Having too much upper body strength!

[kelly clinevell]

Don't try to look at 1 element from a different culture and try to examine it in isolation. Doesn't work. You always have to consider all the factors that are at work here.

RE: chin-ups/pull-ups. Pull-ups have been called "upper body deadlifts". They involve all the muscles that are used to decelerate the arm when throwing. Usually young ball players that practice alot but train very little have poor posterior upper body development and are pretty poor at both chins and pull-ups. As she grows, keep her working these. All different grips and rope climbing and tug-o-war with the team. Kids love that at the end of practice. Good work and good luck. Keep us informed.

TNT

I realize there could be other contributing factors (that's why I said there could be other contributing factors) but my point was if those players that throw year round don't have a higher rate of shoulder injury then it would be helpful to figure out why that is. I haven't heard either way. I do believe that throwing often with a goal of teaching proper technique does not make an overuse injury unavoidable if the decelerators are being trained. I would go so far as to say that throwing often with that goal would make injury less likely.

In regards to pullups/chinups: That has been an emphasis for her (for the reasons already mentioned). Right now she typically does three sets of pulls per session. Each set consists of her doing two pulls and then I assist her on the concentric and she finishes each set with two controlled eccentrics. She's done 4 in a set before but can't always duplicate that and I don't want her going to failure every time she trains. She's 5'1" 105 so I believe her strength level is good for her age and size. One thing that I emphasize is not letting the shoulder capsule itself stretch while in the bottom of the hang. I believe that allowing the stretch here could negate some of what's gained in performing the movement.

Tug of war at the end of practice - that's a great idea. I'm not the head coach but I've kind of gotten the unofficial S&C label so maybe I can work this in with practice ending races. Thanks for the idea.

[TNT]

Kelly,

Get some bungee cord material and tie it to the chinning bar. Have her stand in the bungee and do her chin-ups. Use 2 bungees if you have to.
6-8' of 1/4 bungee should work for 11 yr. old.

Medicine balls are great for just about everything. If you can't afford medicine balls, make up a bunch of sandbags. I prefer sandbags because they work grip strength more
and I like ghetto training. 5-30 lbs.

Get some truck tires and have them do tire flippin' relay races. Then have them beat the livin' crap out of the tires with a heavy steel bar
(5-10 lbs.). Core training??????

And finish off the practice with a good game of murder ball.

I do 2 hours of laughs and giggles and the next day they can't figure out what hit them.

TNT