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Let's discuss the towel drill & what it means to be openminded. Let's start with the definition.
Openminded: unprejudiced & willing to consider NEW ideas
Being openminded doesn't mean listening to someone express an opinion on something you were certified in 12 years https://twitter.com/CoachCorral/status/1263349228085997568
Let's discuss the towel drill & what it means to be openminded. Let's start with the definition.
Openminded: unprejudiced & willing to consider NEW ideas
Being openminded doesn't mean listening to someone express an opinion on something you were certified in 12 years https://twitter.com/CoachCorral/status/1263349228085997568
ago, used to do, but moved on from BECAUSE you were openminded and allowed 4 the health and results of your players to guide your opinion. Obviously the original tweet stirred the pot a bit but to be ridiculously clear on the matter for @tomhousesports & @hyphen18 I have nothing
but respect for Tom & everything he has done for the game & all of us in it. I learned a ton from Tom and still credit him all the time for the things I learned from him. I've even said there is no point in coming up with a better motto for coaches because he already did it,
Inform, Instruct & Inspire. The comments had nothing to do with Tom, they have to do with a drill: A drill that while it has helped some, I know has been bad for others. SO let's dig in on that for a second I can explain why.
Here is a gif of the original kid doing the drill.
Here is a gif of the original kid doing the drill.
Much of our success at 108 on the pitching side has been due to our understanding of the arm and how it moves. We have put an incredible & extensive amount of research into optimal and efficient movement of the arm. We have also been able to evaluate thousands of arms over the
last 10 years. To capture energy efficiently, the humerus needs to work around the trunk & the forearm needs to work around the humerus. Good arms work like an unwinding spiral of energy that travels on a GEODESIC path. That means the arm travels in a straight line, on a curve.
According to the results we got back from @FerreePt this particular young man had the highest force production, & lowest elbow valgus of anyone previously tested at the lab. In fact, you may recognize this young man from the book because he was the catalyst to discovering this.
He was sitting low 90's at 14 when he showed up on campus to see @browntown_vandy & my man @jaegersports all the way back in 2015. He started with us around 2013 as an 11 year old at 72 and was soon throwing so hard & feeling so good it was unreal. As the program built steam, we
started to see arms like the 1 below show up. More & more kids began to come in with pain looking for answers & it was my responsibility to figure out how to get them healthy. The biggest difference between the healthy & injured arms wasn't the workloads they were experiencing,
it was the path their arm was traveling. Their arms were working like catapults, rather than whips. Many of the elbows were traveling upward into rotation, creating impingement in the posterior cuff & they weren't capturing rotational energy, it was a linear push. Many of their
stride lengths were way too far and they were launching themselves down the mound with no ability to stop themselves & efficiently rotate. It was really, really, really bad. Lots of kids in pain with trash recommendations from Doctors that felt helpless with no where to turn.
Kids like this one: This is an elite 12 yo that came in that had been in so much pain he could barely throw the baseball without feeling it. He had been in/out of MRI/X-rays for 2 years, getting the same nonsense recommendations that weren't working. Fast forward 1 year later &
here he is, healthy as a horse feeling like a million bucks, sitting low 80's & touching 84 @ 13 years old. The increase in efficiency of both his body, but especially his arm is what has lead to his results. This isn't a one time story or a one time thing over here at 108.
In this video you'll see a 17 yo that went from 84 to 95mph in a year followed by a bunch of dudes throwing fuel & making it look easy - including a HS freshman that was up to 95mph that started with us in 7th grade throwing 78. I share this not to brag, but to show results &
put my money where my mouth is. @FerreePt has consistently shared that she sees players from 108 walk into her lab throwing Xmph with X stress levels, & then next time they are tested they are throwing harder with less stress. This isn't just kids, this includes @MLB players
like that one that went back feeling the best they ever felt, throwing harder than last year, & making it look easy. The most amazing part of the arm path, is that all we have to do is allow it to happen. It's such a natural movement, that little kids already know how to do it.
Throughout the history of the game it's always been there staring us in the face. When someones arm hurts, they usually drop their slot and it feels better. Coaches do it all the time. All healthy arms throw around their body in this geodesic path but some do it with more
trunk tilt than others. Now let's bring it full circle back to the towel drill. We feel that it creates forced extension rather than natural extension as a byproduct of efficient deceleration. Not all extension is created equal - how we get there is pretty important. We
also feel that it often creates & promotes a very poor arm path that adds stress when the player returns to throwing. Given the amount of arm injuries there are, & what we have seen here at 108, we are of the opinion that there are enough pushy arms in pain, so we will continue
to avoid drills that create more linear pushy arms in a sport that desperately needs efficient rotation for both health & performance. There are also drills like the pivot pick that sometimes do the same thing, but it's all about how its coached. When a player does a drill but
they do it poorly, we bang the drill & move on to something else. The goal isn't to be great at doing drills, but the drills we do are supposed to create better movement. If they don't the drill sucks for that player. People need to stop getting so attached to drills & get more
attached to the movement patterns they create. So the question @CoachCorral is not whether I am openminded, but whether you & coaches like you are openminded to the NEW ideas that are getting results but challenging YOUR existing beliefs. We are constantly searching & ended up
here. Bring us some NEW information on the results you are getting in both health & performance because we WANT to to evolve & get better. Bring us something we haven't explored, or don't know about yet. But don't expect people to be open to old ideas that promote bad movement.
There are lots of people quoting old, outdated research these days. Lots of people sharing research that gave a poor or partial understanding of this whole thing. @drivelinebases shared that years ago & it made a huge impact on me. Do your own research & remember science isn't
about what we already THINK we know, science is about what we DON'T know. Arm injuries are still rampant all over baseball so being open to new ideas & concepts, rather than parroting old ones, is EXTREMELY important imo. Take it for what it's worth, it's just our opinion.
