Heretic! Get the pitchforks!
I/R is a term and that is all it is. It describes the natural motion of an arm as it goes through the last quarter of a vertical circle, when it is done in a way that will not cause a shoulder to lock up at any point. At the top the arm has to externally rotate to continue and at the bottom it has to internally rotate to continue without locking. Why a pitching coach or a doctor would have an issue with this is beyond me. Palm to the sky is a technique to maximize I/R at release for pitch speed, it is not I/R itself. If the comparison we are making is to a stiff arm rotation with the elbow locked and the inside of the forearm facing the batter during the last quarter of the circle, then hands down, no study needed, this is biomechanically wrong as the elbow simply does not flex that way and you are stressing a joint in a direction that it has no flex.
As for doctors....I always go back to what my doctor buddy says about his colleagues... he calls a bunch of them "007s"- Licensed to kill.
JJ
Im no expert ( yet) but I have been reading about this for 3 years or better when I noticed something very strange on tv during the NCAA world series. These girls don't do what is being taught, I took another look, slo mo this time. Low and behold, arm angle is different, elbow is bent, ball placement is different, follow through, everything, I asked myself, Why is this? Then I stumbled on Phil @ Fastpitch Power, started reading some blogs there. Not so sure Phil has it mastered either but that's another topic. The point is you have to believe.
A little thing I like to do is start with the lock it in drill, Take the students arm ( my dd) tell her to relax and do not pronate the forearm or resist for any reason. Then I take her arm and lightly swing it with my power, not hers and imitate a pitch. The action to absolute T mimmicks what BM teaches in his IR sticky. NATURALLY. Im no bio blah blah or several other words I cant even spell but this tells me that this is what the arm does NATURALLY. Now I know its true because my DD had no idea what I was getting ready to do. I just told her do not resist!
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