He is all about velocity....

[Duckdog]

Butch is a good man and great coach. He impressed not only my boys at the baseball camps but also my wife. That being said the new blood will be good.

[AlSwearengen]

I saw a clip on twitter (others here probably saw it) where johnson had the pitchers with their backs to the wall and they were throwing a weighted ball back over their shoulder (in reverse throwing motion if that makes sense). I got the sense that they were strengthening the opposite muscles of their primary muscles used to throw a pitch.

That reminded me of a man that I saw on the golf channel who was talking about how to hit longer drives and he mentioned that the muscles used to swing a golf club were only as strong as the muscles used to decelerate the club. He said that strengthening both sets of muscles would increase swing speed as well as cut down on injuries. I feel like the drill that I saw on twitter was going by the same principle.

[KB21]

The posts bringing up Ryan and Leo and their philosophies are good. But they for the most part were discussing adults. The problem is not that pitchers don't do that stuff so much in the majors it's the miles those arms have before they are 21. Pitching year round and not playing other sports at 12 years old. No down time for these kids and pitching over limits by pitching for multiple teams, etc. I agree that Ryan's can work but not if that player has pre existing damage in growth plates, tendons, etc. These problems are not known a lot of the time. Now once a player has reached 25 then full maturity has been reached and amazingly studies show that injuries sustained after that age from no pre existing problems drop significantly. But the overwork and overload (max throwing) in younger players is an enormous problem as evident but the shear number of pre 21 year olds needing TJ.

There is a difference between competitive throwing and noncompetitive throwing. The issue with the young pitchers throwing too much is that they are throwing in a competitive setting too much and are not giving their arms time to heal with rest.

[Really Clark?]

There is a difference between competitive throwing and noncompetitive throwing. The issue with the young pitchers throwing too much is that they are throwing in a competitive setting too much and are not giving their arms time to heal with rest.

Yes there is a difference but that difference is not being applied with a ton of youth players. I see a ton of young players constantly working at max load and never get time off. Parents or sub par coaches hear the Ryan philosphy and apply it to their 10 year old who is also pitching way too many innings per year anyway. Your right but it makes no difference if proper training is not being used. Which was my point.

[KB21]

Yes there is a difference but that difference is not being applied with a ton of youth players. I see a ton of young players constantly working at max load and never get time off. Parents or sub par coaches hear the Ryan philosphy and apply it to their 10 year old who is also pitching way too many innings per year anyway. Your right but it makes no difference if proper training is not being used. Which was my point.

Believe me. I hammer some patients on this issue when I see a 12 year old with elbow pain in the clinic. I think the Leo Mazzone throwing program would work at any level, but too many youth coaches simply do not abide by this. Notice that the Braves didn't start having a lot of arm injuries until they abandoned Leo's throwing program.