Share your pitchers warm up routine? (stretching??)

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Oct 16, 2014
333
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My DD has only been pitching a year. She has been training a lot this winter and has started to get some bicep tendonitis where the short head of the bicep connects to her shoulder (pain felt in front of arm sort of near her armpit, triggered at the top of her circle and felt most when her arm is at like 2 o'clock) She's taking 2 weeks off and its already starting to feel better. I'm looking for a more concrete routine for her once we get back into full swing and I don't really know where to start. Right now we plan on getting to practice a little earlier and having her jog around first. Also looking for some good stretches.

She has always warmed up by doing some catch for about 10 minutes then eases into her pitching warm ups. It's all in all about 15-20 minutes before she starts throwing real pitches. This obviously isn't enough.....
 
Oct 11, 2010
8,337
113
Chicago, IL
I think each player is going to be different, DD doesn't need to warmup to much.

I think I would go to and look around.

Softball - Softball - Lots of softball drills, softball tips about softball hitting, softball pitching, and coaching softball.

I am sure he will also answer any questions you might have.

The one time I recall her struggling with her arm was when she was pitching too much so we slowed it down, including throwing on the field. Not pitching but still throwing a ton of the balls on the field doesn't accomplish much.
 
Last edited:
Oct 16, 2014
333
0
I don't know if her warmups aren't enough. Maybe she's just pitching too much.


This is definitely part of it. We had an impromptu practice where she ended up live pitching to her team at the end of her regular pitcher/catcher practice time - it was extra throwing time we didn't account for in the week. She said she felt fine during and I told her to stop as soon as she was tired or had too much, but the next day it hurt. So, lesson learned. we won't be going that hard again. This is still relatively new for us so we are still learning to navigate the waters.

She is also pretty tight in the shoulders in general and I'd love for her to incorporate some stretching
 

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Awaiting genuis pills
Aug 30, 2011
54
0
Chicago Suburbs
This is definitely part of it. We had an impromptu practice where she ended up live pitching to her team at the end of her regular pitcher/catcher practice time - it was extra throwing time we didn't account for in the week. She said she felt fine during and I told her to stop as soon as she was tired or had too much, but the next day it hurt. So, lesson learned. we won't be going that hard again. This is still relatively new for us so we are still learning to navigate the waters.

She is also pretty tight in the shoulders in general and I'd love for her to incorporate some stretching

Get a lesson with Bill Hillhouse. He watched my DD pitch for about 5 minutes and asked "do you get sore from pitching?". A few adjustments and that was the last time she was sore in the shoulder.

As far as warmups go, they will change over time as the focus of her pitching changes (spins, release, drive etc). DD seems to focus on areas that are weak and warms up the strong first. Never done static stretching, more overall body warmups squats jog overhand throws. Warm up time can vary from 5 minutes in a pinch to 15 minutes if time allows. As confidence increases, the need for lengthy warmups decrease.

My dd probably thinks messing with her hair for 5 minutes is part of the whole process.
 

JAD

Feb 20, 2012
8,231
38
Georgia
Stretching is important and in all my years of coaching I have watched 98.2% of players "half rear" warm ups. You need to stay on them to make sure they do it right and get properly warmed up to prevent injury. Teenagers think they are bullet proof.
 
Jun 12, 2015
3,848
83
We do some dynamic stretching, then throw for awhile, starting close and easy and moving further apart as our arms warm up. Then we do the lock it in underhand stuff (i/r sticky thread). Then she'll pitch a bucket or so easy (into the net right now - when the weather is nice we estimate the number since she has me catching). Then real, full pitch until she wants to stop.
 
Feb 3, 2010
5,752
113
Pac NW
If mechanics are good and healthy, I like a dynamic warm up followed by: overhand catch, underhand catch, step backs then spins and spots.

My dynamic warm up starts with Short Lines: everyone standing on a foul line and a line of balls about 15 paces out. Gloves can be used in place of a foul line. Every set is done twice.
-Jog down, backwards back
-Side to side arm swings/foot shuffle--down and back
-High skips down, quick skips back
-Carioca down and back
-High knees down, butt kickers back
-3 shuffles right , touch the ground, three left and touch, three right, three left, reset and return (zig zag pattern.)
-Lunges down, jog back.

Head-to-toes in a team circle
-Neck rolls
-Frontward swimmers/backward swimmers
-Arm swing/torso twists
-Front/back arm swings
-Knee circles, switch directions, switch legs
-Front-to-back legs swings touching opposite hand to opposite toe--switch
-Side to side legs swings hold onto the backstop/partner--switch legs
-Ankle/wrist rolls
 
Last edited:
Feb 7, 2013
3,188
48
When DD has pitching practice with me:

Overhand throws for 5 mins
K drill
45's (stands 45 degrees to home plate does arm circle only)
Walk thrus from behind the pitching plate
Normal pitch progression working all her pitches
"Sequences" where she pretends there is a batter in the box and has to strikeout 5 batters using a variety of her pitches before we are done.

With her team they will do:

Dynamic stretching/warm-ups with whole team
Short toss progressing to long toss with whole team

With catcher:

K drill
45's (stands 45 degrees to home plate does arm circle only)
Walk thrus from behind the pitching plate
Normal pitch progression, working on all her pitches
 

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