Time To Take Some Time Off From Throwing

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Ken Krause

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May 7, 2008
3,911
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Mundelein, IL
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The season is over. Tryouts are over (at least for the most part.) What to do now?

Gung-ho fastpitch softball families (are there any other kind?) might be tempted to start going at it hard and heavy to get ready for fall ball and the upcoming spring season. After all, if you’re not working to get better, your opponents probably are.

But I have another idea. Take a break. Not just lighten up the workload to three days a week, but take an actual break.

Give your body a chance to rest, recover and build itself back up. Give your brain a chance to let go of whatever was happening before and get rejuvenated.

But it’s not just psychological. It’s also physical.

These days it seems like there is a secret prize for the team that plays the most games in the shortest period of time, and everyone is going for that prize. You’ll see programs bragging that their teams play 100 or even 150 games in a year (with a 12-player roster). Much of that playing time is compressed into September and October in the fall, and then April-July in the summer.

High school-age players may even have a heavier workload, because they have their school season and then their travel/summer season. Except Iowa, where high school is the summer season for whatever reason.

What all this has led to is a rash of overuse injuries. Not just for pitchers, although we are seeing more and more of it as this article points out. A pitching staff that throws 90 pitches a game (a conservative number for most) across 100 games will have thrown 9,000 pitches. Divide that by a three-person rotation and it’s roughly 3,000 pitches each.

That’s a lot of pitches – especially when you consider that typical college pitchers in one study, who have the benefit of daily weight training and conditioning run by a professional staff, threw an average of just 1,243 pitches during the season.

Now, Rachel Garcia, the NCAA D1 player of the year and winner of this year’s Women’s College World Series did throw 3,178 pitches total this season. But do you really think the 12 or 14 year olds you know are comparable in strength and conditioning to Rachel Garcia? Doubtful.

It’s not just about pitchers, however. Position players can also get overworked, especially when it comes to throwing. Even if you have great mechanics, the effort and stress placed on the shoulder throwing overhand a hundred times a day every day in practice can cause wear and tear that needs to be addressed.

Overuse injuries such as tendinitis and small tears in soft tissue can easily build up over time. They may not be bad enough to require surgery, but they can cause pain. And as the pain builds, the mechanics break down to work around the pain.

Over the course of a season things can get pretty sloppy. If you just launch right into the next season those issues aren’t going to magically get better. They’re going to get worse.

Finally there’s the mental side. If you’re working hard (as you should), it’s easy to become mentally fatigued as well. That’s not good either.

Taking a little time off – like professional players in all sports do, incidentally – can help recharge the ol’ batteries and get you ready to tackle new challenges.

So my advice to you is to walk away from the practice field (or area) for a bit and let your body heal itself. See a doctor or a physical therapist if you need to. But one way or another, give yourself a break and go do something else for a little while. You (and your body) will really be glad you did.

More...
 
Aug 19, 2015
1,118
113
Atlanta, GA
DD got two days off between end of travel season and beginning of school season. We play school ball in the fall in GA. "Walk away for a while" from school ball and you ride the pine for the season. What's the solution for these girls?
 
Apr 5, 2013
2,130
83
Back on the dirt...
Totally off topic:
I dont understand why some schools have softball in the fall. Especially southern schools. I could understand if they did up north because of weather issues but not in the south.

Back on topic, DD had her last game of the summer on July 21st and has not thrown a ball since but we has been swinging the bat to make some off season adjustments.
Locally, there have been tryouts every weekend. Ours is this weekend so she will have to just do what she can do without the extra fielding work. I hope they give us another couple weeks off to get rested and healed.
 
May 29, 2015
3,731
113
It’s good to hear somebody else singing this song!

Another cause of repetitive stress injuries is the “commitment” or “specialization” to one sport year round.

Not that many years ago, you would finish your baseball or softball in the summer and then move on to the next sport (football or volleyball) in the fall. When that finished, it was time for basketball in the winter.

While you weren’t technically taking time off, you were being in active in different ways that used different muscle sets and different movements. This multi-sport approach kept the body active while still allowing certain muscle sets time to recover.

Now kids are pushed to pick “A” sport. With the advent of travel/club programs in addition to scholastic programs (plus camps!) and the advances in playing fields, that sport will play well over half of the year. A growing child’s body is not designed for that.
 
Jul 27, 2015
235
43
I am a big believer in time off.

We take 6 weeks off with no lifting, hitting or throwing of any kind after the fall season ends. It drives my daughter insane.

We took an additional few weeks off last year to give a break between summer and fall At the time we took the break, she was setting new highs in pitching speed. After the break, she never regained that speed. I know...it makes no sense, but that is what happened.

So between seasons this time she took a week off. Pitched. Took another week off. Pitched. Now she is back to 3 days a week. Not much of a break, but I could see it helped.






photo of two women lying on grass

Photo by Rendy Maulana Yusup on Pexels.com


The season is over. Tryouts are over (at least for the most part.) What to do now?

Gung-ho fastpitch softball families (are there any other kind?) might be tempted to start going at it hard and heavy to get ready for fall ball and the upcoming spring season. After all, if you’re not working to get better, your opponents probably are.

But I have another idea. Take a break. Not just lighten up the workload to three days a week, but take an actual break.

Give your body a chance to rest, recover and build itself back up. Give your brain a chance to let go of whatever was happening before and get rejuvenated.

But it’s not just psychological. It’s also physical.

These days it seems like there is a secret prize for the team that plays the most games in the shortest period of time, and everyone is going for that prize. You’ll see programs bragging that their teams play 100 or even 150 games in a year (with a 12-player roster). Much of that playing time is compressed into September and October in the fall, and then April-July in the summer.

High school-age players may even have a heavier workload, because they have their school season and then their travel/summer season. Except Iowa, where high school is the summer season for whatever reason.

What all this has led to is a rash of overuse injuries. Not just for pitchers, although we are seeing more and more of it as this article points out. A pitching staff that throws 90 pitches a game (a conservative number for most) across 100 games will have thrown 9,000 pitches. Divide that by a three-person rotation and it’s roughly 3,000 pitches each.

That’s a lot of pitches – especially when you consider that typical college pitchers in one study, who have the benefit of daily weight training and conditioning run by a professional staff, threw an average of just 1,243 pitches during the season.

Now, Rachel Garcia, the NCAA D1 player of the year and winner of this year’s Women’s College World Series did throw 3,178 pitches total this season. But do you really think the 12 or 14 year olds you know are comparable in strength and conditioning to Rachel Garcia? Doubtful.

It’s not just about pitchers, however. Position players can also get overworked, especially when it comes to throwing. Even if you have great mechanics, the effort and stress placed on the shoulder throwing overhand a hundred times a day every day in practice can cause wear and tear that needs to be addressed.

Overuse injuries such as tendinitis and small tears in soft tissue can easily build up over time. They may not be bad enough to require surgery, but they can cause pain. And as the pain builds, the mechanics break down to work around the pain.

Over the course of a season things can get pretty sloppy. If you just launch right into the next season those issues aren’t going to magically get better. They’re going to get worse.

Finally there’s the mental side. If you’re working hard (as you should), it’s easy to become mentally fatigued as well. That’s not good either.

Taking a little time off – like professional players in all sports do, incidentally – can help recharge the ol’ batteries and get you ready to tackle new challenges.

So my advice to you is to walk away from the practice field (or area) for a bit and let your body heal itself. See a doctor or a physical therapist if you need to. But one way or another, give yourself a break and go do something else for a little while. You (and your body) will really be glad you did.

More...
 
Apr 1, 2017
535
93
Our last game was mid July, fall starts after Labor Day. Sure, there is a little bit of softball for tryouts, but the girls need a break (coaches maybe even more) and time to get rolling with new school year. Fall season will end around Halloween and I don’t care if my daughters touch a softball until winter training begins in January.

Also agree about playing other sports. There a few on the team that do basketball and volleyball. I know they will miss a decent amount of our winter stuff, but that’s fine. They are still actively training and I think it helps with burnout.
 
Aug 19, 2015
1,118
113
Atlanta, GA
Totally off topic:
I dont understand why some schools have softball in the fall. Especially southern schools. I could understand if they did up north because of weather issues but not in the south.

Back on topic, DD had her last game of the summer on July 21st and has not thrown a ball since but we has been swinging the bat to make some off season adjustments.
Locally, there have been tryouts every weekend. Ours is this weekend so she will have to just do what she can do without the extra fielding work. I hope they give us another couple weeks off to get rested and healed.

I don't know why they do it, but the benefit is two-fold:

1. We can play travel ball in the spring when the weather is nice and it's a chance for teams to work through stuff and gel before summer and showcases.
2. College coaches can (and do) scout high school games in GA. Saw Karen Weekly at one of our games last year scouting our SS. The state finals are crawling with college coaches.

The downside:

Being unable to take the break recommended in this post. After school ball, we do showcases in November and then it's strength and conditioning until Feb., when play starts up again. Maybe that counts as a break.
 
Apr 1, 2017
535
93
There was a proposition/resolution (I don’t know what the correct term is for IHSA) last year to make softball a fall sport in Illinois. The reasoning was to allow TB players to be with their travel teams in the spring. It didn’t make it out of comittee, so wasn’t actually voted on.
 

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