GAINcast Episode 268: Implements and injuries

Another baseball season is underway and, once again, the injuries are piling up. On this week’s GAINcast we speculate about what might be causing the injuries, how training is related to injuries, and where using heavy and light implements can go right or wrong.

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The following links were referenced in the podcast or provide some additional reading material on the topic:

• The GAINcast is sponsored by GAIN. GAIN 2023 will take place from June 13 to 17 and registration is open.
• We are also sponsored by HMMR Media. Join HMMR Media to get access to a vast library of online training resources, video, articles, podcasts, and more.
• For more on the topic of baseball, listen to GAINcast 35 with pitching coach Paul Davis. Over HMMR Podcast Episode 69 we also talked with Driveline Baseball’s founder Kyle Body.
• Injuries have been a topic several times on the show, including GAINcast 6 on injury prevention and GAINcast 224 on injury explosion.
• Throwing different implements was discussed a little on our last episode with Bogdan Poprawski. In addition, HMMR Podcast Episode 10 covered the topic. Nick Garcia’s master’s thesis covered training for the shot put and took a close look at the training methods of top coaches and their use of different implements. In a series of posts he talks about training with different implements, how elite coaches use different implements, finding the right implements for your throwers. While not as detailed, I also looked at the benefits of light and heavy hammers in a series of posts: part 1 and part 2.

Key quotes and topics

• 0:00 – Introduction.
• 1:30 – Injuries in baseball.
• 3:00 – Training with overweight implements.
• 6:45 – Lessons on implements from track and field: “When people don’t have a good plan to why they’re using light and heavy implements, then that can be a recipe for disaster. You could say that about almost any aspect of training.”
• 9:30 – Finding individual needs.
• 11:15 – Durability and preparing for overweight implements.
• 13:30 – Light implements.
• 19:30 – Injury prediction: “Injuries are not this bubble out there. They’re connected to your training, they’re connected to your preparation”
• 23:15 – Why have things changed? “You have to have the mechanics, not just that can get you the result, but that you can sustain.”

Complete transcript

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