Here To Answer Your Questions!

Thanks in advance for your time. I dont have any questions yet but im sure some will pop up.

What should the plan be for long tossing as high school season is starting? Our son was long tossing in the fall and saw a big jumop in velocity. He also is just finishing up stength training during the off season. Is my understanding correct that you need to stick to a schedule for long tossing for it to be effective?

Also what is your suggestion for in season training to maintain what he has gained over the winter?

thanks in advance

Thanks for the question!

I am going to link some articles from Eric Cressey on long toss because he does a fantastic job with this.

http://www.ericcressey.com/mak...n-a-throwing-program

http://www.ericcressey.com/the...4-long-toss-mistakes

http://www.ericcressey.com/lon...our-throwing-program


In general I think long toss is fantastic. It would fall on the far end of the "speed" spectrum in terms of the strength continuum.

Absolute Strength = Weight Room - Basic Lifts
Strength Speed = Heavier Weights moved quickly, in terms of baseball athletes I put med ball throws and jumps here
Speed Strength = Plyometrics, weighted balls, long toss to some extent depending on position
Speed = playing the games, also long toss to some extent depending on position

Depending where you are in the season different ends of this spectrum are hit more. However elements of each category should be present.

Well Out of season there is going to be a lot of lifting, no throwing.
Mid off season - less heavy lifting volume more med ball work, some weighted ball work, begin throwing
Closer to in season - less heavy training volume, less med ball work, more throwing

So in season I think that a baseball player should manage his lifting in accordance with his game schedule. Baseball is played almost every day. So recovery from the games is first priority and time in the gym should be spent on more restorative qualities - Mobility, soft tissue work, tempo work.

That being said I would try and keep the intensity high on the big lifts (one top set at 80 - 95%) but the volume should be extremely low.

So if they get in once a week we are going to hit that big lift (i.e. trap bar DL) with some intensity but really limit the total work done (volume) so there won't be more than one main work set, and not a lot of assistance work.

Hope that helps.

GREG

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THANX


COACH RIZZI

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Coach,
What would a good in season regiman be for a pitcher? For example :
Day one= game day 75-80 pitches
Day two= ?????
Day three= ????
Day four= ????
Day five=???? (game day?)

I'm just curious what you would recommend

Day Two: Restorative = Soft Tissue Work, foam rolling etc., mobility and flexibility work, Tempo Work (options could be, sled dragging, foul poles at 60 - 70% intensity)
Day Three: Soft Tissue Work, Mobility / flexibility. Followed with light throwing. Then get in the gym, low volume, hit a big lift for one top set, minimal assistance work. Focus on doing things they aren't getting on the field, no overhead stuff (presses, pull ups etc.) Focus on horizontal rowing, torso stability stuff, posterior chain stuff, corrective / pre-hab stuff.
Day Four: Soft Tissue Work, Mobility / flexibility, pre game bull pen.

Coach, How many days a week do you reccomend lifting while inseason so as not to lose any strength during the season. Will 2-3 scaled back workouts be sufficient?

quote:

Originally posted by CoachGregRobins:
Day Two: Restorative = Soft Tissue Work, foam rolling etc., mobility and flexibility work, Tempo Work (options could be, sled dragging, foul poles at 60 - 70% intensity)
Day Three: Soft Tissue Work, Mobility / flexibility. Followed with light throwing. Then get in the gym, low volume, hit a big lift for one top set, minimal assistance work. Focus on doing things they aren't getting on the field, no overhead stuff (presses, pull ups etc.) Focus on horizontal rowing, torso stability stuff, posterior chain stuff, corrective / pre-hab stuff.
Day Four: Soft Tissue Work, Mobility / flexibility, pre game bull pen.

This is a decent program. Would be a lot nicer with an extra day of rest, though - good thing a college starter usually has 6 days of rest

Can't stress enough how important shoulder flexibility is.

great to see two of our former players on this site discussing

What would you recommend as far as shoulder workouts in season. Should it be limited to long toss and bands?

quote:

Originally posted by 2013Catcher:
What would you recommend as far as shoulder workouts in season. Should it be limited to long toss and bands?

I'm interested in what Coach says, but I don't think this needs to be a huge priority. I might add some stability work like kettle bell holds.

More importantly, you should be working on shoulder flexibility on a near daily basis. If you're in college, your trainer may be of help with this -- I'll try to find a good shoulder flexibility protocol somewhere online.

quote:

More importantly, you should be working on shoulder flexibility on a near daily basis. If you're in college, your athletic trainer may be of help with this -- I'll try to find a good shoulder flexibility protocol somewhere online.

Focus on internal rotation. Baseball players already have excessive external rotation. I don't stretch into external rotation with a baseball player unless there is an injury present...

quote:

Originally posted by Bulldog 19:

quote:

More importantly, you should be working on shoulder flexibility on a near daily basis. If you're in college, your athletic trainer may be of help with this -- I'll try to find a good shoulder flexibility protocol somewhere online.

Focus on internal rotation. Baseball players already have excessive external rotation. I don't stretch into external rotation with a baseball player unless there is an injury present...

Agreed.

Internal rotation (the lack of it) is why I'm sitting here replying to your post instead of pitching in Florida, as we speak...

What's the deal with the outbreak of oblique strains in the MLB?? My son (rhp) had one during the season last year and still felt it ocassionally for months afterwards. Any recommendations regarding pre-game stretching/warm-up?

quote:

Originally posted by slotty:
What's the deal with the outbreak of oblique strains in the MLB?? My son (rhp) had one during the season last year and still felt it ocassionally for months afterwards. Any recommendations regarding pre-game stretching/warm-up?

Here, in partial answer to my own question, is the viewpoint of Terry Collins', manager of the NY Mets, "In regards to the outbreak of oblique injuries in camp, Collins noted that their rampant in every major league camp now and feels they’re due to a combination of dehydration, overworking, doing too much too early, and muscular strength. Collins said the strength guys are doing the best they can to keep everyone going, but the workload must be lightened and they’re emphasizing stretching and backing off batting practice as a result."

Thoughts?

Sorry to I've been away.

As far as in season training the general idea is this:

If they are young athletes they should and can continue to get stronger all year long. You don't want to make gains in the off season, lose some or all during the season and continue that process forever right?

These early years should be about getting stronger (and staying healthy)

Shoulder's should be brought through a combination of mobility drills for IR/ER/ and Flexion. Cressey talks about this a lot, what your looking for in a thrower is equality in the TOTAL degrees of IR/ER between both shoulders. So while IR is the focus of the throwing side, IR and ER should be worked on the non throwing side to facilitate that equal total.

Shoulder Stabilization should be trained (rhythmic, push - ups, inverted rows are good examples)

Not going to re-invent the wheel on the oblique strains:

http://www.ericcressey.com/obl...baseball-2011-update

When he was much younger my son was coming off some arm problems and the doctor noticed that he had an internal rotation deficit. He went to a very good PT who did a great job of stretching him out and continued thereafter with sleeper stretches.

The interesting thing was that he picked up 5 mph after getting rid of the rotation deficit. Obviously one doesn't gain 5 mph just by doing sleeper stretches if there's no significant deficit but it does show that an internal rotation deficit can indirectly impact velocity.

I've always found this article interesting when sleeper stretches start getting discussed....

http://www.mikereinold.com/201...sleeper-stretch.html

Recent News: Hi All! Just wanted to let everyone know that I have accepted a position at Cressey Performance (effective May 14th), and I look forward to answering any questions you may have surrounding Baseball S&C. Thanks!

Coach Greg

congratulations

my 13 year old wants to start working to improve his running speed this summer. he likes to go to the gym with me and we do alot of core and medicine ball type stuff, but so far I have kept him off of most of the machines and away from the free weights. legwork is usually running short hills and doing lunges.

is there a program you would recommend for him to increase his speed? he is 6'1", 165 pounds, deep voiced, hairy, strong and lean, decent speed already.

@ Wattsboro

That's a large boy. Speed will be increased most significantly with improvements in strength, and sprinting mechanics. I would keep the short hill sprints, those are fantastic. Additionally, I would start teaching him basic free weight movements, and making sure he is learning how to execute the movements right.

Some great exercises to start with are:

Goblet Squats
Push Ups
Inverted Rows
Reverse Lunges
Kettle Bell Deadlift, then Sumo Deadlift or Trap Bar Deadlift
Pull Ups (neutral grip)
Pallof Presses
Low height box jumps and jumps up hill

You can find pretty good examples of all these on you tube.

thanks for the advice. I will look those up on youtube today. my cousin swears by sprinting with the parachute so we might try that too. his daughter is going to play softball at Univ of Arizona so it must be useful

thanks again

quote:

Originally posted by CoachGregRobins:
@ Wattsboro

Some great exercises to start with are:

Goblet Squats
Push Ups
Inverted Rows
Reverse Lunges
Kettle Bell Deadlift, then Sumo Deadlift or Trap Bar Deadlift
Pull Ups (neutral grip)
Pallof Presses
Low height box jumps and jumps up hill

You can find pretty good examples of all these on you tube.

All for 13 year old?

Absolutely TPM. Really the only two up there requiring weight are the Goblet Squats and the KB Deadlifts. The rest are body-weight activities. And even those two with weights won't really be much. I've been doing Goblet Squats for about a year and still only do about 70 pounds.. And I'm much bigger and stronger than a 13 year old...

I agree with Coach and Bulldog. While I don't buy into the "lifting weights will stunt your growth" business, there are a variety of reasons to keep the barbell out of a young kid's hands until they are older/more mature/better coached/etc. I like those ideas as a foundation to building a faster, stronger young athlete.

Coach Greg - My son is a 14 yr old pitcher, 6'3 155 lbs. What would you recommend to increase body weight and strength.

Thanks for starting a great thread. I would like to know what number of reps and sets you would recommend for a high school player to develop their bodies to maximize their power for hitting, throwing and sprinting speed. Would you pyramid the reps, staring with higher reps/lighter weights in a set and progressively increase weight/lower number of reps as they work through a set? Should the last rep of a set increase the reps/lower the weight?