Pitchers Running

How much depends on the players desire and coaches plans. The legs and arse are a pitchers strength. Sometimes excessive running can put un-needed stress on the body. With that in mind, a combination of running, weights, and "cardio" biking may be the ticket

Actually, the reason for running right after pitching is to flush the lactic acid from the arm and to make sure that blood is flowing to the arm. Fairly vigorous running such as poles or sprints or "football passes" would be preferable to distance running for this purpose.

Endurance work, etc. should be left for another day.

I've always heard that pitchers ran distance to rid the body of the lactic acid, foul poles/sprints on other days. Does anyone have a program that their pitchers follow for running? i.e Day1: Day2, etc

I don't know if this will work for other pitchers, but we learned about running right after pitching a couple of years ago, I believe my son's Junior year in HS. That year he switched from icing after a game to running (his HS coach didn't have a specific plan for pitchers). He generally just ran for 5 to 10 minutes after the game was over, I guess it would be similar to running poles, alternating some jogging and walking. He found that his arm recovered very quickly and he was able to pitch complete games fairly regularly his last two years of HS. He's in his first year of college now, so this year he will do whatever his college coach wants, of course!

MN - I'd be interested to find out what they are doing in college - feel free to PM me if you find out - THANKS

I too have heard that you run long distance after pitching, and sprints the other days. Or 20-30 minutes on a bike right after pitching, that's what our coach tells us to do.

micdsguy


What level do you play at?

Agree with CADad. Run sprint i.e. poles immediately after done pitching to rid the body of lactic acid and improve the arms recovery time. On "off" pitching days run distance for conditioning.

i am now going to have to go do some research.
i do know that running sprints is an anaerobic exercise. anaerobic exercise will cause the production of lactic acid (the waste product of anaerobic activity). this would seem to mean that you should run distance after throwing... isntead of sprints that would INCREASE lactic acid build up. but the FLUSHING would seem to indicate sprint work. we usually run poles etc after trhowing and then sprint work on off days. i will have to re-evaluate this. any other thoughts????

I have competed in track all of my life and I have never had lactic acid build up in my arms from running. Lactic acid causes sore mucles from running, in your legs only. We ran when we were sore to releive lactic acid build up in our legs. (Long slow distance.) However I don't think that has anything to do with your arms unless you run on your arms.

ron,
good point, but my thought is lactic acid is lactic acid. DO you flush lactic acid from one location of the body while you are producing lactic acid in another location???? when you ran to flush out the soreness, did you run slow, distances or sprints??? why?? thanks for the help

Found this - got it previously from a friend that coaches HS ball, former D1 pitcher. Hope it "views" OK

Pitching Routine for Starters

Day 1: Start a game

Day 2: Distance Run (at least 20 minutes, but more is recommended)
Long Toss (60 ft, 90 ft, 120 ft, 180 ft, walk and throw back into 60 ft)
Light Flatground
Arm Excercises

Day 3: Throwing warm-up (get loose to throw side)
Side (35 – 40 pitch maximum) work on mechanic problems from last game
Running: Poles (12 -16 poles) each pole under 35 -40 seconds w/ a 40 second break

Day 4: Long Toss/Flat Ground
Running: 10 -12 interval poles; no distance; work more on speed
Arm excercises

Day 5: Light throwing (120 ft maximum w/ arc on ball)
Light flatground
Running: 10 -12 90’ sprints (hard enough to break sweat)

Day 6: Start a game

Here's a qoute from Dr. Mike Marshall's site:

" Pitchers do not train aerobically. Nevertheless, pitching training programs should end with aerobic training because aerobic training metabolizes lactic acid accumulations. Eliminating lactic acid accumulations reduce training stiffness and soreness."



It seems more logical to me to run some long sprints (poles) right after you pitch in a game and then do the more distance type running for conditioning on non-game / bullpen days.

Keep in mind that each players body is different

What works for one does not necessarily work for all

We have a Fall travel team and all the kids comer from everywhere--different HS/Summer coaches and different HS baseball coaches

If they have been successful we don't try to change in 6 months what they have been doing for all their life ( we make tweak it a little)---UNLESS what they are doing is all wrong and the have been getting by on physicall ability


This what makes baseball such a great game--every player stands on his own

I have had my son do the sprints after pithing and I understand the idea behind it. However, I would use extreme caution if your son has had a major growth spurt in the last year. My son grew 8 inches in the last eighteen months. Inspite of starting a four day a week conditioning program three months in advance of the season, he strained both achilles tendons doing sprints on the third day of tryouts. Yes the team streches at the beginning and end of every practice. He had severe tendonitis for about two weeks and is now continuing limited workouts with the team. He saw an orthopedic surgeon and got on the physical therapy very quickly which has accelerated the healing process. His strecching program has a more focused effort on streching the achilles. I am happy to say that he seems to be getting through the injury okay and was moved up to the varsity team as a freshman. But based upon my experience, I recommend using caution with kids that have had major growth spurts.

catamount,
lactic acia build up is produced by the muscle not the blood stream. running would not build up lactic acid in the arm. it would increase blood flow to the arm. and yes you could build lactic acid in some muscles while flushing it in others. we ran long slow distance when we were sore.

I believe that CAdad is right on. We have heard the same thing, and our HS pitching coach has his pitchers run after they are done pitching that day after the game. Supposed to get blood flowing, and allow for quicker recovery in the next days. Don't know how true it is, but my son is a pitcher, and after he pitches they ice his elbow and shoulder, and after the game he runs "foul poles". He has been pitching for two years in this program and hasn't ever complained about stiffness or a sore arm. Don't know if this is the way to go or not, but it seems to work for the pitchers in our program. I do know my son takes extra care of his arm, and does 15 minutes of J-band exercises before he ever picks up a ball to throw. Someone once told him that you warm-up to throw, you don't throw to warm-up.

dadchs20,
Does he do the ones Allan teaches? My son does the arm circles and the J-bands every time before he throws. We're not as good at making sure he does his decell's and running afterwards.

CADad, he does the J-Band exercises that he learned at a Cal Poly San Luis summer camp. Jerry Weinstein spent a great deal of time with our son showing him exactly what to do before throwing and on off-days. Seems to have worked. He also made copies of the entire off-season workout routine to include med-ball work, that all the Cal Poly pitchers go through. Our son has bought into it, and loves the exercises. He is getting stronger by the week, and it shows when he is on the bump.