Train Your Trunk and Your Upper Body Equally Everyone knows that you use more of your body than just your arm to throw a baseball or softball. Yet, when I walk through a gym I always see ball players spending most of their time "working" their upper body. If their motivation behind training this way is that they think this will help their arm strength, well, they are largely mistaken. Studies show that the split between how much you use your arm and trunk to make an overhand throw to be 53% arm and 47% trunk. And, that's defining "arm" broadly to include shoulder and chest muscles. IN OTHER WORDS, IT'S ABOUT A 50-50 SPLIT! This key bit of information has important ramifications for how you should structure your strength and conditioning program as a ball player. Every position requires overhand throwing (except softball pitching) so properly training to enhance arm throwing strength will make any ball player more valuable to their team. No doubt you know of coaches who have their pitchers perform Long Slow Distance running (or bicycling). Well, these coaches correctly realize that the trunk and legs are important to throwing. What they don't know are the appropriate conditioning principles to train these body parts so as to directly benefit the pitcher during game performance - which is the point, is it not? Whether you're a pitcher or a position player, you need to train more that just your upper body. You need to condition the muscles that support your trunk or core, such as your back, abdomen, and legs. Doing so, combined with good throwing mechanics, will reduce the stress on your throwing arm and allow your lower body to contribute more POWER throughout your entire throwing motion. THE RESULT? Fewer arm injuries and increased throwing velocity. That's why it's so important to have a well-designed conditioning program that works both your upper body and trunk area, in-season and off. |
