I finally made my way to the sports section and came across a newly released book on training pitchers in baseball. Here is a summary of what I noticed:
- a few good lunge and reach progressions (adapted from the Gary Gray camp)
- mention of the chop and lift cable exericses (adapted from Gray Cook's methodology)
- some interesting research on the mechanics of throwing
There was obviously more but nothing else that peaked my interest. However, as I neared the end of the book I thought I would pick it up just as a resource to see what the author(s) training progression was and then at that moment when I turned the page I could not believe what I saw.
One of the author's had suggested along with exercise pictures that pitchers need to balance on both knees on a stability ball while performing shoulder exercises. It was right then when I instantly knew I wanted to put the book right back on the shelf!!
I thought our industry was past this circus training philosophy bu apparently this particular author is not. Don't get me wrong I am all about incorporating stability ball work into an overall program but not exercises that are extremely high risk and have no valid proof of actual benefit on the mound.
Just because an exercise looks hard and might be challenging doesn't mean it is at all appropriate to include in a training program.
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