Prep Baseball Report

Become a Member

More +

Pitching 101: Strong and Flexible

December 18, 2018
Dan Cevette
President, New York



 

The column, Pitching 101, was inspired by Pitching and Catching classroom meetings throughout my professional career.  The content is based on my experiences and my journey and these are my opinions. 

I tend to get asked a lot of questions about baseball, mainly pitching. I was a Professional Baseball Pitcher for 11 years for three different MLB Organizations where I was able to gain a great deal of knowledge on pitching from some pretty impressive instructors.  Some of those being; John Farrell, Scott Radinsky, Charles Nagy, and Steve Belcher just to name a few. I have also been lucky enough to have the opportunity to sit down with Giants Gold Glove Catcher Kurt Manwaring (1992) a time or two. Now let's get started...

Strength and Flexibility

The Back Story - For anyone that follows my twitter account they know I'm all about getting bigger, faster, and stronger - but that wasn't always the case. Throughout my high school playing years, baseball was anything but that. Baseball is a skilled sport that is extremely challenging to have consistent success at and at the time, weight lifting was a subject that was frowned upon by the "baseball elders". But, like any good solider, I kept my head down, worked hard, and respected the guidance that came from my coaches, instructors, and mentors. In 2002, I walked across my HS auditorium stage, 6-foot-4 and 165-pounds soaking wet, following a third round draft pick by the Cleveland Indians. 

Over the course of my playing career I have established several pitching "absolutes".  I have incorporated these "absolutes" in every aspect of baseball I've been involved with; recruiting, coaching, instruction, and scouting.  Two of these "absolutes" being strength and flexibility, which in my opinion, are two very critical pieces determining the success of any pitcher. 

Strength - I want my pitchers working on total body strength, it's that simple. I want them powerful. Power is the ability to generate high levels of force in a short period of time. I want every body part geared towards gaining strength, with an even greater amount of detail being placed on the muscles that help decelerate the throwing arm. I've found two methods to training/lifting that have helped get me to a powerful place as an athlete - training with weight and training using velocity (speed of the reps). 

Flexibility - the quality of bending easily without breaking. Above we talked about strength and gaining powerful muscle, but without enhanced flexibility we won't be able to fully benefit from the strength gains. The areas I want my pitchers to focus on are; shoulders, hips, lower back, and hamstrings. If you're really serious about taking your mound game to the next-level you should spend no less than 30 minutes a day working on increasing your flexibility in those areas. 

So how do we get more strength and flexibility accomplished? It takes a great deal of time, effort, and commitment to change your body into a stronger more flexible machine. You should also consult with a certified trainer who understands your goals and could provide you with the attention you need. Best of luck to you this off-season.