Recently an article at “Pitching.com” has been brought to my attention about the negative side affects of the towel drill.
My response:
I was looking over pitching.com and found what Dick Mills says about the towel drill. First, it is interesting that he is placing all pitching instructors into one category. Second, it is interesting that he believes the towel drill is the lone reason why a prospect lost 7mph in velocity. It is hard for me to believe that 7mph is the result of a towel drill and not from something else (like poor work ethic or sickness or a combination of diet and desire).
While I agree with him that towel drill isn’t the answer to gaining velocity, I don’t believe doing the towel drill will lose velocity if you also focus on proper velocity gaining drills. The towel drill is not meant to help solely develop velocity. It is meant to work on extension, drive and proper arm angle. Adding this drill is appropriate in some cases and there are many big leaguers that throw hard that do it. Jair Jurrjens for the Florida Marlins does this drill every day to stay focused and work on his delivery. He throws 94 mph and hasn’t lost any mph yet since doing it.
To see the article that Dick Mills wrote go to www.pitching.com. If you have any questions please let me know. I will gladly respond to any that you may have. And if I don’t have the answer I'll do some research!
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I dont believe that the towel drill can cost you to lose any velocity with your fastball. There`s only oneway you lose velocity, and that`s if you have somehow hurt your arm before. The towel drill was developed to get more arm quickness, and better pull & exstention out front. Arm quickness is better than arm strength anyday! The quicker your arm , the more velocity you get.You dont believe me? Just look at Josh Beckett`s arm on the backside.You never really see his arm get to the cocked L- posistion.It gets thru the backside with soo much quickness and blurriness to the release point , then he pulls outfront to get more pop.Most people try to pull the towell from behind their head,as appossed to pulling it outfront.
Let me give you an example. If you take the towel and try to pop it out front strongily, it wont pop as loud .The reason being, strength causes you to bring tightness to the muscules.When you tighten any muscule it wont work as fast as if you try and do it quickly. The quicker you get out front ,the louder the pop. Just take a whipp and try to pop it strongily, then try and do it quickily. If you take your arm back and bring it to a slow pause,it wont pop as loud as when you take it back real quick and pop it out front. The quickness causes better backspin to the ball and gets it to get more velo later in the zone.
The towel drill also helps with teaching you to get the elbow up above your shoulder.If you get it above your shoulder and bring it thru the arm zone quickly,it will make a louder pop sound outfront which equates to more pop (velocity) on your fastball. Trust me I know It got me 3 to 5 more miles an hour by doing it this way. It took me from 92-93 to 94 to 96 by using a quicker arm. If I were a kid trying to gain velocity,I would do the towell drill with arm quickness.
I would really like for people to check out that website so we can discuss some of his theories. Long toss for example.... Do you think that long toss increases velocity if done correctly??
I do.
Thoughts??