Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2001, 15(1), 148±156 q 2001 National Strength & Conditioning Association Brief Review Effects of General, Special, and Speci®c Resistance Training on Throwing Velocity in Baseball: A Brief Review COOP DERENNE,1 KWOK W. HO,1 AND JAMES C. MURPHY2 1Department of Kinesiology and Leisure Science, College of Education, University of Hawaii-Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822; 2University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V6K2B2. ABSTRACT mary analytical attention, the trunk and lower extrem- Throwing velocity is a necessary requirement for success in ities play a vital role in throwing mechanics. Toyosh- baseball. All position players, including pitchers, may in- ima et al. (65) conducted a biomechanical study on the crease their defensive performance if their throwing velocity overhand throw. The results indicated that 46.9% of is improved. A review of the literature suggests that throw- the velocity of the overhand throw could be attributed ing velocity can be increased by resistance training and/or to the stride and body rotation, whereas 53.1% of the biomechanical improvement of the throwing motion. This velocity was due to action of the arm. Therefore, resis- paper reviews the 3 broad categories of resistance-training tance-training programs for baseball players to im- methods by which throwing velocity is increased. The results prove throwing velocity, particularly for pitchers, of research using general, special, and speci®c throwing re- should be designed to include arm, trunk, and lower- sistance-training exercises are presented. The role and ap- body exercises. plications of these different exercises for baseball players of different ages are discussed. According to Baker (2), resistance-training exercis- es are classi®ed as general, special, or speci®c depend- ing on their biomechanical characteristics and effects Key Words: ballistic training, isotonic, speci®city on the neuromuscular system. General resistance- training exercises increase the overall maximal Reference Data: DeRenne, C., K.W. Ho, and J.C. Mur- phy. Effects of general, special, and speci®c resistance strength of the muscles. In throwing, examples of training on throwing velocity in baseball: A brief re- these exercises are the supine bench press, latissimus view. J. Strength Cond. Res. 15(1):148±156. 2001. dorsi pull-downs, shoulder press, straight- or bent- arm pullover, biceps curls, triceps extensions, shoulder dumbbell exercises (lateral raise, supraspinatus raise, internal rotation, external rotation, ¯exion, and abduc- Introduction tion), ulnar and radial deviations, wrist rolls, squats, hrowing velocity is an important performance var- leg curls, and leg extensions (1, 6, 18, 21, 26, 30, 42, Tiable in baseball. The ability of throwing the ball 50, 56, 63, 64). faster is not only important for baseball pitchers, but Once the player's strength levels have been in- is also important for position players to execute suc- creased, special resistance exercises can be used to cessful defense. In pitching in particular, the ball is train the athlete for muscular power development. Ex- delivered at extremely fast speeds. It is not uncommon amples of traditional upper-body power exercises are for a pitcher to deliver a 90±100 miles per hour (mph) explosive isotonic exercises (e.g., power cleans, snatch- fastball today. es, pulls and push presses); ballistic resistance train- A review of literature indicated that throwing ve- ing; plyometric training (e.g., medicine ball); and iso- locity can be increased with an improvement of throw- kinetics (24, 30, 33, 45, 70). The training effect of these ing biomechanics (47, 65) and/or by resistance train- special resistance exercises is to convert general mus- ing (1, 7, 26, 30, 32, 45, 50, 58, 62±64, 69). This portion cular strength to the special quality of power that is of the review will only focus on the affects of resis- relevant to throwing (2). These power exercises are tance training on throwing velocity. characterized by a more rapid execution and a higher Biomechanically, the overhand throw is a complex muscular power output. motion involving the entire body in a coordinated Speci®c resistance exercises are designed to follow manner (65). Although the throwing arm receives pri- the concept of speci®city by providing a training stim- 148 Resistance Training and Throwing Velocity 149 ulus that is very similar to actual motion in competi- ing weeks were divided into 6 3-week cycles. Inter- tion. Examples of these exercises for baseball-throwing estingly, the results of this study indicated that there motion are weighted baseballs, surgical tube exercises, were no signi®cant increases in throwing velocity until and the Exer-genie cord (1, 7, 14, 15, 32, 52, 56, 62, 63, the sixth cycle (16th±18th week). 70). These exercises attempt to mimic the high-velocity Popescue (49) also reported an increase of throw- ballistic throwing motion. ing velocity (3.8 mph) using an isotonic-training pro- The purpose of this portion of the paper is to re- gram designed to strengthen the upper-body throw- view the relative effectiveness of general, special, and ing muscles in high school players. The studies of both speci®c training exercises on increased throwing ve- Bagonzi (1) and Popescue (49) were conducted in the locity. In addition, the role and application of these off-season. In contrast, Jackson (26) reported no sig- respective exercises for baseball players at different ni®cant increase in throwing velocity within the same ages and levels will be discussed. high school age group (15±19 years) during an 8-week in-season competitive period. In Jackson' study (26), Effects of Resistance Training although strength and velocity gains were the intent, only 5 shoulder dumbbell exercises (supraspinatus The effects of resistance-training programs on throw- raise, internal rotation, external rotation, shoulder ¯ex- ing velocity have been reported since the 1960s (7, 18, ion, and shoulder abduction) were used. It should be 32, 52, 63, 67). In general, these studies focused on noted that although the throwing velocity was not sig- identifying the type of resistance training that would ni®cantly increased in this study, the shoulder dumb- most effectively improve throwing velocity (1, 15, 16, bell exercise protocol did maintain the subjects' throw- 18, 30, 42, 56). Recent research has also attempted to ing velocity and actually produced a slight increase of determine the possible mechanisms by which throw- 0.62 mph. Therefore, this exercise protocol could be ing velocity is increased and how the throwing veloc- used as part of an in-season maintenance resistance- ity is affected by various resistance-training methods. training program. General Resistance Training Similar to the above studies for high school base- In theory, general resistance training aims to improve ball players, general isotonic throwing velocity studies the contractile capabilities of the muscle. Before the using collegiate players also involved traditional up- 1980s, general resistance-training programs consisted per-body exercises. Swangard (63) found a signi®cant of traditional isotonic exercises. These isotonic exercis- increase in throwing velocity after an 8-week upper- es heavily concentrated on the development of upper- body resistance exercise program with collegiate body strength (1, 49, 62±64). These upper-body exer- pitchers. The exercises included the arm pullover, cise protocols were popularly used because of the in- standing press, biceps curl, shoulder shrug, supine lat- ¯uence of the study of Toyoshima et al. (66). The re- eral raise, wrist curl and extension, ulnar and radial sults of this study suggested that certain upper-body deviations, and squats. In a related study, Potteiger et major muscles evoke strong trunk and shoulder rota- al. (50) found a signi®cant increase in throwing veloc- tion, and thus enhance throwing velocity (66). The ity (2.3 mph) using a traditional upper- and lower- contribution to lower-body movement (the kinetic link body isotonic exercise protocol with collegiate position biomechanical principle) in the throwing motion was players. These investigators used a progressive resis- not studied in these early studies. Nonetheless, high tance-training protocol with the following exercises: school and collegiate baseball position players and the bench press, military press, latissimus pull-down, pitchers improved their throwing velocity by using biceps curl, triceps extension, squat, leg curl, and leg these traditional upper-body isotonic exercises. extension. Sullivan (62) used progressive and nonpro- It should be pointed out that some of the important gressive isotonic upper-body resistance-training pro- studies in throwing velocity using isotonic resistance tocols to determine the effects of resistance training on training were published in the form of master or doc- throwing velocity among college men (non±baseball toral degree theses (1, 18, 26, 53, 56, 62). The fact that players). The isotonic exercises used were wrist curls, these studies were not published in refereed journals supine lateral raises, and bent-arm pullovers. Al- should not be used to discredit their value since many though the investigator found a signi®cant increase in ®ndings of these graduate theses have been veri®ed by throwing velocity with the isotonic upper-body exer- other investigators (45, 49, 50, 64). cise protocol, the results of the study also revealed that Traditionally,