Use The ABCs For Conditioning Youth Pitchers To Keep It Fun

What specifically should we focus on to help kids get fit to pitch with improved mechanics rather than trying to build strength? We recommend the ABCs:

• Agility
• Balance
• Coordination

Focusing on movement drills that emphasize these aspects will insure that pitchers are able to move better on the mound so they can build forward momentum into a longer stride for improved velocity and control while staying injury free.

By focusing on movement drills rather than balancing on one leg for 5 or 10 seconds, kids learn dynamic balance or balance while they are moving. After all does it make any sense to do a balance drill standing balanced on one leg when pitching is all about moving from the back leg to the front leg? It does not.

So the good old “balance drill,” very popular at the youth levels, is virtually a waste of time since it doesn’t contain the important element of movement. So stop balancing on one leg and have these youth pitchers moving forward from one leg to the other or side to side. That teaches balance.

We offer a conditioning program for pitchers of all ages, Little League, high school, or college. We believe functional strength or strengthening the movement rather than individual muscles is far better for pitchers of all ages.

We offer a specific conditioning program for ages 9-13. However, we only recommend this program to pitchers 9-13 who only play baseball as opposed to other pitchers who play multiple sports, because we know that playing other sports has the added benefit of creating better overall movement skills.

If, however, your son plays only baseball, then a structured program that emphasizes the ABCs—agility, balance and coordination—along with some light weight resistance training, is very beneficial. A well planned out conditioning program for these ages will help them develop better movement skills so that they are focusing on training pitching movements rather than just muscle groups.

Recommended Conditioning Exercises

Here is a list of exercises we use in our program that helps keep it fun, but very effective for improving overall pitching fitness:

• Agility exercises, such as one legged hops, side-to-side hops, or karaoke (but don’t overdo these, more is not better)
• Forward-backward running, running in place
• The medicine ball for a variety of different exercises and throws (possibly the best overall exercise for pitcher’s upper body)
• Lower body plyometrics, which are great for lower body power (explosive jumping and landing drills)
• Forward, side lunges and skater lunges – mimics what pitchers do while striding toward the plate
• One legged squats, since pitching is a one-legged activity two legged squats have limited value
• Push-ups, several different varieties

Plus all sorts of light dumbbells and flexible tubing exercises—but remember, too much can be worse than not enough.

We recommend keeping each pre-season session fun by limiting them to 20-30 minutes, three times a week. A ten week program that focuses on variety keeps it effective but interesting. When parents participate, it is our experience that parents end up in better condition as well. It also helps keep the child motivated.

Once pitchers are in condition they only need a couple of sessions per week during the season to maintain their overall general fitness levels. Again, a pitcher’s energy during the season should be focused on improving his pitching, not his conditioning.

Remember, improving mechanics from ages of 8-13 should be the main focus whether pitchers are looking for improved velocity, better control and less risk of injury.

Conditioning alone will not improve either velocity or reduce the risk of injury. Those who sell conditioning programs based on just improving velocity are not serving the baseball publics best interests.