High School Baseball Training Las Vegas, Over-training young pitchers
In this 2 part article, I will address the common problems associated with over-throwing and over-practicing as a student athlete pitcher in high school baseball training Las Vegas.
Statements like this are frequently heard in the bleachers and the dugouts amongst coaches and parents in the amateur baseball community. Who wouldn’t want a pitcher on the staff that just flat out brings it every game?
We all know the type, he toes the rubber, fires in his first warm up pitch, and the pop from the catcher’s glove turns heads and makes the chatter come to a stop. Now he has our attention. Now the opposing coaches and players watch as the ball rockets out of this young arm, painting the strike zone with a ferocity that instills fear in the leadoff hitter. He’s just getting started. Now things get even more interesting when the pitcher winds up and throws a breaking ball that seems to defy the laws of physics.
Just another beautiful day at the yard baseball training las vegas
To most sets of eyes this looks like you are about to see one of the most intense battles between two athletes in team sports, the pitcher and the batter sixty feet six inches away hoping he guesses right one time and makes contact.
However, the real battle lies within that pitcher’s body. More and more pitchers and coaches are looking to expand the raw skill it takes to throw fastballs, curveballs, sinkers, and more. Baseball training Las Vegas for young athletes today is typically filled with bullpens and outside pitching lessons with the local guru. These rigorous baseball training routines are crammed into the few days between starts. The specialization and dedication required by baseball training as a pitcher are demanding for any athlete, let alone a student athlete. The more we practice the skill of pitching the better he will get, right?
Now let’s go back to baseball training Las Vegas and our local stud on the mound. It’s a Thursday night, and he’s pitching against the rival high school which seems like a perfect fit for the young man. However, he pitched on Sunday in the championship game of the big “hey it’s a weekend lets throw a tournament into the middle of the high school season” and threw who can imagine how many pitches in his weekly Tuesday night pitching lesson.
We all know kids on the team that has this routine! Again, more focused practice is better right? Everyone wants to throw gas, but unfortunately, excessive and myopic training schedules that focus only on the pitching movement create an unnecessary risk for injury!
Such an explosive movement begins to wear down joints and connective tissue.
Overhead throwing is a very complex movement pattern and considering the amount of tension and stress put on the joints; body control needs to be a huge focus in any preparation. Strength training is vital to reproduce quality movement over and over again.
A pitcher with a pitch count of eighty pitches in a game may not seem like much, however factor in seven warm up pitches before each inning, and the fifty warm up throws before thirty more pitches in the bullpen before ever entering a game. We are looking at upwards of 180 pitches in a day. Such an explosive movement replicated, again and again, begins to wear down the joints and connective tissue.
For a pitcher to keep his shoulder in a safe position, he has to:
- Properly retract and upwardly rotate his shoulder blade
- Slide the medial border of the scapula to the centerline of the body
- Maintain congruency within the glenohumeral joint.
This allows the front of the shoulder to avoid impingement
The pinching sensation presents when the athlete is in a forward posture with the shoulders rounded forward and a slight kyphotic curve in the thoracic spine. This leads to a shortening of the pec minor, and the scapulae begin to “wing out,” impeding the pitcher’s ability to properly retract his shoulder blade. Unfortunately, you will hear many pitching coaches yelling from the dugout that a pitcher needs to “get long” or “get tall” and in their defense, they are quite right.
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However, the necessary correction cannot be achieved by throwing more pitches.
The truth is, the athlete is simply too weak or does not have the mobility to get into proper position.
What is the solution? Well, it’s not throwing more pitches!
Read more in part 2 of Baseball Training Las Vegas: Pitching Lessons, Pitfalls
Visit www.thegymlasvegas.com to find out how to make the change in your athletic career.
