Winter Workouts

In SC HS practice starts 1/28/07. Scrimmages start soon thereafter. A lot of the travel teams around here play into November. That really doesn't give you much time to rest the arm, then start building strength back with a long tossing program. This is why we generally, but not always, avoid fall ball.

Our experience has been similar to Coach27's. My son's biggest velocity increases have always seemed to come after some time off. ASMI refers to the 3 months off that they recommend as the Active Rest Period. As Coach27 points out, the only thing you're resting from is throwing. You're busting your butt in the ways he describes.

My son does his nightly shoulder routine 5-6 nights a week year round. This consists of a lot of tubing and dumbell exercises. If you go to the asmi.org site they sell a book/booklet detailing their conditioning program for pitchers. It demonstrates the tubing and dumbell exercises they recommend. You can get some of this information from their Throwers Ten pdf file, which is also available on the site. But the book has a LOT more information. Of course, you could also see a good physical therapist and he/she could give you a similar program.

For any of you who have not seen them, you might want to take a look at two books, Jon Doyle's Unbreakable Abs, and Tom House/National Pitching Association's Fastball Fitness. The gist of both of them is that conditioning philosophies are changing. They both preach heavy rotational exercises, something many HS strength coaches ignore. FWIW, I know of at least one prominent D1 program that has incorporated a lot of rotational work into their program.

My son has made steady gains over the years. He topped out at 85 as a soph, 89 as a junior. I am confident that he will top out in the low to mid 90's this year. Most years we have long tossed every other day. Last year we did weighted balls every other day. Which is better? I don't know. Would he have made the same gains without doing one or the other? I don't think so. I was looking over the weighted ball studies in the Fastball Fitness book a couple of nights ago. As near as I can tell, their control group for comparison purposes was kids that were doing light throwing. These kids made little or no gains during the 10-12 weeks of the study. To my knowledge, there has never been a study comparing weighted balls and long toss. My non-scientific opinion is that the results would be similar. But both are far better than doing nothing.

Just to give a contrary point of view about rest, there is a HS coach named Rasmus down in Alabama whose kids do max out long toss year round. (There was a good article on his program in Collegiate Baseball a couple of years ago). His kids have made great gains without any arm problems.

Rest or don't rest? Who knows, Rasmus may be right. They may not need rest. We just prefer, at least for now, to err on the side of caution.

Geez, I just read over the above and it's rambling as heck. Sorry guys. Sort of reminds me of the old saying "My point, and I do have one, ......"

 

Thanks that a great post

I am familiar with Coach Rasmus program. His sons sure are players so who knows he might be on to something. My son does not like to take time off from throwing. He says the more he throws the better his arm feels. He says when he takes a break from throwing his arm feels very stiff and dead when he comes back and starts throwing again. It usually takes him around two three weeks to get back feeling good "at least that is what he says".

I dont have all the answers but I do know what has worked from my experiences. Strengthen the CORE. Stregthen the lower body. Gain flexibility in the hips region especially. When you really think about every motion in baseball what are you doing "Hitting - rotateing" "Pitching and throwing - rotateing" etc etc.

IMO the biggest shortcoming for young players is this. "They play too much - they dont work on the things that will make them able to play better."

Young players play in the spring. They play in the summer and fall. Then alot of them sit around and wait for the spring to come so they can play some more.

My Suggestion: Play in the spring and practice hard and do what your HS coach requires of you. At night before you go to bed take 20 or 30 minutes off from the X-Box and do your work. Bands , Core work , T' @ Y's , stretching.

When the summer comes play. But do not neglect the most important things. Have a weekly program that works around your schedule. What I liked about showcase was it was only on the weekends. It allows for the players to work out Mon thru Friday and then play on the weekends. The same type of workouts I mentioned above but with a long toss program. And you have time for the hitting fielding Bullpens etc.

In the fall you can follow the same routine. And then when the winter months come you do the program above. This is a yearly game plan for the player. Instead of just playing games 10 months out of the year and "resting" for two months.

Now think about it. If you are playing 10 months out of the year and resting for two months. And another guy is playing 10 months out of the year plus working his butt off during the week + working his butt off for two months while you are resting. Who has the advantage. Every wonder why some kids seem to always get better from year to year? And some just seem to be about the same?

Getting better at baseball does not just mean playing more games , playing better competition , getting on the best team. Getting better at baseball means working at the things that will make you capable of being a better basball player when you play.

"What you do when no one is watching will determine what you are capable of doing when everyone is watching"! That is my famous Quote. Problem is it Im the only one that thinks its famous!

 

Bump