quote:Originally posted by bballman:
Make your own judgements.
Against:
First Article;
http://www.ericcressey.com/swimming-for-pitchers
Second Article;
http://www.baseballfit.com/baseball-training-0107.htm
FOR:
Third Article;
http://www.thecompletepitcher....itching_swimming.htm
Thanks bballman, I certainly appreciate and agree with many of the points made in these articles.
Agree with first article; No way should a pitcher be swimming conditioning between starts! WOW, never thought of that?
Second article indicates "to develop their arms and stamina". Again I agree with the article and never mentioned either for the benefits of swimming. The article pointed out "extended periods of time" in reference to swimming. I really like the point the article makes at the bottom with the ability of the baseball coach to develop a swimming routine?
The last article states swimming is good for "shoulder strength, endurance and stability." It goes on to say something about "keeping the shoulders submerged". The examples in the other articles show just the opposite.
All very good articles. Thanks for bringing them up here! I must say, my son did NOT engage in swimming workouts past the age of 12 or 13 and entered the pool for "fun" past these ages. So I have no firsthand experience with older players engaged in these type of workouts.
The last article goes into a lot of details on how this can help? It would be interesting to see any follow up studies by the other groups of the first two articles to study those engaged in swimming workouts as described in the third article?
Anyway, I have and do advocate this for kids under 12 or so. I saw some dads working their kids out with weights at these young ages! I believe swimming offers many advantages for young athletes.