Pitchers - Effective Offseason Workout

Winter off-season training for pitchers should include drills and workouts that enhance and improve the pitcher's repertoire or ammunition and will have a direct effect on their performance from the out set of the season opener. Too often, pitchers and coaches have a goal to maintain abilities through the winter and try to ensure that skills do not decline through the decreasing number or total absence of pitches.

Off-season training is primetime to make corrections and improvements in form and pitches while also increasing strength and stamina in preparation for a demanding spring and/or summer schedule.

The following are focus points of off-season training.

Form Adjustments and Corrections
Throughout the season of competition, pitchers will often times pick up bad habits (as a result of fatigue or pressure situations), that will stick with them. To prevent these bad habits from carrying over into another season, the pitchers and their coaches should do a slow-motion video analysis to check form and look for areas that could improve efficiency and/or speed.

To improve or correct form after identifying weaknesses, start slow and close with warm-up focusing on troubled areas(s) and make sure correction is obtained before progressing further or faster. Sometimes this will take an hour and sometimes weeks, but the pitcher should continue to incorporate the correction into the warm-up. Eventually, it will stick into the full-speed pitch.

A good drill that will reflect form problems is "distance pitching." To distance pitch, the pitcher should start at normal distance and gradually back up. The catcher should stand up and receive a chest high pitch at about 75% effort from the pitcher.

Average distances are:
Ages 7-9: 50'-60'
Ages 10-12: 60'-70'
Ages13-14: 70'-80'
High School Ages: 80'-110'
College Ages: 110'+

If form problems occur such as tight follow through, lagging drag, or posture change, the ball will not carry the distance. Distance pitching is also a good warm up drill.

Control Work
A pitcher's biggest asset is to be able to throw the ball where she needs to. Off-season is the perfect time to polish and perfect location pitches without the pressure of game situations.

Control must become a habit, so by spring when the pressure is on, it will not affect accuracy. It is important to note that most pitchers often overestimate their abilities in accuracy and fail to give ample attention to improving.

To improve control, use stationary targets such as 8" by 8" taped targets on a wall or net so that a hit or miss is not in question. Set a specific group of targets such as up-and-in, up-and-out, down-and-in and down-and-out and have the pitcher throw 10 to each target.

Once a week or once every two weeks have a "target test" and check for improvement. Pitchers should be 80%-90% accurate at each target. Pitchers should practice target pitching 3-5 times/week. Catchers can be used in the practice sessions also.

Another control drill that is helpful is to place a dummy batter (i.e. football dummy, plyometric box, or Lisa Fernandez cardboard stand-up) at the plate in different batter locations and work tight and away pitches depending on location of batter. This builds confidence without the risk of hitting a live batter with a mistake.

Movement Pitches
Going into the off-season workout, a pitcher needs to evaluate each pitch and its effectiveness last season. (For instance; Did the change up work? Did it get hit? Did it get hit hard? Could it be thrown for a strike? Was it a strike-out or go-to pitch?) An honest evaluation by pitcher, catcher, and coach should show clearly what pitches need work and what that work should be. Also, it is a great idea to try and add one useful pitch to the repertoire.