Cool Tools

One of my kids returned from a pitching camp and asked me about several tools they laid out for pitchers to use. First, let me say this was two years ago, so please don’t feel we are picking on your organization if you just had a camp. The kids went from station to station, starting with weighted balls, a balance beam, a foot box, and several other tools.

They were simply told to go through and try all of these things with no training, no demonstration, and no specific objectives in mind.
Tools are only as good as the knowledge of the person using them. If you are familiar with a chainsaw or router, you can do magic with them. Just handing these to an amateur does not a craftsman make.
In the case of the pitching camp, a couple of those tools are actually dangerous if a kid has certain issues with hip flexibility and mobility, or if she has rotational deficiencies in the shoulder. Everybody likes a shortcut, but I wouldn’t use a hammer to dig a ditch or a chainsaw to pound a nail. The wrong tool can actually get in the way of solving the problem or become very dangerous.
In our organization, before we utilize a tool, we have our very experienced former college pitchers try it and make sure it brings out the right feelings in the motion. Then, we normally take the idea to our Strength Trainers, people with advanced degrees who are movement specialists and practice FMS Screening, and make sure there are no side effects that can lead to unexpected problems. Weighted balls are a good example of tools that make most qualified strength trainers with advanced degrees, become concerned. Movement specialists can give you several reasons why these may be a bad idea. If a tool carries risk, we are going to look for better ways to get results.
If a tool passes these tests, we begin to carefully determine the results with students. We measure improvement, unintended consequences, and whether it is easy for the student to understand and use it correctly. We have a research pool of thousands of kids, and dozens of Certified Instructors, so we get a lot of quality feedback.
We see a lot of people putting tools to work in ways that cannot have a positive outcome. For example, buying a tool that promises a faster arm is an exercise in futility if the legs are falling far behind, the shoulder has rotational deficiencies, or the core is flying in all directions. The arm simply cannot go faster if it has to wait on everything else to fall in line.
Tools can be fine, but my first priority is to help a kid learn exactly how her body works, how to maximize power, and the most efficient ways to transfer energy. Once she completely understands how those things feel, she can begin to make choices for herself about tools and techniques that might enhance those abilities. If a kid lacks proper body awareness and if she has no idea how the entire body works together in the pitch, no bag of tricks will take her very far.