Swimming and pitchers

I can't see how it would hurt a P. I encourage my kids to swim after pitching as well as in the offseason.

On the contrary, I would discourage swimming.

As a general rule, I discourage activities that involve repetitive motion that is contrary to the primary sports motions. For example, junior hs year, Junior was on the bowling team that vied for a state title. Senior year, when it became apparent his future in baseball was brighter, bowling was discouraged.

I have also read the contrasting opinions on swimming and pitching. I see no advantage to swimming and perceive a potential harm. Easy decision for me.

In my limited experience with swimmers, by far the most common swimming injuries are those to the shoulders.

For what it is worth one of the mainstays of our staff this past fall was a medal winning swimmer---he was in fantastic shape and strong as a bull

Oh and by the way he has a Division I baseball scholarship

I see swimming as a way to strengthen muscles around your shoulder. That has been my experience.

Obviously overdoing it, as with anything, can cause damage

Another thing: Joe Namath used to swim instead of run so as not to injure his knees which were already in bad shape

i'll throw my 2cents in.
son threw 86-88 fr yr at cc. a bunch of players joined the local gym to go swimming. granted he wasn't olympic swimming,and he was working out throwing etc like he alway's did. but that winter his velocity jumped 4 mph.

could be the baseball stuff? but the only thing he did different was swim. i'm giving a little nod to the swimming, made sense to me.

but everyone knows the game is 80% mental, the other half is physical.

I disagree about giving up bowling because of baseball or swimming. My son was a 4 yr varsity bowler, played 4 yrs of baseball and had one of the strongest arms in the baseball program. Bowling did nothing to hurt him baseball-wise. There were a few bowlers in the conference who doubled up as baseball players and every one of them had good high school careers. The only thing that altered baseball was that he could not do the off-season after-school conditioning which interfered with county and state tournament play and since his team was one of the top in the state, they qualified and went deep into the tournaments every year, the winter season was extended so he had to catch up conditioning-wise, That wasn't a problem because the bowling HC was also the asst. baseball coach so the varsity coach knew when the season was over, he'd report to the after-school conditioning.

Also, as a certified lifeguard, he's a good swimmer and since he earns his summer money lifeguarding, he has to swim and that too never hurt him baseballl-wise when he played summer legion ball..

So....you're saying take up bowling and lay off swimming.

Thanks for the responses, pretty much how the different articles and had it, some yea's and nays.

Son will do some swimming, but will not over do it. (whatever that means)

For what it is worth, the morning paper made their all county selections this morning - and the player of the year was a pitcher named David Wayne Russo.

quote:

Russo laid the groundwork for his breakthrough season with a bold move during the fall. Instead of playing baseball year-round like he usually did, he barely touched his glove. Russo joined the water polo team to whip himself into shape and improve his arm and leg strength.

"I just knew how to swim and stay floating," said Russo of his previous water polo experience. "After the first day, I was really out of my comfort level. I've never pushed myself like that."

But the rookie actually scored four goals once he learned the art of jumping out of the water to fire a shot. Russo even picked up a hat-trick against Watsonville.

Russo played on the perimeter in water polo, because, as he put it, "it was the easiest spot to swim back and forth."

But by the time baseball season came around, the lefty found he could rare back and throw as hard as 88 mph when he needed. The year before he was only throwing 82.

Link: http://www.montereyherald.com/...62651?nclick_check=1

I wish JT was here to answer in this post. We have discussed this on occassion.
Swimmers usually have a tendency to develop bursitis, in many swimmers the bursa sac is removed to allow more room. It is often done in baseball players too. They will develop the same shoulder issues that all athletes do if from overuse. Swimmers spend a lot more hours doing the same repetitive motion than pitchers.
My understanding has always been that swimming is a good conditioning tool for all baseball players, in pitchers it can help flexibility and helps develop the lat mucscles but should be done in moderation and not to be done in lieu of rotator cuff excercises or long toss. I do beleive the trainer a few years ago told son it was ok to swim with the overhand (?) stroke but to take it easy while in rehab or off season, but not while pitching. This meant just a few short laps in the pool.
I suppose there are different theories.

Sons JUCO had a pool and swimming was part of their regular conditioning several EARLY mornings every week. All players participated, but pitchers had a separate program from the position players.

As for bowling and baseball, there is always John Burkett:

http://www.bowl.com/articleView.aspx?i=11530&f=1

quote:

Originally posted by 20dad:

but everyone knows the game is 80% mental, the other half is physical.

20dad's got a little Yogi in him today I see.

Im not a kinesiologist and I have no scientific proof of anything in this regard.

Having said that, I was however a competitive swimmer, from age 7 until 14..... as in get up at 05:00 (all winter) and swim 2 miles before breakfast, or throwing up.

I wasn't a pitcher, and have no reliable information as to how this may affect a pitcher's arm health, but when I gave up swimming to concentrate on baseball during my freshman year in HS, my deltoids were much, much more developed than any of my baseball playing friends. (As catcher, I never had any arm troubles.)

I do know that the deltoid muscle set was the one emphasized in my specialty (free-style).

I fall on the "PRO" side of this one. But I would say that swimming should start at 4 or 5 years old, way before you know about pitching. IMHO swimming develops both sides of the body providing balance and strength to young developing bodies. I saw it happen with my son. When he first started the glove hand could hardly break out of the water. I am not talking about jumping in the pool with friends and swimming around playing marco-polo. I am talking about 3 to 5 times a week with a competitive team doing all the strokes (free, back, breast, butterfly). The time commitment becomes hard as they get older and play other sports. My son stopped swimming around 10 years old. when he played on his first travel team. Son never had any arm troubles but he was always conservative with pitch counts and rest between work as well.

I would love to hear from the Physical Therapists and trainers out there on this one. I swim a lot for an old guy (3000 yards 3-4 mornings a week) with a bunch of other old guys and gals much faster than I. The pulling motion in free style, when done correctly, seems to imitate for the most part the follow through for a pitcher. Butterfly may also be good, but its a pretty hard stroke for most everyone, especially the part time rec swimmer. I can's see breast stroke helping much, though.

Rather than pulling on weights in the gym, you are pulling through or pushing against the water, so there would be no tendency to overdo it, or have competitions with your football playing friends in the weight room.

The repetitive stress injuries to swimmers come from the monsters who are doing 3000 yards before they brush their teeth every morning. I think that would clearly be overdoing it for a pitcher, but it just seems that a moderate workout a couple of days a week (lap swimming and maybe a few 25-50 yard sprints) can only help arm and shoulder strength.

No. 1 son (a pitcher) has started to swim a bit, but until they develop the Michael Phelps Ultimate Swimming Challenge for X-Box, I don't think he'll start serious swimming work.

My 2010 infielder had some weakness in the upper back ("winging out" of shoulder blades) that has greatly improved since he swam competitively last winter (first time swimmer). It really helped improve his arm strenth. Older son's DII pitching staff also swam for training...

My son was a competitive swimmer until having TJS last fall. In doing research throwing a baseball and the freestyle stroke are two of the things that stress the UCL.

Swimming definitely made my son's arm stronger, but the constant stress from swimming and throwing a baseball was too much for the ligament.

Swimming in moderation is probably ok.

http://www.baseballfit.com/baseball-training-0107.htm

http://www.webball.com/cms/page7028.cfm

http://www.thecompletepitcher....itching_swimming.htm

Some infomation, there are pros and cons. I like the 8 minute routine.

Whew!

You folks had me scared there for a moment.

I can now tell Younggunson that he doesn't have to lay off Marco Polo now. He'll be happy! lol

Thanks TPM, two of those sites (and articles) is where I found the pros and cons as well. A bit confusing when both are respected sites.

I have read that backstroke and breaststroke are very good for pitchers. I don't have a full understanding about impingement, but it seems that the breaststroke would be very helpful in developing the scaps.