“Designer” Pitches, Horizontal Motion, and the Pitching Damage Epidemic
Written on April 30, 2024 at 12:04 pm, by Eric Cressey
Just some weeks in the past, Texas Rangers workforce physician and famend orthopedic surgeon Dr. Keith Meister gave a improbable interview concerning the present state of arm accidents in baseball. He made lots of good factors, however one which notably intrigued me was his commentary on how “designer pitches” have been accountable for among the challenges we’re dealing with in in the present day’s recreation. In case you missed the interview, tune in beginning across the 2:00 mark to get his take.
Positive sufficient, in the event you look at Main League Baseball injured lists proper now, you’ll see lots of gamers who just lately added lots of horizontal motion on injured lists. Particularly, the sweeper (a more recent designation for a slider with appreciable horizontal motion) appears to at the very least have a free affiliation with elevated injured threat to the bare eye. In Dr. Meister’s phrases, “to create horizontal ball motion, you’ve bought to grip the crap out of the baseball, after which you need to lower it. Both pronate it arduous, or supinate it arduous with a really, very agency grip. And it’s inflicting this eccentric load on the muscle tissues on the interior aspect of the elbow after which all over the place up the kinetic chain.”
To reframe this, new motion patterns are stressors. Go do 5 units of ten reps on stiff-leg deadlifts, and let me know the way your hamstrings really feel 36 hours later. Attempt to do it once more – or dash at full velocity – within the days that comply with, and it’s most likely not going to work out nicely for you. Eccentric stress includes lots of muscle harm, and that stress is magnified once you layer novelty and the stress of competitors within the single quickest movement in all of sports activities (pitching) on high of it.
In a real-world instance which may resonate a bit extra, take a look at this NY Occasions article about Lance Armstrong’s first marathon in 2006: In Underneath Three Hours, Armstrong Learns Anew About Ache and Racing. Right here’s a key excerpt:
Exhausted and almost strolling, Armstrong crossed the end line in 2 hours 59 minutes 36 seconds. He was 869th, with a tempo of 6:51 a mile.
“I can inform you, 20 years of professional sports activities, endurance sports activities, from triathlons to biking, all the Excursions — even the worst days on the Excursions — nothing was as arduous as that, and nothing left me feeling the way in which I really feel now, when it comes to simply sheer fatigue and soreness,” he stated, wanting spent, at a information convention.
The marathon was Armstrong’s first main athletic endeavor since retiring from biking in 2005, and he stated he had not ready for the race as he ought to have.
In lower than a 12 months, arguably probably the most completed bicycle owner of all time had turn out to be an absolute damage threat in a special athletic endeavor: operating. He was capable of intestine his method by means of it with psychological fortitude and (possible) the truth that his cardio base caught round rather well. Nevertheless, localized muscular endurance and tissue resilience was what faltered first.
Do you suppose an 18-year-old school freshman studying a sweeper on Twitter after which throwing it in a aggressive recreation at a 40% utilization clip the subsequent day is any totally different? I do – as a result of it’s really far worse.
Excessive velocity pitching with dozens of safeguards – pitch counts, meticulous arm care packages, handbook remedy, shut technological scrutinization of mechanics – continues to be very excessive threat. However the threat profile turns into astronomically greater when you possibly can study a brand new pitch/strategy shortly and roll it out in video games on the highest ranges of competitors earlier than you’ve had an opportunity to construct up ample tissue power and extensibility – and skill-specific work capability.
I’ve had plenty of conversations with Max Scherzer through the years about how he developed his curveball. It was a 12 months of conversations with teammates about their grips; experimenting with grips; and taking part in catch with it earlier than it appeared in bullpens and, in flip, video games. He adjusted his coaching to include a bit extra direct eccentric biceps work to account for the marginally totally different motion sample. His utilization through the years:
2012: 3percent2013: 6percent2014: 10percent2015: 8percent2016: 8percent2017: 8percent2018: 8percent2019: 9percent2020: 9percent2021: 10percent2022: 9percent2023: 13%
It was a gradual, calculated course of to find out not solely how his physique responded, however how its inclusion impacted the remainder of his pitching arsenal. To at the present time, he’s by no means thrown greater than 23 curveballs in a recreation. The method needed to be gradual, partly, as a result of there wasn’t expertise obtainable to accelerated the educational curve.
In distinction, because of superior trendy expertise (specifically ball monitoring units like Trackman and Rapsodo; high-speed cameras; and elevated entry to biomechanical evaluation), pitchers can now choose up new pitches extraordinarily shortly.
And, groups can higher consider simply how nasty these pitches are of their pitch grading fashions. Because of this, when a workforce identifies an outlier pitch, they’re going to need gamers to roll them out far more regularly. This creates an ideal storm: pitchers throwing model new pitches at excessive utilization charges on the highest degree of competitors.
Typically, nonetheless, these usually are not huge changes. If the mentality of the pitch is similar context as an current pitch, however with a refined seam adjustment, I’ve much less concern:
“Simply consider attending to the entrance of the baseball precisely like you have got along with your long-time curveball.”
“Simply offset the grip right here and throw it precisely like your fastball.”
Nevertheless, in the event you’re giving somebody a model new grip and inspiring them to “grip it and rip it” in a method that’s overseas to them, that’s a recipe for damage. These dramatic adjustments require longer timelines and extra calculated approaches to making ready the affected tissues. Moreover, gamers may have a gradual onboarding from a utilization standpoint, and elevated restoration between “pitch design” bouts.
I don’t suppose “designer pitches” involving elevated horizontal motion are the satan – however I do suppose the way in which that pitch design is going down industry-wide is flawed. As I’ve written earlier than,
You possibly can’t really consider a technique or gadget with out contemplating its utility. Click on To Tweet
The issue is exacerbated by plenty of points (and this isn’t an exhaustive record, by any means):
1. Early sports activities specialization and excessive velocity pitching in adolescents is resulting in a technology of damaged arms getting into professional ball
2. Greater velocity (which is, to me, the one greatest contributing issue)
3. An more and more specialised recreation (shorter outings with greater velocity and outlier pitches going down at excessive usages)
4. Grip considerations (“tack” on a slippery baseball)
5. Decreased restoration time (pitch clock considerations)
6. Shorter, extra specialised offseasons (extra pitchers persevering with to throw when the season ends – and initiating bullpens/reside BPs earlier)
It goes with out saying that the fashionable period of pitching accidents is uncontrolled, and we will’t overlook Dr. Meister’s observations that it is a severe part of the challenges we face. When you’re seeking to dig in a bit deeper on the subject, right here’s a podcast – How Pitching Accidents Happen – that I recorded on the subject:
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