What is HS bull pen session.

Don’t you just love HS baseball coaches sometimes …

Anyway there are several ways to work through a bull pen and I am surprised the catcher did not know the routine they use at your school. The whole point is to not get up there and chuck the ball as hard as you can, but to work on specific pitches and hitting your spots. Any way my son does this:

4 fastballs away. Get the feel of the release of the ball and keep it down. Catchers sets up on outside black.

4 fastballs down and in. Get the feel for the inside part of the plate and work on release points. He will work on starting the ball on the inner half and get the ball to break off at the plate. Catcher sets up on inside black.

4 change ups. Start them over the middle and get them started and then to dive off the plate. Catcher sets up centered.

He will work through this routine. 2-3 times. Sometimes he will focus more on one side of the plate if he is working on a particular grip. Usually he will do the last set from the stretch.

He will then move to breaking pitches. He will throw some from the windup and the stretch. He only throws curves right now and will work on a hard breaking curve and also an early count curve for a strike.

After this depending on when he will pitch he might throw in a simulated inning to get the feel for throwing different pitches in the sequence he might throw them in a game. He might work on a specific pitch sequence back and forth also.

Was it flat ground or from the mound?

The caoch in the bullpen was a former college catcher. What he knows about pitching I don't know.

This is a kid they never seen pitch before you would think they would have something planned out they want to see. He's not an experienced pitcher either he pitched in some games this summer because the team he was on only had one good pitcher. It just turns out he wasn't bad and he enjoyed it. The JV coach happened to be coach of a team that he pitched against.

I guess my concerns are proper warm up and going max effort on every pitch because he's trying to impress the coach. How many pitches is a good session. What part if any of a bullpen session should be at max effort? How much should he work on pitches he is working on like slider or curve vs. say location of his fastball. Do HS coaches really go by a bullpen session when deciding who should pitch?

He was pitching from a mound in the bullpen as far as I know.

Bas3balldad,

Is pitching something your son is interested in? If so, and if you decide the proper instruction isn't going to be had from the HS coaches, then you might want to consider private instruction.

To answer your questions...

Bullpen sessions can be used to work on any number of things as BOF pointed out: different pitches, hitting spots, pitch sequencing, mechanical issues, etc. You might work on only one or two things if those things really need some work. Otherwise, you might touch on all of them. What your son should do will depend on what he needs to work in. It really just depends.

How many pitches should you throw? Again, it depends. It depends on when you threw last and when you'll throw again whether it be in a bullpen or in a game. It could be anywhere from 30-75 pitches. In preseason, you might throw fewer pitches to start with and then work your way up to the start of the season. When throwing larger numbers, you might consider throwing them in sets of, say, 15 with a short break in between to simulate innings of a game. These precautions will help avoid getting into a deficit situation early in the season.

Bullpens, IMHO, do not need to thrown entirely at 100%. But you can't expect to be successful throwing 100% in games without having done that in the bullpen especially since 100% at game time is higher than 100% in the bullpen due to adrenaline at game time.

Bullpen performance will factor into the coach's game time decisions though game time performance will often trump bullpen performance.

Last but not least, I think your son should change his thinking that throwing hard is the only way to impress the coach. Good control and good movement will also impress.

He liked pitching when he tried it he just didn't think he had much of a chance of doing it at the high school. I've already spoke to someone about getting some pitching lessons and he's had some before but mostly he's been working on his hitting lately. Pitching for the team just suddenly came up.

Maybe the coaches have a plan they just haven't told him yet. Maybe it was just cause it was his first bullpen and they wanted to see what he would do. I don't know I guess I just figure he should have some sort of structured workout for the bullpen session. I'm not a baseball player or a coach but it makes sense to me to have a gameplan going in. So I wondered what other people did.

We do not have a pitching coach in our program, but I do understand pitchers need to be on a program, so we have worked out way up every 3-4 days. Our pitchers started at 20 fastballs (10 two seam and 10 four seam). Now they are up to 80 pitches with about 20 breaking balls. I realize the value of having them throw them in intervals, but man it takes a lot of time to get pens in. I think that is why some lazy, undedicated coaches (who know better) do not worry about them. We are not having our pitchers/catchers come early or stay late to get the pens in. We have been having live hitters stand in and see 10 pitches (can bunt, swing, take). I may start having them throw 40, take a break, and then finish. We really need a pitching coach, because none of us are mechanical guys. I am just making sure they are getting their pens.

Excuse me, we are having out pitchers/catchers come in early or stay late to get pens in.

we dont throw alot of pitches in our bullpens. around 30. these are scripted (you can email at: coachd_04@yahoo.com for examples). we make it quality work instead of quantity. our pitchers build their endurance by throwing, longtossing, etc. everyday.
"johnny can throw everyday. he has a rubber arm.
johnny has a rubber arm because he throws everyday."
fred corral