Min Temp for Workouts

42 degrees is the standard Bum, Jr. uses when determining to move indoors. His college is a cold-weather school, so it is what it is.. be sure to wear under Armour and a light jacket while warming up. Warm up slowly by running and stretching.. hold each stretch at least 20 seconds.. and be sure to do band work and long toss before throwing off the mound.

Having said that, if you can find an indoor practice facility (if you can) for temperatures under 50 degrees just to be safe.

Welcome to the HSBBWeb. You are going to find this site a great place for baseball.

As for your question I'm going to say that as long as you do a proper warmup then you should be fine in any temperature within reason of 32 degrees.

That was my rule of thumb for my players. As long as it was above 32 degrees we would be outside practicing (usually on the parking lot). That included pitchers throwing after they had a good warmup of running, stretching and extended throwing before they stepped onto the mound.

Throwing in the cold is not a big deal, but if you add a little wind?.... thats another story.

Seeing that your a North Texas guy, I gotta believe that northern wind takes a toll.

Nice pointers here! I grew up in Upstate NY and played college ball in the northern Midwest were it was always VERY cold in the early spring. Don't miss those February double headers in college when I wasn't pitching :-)

I definitely recommend wearing sleeves to keep the arm warm. A compression sleeve, such as Under Armour Cold Gear, is a good option because it's close-fitting and provides less wind resistance than a looser-fitting sleeve. Also tends to wick away sweat and keep you drier than cotton. Drier in cold weather = warmer.

It's also perfectly OK and recommended to wear a jacket (and gloves) before and after throwing, but do take the jacket off for the 20 or 30 minutes that you're actually throwing (long toss, bullpen, etc.). The thought behind that is practice how you play - you can't wear jackets in games, so don't wear it when you're practicing pitching.

I envy all you players and parents who live and play ball in the South!!

Thanks for all the great tips! When I wrote the original post we were having a cold snap of 20's in the DFW area. Today it was over 80 and we were throwing in shorts!

We started building a mound today. Figuring it will get at least 5 years of use (14U 8th grader) - hoping for 4 more after that....

Thanks again and really enjoy HSBB Web.

Steve, I understand your logic in taking the light jacket off while throwing in the pen, but I don't see the harm in a light jacket (which allows a full range of motion) while long-tossing. If anything, this maintains the body's core temperature reducing the risk of injury.

Steve is correct. NEVER wear a warm up jacket while throwing in the bull pen. That was one of the 1st things we learned. As I recall it had to do with over heating your muscles which made your muscles weaker. Over heating is not good.
One of the problems with cold weather is the rapid cool down between innings. That is the main reason for gloves and jacket.