Coaching Tips
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Coaching Tips
Please read the following, when considering how much your pitcher will pitch..
This information comes from the American Sports Medicine Institute.
The American Sports Institue in there study on pitching injuries, strongly recommends that Coaches keep a PITCH COUNT. This study was conducted on Pitchers aged 11 & 12.There recommendation is that Pitchers should be held to a Pitch Count of 75.....
In addition, the study concluded that any Pitcher that complains of pain should be removed immediately. The reason for this, is that a child can not always differentiate the difference between soreness and pain.
If the complaint of pain or soreness is ignored, the potential is there for a serious injury.
As far as breaking pitches and other specialty pitches, these put a player at high risk for injury. The breaking pitches(Curveballs)are especially dangerous to the elbow area which could cause damage to the growth plates.
In its recommemdation, the ASMI recommended that the best 2nd Pitch is a change up. This is not only a safe 2nd Pitch, but will also improve the Pitchers performance. If a Pitcher is working off of a good fastball, it will be very difficult for a batter to adjust to a Pitch thrown 15 MPH slower.
In additiion to the above, always consider the weather conditions, is it the beginning of the season. If it is 40 degrees out and it is the beginning of the season, that Pitcher just became at higher risk for injury.
GETTING THE PITCHER READY
1-Always have a Pitcher stretch out his throwing arm before warming up.
2-The warm up throwing should start with light throwing with a gradual increase in velocity.
3-Before a game, a Pitcher should throw at least 30 Pitches.
4-Once the game is underway, the Pitcher should wear a jacket in between innings and while on base. Assign a partner to your pitcher, to be his jacket caddy.
GETTING THE TEAM READY TO PLAY
1-The first thing that should be done when yur players arrive, is to have them run.
2-After they run, the players should stretch out. If they stretch first, they are at higher risk for muscle injuries. Stretching out cold muscles lead to injury. Run first, warm those muscles up before stretching.
3-Have the players pair off and throw. Start them at a short distance(40 feet), so they don't throw to hard at first in an attempt to make a long throw.
4-Once there arms are lose, then you can have them throw at a further distance.
CONSTRUCTIVE BASEBALL RUNNING
When it comes to doing running drills, do drills that are constructive to baseball. Lots of Coaches just have their players run, this is fine for endurance and strengthening, but it doesn't fully address the need of a baseball player.
Baseball players do unique running in games. Their running consists of short distance sprinting. 60 feet/90 feet/120 feet/180 feet, is the usual distance a baseball player runs.
So after having your players do some normal running. Have them do short burst running. Run 60 feet hard, take a 30 second break. Run 90 feet hard, take a 30 second break. Run 120 feet, take a 30 second break. Run 180 feet.
Work on their base running skills. Have them run around the bases. When doing this, have them make the proper cuts and hit the inside corner of the bag.
As for Pitchers, it is extremely important to have a Pitcher run the day after Pitching a game. This aids the recovery process, for a Pitchers arm. The strong blood flow during running, aids in the recovery process.
Make running constructive............
