#deno webb

In the acceleration phase you get one set of issues created by the leverage. In the decel phase you get a whole new set of issues, like how do you keep a joint from separating while decelerating the object on the end of the lever…ie, the hand. The throwing motion is all about the creation of leverage and the shedding of leverage. The physics are simple – the more weight you put in your hand the more leverage you create. We often see kids in a pitching clinic going through the throwing motion with a towel in their hand. Ugh. We understand what they ‘think” they are accomplishing but realize what they are “actually doing”. (ie, leveraging up the acceleration phase with resistance – the towel – while increasing the weight -the towel-

Quick thoughts: the OverHead Throwing Motion & the Weighted Ball

So what about weighted balls? Weighted ball throwing programs? We have all read countless articles on how safe they are and how evil they are. As you might guess this is one of the hottest topics out here at this moment in baseball and football. Tomorrow it will be something else, but today it is “do we or do we not throw weighted balls” as part of our training program.

For us it’s simple. When in doubt don’t.

In the countless meetings we have had with orthopedic surgeons and “medical institutions” in the business of sports medicine, along with the many meetings with top university sports research groups, we hear over and over again about “leverage and physics”. The common area of concern is always “repetitive inline (linear) forces and the need to create counter forces (cross training) to fend off “grooving” injuries. Funny, we have never read anything out there about “grooving” but we keep hearing the word in describing how certain injuries in the shoulder occur.

Within the throwing motion there are actually 2 acceleration and 1 deceleration phases. ANY weight put in a persons hand to be thrown increases leverage. “That fact” everyone understands because there is no subjectivity to it – it is simply physics. A rock, a brick, a football, baseball, a paper clip, whatever. All weight on the distal end of a lever creates leverage. As we all would agree too , the area effected most by leverage is the weakest link of the lever. With regards to the over head throwing motion that could be the wrist, elbow or shoulder depending on whose arm it is and the motion/path/slot the arm is making.

In the acceleration phase you get one set of issues created by the leverage. In the decel phase you get a whole new set of issues, like how do you keep a joint from separating while decelerating the object on the end of the lever…ie, the hand. The throwing motion is all about the creation of leverage and the shedding of leverage. The physics are simple – the more weight you put in your hand the more leverage you create. We often see kids in a pitching clinic going through the throwing motion with a towel in their hand. Ugh. We understand what they ‘think” they are accomplishing but realize what they are “actually doing”. (ie, leveraging up the acceleration phase with resistance – the towel – while increasing the weight -the towel-

the weakest joint has to endure in slowing the added weight- the towel- down. Normally this weight in the decel phase would have been shedded with the release of the ball.)

 What we have done at Lake7 is create a resistance tool / device that does NOT load up/lever the elbow yet creates instability (contra-forces) in the throwing motion while providing for a “cushion” to the deceleration phase of the throw. Our device encourages building core strength for the acceleration phase, contra-forces (instability) within the over head motion and rebound in the deceleration / termination phase. The result is increased control, higher velocity, increased endurance and total amazement something so simply works so amazingly well.

 If you would like to know more about our device please contact us at [email protected]