Long Toss In Your Drills
Something no one talks about is how poor quality low effort throws can really be. We all know that mechanics clean up the higher effort you throw, but no one goes to the lengths of trying to cut out the bad reps that come with low effort throws.
Tons of players are yipped up at 50 feet and don’t know what to do about it. Tons of people play catch at significantly too high of velocities and don’t know how to dial it back. Tons of people don't have a radar gun for velocity based feedback.
Simply playing catch and long toss with your drills/constraints can solve all of that.
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Back to it.
The low effort conundrum.
Lots of players, pitchers specifically report having issues throwing the ball super lightly in catch play. Longer, higher effort throws are no problem at all, but the first few are horrible. At 50 feet the throw is so low effort that people can't even come close to syncing things up enough to be accurate.
If you want better luck, you need to make yourself throw the ball in a way that you can throw it with higher effort without absolutely blowing up your catch partner. You can take out the lower half to do this. You can substitute your normal shuffle throws for a split stance drill or a pivot pick/ ten toes. These drills require higher effort in order to create the same or even sometimes lower velocities.
The forced lower velocities take stress off the arm, while the forced effort makes low velocity throws easier. It’s a win-win.
Throwing it too hard
This one is the silent killer. I've mentioned before how players who are incredibly talented can throw the ball at higher velocities at low effort. You will see someone like Degrom throw the ball 94 and it's almost as if he is falling asleep. Just because the throw seems easy, does not mean it's not stressful. The stress in a throw comes from the velocity, not the effort. Obviously not all throws are created equal, but the pure velocity outweighs how hard someone was trying.
You need to cap these players, they are literally too good for their own good. Some players can consistently flick the ball 90 mph in catch play, and this stress adds up bigtime. Putting these players into constrained positions for catch can really help them keep effort lower.
Not only that, but it helps their high effort mechanics because they have more reps in the drills that help them. Again, a win-win.
No Radar Feedback
This one is the easiest. For a long time, the best velocity training for people without a radar gun is simply to throw the ball as far as you can. This works for shuffles, as most people do shuffle the ball in long toss, but you can do any drill you want. Finding out how far you can throw the ball in long toss by doing the split stance, pivot pickoff or other drills gives you an awesome baseline for creating movement solutions while also getting what you need from a testing day.
Again, a win-win. This helps people get the benefits of a “plyo velo” or “constraint testing” without the needed facility or radar gun. The barrier to training can feel steep at times, but getting the most out of what you've got is the name of the game.
As Close To Perfect
Perfect isn't real in the world of baseball training, but this is something that can get you closer. The solutions you'll find from simply letting yourself get out there, be an athlete, and rip from constraints will translate to the mound as well as anything will.
Give it a shot, it might just work.
John