Jamie Evans's Correction Program

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When Jamie Evans was hired by the Toronto Blue Jays it was welcomed with open arms. Evans was the man given credit for rebuilding the career of Steve Delabar with the Velocity Program. (http://www.nationalpitching.net/equipment.asp?) The more I research the program, the more skeptical I become about certain areas of it. The program was developed by pitching legend Tom House and Jamie Evans. The idea came from tennis and how it’s a perceived injury free overhead motion sport. House came up with the solution that the reason there aren’t as many injuries is because tennis players do not release the raquet like pitchers releasing the ball. This of course comes down to what is called deceleration training. The NPA uses four pieces of equipment…show more content…
For pitchers the offseason is extremely important for arm care. There should be an 8-12 week period in the off season where a pitcher doesn’t throw at all. One major part of the shoulder that is often ignored in strength training is the decelerators. The kinetic chain in the pitching motion can be broken down to these main parts: the pitcher taking his stride, trunk rotation, elbow extension, shoulder rotation and wrist flexion. These motions create a tremendous amount of kinetic energy flowing through the body into the ball. With all that momentum and force something has to hit the brakes so the humerus doesn’t rip right out of the socket. Therefore, strengthening the posterior musculature should be a major goal for pitchers in the off season because the stronger those decelerators are, the more acceleration a pitcher can get. To use a car analogy, most pitchers try and get the most powerful engine and fancy car but have no brake…show more content…
By not releasing the ball you are fatiguing the arm more quickly by cutting off the blood flow in the forearm. It is also hard on the tendons and forearm muscles. The problems don’t end there. By holding on to the ball the arm is forced to “brake” like a car trying to stop on a dime. This prevents proper external rotation (insert Clemens pic) and is more like pushing the ball instead of the arm laying back. (Insert Clemens pic 2) These are some mechanically flawed nasty habits pitchers shouldn’t be doing. This is a huge fundamental problem with the program. Repeating mechanics is such a huge part of being a successful pitcher. The program itself is sold as a velocity program. Any throwing program that involves weighted balls should theoretically increase velocity. You would really have to screw up training to not see even a small amount of velocity increase. Having said that, the reason the program was created was to strengthen the decelerators and help prevent injury. Due to poor research methods, there isn’t even evidence that the holds part of the program strengthen the decelerators. There are other proven methods such as Glute Ham Pull

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