To any baseball players/pitchers

[CoopDawg]

First off i am new here so if im ragged on for giving advice im sorry. I dont know how many people here pitch/play baseball if any.

I have been playing baseball since the age of 5 im 18 now. I have been a pitcher since i was 10 years old. Im in my senior year of baseball and have a fastball at 91 mph and its all because of research i have been doing since i was around 13 years old.

There are 65% of coaches that tell their pitches squat,deadlift,run,bench press. These are all great but most of these grow a nice front upper body. Yes squat does work some back to but not quite enough. A pitcher has accelerator and decelerator muscles. When a pitcher drags his foot on the follow through of the pitch its to catch the arm and slow it down. Now this only half helps. If all the accelerator muscles are strong but the decelerator muscles (the smaller muscles in the back mostly in and around the labram in the shoulder and shoulder cartiledge) and basicall the whole side of the back on the pitching arm side which for me is the right side of my back. Now if these back muscles are off balance and not strong enough not only will sitting posture be off but.... The baseball is a weight YES a weight light but a weight. With the ball in hand the decelerator muscles dont matter but upon release if the back muscles cant slow down the arm fast enough their will be tears in the shoulder just because those back muscles could not slow the arm down. The least will be slight tears if you are lucky the worst would be torn rotator cuff which will end a season. So any pitcher needs a basic setup of pull ups, chin up, one arm dumbell rows, then comes the bench, squat, over head press, and deadlift,

Sorrry if i rambled on or if this was useless news but i have seen this happen to many people and seasons be ended.

[BendtheBar]

Originally Posted by CoopDawg

First off i am new here so if im ragged on for giving advice im sorry. I dont know how many people here pitch/play baseball if any.

We don't jump anyone here. Trolls get banned fast

I think the exercises you listed are all a good quality core. I wouldn't recommend any routine that doesn't include staple compounds for all bodyparts. Deadlifts, squats and press are great, but you also need rows, overhead work, hamstring work, and perhaps even some heavy side bends/ oblique work.

I played baseball and basketball through college. After a year of heavy squatting and focusing on heavy compounds, my vertical jump went through the roof, I became an extremely fast runner, I could throw around 90 and hit the ball a lot farther. I attribute the squat to much of my sprinting and leaping improvements.

[jwood]

I agree with BTB here, I played baseball throughout my whole life and now play rugby in college. I hit the mid 80's in high school but focused on hitting. I think the squat is the most important exercise for an athlete of any kind. Compounds should be the focus of everyone's workouts. Rows and pullups are necessary but I would not put them ahead of squats for any athlete.

I noticed the biggest difference in my baseball abilities once I started to hit the squats hard. Leg drive off the mound is crucial to a pitcher, and quad and hamstring strength are very important to hitting as well. Also, jump training really helped my athletics too, either box jumps, squat jumps, etc. are all good.

Don't forget about your plyometrics, very important for baseball so easy to tweak something after a winter of lifting hard.

[CoopDawg]

Everything you just said is perfectly true. The squat will make anybody come off the mound like a madman and make the push give an extra 5 mph on the fastball. I just wanted to help give some people some information so thats what i done. I agree on the jumping and running faster also the squat sent my 11 th grade 5.2 in the 40 yard dash to my 12th grade year 4.6 in the 40.

[jwood]

All good stuff here, we were just merely added to what you said. Nothing you said was wrong just giving another perspective.

You gonna start a workout log here? I am always interested in the routines of serious young athletes.

[CoopDawg]

Originally Posted by jwood

I agree with BTB here, I played baseball throughout my whole life and now play rugby in college. I hit the mid 80's in high school but focused on hitting. I think the squat is the most important exercise for an athlete of any kind. Compounds should be the focus of everyone's workouts. Rows and pullups are necessary but I would not put them ahead of squats for any athlete.

I noticed the biggest difference in my baseball abilities once I started to hit the squats hard. Leg drive off the mound is crucial to a pitcher, and quad and hamstring strength are very important to hitting as well. Also, jump training really helped my athletics too, either box jumps, squat jumps, etc. are all good.

Don't forget about your plyometrics, very important for baseball so easy to tweak something after a winter of lifting hard.

I understand every point made but what i was mentioning is that squat makes the throw strong but if the back cant slow the arm down its only gonna cause injury thats why i made the point about decelerator muscles but like bendthebar said compounds are key

[CoopDawg]

Originally Posted by jwood

All good stuff here, we were just merely added to what you said. Nothing you said was wrong just giving another perspective.

You gonna start a workout log here? I am always interested in the routines of serious young athletes.

I sure will be starting a log i graduate high school in about 2 months and will be hitting the log hard before my college career starts

[jwood]

You are very correct there, and I agree that it is an important aspect that coaches usually forget about. Pitchers need to do some very specialized workouts and should not just be lifting weights like everyone else.

[Mombow111]

Excuse my ignorance on the subject, I never was a big sports guy but just out of curiosity I was wondering if you ever practice with a weighted ball.

[CoopDawg]

Originally Posted by jwood

You are very correct there, and I agree that it is an important aspect that coaches usually forget about. Pitchers need to do some very specialized workouts and should not just be lifting weights like everyone else.

Exactly right every coach thinks about the speed the pitcher throws not what he needs to successfully complete the motion. Yes any pitcher who just goes and works out like everyone else and doesnt complete the full process needed will cause injury to themselves.

Thanks for the replies guys