A better way to throw bullpens

There's a lot of talk these days in baseball circles about "sport specificity" -- that is, training the specific movements that a sport requires of its players.

For baseball pitchers "specificity" often includes performing explosive, plyometric strengthening exercises (with body weight or medicine balls, for instance) as opposed to doing a typical weight-room workout -- bench presses on a bench, leg extensions on a machine, etc.

The med ball and plyo workouts are better than traditional weight-room workouts because they more closely mimic sport-specific movement. (I have yet to see a pitcher make a pitch from his back, such as his body placement when performing a chest press on a flat bench.)

But while much of the focus of sport specificity in baseball has focused on weight-room training, another, perhaps more important aspect of "pitching specific" training has been largely overlooked: throwing.

Think about the last time you threw a bullpen in practice. What did you do? If you're like most baseball pitchers across the US, you threw a bullpen consisting of about 35 to 80 or 90 pitches, all in a row.

Hmm.

Is this how you pitch in a game? Do you ever make this many pitches in a row in a game?

Of course you don't (unless you're getting completely shelled).

That's because the goal of a pitcher is to be out of an inning in 12 to 15 pitches. So guess what: By throwing those 35- to 90-pitch bullpens, all in a row, you're wasting your time -- because that's not how you pitch in a game. You're not reaping the full benefit of the "work" your putting into your workout. And who has time for that?

So what can you do to make your bullpen routines more sport specific and beneficial to your development as a pitcher?

Divide the number of pitches you're going to throw on a given day into five or six smaller increments or "sets."

For instance, if you are going to throw a 75-pitch bullpen, instead of throwing 75 pitches in a row, throw five "sets" of 15 pitches, with about five minutes rest in between each "set."

Because you're resting in between sets, your bullpen session is going to take you longer to do than throwing pitch after pitch, all in a row. But it'll prepare you far better for the "sport specific" requirements of pitching than quickly breezing through another bullpen session. That's because this principle of pitching specificity relates not only to type of activity done (throwing a bullpen) but also the intensity and rest periods at which the activity is performed (throwing bullpens in "sets," with periods of rest in between, just like you pitch in a game).

This is how I threw bullpens in college and in pro ball. (It was my college pitching coach at Bradley University, former Major League pitcher Mike Dunne, who steered me in this new, better direction of throwing bullpens.)

The next time you throw a bullpen, make it "pitching specific": Throw it in "sets." I think you'll be happy with the results. I certainly was.