How much time do you take off for pitcher in the offseason

RetiredCoach said:

December thru February they will continue off season training and will participate in a twice/week pitching clinic, which will probably be all the pitching they do.

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I find comments like this interesting, not picking on anyone in particular, this is just a good example. We have reached a point where a break is considered only doing a pithcing clinic 2x/week.

DD doesnt pitch...im just reading this for the sake of reading, so as far as pitching goes, I have nothing to add. As others have hinted at though, I will share our experience thus far. DD has always been athletic, but we were never one of the best players in LL. We had some A.D.D. issues to work thru, which we have.DD started playing LL @8..at 11 we finally started hitting the all-stars. DD is now league age 13..last yr she had the opportunity to work with an 18u team. She worked her butt off all offseason and gave up field hockey to work with the 18u's. She absolutly broke her mold when she hit the fields this year. Moved from 9th bat to 2nd..lead or 2nd on her 14u team in many offensive categories. Thru her work, she has evened the playing field with her peers..to get her to stop and not recognize the fact that the work pays off would be crazy. I'm certin that there are plenty of young pitchers doing the same. When they are focused on a goal, they can be tough to rein in

DD went thru LL this summer with Travel mixed in, HS SB practice and scrimmages and VB conditioning. Fall school starts VB practice or game pretty much 5 days a week TB several weekends or HS VB tourny on the weekend. Shoulder got really sore. Orhthepedics Dr. perscribed rehab 3 weeks no sports. He thinks its just inflamation from over use. So I agree with those that the kids need down time to heal both their bodies and their minds. The way Trave SB and VB with School SB and VB go it is hard for the girls to get any down time. If they do BB then I bet those girls get no rest. I wish HS sports were 100% off limits outside of the school yr. with start up maybe two weeks before school starts for VB and Football.

This is an interesting topic! On one hand I really agree that rest is important (healing, focus, avoid burn-out, etc.) but I also see the off-season as a better time to work on mechanics than during the season. During games and tournaments they are so much more focused on strikes/location that I see bad habits creep in. My concern is taking time off and then starting up when the season starts again and they are back in "strike" mode. My Daughter just turned 13 - she has worked very hard this year so I see the need to let her rest and enjoy life, but I also see the opportunity she has to be even stronger in the Spring.

We just finished Fall Ball and I told her last night we will pitch 2 days per week until Thanksgiving and then she is going to get 6 weeks off.

We'll start up again in Mid-January and our first team practices will be around March 10th - first Tournament around May 2nd so as I am looking at it she should still have plenty of off-season time to get ready.

Just thought I would bump this back as this was on my mind. We just finished our fall travel season and the good news was my DD pitched a lot of innings. Also just got done with volleyball. Im comtemplating how much downtime to give my DD. She had a couple weeks this summer where her shoulder was sore from overuse. I kind of eager to put some downtime on it. Im debating on pitching light for a few more weeks while we have a little bit of decent weather and then shut her down for a month to 6 weeks during busy months and finding pitching area is more difficult. She has been invited to a couple of college camps. I want her to look sharp at these. Hope I can make this work and might cut into our downtime.

Also I think we will use this time to work on agility and some core strength with a workout program. Anybody have recomondations on work out programs for Pitchers. Is there some canned products out there. Might go to local trainer and pay some money.

So whats everybody else doing?

Some recommend an annual 4-6 week break under normal circumstances, however "normal" varies by the number of pitches/innings thrown. The amount of time to recover from overuse/injury increases the worse it gets.

People can come up with all kinds of reasons why they can't take a break, however it's better to choose the timing yourself than have an injury and likely have to take a longer break at the worst time.

It's like the oil filter slogan for most people - You can pay me now... or you can pay me later.

Softball scholar said:

Also I think we will use this time to work on agility and some core strength with a workout program. Anybody have recomondations on work out programs for Pitchers. Is there some canned products out there. Might go to local trainer and pay some money.

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Check out the Drive Mechanics sticky by Java for workout ideas.

Been taking off the span between Thanksgiving - Christmas for the past 2 years and DD has had her greatest speed gains when coming back from her break. Now that spin is a big focus...I'm hoping that the break will also improve those numbers.

Just remember, when you come back...its not 0-100. They should work back gradually. What I mean is if her typical regime is 100 pitches 5x a week for workouts... then come back from break with 50 pitch workouts and maybe only 3-4 times for the first couple weeks.

And for a break to actually be a break....they really shouldn't throw at all.

DD was off from Aug. 3 - Oct. 26. Yep we are starting slowly...