The Benefits of Weighted Ball Training

The Benefits of Weighted Ball Training

Weighted baseball training has been a method of gaining pitching velocity, along with building arm strength for pitchers. Despite that this method has been out for a while, it has had a streaky reputation. Weighted ball training became very popular, received a bad reputation, and has had a bit of a renaissance as of late. 

The reason why weighted baseball training has re-emerged in the baseball world is because of Kyle Boddy and Driveline. Boddy, a now mainstream, but former baseball outlier has shown the benefits of weighted baseballs. Due to research of his own and asking questions, he's helped many athletes reach heights that were at one time unimaginable for them. Despite Boddy's research and success, there has been some backlash from many baseball coaches that believe Boddy's training system is dangerous. Boddy is the first to admit that despite that his training system has worked, he still has doubts on it being the absolute way to build velocity. Boddy stated in the MVP Machine, "I'm not so arrogant to believe that we develop velocity the right way. But I think we're open-minded and we do a lot of research."  Despite all of the noise surrounding the belief system within Driveline, the results speak loudly that this type of training, when done correctly will work. 

 Boddy has said that instead of teaching young children to throw and play catch with teammates or parents, he recommends to have them throw a baseball as hard as they can into a fence. The reason being, is all elite pitchers today pitch like this. Therefore, the earlier that the child emulates what he/she sees on television, the easier the transition will be for that child in the future. 

If you have not researched the Driveline system of training, you will be surprised to find out what they do. Many of the pitchers that come into Driveline, will throw as hard as they can into a wall, that will show the velocity of each throw on a screen in the Driveline facility. Weighted balls are implemented in these drills as well. Boddy calls this kind of training overload/underload training. With each kind of weighted baseball, the body must adapt to the different weights. The overload baseballs or heavier baseballs strengthen the arm, while the underload or lighter baseballs help the arm throw faster and reach higher velocities. Implemented together, the body will learn the proper mechanics along with video, in order to have higher velocity pitches and an arm that can handle these kinds of velocities. 

In 2014, Casey Weathers reached out to Boddy via email to train at Driveline. Weathers who was drafted in the first round by the Colorado Rockies in 2007, had seen his career derailed due to elbow complications and injuries. On day one, Boddy told Weathers to throw these different kinds of weighted baseballs as hard as possible. After Weathers took off the bewildered look on his face, he did exactly what Boddy had said. Weathers's first high velocity throw with a weighted baseball read at 93 miles per hour. A few days later, Weathers had a two mile per hour velocity jump. After ten days of training, Weathers's velocity jumped to 96 miles per hour. Two weeks later, Weathers's velocity had reached to 98 miles per hour. Later that summer, Weathers would sign a Minor League contract with the Tampa Bay Rays. Weathers is just an example of one of the many success stories of Driveline's weighted ball training system. 

Despite the results and the data behind the results, many coaches are still hesistant of weighted baseball programs. The problem is that the athlete must follow strictly to what the program demands. If the athlete does this, there should be benefits coming to the athlete. If not, then results will be unsatisfactory. But the proof is in the recipe for Driveline's weighted ball program. Ben Lindbergh and Travis Sawchik stated the benefits of the program best in their book The MVP Machine. They wrote, "Maybe some pitchers will get hurt trying to throw 90 mph, but if they can't throw 90, they're not going to pitch for a Division I college, let alone the majors." The benefit of weighted ball training speaks for itself, all you have to do is trust the process of the program and work your behind off.