Growing up as a kid I found myself, just like thousands of other youth baseball players around the world fall victim to the “local guru”baseball instructor. I wanted to get better, my parents wanted me to get better, therefore, the only logical option was to pay 50 dollars an hour twice a week for someone to tell you what you’re doing right and wrong with no evidence to back their theories or methods. I would show up twice a week and be given no warmup routine or structure. The only warm up routine I had was to pick up a baseball throw it into a net until I was ready to get on the mound. From there they would tell me all the internal things I was doing wrong. I was “flying open” I wasn’t “pulling down on the ball” or “insert generic cue here.” I’m going to stop here because these scenarios happen far too often and I’m sure we’ve all either witnessed this routine or experienced it first-hand. If you find yourself or your son in this situation stop and walk out the door. You’re getting robbed. My point is more than half of youth baseball is exposed to this type of coaching. I’m sure most coaches have the right intentions but unfortunately the information is not there. Outlined are a few large and common flaws I see when dealing with early-stage high school athletes and teenagers.
1. “The Velocity Will Come.”
This is one of my personal favorites. I have witnessed the progression of youth athletes be told “Don’t try to throw hard, the velocity will come.” This statement couldn’t be falser. If you focus on just throwing strikes, you’ll not only produce a slow twitch pitcher but you’re also debilitating their sharpness of secondary pitches. Attached is a short interview of All-Star Pitcher Zack Greinke talking about his pitch grips and how he throws them.
Click here to watch the full video.
“I just grip my change up and throw it as hard as I can.” If one of the greatest pitchers in baseball takes that approach why do members of the youth baseball community think they know more without access to a fraction of Greinke’s resources? Telling a youth pitcher that velocity will come is the equivalent of telling a power lifter togo into the weight room and don’t try to lift anything too heavy. Don’t worry you’ll just naturally get stronger. There are two phases to really utilize a child’s maturity rate, the first is from the age of 9-12 (for most kids) If you tell a kid to throw as hard as they can with a target in mind these movements will not only be cleaner because the body is compressed for time, but you will also set the foundation for a better throwing life cycle. The second span would be their early teenage years roughly 14-15 when this same cycle can take place. My point is simple: throw hard with a target in mind.
2. “Don’t lift heavy you’ll lose flexibility and won’t be able to throw a baseball”
Here are two of the most elastic players in the game in both hitting and pitching lifting heavy. Here’s the same pitcher showcasing extreme mobility while maintaining a brutal amount of strength.
My point here is this: once the athlete understands how to move i.e., hinge, push, pull etc. we should be working towards setting them up for a foundation of strength.
How We Applied These Simple Concepts
In the fall of 2020, I was asked to program a freshman travel team called the Rubber City Renegades. It took some time to formulate the best plan of attack for the athletes. I initially thought I could just dive right into it and individualize all their programs, but it made me take a step back and realize there’s lower hanging fruit here. The main question I kept asking myself was “where did my coaches miss when I was in high school? What did I wish I had as a player?” Those two questions drove my road map. The first step was to screen the athletes both physically and mechanically. I wanted to see how athletic these kids were while searching for any major flaws or red flags without supplying any word salad or jargon to confuse the athlete in any of the assessments. This information was for our eyes only. Once the screening was done, we needed to set the base. I drew up an on ramping phase that would clean up any mechanical flaws and prepare their arms for a heavy amount of intensity and volume. From a strength standpoint I needed to focus on what really could make the biggest difference. Their pecs, thoracic spine, internal and external rotation needed heavy work. I didn’t want to waste anytime on useless exercises since we only had about 2 hours a few times a week. Once we finished a simple and effective landmine routine to get the kids moving a bit better, we spent the rest of their time strengthening through lengthening. Isometrics were a key component to their programming because they offered an approach to add mobility while implementing strength and elasticity. Once the athletes were connected, we spent the next 2 months focusing solely on being athletic and throwing hard. None of these kids were PO’s and it would be a disservice to their development to do anything other than create athletic elite throwers. We would proceed to pulldown twice a week with 2 moderate intensity days and 1 recovery day. After every three weeks the athletes would deload, meaning no high intensity throwing for that week.
The results?
Pretty astonishing. On average the athletes gained 8 mph to their pulldown and 5 mph off the mound. Click here for a short pulldown clip. Even more impressive is that 9 of the 13 athletes made their varsity team as a freshman and showed up to tryouts possessing more physicality than most of the upperclassmen. On top of that, they have had one perfect game and 4 complete shutouts from the team. These are 14-year-olds kids competing against young adults and dominating. After a year of this type of training, there are several athletes sitting in the upper 80’s as sophomores in high school.
Overall, the progression and development for youth athletes should be simple. Allow them to amplify their athleticism through their sportand make sure they have fun while they do it. For more information regarding youth training, contacttraining@connected-performance.com.