high speed. Fact No. 7: Most youth pitchers have alignment asymmetries, strength imbalances, and mobility/flexibility constraints or limitations which will complicate any movement pattern, so their soft tissue and bone are already more at risk from stress of throwing a baseball at high endpoint velocities. Fact No. 8: Many youth pitchers are taught the curveball incorrectly and are taught instead to manipulate or “turn” the curveball, making the efficient deceleration/pronation of the arm even more difficult; in fact, sometimes the incorrect instruction literally makes an efficient deceleration impossible. Fact No. 9: Many youth pitchers fall in love with the pitch and throw 40%–60% breaking balls because the hitters they face at their level usually have little experience hitting curveballs, and they are easily fooled by such a pitch.
Here is what I believe is common sense about breaking balls in the prepubescent male pitcher. It is straightforward but multifaceted and, in the end, simple but not easy. Let me walk you through breaking balls and why, in my opinion, they have gotten such a bad reputation. Fact No. 1: One of the two primary places in the delivery where the stress on the medial elbow is at its greatest is right at release, when the olecranon fossa can bang into the olecranon process. Fact No. 2: The way the arm naturally and most efficiently decelerates is for the forearm/ hand to pronate immediately after launch. At The Ranch, we actually refer to it as “pronating into launch,” implying that effective pronation/ deceleration is simply part of the launch process.
Fact No. 3: If the pitcher releases the baseball out in front of his body with the throwing shoulder significantly out in front of the glove side/directional shoulder, the arm will decelerate much more efficiently, and the bang on the olecranon fossa into the olecranon process is minimal to nonexistent.
Fact No. 4: The curveball, at release, represents the most supinated orientation possible,
UPCOMING RANCH EVENTS ELITE PITCHERS BOOT CAMPS:
REFLECTING ON GREATNESS Mickey Mantle Takes the Cake
MAY 29–31 JUNE 11–13 JUNE 25–27 JULY 9–11
JULY 23–25 AUG. 6–8 SEPT. 4–6
In 1956, Mickey Mantle stepped into baseball history by winning the Triple Crown, the only switch hitter to ever do so. He led the majors that year with a .353 batting average, 52 home runs, and 130 runs batted in. Mantle is widely regarded as the best switch hitter in major league history. On May 18, 1956, Mantle hit home runs from both sides of the plate for the third time in his career, which set the major league record for switch hitters. There
SUMMER PROGRAM: JUNE — SESSION I BEGINS JUNE 7 JULY — SESSION II BEGINS JULY 5 AUG. — SESSION III (SPECIAL MINI SESSION) BEGINS AUG. 2
weren’t too many players who could switch hit, period, and even today, the number has not grown very much. But Mickey Mantle wasn’t your average player, and he proved it that day. May is a good month for records. May 21, 1996, saw the same smaller records that you might expect — like Larry Walker setting a Rockies record for total bases — but it was the record-breaking earthquake that made headlines. It was especially disruptive to ball games played in San Francisco at the time, where memories of the deadly 1989 quake still lingered.
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