The Truth About Pitching
In 1776 a radical group of men, visionaries and revolutionaries, set out the framework for a new form of government that this planet had never seen. Their ideas had not been tested and they had not been proved out over the long haul. In summary of revolutionary ideas and ideals they wrote, "we hold these truths to be self-evident." The concept of self-evident truth applies to baseball as we know it and I want to remind you of what we hold true about pitching.
From the beginning pitching has been called an unnatural act. Even to an untrained eye it is self-evident that overhand throwing is unnatural. In a general sense we accept as true that there are two kinds of pitchers: those who have been hurt and those who will be. It's observably true that significant numbers of professional pitchers get hurt, and we accept invasive procedures like Tommy John surgery (link) as routine. By extension we also accept that if youngsters are going to pitch they too are likely to suffer arm injuries (link), and we have vocabulary like Little League Elbow and Little League Shoulder to prove it. And now there are Tommy John scars on youngsters only 9 years old. We are conditioned to accept an unnatural act as 'normal.' Factually, from independent sources, we know that injury rates among youth pitchers have increased five-fold in just a few years. We also accept as standard advice that ice, Advil and rest between outings are the best medicine. We believe that screwballs damage the arm. More lately we've started accepting as true that all of these injuries are related to overuse, so we start believing in things like pitch counts. We accept as fact that a pitcher needs 'good mechanics' yet no one seems to clearly and succinctly quantify 'good mechanics' as they relate to injuries. No one seems willing to say that mechanical issues are to blame. Sure enough, all these things are true IF we accept the status quo, embedded in the culture of baseball (link) as we know it.
The truth is that it doesn't have to be this way. As you look at the RPM™ web sections on anatomy and injuries and as you learn about what the pitching arm can and can't do (or should and shouldn't do) I think you'll be convinced too.
---Bill Peterson
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