Swimming as off season training for pitchers?

Several of the D3's that recruited my son as a pitcher only, mentioned that their pitchers spent quite a bit of time in the pool for conditioning. Not sure this helpos but thought you might like to know that some colleges are doing this now.

I'm not sure I like the idea of this. Especially swimming with weights?

Your arm is abused during the season, I don't think it's necessary to abuse it during the offseason as well.

Swimmers also have a lot of overuse shoulder problems...

quote:

Originally posted by Bulldog 19:
Swimmers also have a lot of overuse shoulder problems...

Swimming is great, but I think the above is an issue. Swimming is another overhead arm motion that I think might put a little much use on the pitching arm. I think they get enough of that during the season.

I'm no expert on it, just seems to me like that is something I would be concerned about.

You do not have to use your arms to swim. My boy swam with a club but does not anymore due to time constraints. Use flippers and keep your arms at your side. Using legs and body to swim can still be a great, maybe better, workout.

quote:

Originally posted by Texas1836:
You do not have to use your arms to swim. My boy swam with a club but does not anymore due to time constraints. Use flippers and keep your arms at your side. Using legs and body to swim can still be a great, maybe better, workout.

Haha. I'm not sure that technically qualifies as "swimming" then Texas. Maybe/kinda. Call it water activities rather than swimming.

bballman - Understand, but for workouts, the little squirts had to do this.

I am nowhere near the top levels of baseball and do not know why folks want to swim other than as Bishop said for conditioning. If a kid is only looking for aerobic conditioning/stamina, then they can do it without arms.

I had thought that swimming would be good for my boy if he continues in baseball because it works the heck out of your body and can be used year-round. Then I read that a lot of swimming can be hard on shoulders so I thought maybe not, except as I have described.

As I have posted several times, bleachers are a very good workout. Go hard for two or three minutes, rest for 30 seconds, repeat until you are heaving. Gym bleachers in the winter if there is ice outside.

Hey Tex. I was a swimmer in HS and then for a little in college. Did the whole club swimming thing when I was growing up, so I know how good shape you can get into from swimming. Especially if you really have someone pushing you. I also know that, overall, it is good on the joints because there is no impact. I've just heard and speculate that the repetitive overhead motion is not good on the shoulders. I know both my shoulders are bad, although I'm not sure if its from swimming or doing a lot of heavy bench pressing after I was done swimming. What you are talking about is probably good for the legs and core. We used to do a lot of them in practice as well.

I think for pitchers, sprints and other explosive leg work, like the stadiums you are talking about are good as well. Really not trying to be abrasive. I'm just thinking all that over the head rotation from swimming might just be too much for a pitcher.

No problem, you do not come across as abrasive. It seems that most of us are concerned about excessive shoulder-wear that can result from a lot of swimming.

Several schools our son was interested in, including the school he committed to, use swimming for recovery. Most here are misinterpretting the level of water training. I am a former swimmer and former swim coach. An elite swimmer, especially distance swimmer, risks shoulder injuries. Aquatic training for pitchers is more for recovery. Many use aqua belts and do specific exercises. We are not talking swimming high quantity laps on an interval. There was a good article about UF using swimming with their pitchers on their website. Their strength and conditioning coach even had one of his pitchers train in the water during the summer at Cape Cod. I know that Auburn and Stanford use some swimming as well. I'm sure there are others.

quote:

As I have posted several times, bleachers are a very good workout. Go hard for two or three minutes, rest for 30 seconds, repeat until you are heaving. Gym bleachers in the winter if there is ice outside.

I have a new brother-in-law who is a sophomore I believe at Indiana on the baseball team. They had to run the steps at the football stadium one day last week... He said that's quite a workout!

Interesting thread! I've posted before on swimming and how it helped my son. But he swam on competitive swim teams from the time he was 4 to about 12. He was never very fast in the 40 or the 60 yard sprints (on land), but none of his baseball team mates could beat him across the pool. I believe he got in the pool a couple of times in college?

The initial post indicates “off season training”. I believe the benefits will outweigh the negative aspects in this case. I'm just guessing here on how they conduct workouts, but the pitchers are not going to be in the pool trying to make the next Olympic swim team. So the work out should be solid consistent motion across the pool. This will balance musle groups on both sides of the shoulders, down the back and across the chest. Add the other parts of the core and legs all getting a good “LOW IMPACT” work out; I see nothing but good things here!

Wow great input. Thanks. I am the OP and haven't had a chance to jump back in here for a few days.

The funny thing is, my son was just saying this summer that he really isn't much of a swimmer, we never did push swimming lessons. he can get across a pool, of course, but nothing stylish abot his stroke.

Then on an OV, the coach said all his pitchers swim 3x week off season. Oh well, I guess he will become a better swimmer!


This guys is a very successful coach and I am sure it works, as some of you describe, solid low impact ovrall conditioning.

My wife was the one pushing swimming. She swam in college and wanted our kids to appreciate the sport. It was much later that I started to understand and realize the benefits to playing baseball, especially pitchers. I hear and read about swimming use of the same motion as throwing and how could that be a good thing. Then on the other hand others maintian kids don't throw enough. Hard to say really, and everyone is different and what works for one may not for another. IMHO, the strength a young person develops in the upper body from consistent swimming practices (not just getting in the pool and playing) serves the young athlete of most any sport. When you start considering the stress placed on the upper body as a pitcher (or any hard throw for that matter) accelerates to throw and then decelerates; how do the muscles compensate if one side is stronger than the other? I see great potential for strained ligaments and tendons under this scenario.

Here are some articles I found on swimming and baseball pitchers. The first two are against it, the third is for doing water exercises for pitchers. I think the general consensus is that actually swimming, ie doing freestyle, is not great for the shoulders. Even the article that talks about swimming being a good thing only talks about doing about 2 minutes of actually swimming, the rest of the workout is resistance exercises in the water.

Make your own judgements.

Against:

http://www.ericcressey.com/swimming-for-pitchers

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

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

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.

I just re-read my post and one of the replies, and realize it sounded like "swimming with light weights" in my post. What I meant to say was, this coach has pitchers swimming 3 days; and on the 2 days in between, they do light lifting. This is off season training not at all between starts.


If my son ends up on this team, I think he will look into the details of this more carefully, so I really appreciate all the follow up from you folks.

I see someone has already brought up Eric cressey, who is against. Take a look at his website, he know his stuff. Also, my daughter is a competitive swimmer who has had a few shoulder problems along the way. After talking with ortho doctor, his preventative stretching and strength exercises are same as what cressey advocates. Any repetitive motion on an arm already taxed seems like a bad idea.

quote:

Originally posted by smalltownmom:
Several schools our son was interested in, including the school he committed to, use swimming for recovery. Most here are misinterpretting the level of water training. I am a former swimmer and former swim coach. An elite swimmer, especially distance swimmer, risks shoulder injuries. Aquatic training for pitchers is more for recovery. Many use aqua belts and do specific exercises. We are not talking swimming high quantity laps on an interval. There was a good article about UF using swimming with their pitchers on their website. Their strength and conditioning coach even had one of his pitchers train in the water during the summer at Cape Cod. I know that Auburn and Stanford use some swimming as well. I'm sure there are others.

Good post.

There is a difference between doing laps and recovery training.

People often get confused as to what will/does and what will/does not benefit a PITCHER.

Long distance running and swimming laps are not two of the benefits.

quote:

Originally posted by Texas1836:
You do not have to use your arms to swim. My boy swam with a club but does not anymore due to time constraints. Use flippers and keep your arms at your side. Using legs and body to swim can still be a great, maybe better, workout.

Thats how the schools explained it to my son. Lots of leg involvement and resistance work.