Conditioning

I would ask him/her about bulky lifts and pitching. Then I would bring up what I've heard. Recommend some of the substitute lifts that phreak brought up from the GT website. Most coaches don't mind switching it up for their pitchers as long as they are still working.

 

You, of course, have the ultimate responsibility for decisions concerning your DD's safety.

The approach you take for dealing with the coach is very important. You need to present the coach with an educated reason for your concerns; not just an opinion.

The coach may already be aware of the issue but if not should be open-minded to learning about it. Here is one link that may help, it's the link to the article I clipped the information from in an earlier post:
http://www.theacc.com/sports/w-softbl/spec-rel/041006aae.html

In the unlikely event that this can't be worked out your DD's health is first priority. A lot of issues go unresolved because people "assume" what the other person will do.

 

The best conditioning programs I've seen are offered on www.softballperformance.com . The owner and creator of the website is Marc Dagenais. He is the strength and conditioning trainer for the Canadian Olympic Softball team. He has degrees in exercise physiology, strength training and to boot has many years experience coaching elite softball players from ages 12 to 23. Marc is a firm believer that training MUST be sport specific to be effective. His programs are designed specifically for the demands placed on the elite softball player to allow them to perform at their highest level while at the same time considering the individual. He designed a program specifically for my 11 year old daughter. Taking into consideration her size, age, and the equipment we had available to use. She has only been training for 5 weeks now, but she and I both have already seen dramatic improvement in strength and speed. Hope this helps.

 

We have a full time strength and conditioning coach at our high school that spent 5 years at ole miss, 5 at clemson and most recently with florida atlantic. he has our girls working out on tuesday and thursday with speed training and distance running on mon, wed and fri.

I have saw our pitchers lifting. I asked him about this thread and he disagrees with most of it.

for those of you that say pitchers should not lift, what are you basing that assumption on? I have saw little facts posted is why i say assumpitions.

 

What does he disagree with and more importantly, why?

Does he have a link or materials that would be helpful?

As far as I've read thus far I'm staying away from overhead presses from all players--not just pitchers--until I learn different. I'd rather be safe than sorry.

The main purpose of this thread is to bring these issues up so we can learn something that will benefit the players. So keep those opinions coming.

 

It is my understanding that before any lifting a player should be well versed in the exercise of push ups. One would hope any S&C coach addressed that issue before any lifting.

 

Agreed

I think girls need more isometric exercises....any resistance exercises will build strength in girls...pushups is a great exercise for womens bodies along with core exercises...

Guru

 

My dd had some real issues with shoulder problems. There was a physical therapist who was willing to work with her and he stressed the importance of building up the muscles that held the shoulder. His number one recommendation....pushups and more pushups. We started off struggling to get 5 and within a couple of months it was up to 50 or more a night. It was the beginning of the end of her problems.

 

I spoke with a D1 coach about this very thing a couple weeks ago, and ask her what training did her pitchers do, and she said, "PUSHUP'S is one of the best drills a pitcher could do, plus use of the rubber bands, this is for the upper body, the lower body is normal weight training.
While she is not a UT coach, she did mention that Monica Abbott, while in school did not pitch any for two day prior to a game, just used stretching and rubber bands...
Question, how many pitches per work out would you recommend, and many times a week would you have your pitchers throw, (if you werent there daddy)