I really love all your ideas and drills for power. I work with pitchers of all ages and at all levels. My question to you is about the volume of power drills in a workout that you recommend for younger than high school age, high school pitchers, and collegiate pitchers? I have a tendency to work the power drills into the workout at short intervals of 3-5 pitches and then regular pitches of the same number to match intensity, aggressiveness and drive, etc. Love to hear your ideas. Also do you work the power drills in differently depending the time of year, offseason, pre-season, in-season? Thank you for all of your outstanding information!
Shelley Monas
Philon January 9, 2015 at 1:14 PM
Hi Shelley:
We always love hearing from and sharing ideas with other coaches. Thanks so much for your comment. In the same way that we make recommendations for strength training and conditioning, power drills are more a part of our athlete’s routines in the off season and pre-season than they would be in-season. Obviously the intensity and volume of these drills would be dependent upon the age and physical development of each player. For older, more advanced pitchers we generally would incorporate power drills into most of our off season/pre-season workouts. The drills I believe you are referring to are planks, ground up, progressive long toss, and the like. It is critical to remember that the successful implementation of these drills is largely predicated upon our athletes’ overall preparation of their bodies to perform them well with minimal risk of injury. The drills go hand in hand with conditioning. For younger pitchers (below high school level) we must be very careful to integrate power drills slowly and deliberately in order to avoid undue stress on a physically underdeveloped player. It is very difficult without evaluating the individual pitchers to tell you exactly how many repetitions are optimal or how often they should be performed. It sound to me as though you are spot on with your short intervals and limited repetitions for young pitchers. In preparation for games, I always like our pitchers to incorporate one power drill (usually progressive long toss) into their pre-game warm up. This enables the pitcher to get a sense of the power that is necessary to reach their target from say 75 feet away and then bring that same power to their regular pitching distance as they slowly move forward to that distance. A good way to do this is to have the pitcher start at 50 feet move to 60 feet then to 70 feet throwing three to four pitches at each distance(hopefully, without mechanical breakdown). For less advanced vs. more advanced pitchers you may decrease the incremental distances or increase them as the case may be. After reaching the furthest distance, move forward in the same increments as you moved out, throwing one to two pitches at each location until you reach your pitching distance. Keep us posted, and best of luck.
Phil
Shelley Monason January 9, 2015 at 8:56 PM
Phil,
Thanks for your insights! Yes, I do understand age and physical development as the indicator of volume. I really am starting to see some great progress by using your power drills. I really like progressive long toss as you described it and I also shorten the distances to fit the student.
The only clarification I need for the more advanced collegiate pitchers that I will be starting back up with this week is whether you have a maximum number of power drills you would do at any given time? Would you do any more than say 10 reps? At any time do you do more than 1 power drill in a workout? Is there a total number of reps that you work up to?
Do you have any other suggestions for those pitchers that do not have the innate body speed that some pitchers have?
Phil and Carly,
I really love all your ideas and drills for power. I work with pitchers of all ages and at all levels. My question to you is about the volume of power drills in a workout that you recommend for younger than high school age, high school pitchers, and collegiate pitchers? I have a tendency to work the power drills into the workout at short intervals of 3-5 pitches and then regular pitches of the same number to match intensity, aggressiveness and drive, etc. Love to hear your ideas. Also do you work the power drills in differently depending the time of year, offseason, pre-season, in-season? Thank you for all of your outstanding information!
Shelley Monas
Hi Shelley:
We always love hearing from and sharing ideas with other coaches. Thanks so much for your comment. In the same way that we make recommendations for strength training and conditioning, power drills are more a part of our athlete’s routines in the off season and pre-season than they would be in-season. Obviously the intensity and volume of these drills would be dependent upon the age and physical development of each player. For older, more advanced pitchers we generally would incorporate power drills into most of our off season/pre-season workouts. The drills I believe you are referring to are planks, ground up, progressive long toss, and the like. It is critical to remember that the successful implementation of these drills is largely predicated upon our athletes’ overall preparation of their bodies to perform them well with minimal risk of injury. The drills go hand in hand with conditioning. For younger pitchers (below high school level) we must be very careful to integrate power drills slowly and deliberately in order to avoid undue stress on a physically underdeveloped player. It is very difficult without evaluating the individual pitchers to tell you exactly how many repetitions are optimal or how often they should be performed. It sound to me as though you are spot on with your short intervals and limited repetitions for young pitchers. In preparation for games, I always like our pitchers to incorporate one power drill (usually progressive long toss) into their pre-game warm up. This enables the pitcher to get a sense of the power that is necessary to reach their target from say 75 feet away and then bring that same power to their regular pitching distance as they slowly move forward to that distance. A good way to do this is to have the pitcher start at 50 feet move to 60 feet then to 70 feet throwing three to four pitches at each distance(hopefully, without mechanical breakdown). For less advanced vs. more advanced pitchers you may decrease the incremental distances or increase them as the case may be. After reaching the furthest distance, move forward in the same increments as you moved out, throwing one to two pitches at each location until you reach your pitching distance. Keep us posted, and best of luck.
Phil
Phil,
Thanks for your insights! Yes, I do understand age and physical development as the indicator of volume. I really am starting to see some great progress by using your power drills. I really like progressive long toss as you described it and I also shorten the distances to fit the student.
The only clarification I need for the more advanced collegiate pitchers that I will be starting back up with this week is whether you have a maximum number of power drills you would do at any given time? Would you do any more than say 10 reps? At any time do you do more than 1 power drill in a workout? Is there a total number of reps that you work up to?
Do you have any other suggestions for those pitchers that do not have the innate body speed that some pitchers have?
Thanks again!
Shelley