How Much Should a Pitcher Throw?

How much should a pitcher throw? 

     The better question is how often should a pitcher throw? What does our daily workload consist of? How are we monitoring kids throwing? Most parents dont understand the concept. Its not about weekend games. Its all about the training before the weekend. We have to condition our arms in order to be successful on the weekends. What is our pitch count? Not the coaches pitch count. Parents you should give every coach up to high school your sons pitch count. Dont trust any coach with your sons arm. I am thankful my father did that with me. And while I did not understand it and many of my coaches were pissed about it, my arm is still in great shape today as an old man. Common sense tells us that we should be incredibly careful when reaching the 100-pitch threshold for High School and college kids. Our arms were not meant to travel above our shoulder. There are studies produced by www.littleleague.org with guidance from World Renouned Dr. James Andrews about overuse. You can read about that study here https://www.littleleague.org/partnerships/pitch-smart/overuse-primary-cause-arm-injuries/ . How overuse is defined is what I believe is the biggest issue. I think arms definitely need some time off of no throwing during the year. In my opinion November through December seems like a pretty reasonable time to take the ball out of the throwing hand. You can still work on your mechanics, hitting, and fielding. What we are missing is the training of your arm. The arm is complex. It needs to be trained in order to work correctly and have longevity. No different than your legs with running.

     The biggest problem in youth and high school baseball these days is that pitcher's and position players for that matter do not throw often. They have no schedule. They get 1 or 2 practices in a week if they are lucky, and the practice plan for most coaches does not allow enough time to get proper catch play in. The result is the arm is not conditioned to throw. An example would be: 

     This weekend I am going for a 15-mile run. I have been running a couple times over the last week but only ran for a mile each time. How do you think your body is going to react after or during that 15-mile run? Think you might get a blister or two? Is there a chance your lungs are not prepared? Think you will be sore the next day? 

     Now think in terms of your arm. Are you ready to go out in a game on Saturday or Sunday and are prepared to throw 50+ pitches when you have only played long toss or catch once or twice a week? The answer is no. And that is one of the reason's so many youth and high school players are breaking down over time. They go out on the weekend and throw 70 + pitches and have no played long toss or catch since the last time they pitched. So how do we condition our arms to be able to throw on the weekends? The answer is we need to throw more often during the weekdays. We need to train our arms to be able to handle the workload of the weekend. And hopefully our coach also cares about the number of pitches we make in a weekend. USA Baseball and Little League have done a great job of setting pitch counts for youth baseball. I wish that all travel ball organizations would adopt it. There is no excuse for any coach to abuse an arm just to win a weekend tournament nobody will remember in a month. 

    So, what is a proper schedule. I think kids should throw at the least 3 times a week. I was an early adopter of Alan Jaeger's ideas of "feeding your arm." Your arm tells you how much to throw. "Listen to your arm." I am happy to say at age 45 after pitching through high school, college, pro ball, and a short stint in the Major Leagues, I never missed a start because of an arm injury. I pulled my hamstring once and that is it. I never missed a single start due to arm injury. I thank Alan Jaeger and my college coach Dave Snow for that. I threw every day of my career except when we had days off. Yes, EVERY SINGLE DAY. How much I threw depended on how my arm felt. The day after a start I usually threw anywhere from 90-120 feet just to get the blood flowing. Day 2 was long toss and short bullpen. Day 3 was Long toss and long bullpen. Day 4 was whatever my arm felt like and super short bullpen. Yes, I threw 3 bullpens in between each start. Most teammates thought I was crazy. My Pitching Coach in AAA Rick Rodriguez thought I was crazy at first, but after 3 years in AAA he believed in my program. He was often my catch play partner. How does that translate into youth and high school arms? THROW MORE OFTEN. 

    As I said in the previous paragraph, kids need to play catch and adhere to a throwing program at least 3 times a week. I would love to see 4 times a week. What does that throwing program consist of varies by each individual? I do believe we need at least 2 days of long toss minimum. Every pitcher should throw a short flat ground pen as part of their throwing program. What does a long toss program look like? Again, like Jaeger says, "you can’t put a number or time limit on it." Listen to your arm. I teach all my pitchers and players the same program. It works.  

    After doing the Jaeger Band warmup routine:

        10 Throws at 45 feet to get loose

        3 steps back 3 throws

        3 steps back 3 throws

        3 steps back 3 throws

        Keep doing this until you reach your max distance (max distance is a 1 hop to partner)

        Each Throw should have a nice arc on it once you get past 65 feet

        From max distance we come in 3 steps and make firm throws all the way to 90 feet.

        3 steps in 1 throw

        3 steps in 1 throw

        3 steps in 1 throw

        to 90 feet

        At 90 feet we throw 10 changeups (this really teaches you to keep your arm speed)

        After 10 Changeups 3 steps in 1 throw to 60 feet

        Once we are back to 60 feet, we throw short flat ground bullpens

        Here you can work on fb command, breaking balls, and changeups.

        Should be no more than 15 pitches.

        And done Now time to go throw a bullpen if it is your bullpen day.

 

    Non long toss days you follow the same program but limit the distance to what your arm feels like. Always be cognizant of your arm. It will tell you what to do. It’s an integral part to learning ourselves as we grow older in this game and you will find that the more in tune you are with your body, the more command and control you will have over the ball. 

Any questions feel free to email me or hit me up on Instagram @marcusrayjones or twitter @nationalclassic 

Alan Jaeger and Jaeger Sports have nothing to do with this blog. I simply love his teaching and made it a part of my career. I think every player should have Jaeger Bands in their bag and follow him on twitter and read all his articles on www.jaegersports.com