Last time I explained the concept of complexity and organization. Baseball hitting and throwing are considered low complexity (complexity refers to the number of different muscle patterns that must be learned, i.e. a gymnastic routine is high complexity) and high organization (requires fast and precise body movement) events.

Movement goal oriented. Learning a movement skill is goal oriented. Professor Mark L. Latash, noted motor (motor means the study of how the body controls it’s muscles and joints) control expert and author says the following;

"First it is necessary to introduce the notion of the working point, that is a point whose trajectory is most directly related to successful execution of the motor task. During pointing at an object or picking up and manipulating an object, this point is located on the finger tips or somewhere on the palm. During kicking of a football, the point is somewhere on the tip of the shoe. This point does not even need to be in permanent direct contact with the body. When Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls throws a basketball, the task is to get the working point (basketball) into the basket. In this example the working point is in direct contact with the players hand only during the initial segment of its trajectory . In most computer games, the working point is an image of a fighter plane or superman on the screen, and the player controls it by moving the joystick, without any direct mechanical contact with the working point (image on the screen)."

The important concept to understand is that the natural organization of the bodies muscles and joints is to achieve the final goal. In pitching its to hit a target at some velocity and movement. In hitting its the same thing except you are using the bat as an extension of the body. The concept of working is consistent with "specificity". Training needs to simulate those motions, timimg and conditions that are specific to the event itself.

Breaking an event up (throwing and swinging) runs the risk of confusing the neuro-muscular systems desired final "working point" (hitting the ball, throwing a strike). That’s why selection of drills is very important based on a players experience and abilities.

Proprioceptive feedback. Information that the body gets from its limbs (touch, feel, position) is called "proprioceptive feedback". This type of feedback plays a very important role in controlling body movements. It functions at a lower level in the neuro-muscular system (subconscious level). As and example, suppose you are walking along a path and you catch your toe on a rock. Immediately (without you thinking) the muscles in the feet, legs try to maintain balance. It was a local reaction to proprioceptive feedback (foot feeling the rock).

We are told (by other pitching experts) that major league pitchers can make adjustments as they are delivering the ball that young pitchers can’t make. The ability to make these adjustments is due to proprioceptive feedback. The major league pitcher has "muscle memory" that makes unconscious adjustments in his neuro-muscular system as it senses the position of body parts during the delivery. But it only knows how to do this because of hundreds of thousands of repetitions of throwing the ball under the conditions of a baseball game. Not from doing drills that break the process up into pieces.

Age and brain development. Much of your future neuro-muscular skill capabilities are "locked in place" by the time you are 12 years old. This is not the same as genetics. This has to do with the "wiring up of he brain" after you are born. Learning how to walk and talk are part of this wiring up process. The following is from "SPORTS SPEED", by Dintiman, Ward, Tellez, publisher "Human Kinetics".

"Start early for success....Recent research findings support the absolute necessity of starting training very early in life. The findings support the concept of a window of opportunity....one that if disregarded will limit the achievement level of the developing child. The window of maximum learning applies to all educational disciplines, whether they be mental or physical, developed in the classroom or on the playing field. There is good reason to support the idea that a skill has to be learned early or its quality will be substantially reduced or lost completely. Each of us has been given a wonderful instrument: the human body. The quality and quantity of skills your body performs depends on the quality and quantity of your training programs. You benefit most when you begin training early in life and progressively master gross motor patterns, then fine motor patterns , followed by specific skills for your sport. The key to effective early training in sports is to find the proper balance between training and fun.... Researchers have taken a new look at some long-held beliefs about accelerated learning; their findings provide athletes with a much more objective basis for making training decisions. Edward Taub of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, for example, is investigating the study of music to uncover how early training affects the nervous system. Taub's findings indicate that the magnetic images of the brain strongly support the idea that to become a violin virtuoso (or an elite performer in any sport), the artist (athlete) must start at an early age. Other findings suggest that there are more and larger complex neuron circuits in the brain circuitry of those who started training between the ages of 3 and 12 than those who began after the age of 13. According to Taub, these differences are quite dramatic. The more complex the activity, the greater the number of neural pathways in the brain and neuromuscular system. For older athletes, intense, sport specific training is required to program existing but unused pathways. Just as adding more traffic lanes to a freeway makes traffic flow more smoothly, increasing the number of neural pathways makes the brain work more efficiently...."

Muscle joint sequencing. The combination of "working point" and proprioceptive feedback play a major role in  finding the best combination of muscle joint sequencing to throw or swing the hardest and most accurately. When we do drills we run the risk of teaching the body movements that might look good, but have poor relation to the real activity. Drills create a different working point (goal). The feedback from your muscles and joints is different. What you may end up doing is getting better at the drill, with very little transfer to the event itself.

Are all drills bad? Of course not. Drills are important for the beginner to establish basic movement patterns. But the coach, parent and player who wants the best return on training time and efforts must chose those training activities that give the best return on their investment. They must consider the players age, experience, level of proficency and desire excel in designing their training program.

Max