Building Strong Pitchers Part 1
Counting/Tracking pitch counts is roughly 10% of actually building up pitchers to compete at their best throughout the season.
Pitches thrown in a game are usually less than ½ the total throws made by the pitcher that game anyway, sometimes as low as 10%. When you take into account warmup throws in catch play, warmup throws on the mound and then add in throws in between innings: it can really start to add up at the end of the day.
Now follow that up with the additional throws you make when you slide your athlete over to SS or 3rd base and how they have to play the rest of the weekend. It can really add up.
If you want to really go crazy, you could have them wear an arm sensor that measures stress, and calculate it out daily to determine workload ratios between chronic and acute workloads.
But even then, most of the time you aren't even allowed to wear these sensors during the game, or if you forget to charge it on a start day or forget it at home for a weekend away then its over and you have none of your information.
There has to be a better way…..
Unfortunately not really, and that's ok.
Even in professional baseball, arm sensors are worn by roughly 1% of pitchers in game and ZERO of them are doing so in the major leagues.
Correct me if I am wrong, but no pitcher has ever worn an arm sensor in a major league baseball game.
If we are going to do the best job we can, it is on us to find a different way. This includes creating structure and actually having a plan in regards to the who what when of your teams throwing for the weekend.
I know in youth baseball things can get a little crazy, things aren't always going to be able to stick completely to the program.
BUT
You have to do your best, and we are here to help.
Every team knows *roughly* who the best 3-4 pitchers are, and those kids are going to start a game pretty much every weekend.
THIS is where your blueprint starts. Build a plan for what those players' weeks look like. Tell them what day they need to throw a bullpen, tell them what day to long toss, tell them what day(s) to take off and tell them what days to lift.
MAYBE this costs you a game or two over the course of the season because you cant bring one in on short rest to close out a PIVOTAL game (that is sarcasm, ZERO tournaments are important enough in youth baseball to risk someone's arm).
BUT if you do this, and you really hammer down the basics of improving and developing players you will be able to make up the difference in wins by being able to win more games because you will have better pitchers and players.
Not to mention the possibility of tens of thousands in a single year's scholarship money. Or the realized dreams that your players will get to attain and be forever grateful for.
These things are easy, and can be done relatively simply if you take the 20-30 minutes to plan it out.
EXAMPLE:
Monday:Upper Body lift, no throwing.
Tuesday: Lower Body Lift, Medium Catch play.
Wednesday: Bullpen, 30 Pitches, can longtoss before if you want.
Thursday:Light catching/ Total Body lift.
Friday:Light catching
Saturday: Start a game. 4 innings/65 Pitches (you can build up to more)
Sunday: Low effort catch play, get ready to play the game but dont do anything too stressful. AVOID catching.
This might literally be my job, but that took me literally 3 minutes.
Its not perfect, but nothing is truly perfect.
Now, what are you going to do to fill the rest of the innings?
Take your secondary pitchers (the kids who are primary fielders, but can also pitch) and finish the games. Have 4-5 pitchers who can throw 1-2 innings a piece generally and bang youve filled out your weekend.
I know what you're thinking “It would be easy if we had that many pitchers”
Well, do your job.
It's not too hard to get 4-5 kids to be serviceable pitchers. Not lights out relievers, but simply dudes that can throw the ball over the plate consistently.
This shouldn't be too crazy, and when you are building your teams you should take into account things like this before finalizing the roster. Maybe you have to scour the facebook pages for a guest player to fill the gaps and give you the extra inning or two.
Best of Luck
John