The Dangers Of Training Corruption
More Is Just More:
Last weekend I flew to Houston to help Coach Ron Wolforth at The Texas Baseball Ranch with a 3 day Elite Pitchers Boot Camp. I am honored to be a member of the staff at a place where instructors and students are free to innovate and experiment to find better ways to learn and to teach throwing. They pay me to help them, but I would do it for free just to experience my favorite part of every camp – Julio’s Mexican Grill (Formerly Rico's Hacienda)!
The camps begin at...
Welcome to Pitching Coaches Anonymous
My name is Randy Sullivan.
I’m pitching coach.
And I am a confirmed talkaholic.
I’ve wasted too many coaching years telling kids how to do things, then telling them how to do them better. I have coached some amazing kids over the years and, thank goodness, many of them have survived, and even thrived, despite my “assistance”.
You see, in the past 5-7 years, I have come to learn that in the science of motor learning and human performance, the words get in the way. Very few...
The Island of Misfit Pitchers
When I was a kid (back when we did our homework on stone tablets) there were no DVDs or Netflix, and we only got 3 stations on TV. One of my favorite parts about the Christmas season were the holiday cartoon shows. “A Charlie Brown Christmas” was a classic, and I loved “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas”.
But my personal favorite was “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”. One of my favorite parts was when Clarice told Rudolph he was cute. He danced...
Pitcher’s Funny Bone Ain’t So funny
Two summers ago, within about a 3 week period, we had 3 high school kids who came to us with medial elbow pain and numbness and tingling into their pinkie and ring fingers.
Any time a pitcher complains of pain on the inside of the elbow, you worry about damage to the UCL -- the dreaded Tommy John surgery. But sometimes it's not the Tommy John ligament at all.
Here is a rudimentary field test to see if you might have damage to the UCL.
It's called "The milking test."
Place your...
This Scares Me To Death
And Makes Me Proud As Hell.
My middle son, Ryan, is a warrior.
Throughout the entire 20 years of his life, he has been the underdog. But he fights. Born prematurely, with undeveloped lungs, there were times during his five weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit when we weren't sure if he was going to make it. But he fought. Asthmatic during his first seven years, my wife and I spent countless hours in emergency rooms or at home with Ryan nestled in one of our laps, holding a nebulizer...
The Connection Ball: A Case Study
I’d like you to meet Ryan Kopenski.
He gave me permission to tell his story.
Ryan is a sophomore left handed pitcher at Central Florida Community College. His most recent season didn’t go as well as he would have liked. He spent the entire spring season hovering at 80-81 mph and fighting constant pain in his medial elbow that he rated at a level of 5 out of 10.
When he came to The ARMory for his initial evaluation on June 18th, 2014 his elbow was still hurting every time he threw.
His...
The Top 10 Reasons (You Might Not Have Considered) For All These Elbow Injuries
The following message is intended to be rich with tongue and cheek satire, but I promise you I will take some flack for it. Mark my words, some shallow minded half wit will cherry pick excerpts and quote me as if were serious. Anyone who knows me understands that while I am deeply compassionate and caring, I am rarely serious.
So here goes.
With debate on the rash of UCL injuries raging, and "experts" crawling out of every nook and cranny with what they claim to be undeniable...
“You Could Never Be A Big League Pitching Coach”
Monday thru Friday at 7:00 am I run a class for current, former or projected professional pitchers. Some of the students have been in the big leagues. Others are minor leaguers who are looking to advance to the show, and some are college graduates who went undrafted and are trying to hook up with independent professional teams. All have the same dream--to make it to the show. The class was full all winter, but now that the pro season has begun, and the extended spring training pitchers...
DJ Missile!!!!
Said goodbye to a new friend yesterday. Allow me to introduce you to DJ Mitchell.
He has been training at The ARMory for the last 4 weeks.....every day....at 7:00 am....
DJ is a 26 year old professional baseball player.
A right handed pitcher who played in the big leagues for the New York Yankees, he was named the Yankees 2011 minor league pitcher of the year and made his major league debut in June of 2012.
In July of that same year, he was traded for this guy.
Through a...
Save the Cannons: Developing Throwing Ability While Keeping young Arms Safe and Healthy
Unless you live under a rock, you have to be aware of the rash of elbow injuries MLB players. Rays fans here in Tampa are all waiting anxiously for new from lefty phenom Matt Moore's visit to Dr. James Andrews.
I saw the game when he got hurt.
I'm betting UCL tear.
I just heard Dr. Andrews being interviewed on MLB radio about the contributing factors to the recent epidemic. One of the things he spoke about was the fact that the injuries we are seeing are the end line of a process that...
