Q.  Is it a bad thing to have a high elbow 'at footstrike'?  Has this ever been 'studied'?

A.  I've never seen any studies on the subject.  Check me, if you have.

What we have is common sense and (quite a bit of) anecdotal evidence.  "Mark Prior, Joe Shlabotnik and Tuffy Tufferson had high elbows and they got injured," that doesn't help us.  It hurts us.

We mean it literally:  "Joe, Mark and Tuffy wore their caps sideways and got injured" is worse than no information -- it muddies the water and takes us backwards.

Admittedly, a semi-convincing number of pitchers have been arrayed with high elbows and injuries.  But how many pitchers, as a general population, get injured?  Has anybody given us a ratio of pitchers with high elbows who were injured and healthy?

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Q.  So SSI has nothing against high elbows?

A.  Actually, I do hate high elbows, not at footstrike, but at max load.

Take it or leave it .... personally I take it as self-evident that an underhand (or sidearm) throwing motion is easier on the human shoulder.

I'm claiming that, to me, it is obvious to the mind that a high elbow UNDER LOAD stresses the shoulder.  Reject that or accept it; I don't care.  But we haven't demonstrated the principle in any scientific fashion, not that I know of.

It's just that I picture early man throwing stones submarine style.  That's all.

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Softball pitchers have healthy shoulders; few career IP leaders seem to have high elbows under load.

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Q.  What's the difference between high elbow 'at footstrike' or 'under load'?

A.  Nobody cares if you hold your arm over your head when you're in the on-deck circle.  What matters is the angle of your arm at the moment that it is lifting a 100-lb. weight.

For many pitchers, the load has begun at footstrike -- so the popular blogs measure elbow height at this point in the motion.  But IMHO, this misses the point.  It's sort of a "sun comes up because the rooster crows" error.

What we want to know is, the positions of your bones at the moment you're trying to perform hard work.  This happens to begin at footstrike for some pitchers. 

For many pitchers, the heavy load has not occurred at footstrike.  For Michael Pineda, it certainly hasn't!

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Q.  What is the situation with Pineda?

A.  The situation is that he briefly bobs his elbow up, and then brings it back down, and then he loads his arm up for a 97-mph fastball.

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Q.  Does this 'elbow bob' tear up the shoulder?

A.  You're getting SSI's opinion here, which is the same thing you'd get anyplace else...

I (Jeff) happen to have some pretty good rotator-cuff pain as we speak -- anything hurts my shoulder -- and I played around with a football, using this little idea of bobbing the arm up just before throwing 'correctly,' in the logical centrifugal plane...

With the 'pain amplifier' spectroscope on the motion :- ) ... it pinches the shoulder a little to move the arm up that way at any time, but then during the throwing motion there's no effect.

Take it or don't.  Just noodlin'.

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