Training With Rubber Tubing & Bands

Tubing made of rubber or similar materials is often used by baseball and softball players for strength work, usually for “smaller” muscles such as those that are associated with the rotator cuff.
While tubing and bands are generally considered to be safe for use by players of any age, they are not without potential problems. The thing people need to remember is that these are tools for resistance training, just like free weights (barbells/dumbbells). Tubing comes in different levels of difficulty or resistance, usually denoted by their color, and develops muscles like any other type of resistance training.

Personally, I prefer free weights to tubing, or anything like tubing, primarily because of the more consistent (but not perfect) force curve produced with weights.

What this means is that the resistance is more uniform throughout the range of motion (start to finish). With tubing, depending on the movement performed, there is little or no resistance at the start of the exercise and considerably more at the end. So, with tubing, certain points in the range of motion will receive more resistance than others.

The thing to keep in mind when training with tubing is this: it is a strength training tool just like free weights. Depending on how it’s used, it can stimulate muscle tissue and produce muscle growth just like weights. It will not make a muscle “longer” or more flexible in the process. So, tubing offers no advantage in terms of muscle development, particularly for younger players, than using free weights.

I mention this because I often hear coaches recommending tubing over free weights for young players, as if it is somehow “safer” or better for youngsters. I suppose if you were to drop a piece of rubber tubing on your foot, it will hurt much less than if you were to drop a 5 lb dumbbell on it!

Yet training with tubing does requires caution. Among the hazards is that old, improperly-cared-for tubing can snap and break during use. While this usually results in a painful snap on some area of the body, there are reports of serious eye injuries resulting from broken tubing. So, I recommend doing what I do: wear a pair of safety goggles while training with tubing. Eyes are hard to replace!

How Does Tubing Work?

Muscles do one thing: they contract. They do not flex – this is what joints do, amongst other actions. So, when a muscle is stimulated by tubing or weights, it will grow. Training with tubing doesn’t somehow produce muscle growth that is preferable over the growth produced by weights.

If you want a muscle to be less “bulky” and “short,” other factors must also come into play. Among these are how the resistance program is designed, and especially, the presence (or lack of) flexibility work. Otherwise, muscle growth stimulated by tubing or weights will be pretty much the same.

Another consideration when using tubing is that it should be used in a manner that is actually beneficial to throwers. For example, a common method of training with tubing is to place the arm at the throwing release point and pulling forward (internal shoulder rotation), as illustrated:

Figure 1, Internal Rotation Work with Tubing

This type of movement is done by some with the thought that training the arm against resistance will somehow “strengthen” it for throwing, thereby enabling a player to throw harder. However, this is not true.

This training movement is exactly the opposite of what an overhand thrower does, and has the potential of slowing down a throwing arm, resulting in decreased throwing velocity. Consider that when a thrower’s arm moves forward in its throwing range of motion to the release point, the only resistance is from the ball in the hand. After ball release, the arm continues to move forward without resistance.

The movement used in Figure 3 is similar to what swimmers do with the crawl stroke, which I also do not recommend for ball players. Among my concerns is that most baseball coaches know little about swimming stroke mechanics or about properly designing a swimming workout for ball players.

An even greater consideration is the potential for throwers to develop an impingement in their shoulders by swimming. Bottom line: ball players should not do any type of serious swimming training. If you want to jump in the water and cool off, great. Just do your conditioning on land!

A simple yet effective way to train the external rotator muscles/decelerators is shown here, using a small weight. Tubing could also be used for this movement in place of the weight:

Keep in mind that an exercise doesn’t have to exactly mimic a sports movement to be of benefit. With strength and conditioning, we are training the muscles and tendons used by a particular movement, not the movement mechanics. Just be sure your exercise doesn’t work in opposition to your sports movement!

Bottom line: training with tubing for ball players is but one part of an overall strength and conditioning program. It is not required for players of a particular age or ability level, but, properly performed, can be a helpful part of a resistance training regimen.


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Random Thoughts & News Items...

1) Two more prominent coaches who are users and promoters of weighted baseball training are Jerry Weinstein of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (CA) and Fred Corral of the University of Oklahoma.

Both teams regularly appear in Top 25 rankings.

2) Dick Mills has published "The Science And Art Of Baseball Pitching." Back in January, Tom House published a book, "The Art and Science of Pitching." I'’m confident it has nothing to do with horseshoes. House's tome has endorsements from several prominent people, and House himself is a PhD (in psychology). He's also a proponent of weighted ball training. Mills has no credentials of any kind with which to write a book claiming to be scientific, but he appears to have teamed up with a co-author who does. Mills'’ book costs $97, House's $19.95. Whose version of "“Art"” and "“Science"” will you be using?

3) Question: Since Pop Warner (youth) football quarterbacks throw footballs that weigh 10 oz, where are all the injured young QBs? Girl's softball uses a 6.5 oz ball. Where are all the damaged softball arms? Are we to believe that large, physically mature and highly conditioned major league pitchers somehow are incapable of training with a 6 oz baseball? While a college or NFL QB may throw only 30-40 passes in a game, they are throwing a 15 oz football. During the week in practice, they are making many additional throws.

The mechanics of these various overhand throws, while not exact, are similar. So where are all of the damaged high school, college and pro football quarterbacks? The fear-mongering over training with weighted baseballs and softballs is absolutely ridiculous and not founded on anything scientific. On the other hand, there is solid clinical research backing their safe and effective use, to say nothing of the empirical evidence of the tens of thousands of ball players who are enjoying the benefits of training with them.

4) Next, an answer to yet another lame question from "“the pitching guru."” As usual, he's slamming the ideas of another respected coach. Yet, if you want the guru'’s version of the "“truth," it will set you back $97.

So here'’s the guru'’s question: "... There is a huge problem when you follow the advice of a coach or a pitching instructor who uses experience as his teacher. The question is - where is the scientific evidence that what you recommend is valid?"”

Is he serious?

Must we have "scientific evidence” before we do anything on the ball field? How about asking questions like:

• What are his/her playing and coaching experience and other professional qualifications?

• Is s/he qualified to offer the advice?

• What have been the results of his/her advice?

• Have his/her players prospered under this direction, or have too many of them suffered poor results?

• Can you speak with a current or former student as a reference?

These are among the questions that should be asked and answered of coaches and instructors, not some nebulous requirement for "scientific evidence"” for their methods. If you don't like the answers you get to these questions, find another coach/instructor. The PROOF of any coach's methods are their RESULTS. While it would be nice to have more scientific evidence relating to baseball training, it just doesn'’t exist, and probably never will.

5) "“Juicer"” or "“Non Juicer?"” A book to be released on 23 March, "“Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal That Rocked Professional Sports" by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, promises documented facts on Bonds'’ steroid and related drug use. If you haven't seen them, these pictures of Bonds are interesting:

http://www.BaseballFit.com/barry_bonds.htm

Notice his huge melon of a head - it may may be the result of growth hormone use.

And don'’t buy any malarkey statements that Bonds or any other suspected user may offer about "never failing a drug test"” or "I've never tested positive." Just as there is a huge industry for performance enhancing drugs, there is equivalent demand for agents that mask the presence of these drugs. "I'’ve never tested positive"” is not the same thing as "“I'’ve never used drugs."”

I'’m told by a world renowned expert in these matters that 37 new anabolic steroids are now entering the market, and there are NO means of testing for them. Same with Human Growth Hormone, Bonds' purported favorite drug of use. And new, undetectable stimulants are already being used to replace amphetamines (greenies). So, between these new drugs, masking agents, and inadequate testing methods, the cheating will continue.

6) Update on those deluded ball players using an "unscientific" long toss program at Russell County High in Seale, AL. Their top pitcher, Kasey Kiker, is a pre-season high school All-American. In his first start this season, the first pitch he threw registered 98 mph. He stayed in the 95-97 range until leaving the game in the 5th inning, which turned out to be a loss. Seems to me they know what they're doing out there in Seale.

7) We've all heard of wood bats that break. How about metal bats that break? In North Dakota, the high school baseball governing body recently voted to use only wood or composite bats during their regular season. Apparently, metal bats shatter and break at temperatures under 50 degrees. Most of us wouldn't know this, as we don't play or practice at such extreme temps. So switching to wood/composite turns out to be a cost cutting measure for teams in the frigid north!