Training During The Holidays

During the holidays, most of us are forced to change up our training routines, pitching workouts and throwing programs to fit in family activities. Here are a couple of helpful pointers for keeping the training going during the holidays.

1) Don't forget your ball and glove - grab a family member and have a catch. Even 10 minutes, extending it back to 120 feet or so, is better than nothing and will help you keep your touch on the ball.

2) Go early – with a house full of friends and relatives, there is a strong chance you won't make it to the gym for that 5 p.m. workout session. An early dog gets the bone approach might be the answer.

3) Find a gym – the gym near your in-laws house may not have platforms, plyo boxes and flex bands, but you can do alternative exercises instead. If you don't have access to a gym, do some interval running, sit ups, push ups, bridges, body-weight squats, body-weight lunges, etc. Bring along your resistance bands (tubing).

4) Get tough - by all means, if you haven't picked up a copy of my 52 week, year round conditioning program for pitchers, you should consider looking into it. It contains more than 190 exercises and variations of the types of things you can do to get in awesome pitching shape.

No excuses, only gains.  Happy holidays!

What To Focus On When Trying To Improve Pitching Mechanics

One of the most important methods I have learned in training pitchers is to keep things simple and focused.

Researchers in the department of neuroscience UCLA have shown that athletes can literally only think about one thing at a time, and anytime we give them more than one instructional cue, their focus is lost.

I have no idea how many hours of my life I have spent in a bullpen, but if anything seems to be true it is this. Pitchers can't focus on more than one mechanical thing at a time. I have learned it and the medical community teaches it.

When training pitchers, it seems the best technique is to explain why a mechanical change is necessary, work on that change, share some drills to reinforce that change, then get his focus back on the target. The sooner he can get away from thinking mechanically, the better.

Sample 7 Day Throwing / Conditioning Program For Starting Pitchers

Every college baseball program has a different training routines for their pitchers. Here's a sample 7-day throwing/conditioning program that starting pitchers follow at Div. 1 Indiana State University.

Sunday - Game Day Start (80-110 pitches)

Monday - Rest/30-40min run/med-ball abs/rotator-cuff strengthening

Tuesday - Long toss/long sprints

Wednesday - Light throwing/weights/mild flat-ground bullpen to get the touch and feel of pitches/medium sprint work

Thursday - Really light throwing/short sprint work/abs

Friday - 15-25 pitch bullpen (to get touch and feel) at 75-85%

Saturday - Throw to get the arm loose/pregame running (30yd sprints)

Sunday - Game Day Start (80-110 pitches)

My Thoughts On Flat-Ground Pitching

For younger pitchers, flat ground work is becoming more and more popular. Flat-ground training offers the opportunity for higher numbers of repetitions at relatively greater safety. Research shows that pitching off a mound can put up to 5 times the body's weight of pressure on the pitcher's joints. Working on spotting the baseball from flat ground is smart and can particularly save some added stress on a youth pitcher with an inefficient delivery.

"Dialing down" the fastball is also important when working on locating the fastball in skill work sessions. I have made many mound visits where I will simply ask a pitcher to start throwing his fastball at 85-90%.

Having said this, though, a balanced amount of mound training is important for youth pitchers. Remember, we all pitch from mounds in games. Pitching from mounds in practice teaches pitchers how to handle the slope and develop a comfort zone for it. Mound work also encourages a more natural stride (because you have gravity working for you), a more natural release point and better overall timing.

The older and more advanced a pitcher is, the less flat-ground work is helpful or recommended.

If You Have Good Off-Speed Pitches, When Should You Throw Them?

I often encourage guys who have two or three good pitches to show their off-speed stuff early in a game. I'll get into why in a sec, but let me first preface this by saying that at the high school and college levels, if a pitcher has a good fastball, there's often little need to show your off-speed pitches at all other than to the 3, 4 and 5 hitters the second or third time through the lineup. And even then, you can usually get these guys out simply by spotting your fastball in and out, up and down, and by making them move their feet.

By showing some of your off-speed pitches early, though, you can avoid getting key-holed by good hitters.

For instance, we already know about what happens with first pitch strikes: if you get ahead 0-1, the hitter's batting average drops significantly than if you fall behind 1-0. But if you have only one pitch, good hitters will key-hole you. By this, I mean they'll eliminate pitches they know you won't throw - or don't have - and they'll figure you out. Showing your off-speed pitches early helps to combat this.

However, you don't have to "show" (throw) your off-speed pitches a lot; one or two off-speed pitches to the 3, 4 or 5 hitters in the first or second inning are enough to force the hitter you're facing (and the ones on deck and in the dugout) to look not only at location of your pitches, but also at the speed of your pitches. Adding this second dimension (speed) makes hitters have to work harder at the plate - and that's always a good thing!

3 Tips For Selecting A Good Baseball Glove For Pitching

1.    It should be 11-3/4 to 12 inches in length.
2.    It should have a closed web (to hide the baseball, of course).
3.    It should be all one color (e.g., brown or black).

If you are a pitcher like me who prefers to leave your index finger outside the back of your glove, try to get a piece of leather to cover it. Some glove companies, such as Rawlings, offer this on some glove models. (If your glove doesn’t have this feature, you can take it to a leather shoe repair shop and have a piece of leather affixed to the back of your mitt.) This is important because often, without knowing it, pitchers tip off their off-speed pitches by making subtle movements with their index finger outside the glove. Some hitters may pick up on that finger movement. If your finger’s covered, however, those movements are shielded from view.

Rawlings, SSK, Mizuno, and Zett make good gloves. Wilson and Nakoma tend to be on the heavy side, while Akadema and Nike make gloves that tend to be lighter in weight. Another company comparable to Akadema is Yennaco, made by Jay Yennaco, a former Chicago Cubs player.

Most premium-leather baseball gloves have a “break in” time of about three or four weeks, and most professional baseball players have two or three gloves – a game-day glove, and one or two gloves that are used for practices.

Preparing To Throw A Baseball

One of the most difficult disciplines for a pitcher to embrace is the practice of properly preparing his arm to throw. All of us are at least occasionally guilty of not taking enough time to adequately go through our routines before we play catch, and the supposed time we save to work on throwing might not benefit us as much as we think.

The idea of elevating the overall temperature of the body is important when considering the best case scenario for beginning a throwing routine. Researchers have long held the idea of having athletes begin their workouts with a fairly brief period of cardiovascular work, and doing this at a slow pace seems to benefit the overall physiological make-up of a pitcher.

The following are some immediate benefits of a 10-20 pre-workout jog or stationary bike-ride before any flexibility exercises that precede a throwing program. An ounce of prevention...

* Increased heart rate
* Blood and oxygen travel with greater speed throughout the body
* Less friction in the joints because of an increase in synovial fluid
* More oxygen in the blood due to dilated capillaries
* Increased temperature in the muscles
* Decreased viscosity in the blood
* Muscle fibers have more elasticity and extensibility
* Contractions take place more efficiently and faster

Vision Training For Baseball Pitching

Everything you do in pitching begins with what you see -- the catcher's mitt, the way the hitter is standing, the crowd in the stands. Vision training for pitching underlies your success on the mound; if you visualize success, you have a better chance at achieving it.

For baseball pitchers, visualization training can have a positive effect on your game day performance. Here's how to do it like I was taught by a sports psychologist in pro ball. It takes 10 minutes and can be done daily.

1. Go to a quite place where you won't be distracted for 10 minutes.

2. Close your eyes and relax.

3. Visualize yourself on the mound in a big game -- first from the outside (like you're a fan watching the pitcher on the mound), then from behind the mound, and then from a close-up view of your upper body (almost like the camera angle on TV, but you want to see it closer).

4. View your pitching mechanics, nice and fluid. See proper arm angle and release point. Feel the pitching delivery with all your senses.

5. Visualize yourself throwing different pitches. See the arc of the slider. See the arc of the curve ball. See the movement on your two-seamer. See the backward spin of your four-seam fastball. The ball will produce a light that will follow the proper path, depending on the pitch. See and follow the pitch acting as it should.

Vision training will allow you to go out on game day and just focus on the catcher's glove. Say, "I'm going to throw the curveball on the low outside corner," and you don't have to think about your mechanics or anything like that. You will throw that curveball to that point that you've already visualized more often than not.

Try it.

2 Tips For Coaches Who Provide Pitching Lessons

When I work with pitchers there are two things I try to never let happen:

1) I never allow pitchers to reach fatigue.

2) I never allow pitchers to become overly frustrated.

Pitchers generally reach fatigue when they have thrown 30 pitches in a row. Since I love to see pitchers get out of an inning in around 15 pitches, I usually work in sets of 15 in the bullpen. This allows them to get a feel for an economical inning and keeps the bullpen fresh.

If a pitch isn't working on a given day and we have tried a few items on our checklists to no avail, I'll usually take the pitcher off the mound and do some work in the outfield. This removes him from the mound, gives him a different environment, and allows us to work on flat ground. This tends to divert their attention from a troublesome pitch and will often times fix the problem. Then we can go back to the mound with confidence.

Coaching Tips For Elite Pitchers

I tell pitchers all the time that most of my work is simply getting the athlete inside them to show up on the mound.

The same athlete that can take a backhanded ground ball up the middle from second base and wheel around and throw a strike to first base without any time to think, can certainly command the strike zone when he has all the time in the world.

The key there is not to think at all.

I look at the fastball as the pitcher's "default setting." I can see the relaxation on his face and in his eyes when throwing a fastball. Elite pitchers will throw all 3-4 pitches with that same "fastball face." It exudes relaxation and confidence.

A good idea is to never let a pitcher throw more than 3 pitches in a row (in a bullpen) without including a fastball. Arms start to slow down and posture can be compromised if they get lost in breaking balls or changes. The athletic and "default setting" for a pitcher is throwing a fastball, which is the same "pitch" all other 8 players throw in baseball.

When a pitcher pitches a couple of poorly thrown breaking balls in a bullpen practice session, "clear his head" by having him go back to a fastball or two. Not only does it immediately clean up his timing and delivery, but it - more importantly - gives them a taste of success and puts confidence back on his face.