Stop Guessing With Pitchers

Arm injuries in youth baseball are exploding, and “just throw harder” is not a plan. We get blunt about what we see every day: pitchers chasing the radar gun, parents drowning in buzzwords, and coaches stacking drills on top of drills while more elbows and shoulders keep breaking down. The problem is not a lack of effort. The problem is starting in the wrong place. Before we talk mechanics, velocity, spin rate, or recruiting, we ask the question most people skip: how does the athlete move in the first place?

We walk through how we are changing Velocity RX by applying the sports medicine model directly to pitching development. That means we evaluate first, take a real injury and training history, identify risk, and build a plan based on what the athlete’s body is actually doing, not what we wish it would do. You will hear why measuring the result of a pitch is not enough, and why movement quality, sequencing, and compensation patterns often explain the “mystery” behind chronic pain, inconsistent command, and stalled performance.

We also break down the GAME Test and the GAME level system, a simple way to describe movement competency from 1 to 7. It is not a talent score or a scholarship score. It is a clarity score, helping us predict where breakdown may happen and what must improve. We close with the four outcomes we’re chasing: healthier arms, blindfold command through repeatable movement, velocity that comes with less stress, and pitch correctability so athletes can fix misses in real time.

You can also find our content on Dugout TV, the streaming home for the Atlantic League and more. Subscribe, share this with a baseball parent or pitching coach, and leave a review so more players can start with an evaluation instead of a guess.

Transcript

Welcome And Dugout TV News

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hey everybody, this is Dr. Kevin McGovern, and this is another Velocity RX podcast. I want to bring out a new sponsor, which is Dugout TV. That is the new streaming service for the Atlantic Baseball League of Professional Baseball. They have a streaming service just like Amazon, Paramount, Major League Baseball. You can go on there and look at games for the Atlantic League. Soon there'll be professional softball and Korean professional Korean League Baseball. But more importantly, my content will be on there while commercials are being played. There'll be some of my important content. So this is a good deal that we signed. So dugout TV, here we come. So

The Velocity Race And Arm Injuries

SPEAKER_00 0:49

last podcast, we talked about Velocity RX. In this podcast, we're going to talk about how we're changing Velocity RX. And you know, why is Velocity RX changing? Well, every year, thousands of pitchers chase more velocity, better mechanics, bigger opportunities, better schools, yada yada yada. Yet more and more and more arms keep breaking down. The injury rate is up some 500% in adolescents. Every day you see it. Parents are frustrated, athletes are frustrated, and they're hearing buzzwords everywhere. Get more VLO. We need more VLO. Fix your mechanics. Increase your spin rate. Optimize your kinetic chain. Unlock your sequencing. And maybe my favorite, just crack it, man. Just crack it. Just throw it. Just chuck it. Everyone seems to have a catchphrase. Everyone seems to have a secret. Everyone claims they have the answer. But very few people stop to ask the most important question. Why is the athlete moving the way they're moving in the first place? Can't throw a baseball unless you can move first. It's kind of like the chicken or the egg. And that's really where the mystery begins. Because once you start looking beneath the surface, you realize that there are things happening inside an athlete's movement profile that most coaches and some players, parents never even see. And that's exactly what led us down the path, me especially, of eventually becoming Velocity RX. Coaches, players, parents are searching for answers. That reality forced me to ask a very different question about the future of baseball development and ultimately about Velocity RX. I'm not talking about the website, the logo, not the marketing. I'm talking about the actual mission. And we know the mission to save one million arms. And after a lot of reflection, I came up with a new conclusion.

The Question Everyone Skips

SPEAKER_00 3:02

The entire baseball industry is really asking the wrong question. Most people ask, how do I throw harder? How do I improve my spin rate? How do I get recruited? How do I play college baseball? How do I make my high school team? But the first question, and really the most important question, the base question, the foundation question, the first pillar question. How does that athlete move? Because the athlete throws the baseball gun. I mean, the throws the baseball, not the radar gun, not the pitch design software, not Rap Soto, not Trackman, not pocket radar, not a dynamometer measuring strength. The actual athlete throws the baseball in a very complicated series of moves that unfortunately, if not done correctly, will land that athlete in trouble. Could go as far as land them on an operating table, which we don't want to see. So if the athlete doesn't move correctly, everything else eventually falls apart. Right? Have you ever seen a poor moving athlete throw ninety-five? Probably not, right? So most pitching programs measure the result of the pitch. The velocity RX measures and perfects what creates the pitch. And that's the athlete, right? That's become the defining statement of our company. The athlete creates the pitch. So for years, you know, the big problem, I watched all of these athletes get hurt. I've watched the industry respond the exact same way. More drills, more gadgets, more measuring, more analytics, more social media videos. But I didn't see what should be happening. No one is evaluating the athlete first. Yes, there's some cookie cutter stuff out there, which people do evaluations, but they can never explain the why, you know, and they come up with, you know, we're doing this why, and we got this result, and this is why. So there's not a true evaluation. So think about that for a second. If your child had knee pain, would you want a physical therapist to evaluate them before just treating them? Well, of course you would. If your car broke down and you brought it to a mechanic, wouldn't you want the mechanic to evaluate the car, put it on a computer, and find out what's wrong with it before you start tearing it apart? Well, of course you would. So why are pitchers being coached every day without being evaluated? All these travel ball programs, hundreds of kids in it. Are they doing hundreds of evaluations? Right? Are they seeing how the kid moves, how his spine moves, how his feet move, how his pelvis moves in relation to how his shoulder blade moves, how his shoulders move in relation to how his feet move. And the consequences are showing up everywhere. More elbow injuries, more shoulder injuries, more Tommy John surgeries, more athletes frustrated because they keep trying harder and harder and harder and never addressing the actual problem. They're chasing symptoms, not the cause. And that's where I want Velocity Rx to separate itself from everything else you see out there. Because I'm constantly asked, do you do lessons? Is this a is this an is this an online lesson? You know, this is you know, we went to so-and-so, and they're lessons. And is this lessons? No, this is not lessons. This is far from lessons. It's not a velocity

Sports Medicine Applied To Pitching

SPEAKER_00 7:16

program, it's not a mechanic program, mechanical program. Velocity RX applies evaluation, assessment, movement creation, injury risk analysis, reassessment, and progression principles of sports medicine directly to pitching development and on-field performance. So we're bringing the exact model of what a sports medicine evaluation is to the pitcher's mount, to the pitcher, to the athlete. First, before we do a thing. Before we look at a thing, how does this athlete move? We evaluate them, we assess them, we identify risk, we create a plan, we monitor progress, we reassess, and then we create a treatment plan and a prescription of what that athlete needs to do to get better. We don't start with drills, we don't start with cues, we don't start with mechanics. We start with understanding how that athlete moves and what is needed to create a situation where the athlete for himself can create or perform mechanics that will produce the greatest amount of force behind the baseball with the least amount of stress on the shoulder and elbow and the least amount of chance for injury.

The GAME Test And Movement Levels

SPEAKER_00 8:50

So, what actually happens inside velocity RX? You saw a little bit last week, you got a little taste. So let's say a pitcher comes into velocity RX. The first thing we do is look at velocity. Nope. First thing we do is change mechanics. Nope. First thing we do is evaluate them. We bring them through a full injury history. They fill out paperwork, just they're essentially a sports medicine patient. They're gonna fill out injury history, uh, medical history, previous training, what they have done in the past, okay, and what their goals are. You know, where do they see themselves in six months, a year, three years? Okay, and then we perform the game test. Graded active movement exam, a test I invented 25 years ago because there's nothing else on the market that could literally show me the neurological sequence of movement, the initial start of movement. There are a lot of tests that measured the result, like a pitcher throws a ball and track man or rap soto, you know, measures the velocity. Well, that's the result. Great. But I need to know what happened to create that result. Game measures the body's creation of movement and how how it creates it and what how it compensates. And that comes before mechanics, before velocity, before anything. We need to know how that athlete moves, especially if they've had any type of injury. Because movement is the foundation of everything. The movement is poor, mechanics suffer. If mechanics suffer, performance suffers. If performance suffers, injury risk suffers. And after the game test, we then evaluate mechanics and we put them together, we combine them. Okay, I've got a 10-point mechanical game test. Right? I'm looking at 10 benchmarks of movement of where the pitcher should be. Combine them together, and that's when we truly get the why. Why is this happening? Okay. And then they're assessed at game level, one through seven. Game seven being you know the greatest the greatest phrase in sports, right? The the final game. Well, the game test is similar things. Game one through seven, kind of like the martial arts white belt to black belt. Okay, game one is a white belt and game seven is a black belt. It's not a talent score, it's not a velocity score, it's not a scholarship score, it's not a genetic score, it's not a competency competency score. It tells us how well the athlete moves so that we can quantify and qualify him with other athletes. How prepared the athlete is for the future. Is there a possibility that this player moves poorly that he can get injured in the future? Because every athlete is of different size and different shape, every athlete has different weaknesses, every athlete has different strengths. However, there's only one correct neurological sequence of movement. The impulse comes from the brain to the spine and out to the extremities, okay, through nerve endings. And everyone has the same nerve endings, okay? But everyone has different size spines, different size muscles, different size bellies, pelvises, foot, ankle, all that stuff. But neurologically, we got the same nerves running through our body. We'll have the same sequence, okay? And velocity RX measures competency, not talent. The game test is simple in its application. Can I look at movement, assess currently, and look at that same movement and predict possible future injury? And the answer to that is yes. I could look at movement and real and see if that is not corrected, it's going to get worse. And if it gets worse, you're going to get injured. It's only a matter of time. The body always tells us the truth. Movement is math. There's only one right answer, and it always tells us the truth. The game test evaluates six key movements, patterns to help us understand how the athlete moves, where an athlete is vulnerable, and what must improve to reduce injury risk and maximize performance. When those movements break down, the body starts compensating. And compensation eventually becomes performance loss, pain, or injury. So why is this so important? This may be the most important point of this entire podcast. Most pitching programs start with a program. Velocity RX starts with an evaluation. Most pitching programs prescribe first. Velocity Rx diagnosis. Diagnose first. That's about think about how crazy that sounds, right? Imagine walking into your doctor's office and receiving treatment before you're evaluated, like I mentioned earlier. Hey, take this medication. Well, wow, you know, what's this for? That's exactly what's missing in our field. Okay, that's exactly what's missing in this pitching issue. That's exactly what's causing all the injury. The cookie cutter application of drills and programs to athletes of different size, shapes, movement patterns, etc. etc., is causing this issue. And that's what's causing all the injury. So why does the injury I'm sorry? Why does industry have this backwards? Well, most programs measure the result of the pitch. Velocity RX measures and perfects what creates it. The movement, the power, the sequence, that's the difference. Everybody wants to talk about velocity. Great. I want to talk about why it exists. Everybody wants to talk about mechanics. I want to talk about what creates those mechanics. Everybody wants to talk about injuries. I want to talk about what creates those injuries. And that's the sports medicine mindset, and that's the engine behind what we do here at Velocity RX. So this game level systems, not to label athletes, not to rank them, but to understand them. Again, think about martial arts. A fifth grader understands belts, a white belt isn't bad. And a black belt isn't a better person. They're just mastering different movements, right? A white belt is getting the basics, a black belt is an expert at those basics. And that's how this system works. A game one level result is someone who needs help with fundamental movements. A game seven level pitcher is someone who has a master of those fundamental movements, is a high-level moving athlete, and our tweaks are going to make him substantially better because we're increasing little things that are going a long way because they master movement. So

Four Outcomes That Change Everything

SPEAKER_00 17:17

at the end of the day, you know, Velocity RX has four key deliverables. Number one, we're as best as we can make it as close as possible, is we try to wrap a bulletproof vest around that arm and shoulder and keeping you healthy and giving you the tools that you need to stay healthy. Okay, the no the knowledge of what to do, what not to do to stay healthy. Number two, blindfold command. The ability to know your own body, to have your eyes closed or blindfold, and still hit a target. Okay. You don't need your eyes to throw strikes. You need a repeatable delivery that starts with repeatable fundamental movement. Now, of course, when we do all of this, we're gonna have an increase in the V word, we're gonna have an increase in velocity. That goes without saying. And then I think my favorite result is pitch correctability. And what's pitch correctability? Well, that if the catcher sets up down and in, you throw it up and away, you're gonna know, your player's gonna know, Sun's gonna know from a movement standpoint why he did that. Took the ball the glove too soon, tried it too long. He will have a mechanical checklist in his head that he's got does over and repeats, and he'll know why he did that and be able to correct it on the very next pitch. So we're here in mission, we're here to save a million arms. That's it. We don't sell program, we don't chase followers. We don't care if we go viral, although it'd be nice to get our word out to save a million arms. Pitchers are getting hurt at a rate that should scare every parent to death. Okay, every parent should be scared to death. The solution is a medical evaluation that's been allowing around forever that we're applying to the baseball player. The solution is creating development plans based on facts instead of guesses, based on science, based on medicine, based on assessment. So as we move forward and we're gonna see some big changes in how we do things here at Velocity Rx, and we're gonna make more evaluations, more education, more sports medicine, more accountability, more objective testing to help benefit benefit the pitching masses as a whole. Because the future of pitching development isn't guessing, the future of pitching development is understanding. Most programs measure again the result of the pitch. We want to measure how it's created. So

Where To Watch And Learn More

SPEAKER_00 19:59

thanks again for listening. Remember to check us out on dugout TV from Atlanta League Baseball. You can go right to the Atlantic League website and click there and sign up. And soon I will have links that you can sign up for reduced costs. For more information, you want to work with us, visit velocityrx.org. That's where you'll see my smiling face. You'll see all of this information our Tommy John injury formula, our OP10, lots of good information in there. And visit our YouTube channel, like and subscribe for this podcast, and we'll see it. We'll see you next time. Thanks for listening.