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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...

PITCHING 101: Preparing for Spring in the Northeast

Today marks a new beginning which means it's time to start thinking about getting your body, arm, and mind ready for the upcoming Spring season. Unfortunately, this time of year is typically accompanied with low temperatures and snow covered grounds. This is true for nearly all northeast HS/College/Pro pitchers and this is by far the hardest challenge we face when trying to get our arms ready to compete come Spring. Today I will  share helpful tips and strategies to help you get your arm ready for the upcoming season when faced with such barriers. 

It's safe to assume that most won't have access to a large indoor facility seven-days a week.  However, there are still other opportunities to get in shape with limited resources and space.  Over the years I learned to be creative and improvise with the resources that were available to me.  With this plan you will need to throw inside at least 1-2 times per week to accomplish light bullpen work. In addition to this, I will share a list of things that you can use to accomplish arm strength training with limited space which will be essential to getting in shape for the upcoming spring season.        
 

Things You Need for Arm-Training:
Resistance bands (I recommend Jaeger Bands), two light five-pound weights, two-pound small plyo-ball, one body blade, and a medium sized towel. (total cost is around $100)

Things You Need for Throwing:
Regulation weight baseball, regulation weight 12-inch softball, large 8 x 8 moving blanket/tarp and a garage/basement/barn/larger shed to hang it.

Arm-Training Schedule:
I'm a huge believer in listening to your body, and in this case your arm. I tried to get something accomplished six-days a week allowing for one complete day of rest. I've done some research to find videos online that basically describe the drills I personally used to get my self ready. As you will see below, you don't need any large space for these, you simply need to use your creative side and some effort.

Bands Routine - Watch Coach Justin from Ultimate Baseball Training. I personally recommend 4-6 days a week. UBTFREE.com





You will need your five-pounds weights for these exercises. I personally recommend 3 days a week.





Two-pound Plyo Ball for these. I personally recommend 3-5 days a week.

Body Blade exercises. I personally recommend 4-6 days a week.

Medium Sized Towel. Watch Coach Justin from Ultimate Baseball Training demonstrate. I personally recommend 4-6 days a week. UBTFREE.com

Throwing Schedule:
Now this is something that you will develop based on what works best for you.  Personally, I liked to get my bullpen work in on Wednesdays in the off-season. I used Monday, Friday, Saturday as a heavier throwing day, and Tuesday, Thursday as lighter. With Wednesday being the only day I threw at an indoor facility I needed to get creative for the alternative days.  I used a thick canvas, similar to a moving blanket, and I hung it from our garage ceiling area. On the canvas I made two visible tape marks. One roughly four-in-a-half feet up, the other close to seven feet high. The lower one read 60-90 ft, the higher one read 120-150 ft. These marks gave me a visual target to aim at for shorter and longer throws - now, this worked for me, but again, you will need to do what works best for you, this is just a suggestion.   

Monday (Week 1)

• 25 throws into moving blanket at 60-90 ft mark, regulation weight Softball
• 25 throws into moving blanket at 60-90 ft mark, regulation weight Baseball
• 15 throws into moving blanket at 120-150 ft mark, Softball
• 10 throws into moving blanket at 120-150 ft mark, Baseball

Tuesday

• 20 throws into moving blanket at 60-90 ft mark, Softball
• 15 throws into moving blanket at 60-90 ft mark, Baseball
• 10 throws into moving blanket at 120-150 ft mark, Softball
• 5 throws into moving blanket at 120-150 ft mark, Baseball

Wednesday

• Light Bullpen work

Thursday (Repeat Tuesday)
Friday and Saturday (Repeat Monday)

Each week I would increase my amount of throwing based on how I felt. Typically by six weeks I would be throwing each set times (x) two with slight increases in the amount of throws.  This schedule can be flexible, based on what day(s) you have access to indoor space.  This article is designed to help, these are my opinions and they are based on my professional experiences - please share and best of luck.

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