Should Baseball Pitchers Perform Pitching Drills, Flat Ground Bullpens & Throwing At Shorter Distances?
This article used with permission by Steven Ellis, The Complete Pitcher, www.thecompletepitcher.com I was recently reading a blog post from a baseball pitching instructor who advises his students to do away with flat ground bullpens, short-distance pitching and pitching drills all together. His argument is that because baseball pitching velocity comes from a pitchers ability to move his body from a stationary position (initial stance or set position) toward home plate (rocker step phase of the pitching motion through the release and follow-through phases) and release a baseball in an explosive, anaerobic manner, training at slower speeds, which is how pitchers train when throwing at shorter distances, performing flat ground work or performing pitching drills, will train the body to move slower, not faster. In essence, the argument is that a baseball pitcher will de-train the explosiveness that he needs to throw faster by performing flat ground bullpens, short-distance pitching and base
