Offseason-taking a break vs tryouts

[maksoftball]

this is such a bold and radical (and probably oh so true!) statement!

i often think about this; how it would be so nice to take an athletic 14 yr old kid and start the process of learning to pitch.
i cant even imagine hiw the learning curve and frustration levels would be cut down!

but, if you understand and are playing "the long game" then working with a young pitcher can be a lot of fun and very rewarding.

My DD did this. She tried early on but her body did not cooperate with her brain so she stopped and played 3B/1B. Summer between 8th and 9th grade, she put her heart and soul into it. Definitely lots of ups and downs since (from 1st team pitcher sophomore yr to 2nd team junior yr)...she has had to learn a lot fast in little time and the negatives of being pitcher (mostly mental) have caught up. She is also a damned good 1B and hits well so she has back up lol. So with all that said, she's done well considering and I think that starting late helped her a lot.


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[FrozenRope]

Throwing very light during workouts to get the arm moving once or twice a week is much more effective to promoting recovery and enhancing perfomrance than doing nothing for several weeks. Unless you are recovering from an injury one of the worst things you can do is completely shutdown. I think the perpetuation of this myth of complete shutdown for several weeks is more about parents wanting break from the grind than a desire for healthy, high level athletic performance.

Do you have some new study data to back this up? Everything in the past that I have read is that sport specific training, year round, is one of the most common causes of overuse injuries. I don't know many pitchers that know what a "light" workout is. Either you're throwing, or your not.

 

[riseball]

Do you have some new study data to back this up? Everything in the past that I have read is that sport specific training, year round, is one of the most common causes of overuse injuries. I don't know many pitchers that know what a "light" workout is. Either you're throwing, or your not.

Sorry no studies done by those who may have seen a game or two and then theorized what might be best. All I can offer is a couple of decades of real world experience delivering actual results.

 

[CoogansBluff]

I don't have an opinion on the specialization/injury debate. I'm open-minded. But anecdotally, most of the injured players on my DD's teams over the years have been suffered while somebody was doing another sport or activity - two knee/leg injuries from basketball, shin splits/groin injury from XC, broken bones from trampolines and 3-wheelers, etc.. More injuries during the off-season among multi-sport athletes than injuries while playing/practicing softball. In 9 years of travell ball, I can remember only one significant potential overuse injury in softball, a pitcher who needed wrist surgery. And she was a 3-sport athlete (soccer, basketball, softball). It might be that specializing leads to more overuse problems, but I haven't seen enough overuse problems to be that concerned.

 

[maksoftball]

My two cents - I think that softball specific injuries (that is, all softball players - multi sport or not), if not due to collision on the field, are due to 1) poor or incorrect mechanics, 2) too much in short period of time or 3) lack of sports specific conditioning during off season AND season.

 

[Merrill Danner]

DD, is 14, is throwing about once/twice a week in the evenings, just enough to keep the motion and timing, throwing to the net. Only until she says that it feels like it should, and then about another five. Trying to get a couple of sessions with Bill Hillhouse, starting this weekend in Dallas.
She has goals that she wants to work on, such as explosive leg drive off the rubber, see the Team Japan pitchers, faster home to first time, home to home time, faster being able to move laterally, and better overall fitness level with some increased strength.
So for the next couple months, doing more cardio, strength type workouts. Hill sprints (short-100m/steep/intense and longer-200m/moderate/90% max), long (3 mile) slow (25-40% max) distance runs and other forms of running.
Bought two pulling harnesses, and have a full set of old 37 12.5x15 tires, that we are doing drags and pulls up the hill behind our house, we live in the country and have about 100 acres to work with. She isn’t dragging the big tires yet, she dragging a smaller 15" car tire, about 20 pounds without rim versus the off road tire which is about 47 pounds without rim. What I have read, that for increasing leg speed, using around 15-20% of body weight is good, any heavier and you start working on increasing leg strength versus speed.
We start with a walk, pulling the tires to our first fence, about 100 yards, they turn attach it to the front and come down the hill in reverse.
The next is slightly faster a slow jog up and back
Then do it in reverse, being mindful of where you are going and a things the cows leave behind, nothing worse than slipping in cow crap and landing in it.
Then caraoka slow and easy, maintaining proper body position. Round trip leading with left and then to right.
The last is a sprint to the fence, all-out effort, short rest and repeat down the hill.
For arms and upper body it is arm pulls up the hill using the tires.
One time up and down the hill for each iteration.
I only let her pull tires using legs workout 3 times a week, the arms workout twice a week.
Also, put up a set of rings that are hanging low, about a foot off the ground, there are a number of things that can be done to increase strength and range of motion, to help keep shoulders strong and injury resistant, though done wrong can really tear up a shoulder.
Also a slosh tube, it is 5’ of 4” and one 6” PVC. Filled 2/3 with water and capped. These are used to activate accessory muscles used trying to balance the tube, either behind the head or in an arm carry while walking/jogging around our property line. The first time I thought no way this will work, using the 4” tube, so went a second time, still nothing, woke up the next morning feeling muscles I never knew existed.
Also bolted together three of those tires to form a triangle for tire flipping, it has a total weight of about 180 pounds
I test all of this stuff out on me before letting her try, and she starts very light and very slow, until strength, mechanics of exercise and range of motion as sufficient to perform the exercise with more weight or longer duration to avoid injury.
All of that said, she still has to be the one who actually says, “Dad, let workout” or she has to set her alarm, I am out the door at 5:15 AM to get a warm up run, if you aren’t with me for the run you aren’t working out for the rest of exercises, I have found a slow 1 mile warm up helps to get the blood moving and ready to do hard /intense work. I order to go on the warm up run, she has to be well stretched, in especially now that it is in the low 30’s around here. No stretch = no run = no workout = not going to get stronger/faster this morning.
No weights, like barbells or dumbbells. It is body weight for other things, pull-ups, squats and such.
Something I learned a long time ago in the Army, we used to have gym rats. They could bench/squat/curl three times their body weight, but couldn’t carry 100 pounds of gear for more than an hour or so. When she started this getting stronger road, I told her that it may seem weird but we are developing functional strength and endurance. We are doing real work that the brain can relate to other activities and be able to adapt, overcome, and thrive, because anything you do while playing ball will never be as hard as what you do out here with me. Mental toughness, not teaching it, but helping to develop it.
And that I why the gym rats, could not carry 100 pounds of gear, their brains wouldn’t let them, or they allowed their brains to win and tell them that they couldn’t.

 

[Merrill Danner]

For the record I feel that what a kid does up to about age 14-15 with regard to pitching makes zero difference in long term success

Having only dealt with my DD who is 14, i can agree as well. It is just in this last 12 months, that she is starting to feel the pitch, feel the mechanics, develop coordination enough to perform the motion and understand what may have happened when the ball goes low/high/left/right and know how to adjust to bring it back where she wants.
There were many frustrating hours for her over the last few years, because she couldn't get her body to do what she thought she was trying to do, won't even mention what i was asking her to do.