I read about the Driveline pitching/throwing program earlier this year in the excellent book, The Arm. In a nutshell, the program consists of (1) long toss, (2) various exercises throwing heavy plyo-balls against a wall, and (3) a small number of maximum velocity/effort throws using over-weighted and under-weighted baseballs. My son has been doing the program 2-3 times a week for the last 4 months or so, and he feels like it has increased his velocity - both for pitching and for throwing across the diamond 3B to 1B, and I tend to agree.
I recently stumbled upon another pitching exercise program called Top Velocity. From what I can tell, this program focuses on lower body strength and mechanics, and has terrible things to say about Driveline and weighted ball training in general. Obviously, both programs have a vested interest in promoting themselves and discrediting other, competing programs, so I take all of that with a grain of salt. I know weighted ball training used to be frowned upon due to injury concerns, but I’ve read some things recently that seem to conflict with that criticism. Any thoughts from this forum on whether other not a Driveline-type program is helpful, dangerous, or both?
Thanks.