by Alan Jaeger
Published in CBN, reformatted and posted here with the author's permission. (3 part series.)

Alan would like to thank Jim Vatcher, Ron Wolforth, Brent Strom, Jerry Weinstein and Rob Bruno for playing an instrumental role in writing this article.

Sit in one place, like on a plane, for a long enough period of time, you will feel an urge to stretch, or get up and go for a walk. This urge is called your life force. It is nature's way of telling you, instinctively, that your body needs to move some energy around because it's atrophying.
 
You see, if muscles are inactive for a long enough period of time, or aren't used close to their desired capacities, the life is taken out of them. When muscles are given proper blood flow, oxygen, and range of motion - in short, when they are nurtured - they are free to work at their optimum capacity.
 
For baseball players in general, and pitchers specifically, when this freedom from the muscles of their throwing arm are taken away, they too begin to atrophy. For a pitcher, whose career is dependent on his arm, "atrophy" is a dangerous kind of word. In many cases, it's a career ending kind of word. It's the kind of word that turns an arm with life into a lifeless arm; a free and easy arm into a maximum effort arm. It's the kind of word that takes the magic out of a 95mph arm.
 
More than anything, it's the kind of word that reflects the state of arms in our country.

Unfortunately, in this day and age, here in the United States we aren't taking very good care of our arms. Instead of working with nature and providing a forum for arms to evolve, many of today's throwing programs that are being implemented at the professional level (which has trickled down to the amateur levels) are not only stunting the growth of a baseball player's arm, they are putting these arms in harm's way.
 
Instead of giving players the freedom to throw according to the individual needs of their arms, they are being forced to throw according to someone else's "arbitrary" set of rules, that places extreme limits and constraints on the arm. Specifically, pitchers are being told in many of these throwing programs not to exceed 120 feet. As you will see later, 120 feet equates to only 40% of the average distance - 300 feet - a 90mph pitch will travel at a 30 degree angle.

These "rules" not only teach arms how to "train" at less than half of their capacity, but they are uniformly applied to all pitchers as if all arms are built the same.

But not all arms are built the same, just as some players hit for more power or have more running speed. That's why in nature, some trees will only grow to be 10 feet tall while others, such as the Great Redwoods, can grow to be 350 feet or more. The point is, it's in the hands of nature and as long as each tree is given the freedom in the great outdoors, without someone arbitrarily putting a ceiling on it, it will grow according to its own uniqueness.


Could you imagine what would happen if we put a baby redwood (whose capacity to grow has been measured as high as 367 feet) into a greenhouse with a 10 foot ceiling, reinforced with steel? Needless to say, its capacity to grow would be significantly inhibited (this is what happens in Japan to Geisha girls, whose feet are put in unusually small shoes so their feet won't grow).
 
Which begs the question, if all arms are unique, and some have the growth potential of a Giant Redwood, why would we take this potential away by putting artificial limits, e.g. 120 feet, on an arm that causes it to stunt, rather than grow? And why would we create a throwing program that places a universal ceiling on players‚ arms that we know are diverse in nature?
 
As you will see, a throwing program based on such restrictions conflict with the most basic laws of nature. The arm, like anything else in nature thrives on freedom. It doesn't want to be put in a cage. It doesn't want limits. It wants to grow according to its needs and its potential.
 
To realize the optimum health, strength and endurance of an arm, these limitations must be lifted. Otherwise, the next generation of baseball players will suffer the consequences imposed on this generation.
 
This article has been written with this in mind.
 

Over the past 15 years or so, for various reasons, many of today's pitching coaches and trainers at the highest levels (and influential levels) have adopted a 120 foot throwing program that places rigid limits on

1. The distance of throwing (120 feet)
2. The time allotted for throwing (10-15 minutes), and
3. The angle or arc of throwing (keep the ball on a line or linear).

 
This throwing program is used by many of the Major League organizations, which naturally has trickled down to amateur baseball. This program is in direct contrast with nature because the arm, if given a chance, wants to throw. Like any other muscle, it wants to stretch out, expand, and condition. It wants to be used, not coddled.

This is what training is all about - to allow the arm to work toward it‚s capacity, or even beyond what we "think" its capacity is. The arm doesn't want artificial restrictions - it doesn't want to be limited by a "clock", a "measurement" or a "line". This is suffocating and unnatural to the arm.
 
This is Long Toss at its best - the freedom to allow your arm to dictate what it wants to do from day to day. Because there aren't any artificial constraints put on the arm, it has the freedom, like a tree in nature, to grow according to its plan. And based on many years of experience of training baseball players, working with nature best positions us to find out how healthy, how strong and how durable a players arm can be.
 
The continuation of this article explains the reasons why the 120 foot throwing program was "created". On each point, Alan responds as to why he believes the reasoning is not only counter-intuitive, but ultimately, counter-productive to the arms optimum health and potential. In part 3, he removes the constraints.