Introduce A Little Chaos into Your Throwing Program

By Jonathan Massey –

Block Practice: This is the type of practice in which one repeats the same skill for a specific period of time. A typical example of this would be doing 10 Marshall 1’s, followed by 10 Walking Torques, followed by 10 Quick Picks, and so on and so forth until they get through their entire throwing program.  

Random Practice: This is the type of practice in which a skill is performed under varying conditions, environments, and scenarios. A typical example of this would be performing a Marshall 1, followed immediately by a Walking Torque, and then a Double Crow Hop. 

So, which one is better? The answer is, like everything else here at the Texas Baseball Ranch®, it just depends. 

If you have never learned how to do a Marshall 1 (or don’t do it very well), doing a single Marshall 1 and then immediately jumping into another drill that you’re unfamiliar with probably won’t be very helpful. If you are learning a new skill or trying to master the basics of a drill, then block practice is a good approach. 

Once you’ve become proficient at a drill or skill, then engaging only in block practice actually becomes detrimental. Coach Wallace’s famous analogy for this is, “We’ve all seen or know a guy who has a really good swing off a tee, but when he faces a pitcher, he has a completely different swing.” This would be a young man who engages in too much block practice, and his brain has decided that swinging on a tee is a different skill from swinging in a game. 

If you truly want to get the most out of your throwing program, it’s time to introduce a little randomness, or, as I like to say, a little chaos, into your throwing program. The reason I say “chaos” is because that is exactly how I want it to look. It’s doing a Marshall 1, then a Walking Torque, then a Step Behind, back to Marshall 1, then a Double Crow Hop, and so on and so forth. This is how we train the brain to view drill work and pitching as the same. I would recommend doing this 2-3 times per week, making your drill work as chaotic or random as possible: add throwing tools, remove throwing tools, change drills, etc. 

Now, I know what some of y’all are probably thinking: “Coach, I’m not that creative to just come up with drills at random.” Script it out! That is perfectly okay, and honestly, something I recommend doing to get a feel for it. Script out 12-15 different throws that you want to make (like an inning) and call that inning one. Then come up with 12-15 different throws for inning two. You can create an upper-half script, in which you solely do arm action and deceleration drills, or you can create a lower-half script emphasizing lower-half drills. 

The possibilities are endless. Just be as random and chaotic as you can be!

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