Off Season

"Rest Without Rust"

Winter is the time for a player to rest both physically and mentally from baseball. It is a time to evaluate the pluses and minuses from your season, prepare a plan to improve upon weaknesses and bolster your strengths. It is not a time to sit and do nothing.

A concern for me comes from listening to high school athletes tell me they not be playing a winter sport for their school because they want to train solely for baseball season. This dedication is great, but the reality of the situation is this - it is a long cold winter with a lot of holiday celebration, school distractions, and flat out cold, miserable weather. All of which make it very, very difficult for a player to maintain good conditioning for spring. Plus, your baseball muscles need a break to revitalize. Your baseball conditioning could backfire on you without the proper planning of your off season program.

Here are some of my thoughts on preparing yourself for next baseball season:

1. The best time to get started for spring is the fall. Treat the fall season, whether you play in a competitive league or a practice format, as a learning period. Try new pitches, new approaches and new routines. Use trial and error in finding what works best for you. Seeing how your pitches come off the bats of the hitters you face will guide you more quickly toward what is most effective for you.
   
2. Think of fall as a "cool down" period. A great deal of effective learning can come from throwing all your pitches either from a shorter distance, at say half to ¾ speed, on flat ground, or without a catcher squatting behind a plate. You need to keep a "touch" on your pitches much like a great basketball player needs to keep a touch on his or her jumper. Quality repetitions are the key.
   
3. Take your workouts deep into the fall. The best chance for a successful spring will come from the work you do in the prior fall. Some of the most successful young pitchers I have worked with attribute the fact they worked on their pitching outdoors all the way into December in some cases. Less down time meant less "rust" on their pitches and allowed them to get back into game pitching shape more quickly.
   
4. Give your arm some much needed R&R. After doing your fall throwing let your arm have a break. If you pitch to November 15 and start up again with a pre-season program on February 15 that is a good three months of total rest.
   
5. Want to add some mph on the fastball? Try getting into a long toss routine, this is the one way I know of that will help you build up arm strength by developing your pitching specific muscles. An idea for your fall routine may be incorporating a pattern of 50% long toss and 50% spinning your pitches with proper windup and throwing motion in each workout session.
   
6. Running is a good thing to do. Discipline and commitment is so important to all student-athletes. Some pitchers don't have the make-up to keep their fitness level up during the off-season without someone to help them along. By making your running routine somewhat enjoyable you will find a way to stay on a routine through the cold months. Work the legs until you know they are tired. Take a day or two off during the week but don't stop the routine.