Time off

DD takes a 4 to 6 week break every fall. In fact her first throwing session is scheduled for this weekend. This is the third consecutive year she has taken such a break and I think it has been good for her. No negatives as far as I have seen.

maksoftball said:

Makes me super nervous when they take breaks but it does seem to do them good. For DD, her focus has been on volunteering and school so I am just sitting back letting her relax and focus on those things. She is still working out though...and HS coach has them staying after for a bit to pitch. Mostly worried about muscle memory in hitting...in my mind, I feel like a break = $$ down the drain (from all those lessons and practice), but I guess I need to chill and focus on the $$ I am saving on the break from lessons. LOL.

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We're only in our 2nd year of real fastpitch, so it's only our 2nd year taking a break. We had no plans to take one last year, but tendinitis decided for us. When we came back to it fresh after a month off, she gained some speed pretty much right away and her mechanics were much improved (part of this is how we started back - I was focused on this since I didn't want the elbow issues to recur). I'm hopeful it'll be similar this year; it makes me a little nervous too, but less so this year since we've stepped out of the A ball rat race for now. Though when we come back in Jan we're going to start practicing 12U pitching so I imagine she won't seem improved regardless.

We take 3 weeks off at the end of August and 3 weeks off in November. It generally takes about a week or so for DD#2 & #3 to get back up to speed and accuracy.

IMO, from both a physical and mental perspective, taking more time off than necessary is far better than taking off less time than necessary. Very simple if necessary could be defined!

Necessary has never been defined.

A recent study of HS athletes in Wisconsin looked at two sets of all-year athletes.

Set 1 played the same sport all year.

Set 2 played their primary sport no more than 8 months out of the year, and other sports the rest of the time.

Both groups played about the same every week.

Set 2 had significantly fewer sports related injuries.

I had an interesting discussion about this with DS the other day. The only time he got a sports related injury was the only time he tried track. Since then he has done rowing pretty much all year round with some breaks. In HS he had a total of a couple of months away from the sport, in college he doesn't row in the summer or during his winter break. Fall, winter and spring he practices 2 hrs 6 days a week, and most days he either attends another practice in the afternoon, or else hits the gym. 2x a day is what he likes. No injuries since he started rowing.

DS asked if one of the reasons for extra sports related injuries was contact, esp. in football, soccer, etc. Not sure about that.

What we DO know is that a pitcher needs some time to recover. DD 2 has a close friend who overdid it in pitching, had shoulder surgery, and had to miss an entire year.

DD took about 5 weeks off from pitching after fall ball ended. Just started back at lessons (drills to stress mechanics) this week. Started hitting once a week after about 3 weeks off. I think she lost more of her swing than she did her pitching during the break.