We've made it to Part 3…the final installment of our series on baseball's most misunderstood and debated topics.
In Part 1, we tackled the curveball. The takeaway: the pitch itself isn't what’s dangerous. Decades of awful and ineffective coaching cues, ”snap your wrist," "turn the doorknob”…exacerbated and even in many causes caused some of the problems. Teach it correctly, when the athlete is ready, and it's no riskier than a fastball.
In Part 2, we examined pitch counts. The takeaway: they're a useful tool, but a limited one. Treating a single number as a universal measure of safety ignores everything that actually matters…mechanical efficiency, soft tissue preparation, recovery, and individual context. We keep lowering pitch counts, and kids keep getting hurt.
Volume isn't the problem. Quality of movement is.
Now we arrive at the third rail: weighted balls.
If curveballs and pitch counts stir up debate, weighted balls ignite full-scale wars. I've watched respected coaches nearly come to blows over this topic. I've seen social media threads devolve into name-calling. I've read articles that treat weighted balls as either the holy grail of velocity development or a fast track to Tommy John surgery.
As usual, the truth is more nuanced than either extreme.
Let's think more clearly.
Part III: Demystifying Weighted Balls
Before we dive into the specifics, I want to take you back to a different era and a different debate that has nothing to do with baseball.
If you were alive in the 1990s, you remember the war on fat.
Fat was the enemy. The villain. The thing destroying American health. The USDA Food Pyramid told us to eat 6–11 servings of bread and grains per day and keep fats to a bare minimum. Doctors, nutritionists, and the media all agreed: fat makes you fat.
The food industry responded. Suddenly everything was "low-fat" or "fat-free." SnackWell's cookies flew off the shelves. People ate entire boxes, guilt-free, because there was no fat. They were being healthy.
There was just one problem.
When manufacturers removed fat, they replaced it with sugar to maintain taste. And while everyone obsessed over fat grams, sugar consumption skyrocketed.
The result? Americans got fatter and sicker than ever. Obesity rates exploded. Diabetes became an epidemic.
Heart disease didn't decline, it accelerated.
We followed the "rules." We avoided the "bad" thing. And we got worse.
Because we had identified the wrong enemy. Fat wasn't the problem. Our oversimplified understanding of nutrition was the problem. We treated one variable as the answer while ignoring the larger system, total caloric intake, sugar consumption, processed foods, and individual metabolic differences.
Weighted Balls Are, In Our Opinion, 1995’s Baseball’s Version of Dietary Fat
In the baseball world, weighted balls have become fat circa 1995.
They've been identified as dangerous. Blamed for injuries. Treated as the thing that's destroying young arms.
And just like with dietary fat, well-meaning people have latched onto this narrative as if it's settled science.
The tool isn't the problem. How we use it is.
At the Texas Baseball Ranch®, we've been using weighted balls since 1999, over 25 years. In that time, we've helped produce:
We've also maintained one of the lowest injury rates in the industry. Not in spite of using weighted balls, but in part because of how we use them.
So when someone tells me weighted balls are inherently dangerous, I have a quarter-century of evidence that says otherwise.
But let me be clear: I am not saying weighted balls are safe for everyone, in every context, with every protocol.
That would be just as foolish as saying they're universally dangerous.
Let's break down the arguments.
Argument #1: "Weighted balls cause injuries. The research proves it."
The Claim: Studies show that weighted ball training increases injury risk. Therefore, they should be avoided.
My Take: Some studies have indeed shown correlations between weighted ball use and injury. But here's what those headlines don't tell you:
What protocols were used? What was the athlete's baseline mechanical efficiency? What was the progression?
Was there adequate recovery? Was the athlete physically prepared for high-intent throwing?
In almost every case where I've seen weighted balls blamed for injury, the real culprit was one of the following:
Weighted balls don't cause injuries. Poorly implemented weighted ball programs cause injuries.
Just like dietary fat doesn't make you fat. Poorly designed diets, loaded with sugar and processed foods, make you fat.
The tool is neutral. The application determines the outcome.
Argument #2: "Weighted balls are unnecessary. Pitchers threw hard long before they existed."
The Claim: Bob Feller didn't use weighted balls. Neither did Bob Gibson or Sandy Koufax. If they could throw hard without them, why risk it?
My Take: Feller, Gibson & Koufax also didn't have access to high-speed video, biomechanical analysis, spin rate data, or much of modern strength training protocols. Should we abandon those too?
This argument is an appeal to tradition, not evidence.
Yes, many pitchers in history and even some today have learned to throw hard without weighted balls. Some pitchers also threw hard without structured arm care, without proper nutrition, and without any understanding of workload management. That doesn't mean those things aren't valuable.
The question isn't whether weighted balls are necessary. It's whether they can be useful when applied correctly, to the right athlete, at the right time.
Weighted balls, used properly, can be of benefit in:
Are they required? No. Can they accelerate development when used intelligently? Absolutely.
Argument #3: "Weighted balls are fine for pros, but too risky for young athletes."
The Claim: Professional pitchers can handle weighted balls because their bodies are mature. Youth athletes shouldn't use them.
My Take: This is the same logic we addressed with curveballs and it has the same fatal flaw.
Readiness is not determined by age. It's determined by individual physical and mechanical preparedness.
At The Ranch we've seen 15-year-olds who are absolutely ready for a well-designed weighted ball program. We’ve also seen 22-year-olds who aren't.
The variables that matter:
A blanket age cutoff ignores all of these factors. It's the same lazy thinking that produced universal pitch count limits and curveball bans.
That said, and this is important, I am NOT advocating that every 12-year-old should be doing max-intent weighted ball pulldowns.
The answer isn't "no weighted balls until 18." The answer is "the right weighted ball work, for the right athlete, at the right time, with the right supervision."
Argument #4: "Weighted balls prioritize velocity over health."
The Claim: Weighted ball programs chase radar gun numbers at the expense of arm health. They're velocity factories that burn kids out.
My Take: Some programs absolutely do this. And those programs give weighted balls a bad name.
But that's not a problem with weighted balls. It's a problem with those programs.
At the Ranch, we've never viewed velocity and arm health as competing priorities. They're complementary.
You can't sustain velocity without a healthy arm. And a truly healthy arm, one that moves efficiently and is properly prepared, is capable of more velocity.
The programs that burn kids out aren't doing it because of weighted balls. They're doing it because of:
You could burn a kid out with a regular baseball if you programmed it poorly enough.
The implement doesn't determine the outcome. The system does.
What We've Learned in 25 Years
Here's what a quarter-century of weighted ball use at the Texas Baseball Ranch has taught us:
1. Weighted balls are a tool, nothing more, nothing less. They don't magically add velocity.
They don't automatically cause injury. They amplify whatever is already there.
Good mechanics + proper programming = positive results.
Poor mechanics + reckless programming = problems.
2. The dose makes the poison. Too much, too fast, too soon will hurt any athlete with any implement.
Weighted balls demand respect for progression, recovery, and individual readiness.
3. Mechanical efficiency must come first. We don't hand a weighted ball to an athlete with significant mechanical constraints and say, "Throw harder." We address the constraints first. The weighted ball is an accelerant - make sure you're accelerating in the right direction.
4. Not every athlete needs them. Some pitchers develop just fine without weighted balls. Others benefit tremendously. Individualization is everything.
5. Context determines safety. A 6 oz ball thrown at moderate intent as part of a structured warm-up is not the same as a 9 oz ball thrown at max effort in a fatigued state. The weight, the intent, the volume, the timing, the athlete's readiness - all of it matters.
6. Supervision and monitoring are non-negotiable. Weighted ball work should never be "here, go throw these against a wall for 30 minutes." It requires coaching, observation, and constant feedback.
The debate over weighted balls usually comes down to one question:
But that's the wrong question. Nothing in athletic development is universally "safe" or "dangerous." Running can hurt you. Lifting can hurt you. Throwing a regular baseball can hurt you.
Are they appropriate for THIS athlete, at THIS point in their development, with THIS level of supervision and programming?
Sometimes the answer is yes. Sometimes it's no. Sometimes it's "not yet."
That's not a cop-out. That's how intelligent player development works.
Weighted balls are baseball's dietary fat.
For decades, we blamed fat for America's health crisis while ignoring the sugar, the processed foods, and the overall quality of our diets. We followed the "rules," avoided the "bad" thing, and got sicker.
Now we're doing the same thing in baseball. We blame weighted balls for the injury epidemic while ignoring mechanical inefficiency, poor programming, inadequate recovery, and reckless workload management.
The implement isn't the enemy. Our oversimplified thinking is.
At the Texas Baseball Ranch, we don't worship weighted balls. We don't fear them either. We respect them as one tool among many, powerful when used correctly, problematic when misused.
The same is true for curveballs. The same is true for pitch counts. The same is true for virtually everything in player development.
There are no magic bullets. There are no universal rules. There is only the hard work of understanding each athlete as an individual and making intelligent decisions based on their unique needs, readiness, and context.
That's harder than following a rulebook. It requires more knowledge, more attention, and more judgment.
But it's the only thing that actually works.
Series Conclusion: The Common Thread
Over these three articles, we've examined curveballs, pitch counts, and weighted balls. Each topic generates enormous controversy. Each has been reduced to a simplistic rule that promises safety but delivers false security.
It's easier to say, "no curveballs until 15" than to assess individual readiness. It's easier to enforce a pitch count limit than to evaluate mechanical efficiency. It's easier to ban weighted balls than to learn how to use them properly.
But easy isn't effective. And the arm injury epidemic proves it.
The athletes who thrive, who throw hard, stay healthy, and have long careers, are developed by coaches and parents who embrace complexity. Who see each pitcher as an individual. Who understand that context matters, preparation matters, and there are no shortcuts.
At the Texas Baseball Ranch, that's been our philosophy for 25 years. It's why we've produced the results we have. And it's why we'll keep teaching, keep educating, and keep pushing back against the oversimplified thinking that's failing our young pitchers.
Avoidance is not a development strategy. Education is.
Thank you for reading this series. Thank you for thinking critically. And thank you for caring enough about your athletes to seek out better answers.
Until next time, train smart, throw hard, stay healthy.
Coach Ron Wolforth is the founder of The Texas Baseball Ranch® and has authored six books on pitching, including the Amazon Best Seller Pitching with Confidence. Since 2003, The Texas Baseball Ranch® has had 141 of their players drafted, and 651 have broken the 90 mph barrier. Coach Wolforth has consulted with 13 MLB teams, numerous NCAA programs, and is often referred to as “America’s Go-To Guy on Pitching.”
Coach Wolforth lives in Montgomery, TX with his wife, Jill. They are intimately familiar with youth select, travel baseball and PG events as their son Garrett went through the process. Garrett, a former catcher in the Cincinnati Reds and Houston Astros organizations, still holds the PG Underclass All-American Games record for catcher velocity at 89mph which he set in 2014 at the age of 16.
Ways to train with the Ranch this summer:
Elite Pitchers Bootcamp (EPBC) Join our 3-day event for pitchers ages 12+. EPBC runs monthly from Memorial Day-Labor Day. Details and dates: www.texasbaseballranch.com
Want to see what makes EPBC different? Request our info package “What Makes This Bootcamp Different?” by emailing Jill@TexasBaseballRanch.com.
3-Hour Private Training Session - designed for athletes who are needing immediate attention for a performance constraint, especially arm health related. Call for details (936) 588-6762.
Private Lessons (Greater Houston Area) For details, email info@TexasBaseballRanch.com or call (936) 588-6762.