What Power Pitching Can't Do For You

Here's the thing. We talk often about how we can help you build stability, improve command, eliminate arm pain, create an efficient throwing motion, become explosive, throw harder, rehab injuries, gain strength, improve mobility, and much more. But what we CANNOT do is probably more important for you and is vital for making the most of what we do! Here are 3 things we cannot do and therefore, you must do!

1. Gain Size and Strength We work really, really hard to create explosive pitchers who are stronger when they leave than when they began. Our focus and priority is on arm care...we believe it is THE PRIORITY and so we spend our time on it. We also train explosiveness and train fast-twitch muscle, another major priority for the pitcher. Additionally, by improving mobility pitchers can gain velocity. But the effectiveness of this training is limited by one thing we CANNOT control. Strength and Power! Imagine a normal sized wash cloth that is soaking wet. Now put a bucket under the wash cloth and start squeezing. The water that you squeeze out is improved performance (velocity and control).

Mobility and increased range of motion = squeeze Training explosiveness = squeeze Eliminating throwing inefficiencies = squeeze Gaining stability in the shoulder and scaps = squeeze Eliminating arm pain = big squeeze

At this point we have collected lots of water and the wash cloth is almost completely dry. What else is there? What if instead of a wash cloth we had a towel instead? Then as we trained all of the things above, we extracted almost twice the amount of water because the towel is bigger.

You are the towel. Just imagine, instead of an incredibly mobile and explosive 160 lb. pitcher, you became an incredibly mobile and explosive 180 lb. pitcher? 200 lb. pitcher? "Explosiveness" would have a whole new meaning. Standing on the mound you would feel like an entirely different person. This is what we cannot do for you. It's going to be up to you! You must invest in a professional strength coach (like one we work with here at PTS) and invest in your nutrition like it's the most important thing you do. And the secret. Do it for years consistently, in-season and out of season. 2. Rest from Pitching and Train Instead Okay we say this a lot, but this is the secret sauce. The arm is not meant to throw a baseball. Period. But this is the sport we all have chosen and that's okay. To make the most of it, we must understand this and seriously consider what we can do to be the best we can be. There is no one on the planet who thinks that young pitchers aren't playing enough games. Entire teams of young, talented players are playing dozens of games a year on multiple teams and going down with arm pain at alarming rates. Additionally, hundreds of thousands of pitchers put in years of throwing only to fade out as high school comes to a close, never reaching their potential and never making it to the college level. Put the two together and it's really very simple. These athletes are playing too much and training too little. They are not strong enough in the supporting muscles of the arm/shoulder, and the legs are too weak to deliver the body and arm efficiently. The result many times is pain. Our suggestion, invest in arm care training, invest in a strength program in addition to school workouts, and pitch less. 3. Stick with Your Training Plan for the Long Haul In all honesty, this is really difficult to do. Most young athletes have a hard time finding motivation to train. The great irony? At the next level, college and pro, TRAINING IS THE SPORT. This is a full time job. The thing you will do the LEAST is pitch in games. We encourage our players, even if they don't have aspirations of making it to college, to model their training and work ethic after the best in the game. It all comes down to this...are you willing to begin the process now instead of waiting until it's too late? While we cannot do these things for you, we are prepared to help you do them yourself. We have a strength coach who is currently working with some of our pitchers in a long-term strength program outside of their training here at PTS. Simply ask us if you are interested! We give you valuable research on nutrition and how to turn all of your training into strength and muscle gain, instead of muscle loss through running and other crazy things we hear about schools doing. And lastly, we will be with you for the long-haul, through the ups and downs and hopefully standing with you on signing day!