The effects of training with a weighted baseball on throwing velocity

Includes bibliographical references (pages 41-46)This investigation was designed to examine the effects of training on a weighted baseball on throwing velocity. Thirty-eight high school baseball players were used as subjects.\ud They engaged in a training program that was seven weeks in length. Two experimental and two control groups were used. Since varsity and junior varsity teams worked out separately, a control and experimental group was needed for each team. Subjects were placed into control and experimental groups on the basis of a pre test for throwing velocity, using the matched pairs technique. During the training period, experimental groups used the weighted baseball for progressively longer periods of time during the practice time allocated for throwing warm- [sic]\ud The control group engaged in the normal throwing warm-up, and did not use the weighted baseball. After the training period, all subjects were retested for throwing velocity. The data collected from the pre and post test were subjected to analysis by means of a t test for correlated pairs to determine if any significant improvement in experimental groups had occurred. The results of the study indicated that the varsity experimental group showed significantly more improvement than the varsity control group at the .05 level of confidence. The junior varsity experimental group also showed more improvement than the junior varsity control group, but this was not significant