- Nov 1, 2008
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My dd started going to a new pitching coach about 3 weeks ago. He was recommended to me by a couple of my coworkers whose older dd's have been going to him for a couple years now. One is in 10th grade and is the ace at her school (local rival), the other a 7th grader who starts on the varsity team at our school. My dd is 11 and currently only plays rec ball.
One of the coach's exercises is swinging an empty 5 gallon bucket in the windmill motion to strengthen the shoulder as well as solidify the motion. Pretty similar to the xcelerator device i have seen referenced here in other threads. She started out with swinging the bucket 3 times a week, 25 rotations per session with an empty bucket. Now she will increase to 25 rotations at a slow speed as a warm up and 25 at the fastest speed she can while maintaining proper form. Eventually the reps will increase and a ball or two will added to the bucket as she gets older.
I ran into another friend of mine this friday at a HS tournament. His dd is also a pitcher at another area HS. Our conversation was obviously about our girls and i told him who she had started going to and his response was "He's very good, but he'll sacrifice a girl's shoulder to make himself look better." I asked him "How so?" and he asked if she was swinging a bucket yet. I said she was and he said i should NEVER let him add any weight to it or it could injure her shoulder.
Does anybody have any experience with this type of thing? i know any exercise if done excessively or incorrectly can cause injury. I don't want to risk her injuring her shoulder, but i'm not 100% convinced that this would cause an injury if done properly. Several of the girls who got lessons from this coach have signed scholarships so i'm inclined to believe he knows what he's doing. But i also know there is a possibility that some girl along the line has gotten hurt and i've not heard about it. Any advice from the experts?
One of the coach's exercises is swinging an empty 5 gallon bucket in the windmill motion to strengthen the shoulder as well as solidify the motion. Pretty similar to the xcelerator device i have seen referenced here in other threads. She started out with swinging the bucket 3 times a week, 25 rotations per session with an empty bucket. Now she will increase to 25 rotations at a slow speed as a warm up and 25 at the fastest speed she can while maintaining proper form. Eventually the reps will increase and a ball or two will added to the bucket as she gets older.
I ran into another friend of mine this friday at a HS tournament. His dd is also a pitcher at another area HS. Our conversation was obviously about our girls and i told him who she had started going to and his response was "He's very good, but he'll sacrifice a girl's shoulder to make himself look better." I asked him "How so?" and he asked if she was swinging a bucket yet. I said she was and he said i should NEVER let him add any weight to it or it could injure her shoulder.
Does anybody have any experience with this type of thing? i know any exercise if done excessively or incorrectly can cause injury. I don't want to risk her injuring her shoulder, but i'm not 100% convinced that this would cause an injury if done properly. Several of the girls who got lessons from this coach have signed scholarships so i'm inclined to believe he knows what he's doing. But i also know there is a possibility that some girl along the line has gotten hurt and i've not heard about it. Any advice from the experts?