Game Preparation
September 19, 2011 | 
Author Bart Simpson once sold his soul on an episode, and felt awful until his sister, Lisa, bought it back from him. I don’t necessarily believe that I have a soul, but I do know when intangible things inside me hurt. That intangible something inside me hurt every time I was pulled from a game this summer. Unfortunately I got shelled a lot, and every night I went home with a hole in my heart and a pit in my stomach. There had been better times.
I had failed on the mound much more often than not all the way up until my first season of pro ball. After that first decent year of pro ball, in which I went 6-7, 3.90, I had sort of forgotten how it felt to really struggle. Any bad outing I may have had in 2010 was usually followed by a good or series of good outings, effectively whitewashing the bad ones.
But this year, I hit a major roadblock when I signed with Fargo of the American Association. Read the rest of this entry »
In-season training is where all my athletes are now headed, and I was just recently asked, “How do I balance my training and exercises between games?” (Good question, Ben Mier). So, I thought I would share with all of you in cyberspace what I wrote up for my pitchers. This is by no means the only way to go about things between games, but having played high school, college, and a pro season in which I only missed one start (damn finger blister), my experience helps make the training theory match up with what actually works. Get your work in, but be prudent and make sure your best stuff makes it out to the mound.
Goals:
1. Maintain the fitness and strength built from off-season training
2. Take the mound at 100%, without fatigue
3. Finish the season as strong as one started, healthy and pain-free
On the Day of a Start:
- Make sure to eat plenty throughout the season. If caloric intake drops, your performance will also drop. Velocity can be influenced by eating habits, so make sure to eat lots of healthy food.
- Move around, but keep any exercise to a minimum. Stretch out multiple times, but no exercises for the arm or otherwise
- Visualize yourself attacking hitters and making them fearfully submit to you. Aggression and confidence are remarkably important. Read the rest of this entry »
This is my first season pitching within a true 5-man rotation. In college and summer ball, there often are too many off-days to make the rotation stable. Weekend series in college mean that starters generally pitch once a week, giving ample time for physical and skill work in between outings.
But in the professional season, off-days are few and far between, and the rotation gives each starter 4 days to prepare for his next outing. Everyone is different in what he needs to prepare, but I’ll share my own preparation schedule that I feel gives me the best chance to succeed and stay strong throughout the season. Read the rest of this entry »
Starting pitchers are given plenty of time between outings to build a scouting report and game plan for facing their opponent. Our season started last week, which meant we had to figure out what our opposing hitters had on the fly. As an expansion team, we didn’t have scouting reports already laid out for us, so we were faced with assessing all of the hitters ourselves.
So as the pitchers leaned on the railing, watching the games, we bounced ideas off each other and our pitching coach about each hitter. Some of the things discussed were: Read the rest of this entry »
I was recently asked by a player on my old college team what an appropriate lifting volume would be for the summer season. Good question! Let’s explore this answer a bit…
Summer Demands
The summer for a college baseball player is unlike the summer for most other college athletes; Instead of a nice break to relax and train without school, the vast majority of college players play a schedule more rigorous than their college season.
Baseball is the most demanding college sport anyway – 56 games spread over approximately 100-120 days while balancing a full course-load simply blows any other sport out of the water. Plus, baseball has an indulgent pregame that makes any single game longer than two games of most other sports. Don’t believe me? Let me enlighten you…
Baseball usually has a 3-4 hour pregame, depending on whether it’s home or away and the coach’s policy. Lacrosse, for example, would arrive after we had reported for our pregame and complete their pregame, play the entire match, and clear the field before we even threw the first pitch. One game’s time commitment for a D-1 lacrosse player? 2-3 hours. For a D-1 baseball player? 5-7 hours. Factor in the fact that lacrosse plays 1/3 the amount of games, and you can see how big a part of life baseball is.
My point in all this is that baseball players are very stretched for time during all seasons of the year. As soon as the college season is over, there is usually a 2 week buffer between college and summer ball, and summer ball consists of 40-45 games played usually in under 50 days. Then, a month later, daily fall practices start.
So, back to the original question: What is appropriate lifting volume for summer ball? Well, it depends on goals…
What are you getting out of the summer?
Some players need to become more physical, some need to improve skills, and some need to gain experience. Training to become a better baseball player becomes difficult when you assume an in-season courseload for more than half of the calendar year, summer included. Plus, though the fall is more of an offseason for practice and development, it’s still a time where players must impress their coaches to earn a role in the spring season. There is almost no time during the year when a college baseball player can focus solely on their bodies without having to remain fresh for on-field performance.
The Varying Plans
For the player needing to become better physically by gaining or losing weight, or by improving strength and conditioning:
- Focus is chiefly on the body, not on the skillset
- Lifting and training volume is heaviest for this group: strength training 2-3 days per week, conditioning 1-3 days per week, depending on goals and position
- Skills are placed on the back-burner, and a lesser role must be assumed on the team – this might mean choosing a role as a part-time player, even if skilled enough to play everyday.
- Example: if a shortstop needs to develop more hitting power, then it may be OK to have to sit out a game due to training fatigue.
First priority for some
For the player needing to hone and develop baseball skills as a first priority:
- Focus is first on skill development, as the player assumedly has enough or near-enough physicality to succeed
- Lifting load is moderate – likely 2 days of strength training and 2-3 days of conditioning, depending on position and goals.
- The body must be fresh enough to allow proper movement patterns during practice and games. Being too tired or sore from training to get in the proper skillwork each day is unacceptable.
- Full-time play is fine as long as the developing skills aren’t jeopardized. Example: if a pitcher is changing his mechanics, he should be pitching, but not so much where he might lose his adjustments while pitching at game speed.
- Another example: if a third baseman needs 300 ground balls per day to increase his fielding ability, then he needs to take them, even if that means only playing a few days per week.
First priority for others
For the player who needs to gain the fine-tuning and experience of playing every day:
- Focus is on being prepared to play every day, practice and training are still crucial, but cannot impede game-time readiness
- Training load is moderate to light, depending on the tolerance of the player. This may mean 2 days of maintenance lifting per week with 0-2 days of conditioning.
- Body must be fresh enough to play every inning of every game if given the opportunity. Any leftover energy can be used for training.
- Example: if lifting is going to impede a pitcher’s ability to extend to his full pitch count, then the lifting needs to be backed off.
The Real Purpose of Summer Baseball
The bottom line is that coaches want their players to come back better, and for each player that improvement is going to come from different factors. Players need to avoid the desire to play every single game when that workload may impede their ability to grow and improve as a player. For a player who desperately needs more size to increase hitting power, it would be irresponsible to save all his energy for the field. His first energy allowance should be to strength training (and eating!), not being an everyday player. Summer games are developmental even for the country’s top prospects. While scouts still attend summer league games to check up on quality players, everyone knows that the real purpose of summer baseball is to come back next spring as an improved version of last year’s model.
Know thyself; portion thine energy accordingly.
Your training should mirror the demands of your sport, but it should also mirror, to some extent, the expectations of your coach or organization.
Let’s take running as an example. Baseball is an anaerobic sport-requiring many short bursts of intense physical movement. Knowledgeable trainers, for this reason, are shifting their baseball players’ training away from the traditional long distance runs to more sprint training. Pitchers, who since the beginning of time have run long distance for conditioning, are also switching to and benefitting from this change in methodology.
So, as a baseball player, we should all run only short sprints all the time, right? I’ve written about this before here and Andrew Sacks has here. This way, we would be maximizing our training by not wasting time on superfluous exercise. Not so fast… Read the rest of this entry »
This is a topic on which I need you, my readers, to give me some feedback. Everyone has their own methods and little tricks to keep their arm fresh. Some guys hurt more than others, but any high level baseball player finds a way to deal with pains, aches and soreness to make it to the next game.
When my arm feels like tired garbage, I first try to flush it with blood. I do this either by:
- Running
- Performing lightweight, high rep exercises for that body part
- Performing some other sort of conditioning like jumprope or light weight training circuits
If I have those weird little pains, extra soreness or aches, I might hit that area real hard with some soft tissue work. This means I will roll on it with a foam roller, tennis ball or baseball, hit it with a massage tool, rolling pin, or my good ol’ knuckles. Whatever the implement, I dig to the trouble spot and try to rub out any knots, and promote new bloodflow to the area.
If my elbow or shoulder, for example, gets extra sore or develops a little pain, I will also tend to crush it with extra prehab. If my forearm hurts on the top part, I will crush my forearm extensors with wrist rolls, wrist extensions, hand openers, etc. Again, this is trying to get blood and a new stimulus to the troubled area.
....whatever works
I’m only a believer in ice immediately after throwing, or any traumatic exercise for that matter, and I never ice after an hour has passed from my throwing session – this would slow bloodflow and have the opposite effect I’m looking for. Ice immediately after an injury or strenuous exercise reduces inflammation, but otherwise it just reduces bloodflow. I occasionally will use a heating pack to increase bloodflow if I’m really achy, but never the same day as the session that caused the ache.
So, it’s your turn…what do you do to keep yourself on the field and feeling good? I want your secrets for your arm, but any body part will do!
Everyone understands pain, soreness and fatigue on some level, because we’ve all had them. Problem is, some people don’t quite know the difference between the three, and sometimes misrepresent the state of their bodies. This is concerning because to continue exercising under certain conditions is dangerous, such as when pain or fatigue is present due to an underlying or developing injury. It is imperative to understand one’s body and what the signals it sends mean.
Keep in mind that I’m not a doctor or physical therapist, and my intention with this post is to create some body awareness and help people understand how their body may be feeling, and whether or not their expression of those feelings are in tune.
Call it Pain
Pain is typified by, and this probably is not news to anyone, sharp, short and sudden sensations that accompany a certain activity. Pain draws our attention strongly and immediately to certain areas of the body.
Now, pain is different in type and intensity for everyone, and being in tune with one’s body is important for reading into it. I know which pains, when throwing or pitching, are incidental and aren’t telling me anything about the health of my arm or body. These I largely ignore, because experience has taught me that they never manifest into anything pathological. Pitchers commonly have little pains here and there that are just a natural part of the violent act of throwing. Listening to one’s body and having experience with it is important, because one cannot become consumed with every little ache or pain that crops up. It’s too stressful.
But some pain is an indicator of present injury or developing injury, and these need to be attended to. These are usually stronger and don’t go away in a day or two, and may not respond to pain medication, therapy, ice, or other treatments. If they do respond, then they will probably work themselves out with therapy, but they should not be ignored, and the activity should be backed off.
During my rehab I have had little pains appear at different times and in different places. Some of them I ignore, and they go away, and others I have had to back off my throwing or training until my arm could catch up and recover. The key is understanding your body, and listening to it, and always being prudent about things. Hammering away is not going to solve things when your body needs rest.
Call it Soreness
Soreness is present usually after a hard workout following a long period of inactivity, or an unusually stressful workout. Its not the same as pain, though some people will claim that a part of their body “hurts” and they need to rest. Soreness can indicate a developing injury, but more often it is probably the result of a new and taxing physical stimulus. Soreness is typified by that burning feeling that encompasses larger areas of the body, and is usually very general and not pinpoint in nature.
I have found that the best cure for my soreness is to keep the exercise regular. If I am sore after a hard workout I won’t take off until it fades away, which could be up to a week, but rather will continue my regimen. The soreness seems to get flushed out by this and usually recedes much faster than if I were to rest it.
After a start early in the season I will be sore, but will still lightly throw the next day and then increase my workload the subsequent days. Rest is probably indicated when one can barely move from it, but other than that I have found that getting some exercise, or throwing a little for pitchers, is usually beneficial.
Call it Fatigue
Fatigue isn’t like the other two, because there isn’t usually a concrete sensation to go with it, other than aches and deadness. Sharp or burning sensations aren’t there, but rather the muscles just don’t want to go.
For pitchers this is a situation that calls for rest, because the arm is depleted and it just needs to recharge. The hazard with throwing hard when fatigued is that mechanics get sloppy, and biomechanical laxity can cause more stress on all of your soft tissues. You always want to be strong enough, when throwing hard, to maintain the highest quality mechanics possible. Throw through fatigue too hard and too often, and some pain and soreness are going to appear, making things worse.
Call it Correctly
The important message here is to understand what your body is telling you, and to know it well enough to take the appropriate action. All too often young pitchers will say their arms hurt when they are sore, or are sore when they are hurt, and the indicated paths to recovery for both are quite different. Little pains and big pains are different, and should always be monitored, but may or may not lead to injury.
When rehabbing from an injury there is often accompanying pains and tightnesses and sorenesses, and they, like all others, have to be analyzed to see if they are part of the healing process (which they often are) or a sign that progression is beyond the limits of the body. But overall, people usually have an intuitive sense of when something is wrong, but over-analyzation of every pain can make for one neurotic and sleepless athlete. The key is learning to know thyself.