There is No Off-Season: Part 3

Andy Ferguson: Another Day, Another Double Play

THROWING

Any throwing plan, regardless of the season, must take into account two important aspects: arm care/health, and arm strength development. In what we are calling the “opportunity season”, arm care/health is not quite as important as it is in the playing season – simply based on the fact that you are not playing games.

In other words, you can focus on arm strength development more this time of year – though you always must be smart about it, and realize that arm health is always important.

That being said, many players will go out now and recklessly long toss and end up hurting themselves. You need to come up with a plan that allows you to gradually build up your throwing workouts, you can’t just go all out from the start – just like with your workouts in the gym, you have to allow the strength gains to happen gradually.

If you don’t have a throwing partner, don’t worry. A bucket of baseballs and some space is all you need. I used to take a bucket of balls and a tee to a park near my house growing up – I hit first, and then used the tee as my throwing target. It takes a little extra time to pick all the balls and put them back in bucket, but for most of us it’s either that or do the best with whatever arm strength we were born with.

5 Keys to Productive Workouts

1. Incorporate the footwork, exchange and arm action specific to your position into your throwing program. This is important in order to effectively gain usable arm strength.

Catchers & Infielders
* Do not lengthen your arm action coming out of the glove – keep your arm action realistic
* Do not pump, pop or re-grip the ball in your glove. Get it out and keep it out – keep your exchange realistic
* Step through with right foot (left if you throw left), do not step behind – keep your footwork realistic

Outfielders & Pitchers
* Make sure your arm action is long enough out of the glove (remember “thumb to thigh, fingers high” for proper arc)
* Use a crow hop (drive arm side leg forward and through as shoulders align with target and glove meets throwing hand)

2. You should start out making throws of about 60 feet, then move to 90 feet, 120 feet, etc. Increase the range of your target by about 30 feet at time. Your maximum range should increase a little with each workout. You should reduce the target range gradually as you cool down – always end your workout at close range, around 60 feet or so. Workouts should be in the range of 20-30 minutes, with somewhere between 5-10 throws at each distance.

An example of an early workout may look like this (target distance in feet): 60, 90, 120, 150, 180, 120, 60. If you start here, increase the 180 (longest target) to about 200 feet after a couple of weeks, etc. I can see no reason for your longest target to ever be more than 250-300 feet away – your throws will have too much loop at such a long distance, at a time when you should be working on increasing carry and strength on the ball while keeping a realistic trajectory. (SEE ILLUSTRATIONS)

3. It is my opinion that your shoulders should remain parallel to the ground, and that you should carry the ball as far as you can on a realistic trajectory. (SEE ILLUSTRATIONS)

4. You should absolutely have a defined target, and should focus on hitting the target as you increase and decrease your range. Ideally, your target is vertical (like a pole) – it is acceptable to miss high or low, though not acceptable to miss left or right. What good is arm strength without accuracy?

5. Develop a weekly plan that builds on itself. For most players, I would recommend only one long toss session in weeks 1 and 2 (Monday for example). Give your arm plenty of rest, and if you feel good add another session in week 3 or 4 (Monday and Thursday for example). If you feel good after 6 weeks or so, work up to where you long toss / take two days off / long toss. Make sure to give your arm days off, where you don’t throw - instead stretch and do Jobe exercises (bands and/or light weights to strengthen shoulder supporting muscles).

Andy Ferguson is currently the Senior Director of Baseball Operations with the Baseball Factory. Ferguson joined the North Carolina State baseball team as a walk-on, and went on to solidify his role on a team that participated in four consecutive NCAA Regionals. He later coached with the Harwich Mariners of the Cape Cod Baseball League, and then served as an Associate Scout with the Pittsburgh Pirates and the San Diego Padres.

There Is No Off-Season: Part 2

Andy Ferguson: Another Day, Another Double Play

Remember, it’s the “opportunity season”…not the off-season. Treat it as such if you have aspirations to play baseball in college or beyond. If not, stick with texting and Guitar Hero like everyone else.

Last week we covered ACADEMICS and STRENGTH & AGILITY TRAINING.

SKILL DEVELOPMENT

There aren’t any big leaguers that don’t work to improve at least one skill between the end of their last game and the start of spring training. In fact, you’d probably be amazed at how hard 95% of them actually work on all facets of their game. Sure, it’s their job to be a baseball player…but I seriously doubt that guys all of the sudden start working once they get to the big leagues. You have to learn how to learn and learn how to work in order to get anywhere at anything.

Most hitters would benefit greatly from tee work. A particularly helpful drill for most is what we call the “high tee drill”. Raise the tee so that the ball is about chest height, and position the tee so the ball is about even with your front hip. Work to stay on top and hit backspin line drives (ideally down the length of a batting cage, we call this a “back panel drill”). This series of drills will force you to deliver the barrel to contact on a proper angle, and will help you extend the barrel properly through contact – thus creating backspin.

Infielders and catchers can always work to improve their exchange (the move to get the ball from your glove into your throwing hand). This should be a simple and compact action, and it should take place basically as soon as the ball enters your glove. However, most young players hold the ball in their glove too long and then make way too big of a movement to actually transfer the ball. As a rule (at least in my opinion), infielders should exchange the ball below knee level while catchers should exchange the ball on the second base side of the middle of their chest and only slightly below chin height. Go through some dry repetitions at your position and examine your action. Mirror work starting at a slow speed will help you feel the proper action.

Pitchers would benefit from learning to break their hands in sequence with their delivery. A lot of young pitchers break their hands too high (up near chin level), which makes their arm path much longer than normal and requires a very early separation of the hands (in relation to the stride leg beginning towards home plate). The goal is for the arm path to have fully completed at the same time as the stride (front) foot lands – when done properly, the pitcher would arrive at what we call a “power T” position (weight favoring back leg = power, elbows parallel with the slope of the mound and in direct line with the mitt = T). Mirror work will help you determine the sequence of your delivery. You can adjust both the height at which your hands break, and at what point you break your hands (before or simultaneous for most, very rarely after) in relation to the stride leg beginning towards the plate.

These are just examples, and certainly do not represent the only things you can work on. The first step is to evaluate your own abilities, for more on this topic please read (or hopefully re-read) Steve Bernhardt’s Plan of Action series: (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3).

Coming next week: THROWING (Sorry…I originally planned throwing as part of this entry, but skill development got a little long)

Andy Ferguson is currently the Senior Director of Baseball Operations with the Baseball Factory. Ferguson joined the North Carolina State baseball team as a walk-on, and went on to solidify his role on a team that participated in four consecutive NCAA Regionals. He later coached with the Harwich Mariners of the Cape Cod Baseball League, and then served as an Associate Scout with the Pittsburgh Pirates and the San Diego Padres.