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Being a Star Shortstop and Star
Pitcher
is a Tough Deal
Some people think
being the star baseball player or pitcher is easy.
Some people think the
star player is only there because he is lucky, or is
the coach’s favorite. But, most of us inside the
game understand that usually the star player…and I
mean legitimate star player, works hard during the
season and off season. He has also been blessed with
some great natural skills.
Both of my boys were
pretty good youth players. They pitched, played a
key infield position, and were one of the better
hitters on the team. Part because they had God given
talent, but what most people didn’t realize was that
we would go down to the local field and play. We
would play catch. We would hit fly balls, ground
balls, pitch. We worked on all aspects of the game.
And I don’t mean drills, drills, drills. We would
have some fun playing the game. Having little
contests.
One thing that
worried me about my sons was throwing too much. I
actually received a great email from our good friend
Bob C of Massachusetts…..Go Red Sox….although they
are playing my team, the Angels. Anyway, here is
Bob’s question…
Hi
Bill,
Another question from the east coast; if you
have a young player who is both your star
shortstop and pitcher; how do you weigh the
impact on his arm of taking hundreds of ground
balls and at the same time doing his pitching
workout? I have to think you work with kids who
play both roles on their clubs. Any insight?
Thanks as always!
BOB
C, Massachusetts
Bob, both of us as a
concerned dads and coaches, I appreciate where you
are coming from. You do need to manage their
workload.
The first thing I
would suggest is to make sure he is healthy. Make
sure the should and elbow is strong and flexible. He
should be on some sort of conditioning. Even the
very young athletes can workout with their own body
weight. Take a look at our
12 Minute Shoulder and Elbow Endurance Solution
DVD for some great exercises.
Once you feel he is
in good shape, I would say start tracking the number
of full effort throws he is currently making per
week. In fact, why not track how many throws he is
making now with his current conditioning levels. I
would also rate the effort he is putting out with
his throws. Is he tossing from shortstop or is he
really cutting loose. If he’s healthy, you now have
a benchmark on how much he can handle.
If you feel he needs
more work, then I would slowly increase the
workload….and I mean slowly. If he needs more
pitching mechanics work, then you need to maybe back
off the throwing during the ground ball drills.
Maybe receive a lot of ground balls, but have him
dump balls into a bucket and not throw.
Same with pitching.
Monitor the number of all out pitches. In terms of
throwing or playing catch, you would be amazing how
many throws our young athletes can handle if they
are in good shape.
A couple of tips on
how to get more reps in to work on those pitching
mechanics. My good friend and mentor Tom House along
with Nolan Ryan came up with the towel drill to help
Nolan get more reps of his pitching delivery without
having to throw more balls. If you haven’t used the
towel drill before, you grab a towel with about 12
inches in length dangling from either side. Then you
visualize throwing a baseball. You can use the
towels with all of our drills. The torque drill (2),
the timing drills (3), or even the step behinds. All
of these drills are in the
How to Become a more Explosive, Athletic, and
Powerful Pitcher DVD. You can also work on your
stretch pitching delivery as well as your windup.
Another way to
minimize the stress to the shoulder and elbow is to
do the drills on flat ground. The slope of the mound
adds a little more stress to the joints.
The one key to all
baseball pitchers and players is to make sure they
are getting enough rest between workouts. If they
tell you that their shoulder is tired, listen. Give
rest…and I mean active rest. Go play basketball,
ride a bike, whatever they like to do to recreate,
but not throw.
I hope this helps
Bob. Thanks for the question. If any of you have
questions, please email them to me at
support@bioforcebaseball.com
Until next time,
Train Like a Champion
Today!
P.S. Here are those
links again for the
12 Minute Shoulder program DVD and the
More Explosive, Athletic, and Powerful Pitcher DVD.
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