Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Sun Oct 5 08:42:58 2003

I've got 4 text books sitting in front of me, none of which regard
12/14 as being the age at which skill acquisition ceases. The
motor program can be changed through specificity of practice
and afferent cues. Swing mechanics do not fall under the
category of automaticity to the degree that something like
reading does, and can therefore be re-learned with proper
coaching.
>
> Thank you. A baseball player with talent can be taught and
improved at 10-20-30 years of age if he has a good teacher. If he
has a poor teacher, he will be passed by others. If he does not
have talent, he needs to take up another sport if he wants
success. I have seen it for almost 40 years and I don't see it
changing anytime soon.
>
>


I believe(personal interpretation of "evidence",much of the
evidence from Nyman,not necessarily his interpretation) that
"abilities" are genetically determined/limited and that skills are
built on abilities.Abilities can be developed and tailored into
skills.These type skills can function as abilities which are the
foundation a new level of skill can be built out,and so forth.

The three similar skills I have tried to study somewhat in
baseball/fastpitch are the overhand throw,windmill throw and
rotational hitting.At a deep level,all are built on basic abilities that
are common to "open kinetic chain" principles-the sequential
transfer of force/momentum building up to an explosive
acceleration/deceleration,much of which is too fast for
conscious control.

My comments about the age limit were with regard to overhand
throw/pitching.I don't believe I have ever seen someone throw
overhand well/flluidly if they didn't start young.By "well/fluidly",I
mean the "best" overhand mechanics which are,analagous to
Jack's hitting mechanics, a whole-body pattern which Nyman
might refer to as "buggy whip" or even "flyrod" type(mechanical
model).Surprisingly,many college baseball players and the great
majority of fastpitch girls have never developed to this optimal
pattern(my video observation).This is due to lack of adequate
trial and error learning at a young enough age(don't play all day
as kids) and to poor coaching which interferes with "natural"
learning due to lack of understanding on the part of coaches.As
Brent Strom ( pitching development coach of Expos,ex-mlb
lefty,2nd person to have Tommy John surgery). in Ron Wolforth's
pitching central newsletter-paraphrasing from memory- a kid is
better off with no coaching than "overstructured" coaching by
someone without adequate understanding/experience."Good"
coaching can successfully accelerate/improve learning/
mechanics.

As an example,the skills of throwing and hitting in fastpitch have
been severely limited by overly simplistic cookie cutter
ideas(promoted by national team/governing bodies) that have
insidiously spread over the nation's youth development
leagues.If you see this,run the other way.In addition to being
"overcoached to death" and not throwing enough,girls face the
additional challenge (if someone isn't thinking about it) of
throwing a large ball which makes handbreak more likely to be
performed in a way that dooms the throw to failure,and which
limits the way the wrist is snapped which is an action near the
end/goal of the throw which shapes the earlier mechanics.

There is a level of foundational ability development which must
happen at an early age to make the most of one's genetic
potential.How this limits the more advanced skills is
variable.Overhand throw is by far the most sensitive to/
dependent on this early "critical period".Native accent speech
producton is a similar ballistic activity which is a marker of the
period of enhanced neuromuscular learning ability.If you start to
learn the overhand throw after this ability is gone,you will always
look/be a little "funky" at best.

Windmill pitching and rotational hitting seem somewhat less
sensitive.However,the less trial and error and the more horrible
coaching "religoins" the kid is exposed to,the more abilities and
skills will be undeveloped or maldeveloped which can create
insurmountable barriers at a young age.Many can be "salvaged"
later (probably due to some phase of successful trial and error
and coaching and genetic fortune).Certainly,an attribute of the
successful/hardworking player is ongoing adaptibity/learning,but
this is probably built on successful ability developent and skill
acquisition during a critical/young learning period so there is
formation of an adequate foundation for subsequent skill
acquisition/mastery.