This story, published in the American Baseball Coaches Association’s ‘Inside Pitch’ magazine, comes from longtime Ohio baseball coach Mark Brunswick, recently selected for the Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, Class of 2026. Over nearly 40 years in the game — including 29 seasons at Bellefontaine and later stops at Marysville and Lehman, where he also served as athletic director — Mark passed the 500-win mark and guided multiple teams to the state Final Four.
In the piece you’re about to hear, he reflects on how the game has changed, why fundamentals and athleticism matter more than ever, and what players and coaches can do to protect both performance and health in today’s velocity-driven era.
Being fortunate enough to play and coach for the better part of the last 40 years has allowed me to experience the transformation baseball has undergone firsthand. I’m here to share my thoughts on this movement in hopes of educating current and future coaches, players, and their families on the choices they are likely to face as they choose their path.
My personal experience with development during my playing days allowed me to keep my natural and athletic movements intact. So I know I’m not alone when I say I’m concerned with the growing number of arm injuries we’ve been seeing over the last decade and beyond. Players and coaches using “measurement as motivation” and chasing standalone throwing velocity has me questioning whether they are actually getting better or not. I am seeing the game become more robotic instead of staying fundamentally athletic in our movements. Hitting exit-velo benchmarks and radar-gun numbers can be fun to achieve and “PR” with, but it must not be the primary way we teach and evaluate players. We are all seeing better velocity numbers across the board, but the “fundamentals-first” way of playing the game has really been sacrificed.
Chasing velocity has created more holes in a player’s game—holes that could be filled by getting back to maintaining athleticism and becoming more complete as a player. Training players with more consistency yields more consistent on-field results, at least in my experience.
“Trust me, I do believe in change and evolution in the game, but we must be implementing the right changes—ones that do not put players’ health at risk, something we are clearly doing, seemingly at will. Injuries will always happen, but if we can minimize them to the best of our abilities, I feel coaches have done a big part of their job.”
Here are some things we can revisit to get back to development and athleticism:
Shut it down
There must be a mandatory shutdown period with throwing. That period should be paired with a renewed commitment to the weight room. For my high school players, this was typically in August and September. We would shut our players down throwing-wise and incorporate a regimented lifting program. This time allowed for heavy lifting and focus on post-lift stretching—a routine that likely fades during the “dog days” of summer ball.
Stretch it out
Let’s get back to long toss! We seem to have drifted away from long-toss programs recently. I’m no doctor, but I firmly believe the more the arm is stretched out and used in an intelligent manner, the better it will respond. Restricted muscles and loss of range of motion in joint areas likely lead to many arm injuries.
Throughout my career, it was not uncommon for us to have several players make big gains with their arm conditioning, health, and strength. I believe this was a direct result of long toss.
Rep it out
Create athletic movements in the athlete while you are developing them. Coaches have moved to talking too much about technology and information instead of letting their players be drilled and “rep it out” until they figure things out for themselves. At times, our new tech and advanced info can take players’ athleticism and instincts out of their game.
Get back to the wall!
Introduced by legendary scout Tony Lucadello*, wall drills allow players to create and maintain athleticism in their throwing motions (among other benefits). They promote throwing from multiple positions, which creates different arm angles and slots. Anyone who is teaching one way to throw a baseball is making players robotic in their movements. I still see many MLB spring-training sites with a wall, but it’s usually being peppered with plyo balls or sitting unused. I built one at Bellefontaine High School, and I feel it contributed in a big way to our player development and overall success.
*Tony Lucadello (1912–1989) was an Ohio-based scout who worked for the Chicago Cubs and the Philadelphia Phillies, signing over 50 players who made it to the Major Leagues, including Hall of Famers Ferguson Jenkins and Mike Schmidt. Lucadello’s scouting fundamentals, along with “The Lucadello Plan”—where he details six rules for young players to maximize their development practicing with the wall—are still followed by many teams today. Lucadello finished his playing career with Branch Rickey’s Fostoria Redbirds in the St. Louis Cardinals’ system, was offered his first scouting job by Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley, and is considered one of the greatest scouts to ever live.
Teach freedom in hitting approaches
Every player has a different skill set and should be taught accordingly. We must encourage more contact in response to pitchers chasing velocity, as they are likely to walk more batters—so we must capitalize offensively. Just like with throwing programs, I feel we are cloning too many hitters. There should be different approaches for different types of players; a power hitter should not have the same approach as a smaller player who can run and needs more contact to utilize that speed.
Velocity Enhancement Programs must have credibility
They also need to be closely monitored by everyone involved. Justify the movements in the program and follow proper protocols and mechanics. You get one arm with only so many bullets. A proper warm-up is essential, as is an optimal long-toss program. As discussed previously, I am concerned long toss has become a thing of the past. Remember, you restrict your muscles when trying to achieve numbers, so it is vital to stretch those same muscles back out with training, stretching, and other recovery programs.
Don’t make everything so calculated
Practice planning, scouting reports, and sign systems are all useful, of course, but they each take away a little bit of flexibility within the game. Flexibility leads to freedom, which is where you see players learn how to use their instincts. Baseball’s nuances are infinitely complex, but as a game, it’s meant to be somewhat simple.
Go play!
Find a way to play more sandlot games, and play more catch in the backyard. Look at some of your players—I bet they play with creativity and freedom. I bet they’re athletic and fundamentally sound. Maybe they never forgot the “grassroots” way they learned the game, or maybe they had to get back to basics at some point during their careers. Either way, these concepts have allowed them to play the game for fun. Remember—don’t just chase velo and scholarships. Let your approach to how you train and how you play guide your path.
Ease up on the gas
Not every throw you make has to be maximum effort. Arms need to be paced and taken care of throughout the year. Coaches need to know when their players are enrolled in any kind of velocity program. Sometimes I feel we start them too early in terms of age or fail to allow for proper rest before hitting the gas pedal again. Some players’ arms and muscles are simply not ready, as the body may still be growing and developing.
Coach for development and athleticism
Longevity in the game should be the coach’s number one directive in player development. If you’ve decided to truly dedicate yourself to the coaching profession, research different ways that may work for your team. Don’t just incorporate the first thing you see or “rubber-stamp” the way you learned it when you played. Evolve! Go to coaching clinics. Talk to some well-respected people in the game. Find some mentors who are willing to help you on your journey. You’ll be surprised by just how much most baseball coaches are willing to share.
Remember, neglect in player development and care hurts the future dreams of the players involved. So let’s do our homework, coaches. Players are counting on us to understand the assignment!
