“Off-season” throwing routine - stay sharp or just rest?

[radness]

Not saying this was directed at me, but if it was - I’m not advocating for year round training in one sport (at least not for young kids). Just trying to counter the argument being made that taking time off somehow magically makes you better. Would taking 2 months off from doing pull-ups make you better at pull-ups? Dr. Andrew’s recommends taking time off to heal the trauma caused form overuse during the season. This isn’t the answer, but it’s the reality sadly, hence his recommendation. The answer is to better manage workloads and the macro/micro cycle throughout the entire year.

Excellent!
'Better manage workloads!'

 

[Towny9]

Excellent!
'Better manage workloads!'

Right. The real problem is the crazy travel schedules. Teams play into late November and sometimes even December. If you pitched until 12/1. And take 8 weeks off until 2/1 and your team starts back 3/1 (or god forbid earlier) with games then you were off for 8 weeks and had only 4 weeks before you have a tournament where you go out and throw 200-300 pitches right out of the gate. 4 weeks is not enough on ramping for a pitcher who has just come off of 8 weeks rest. If you play for one of these teams you may want to rethink taking the 8 weeks off. Recipe for injury.

 

[Tazman]

Not saying this was directed at me, but if it was - I’m not advocating for year round training in one sport (at least not for young kids). Just trying to counter the argument being made that taking time off somehow magically makes you better. Would taking 2 months off from doing pull-ups make you better at pull-ups? Dr. Andrew’s recommends taking time off to heal the trauma caused form overuse during the season. This isn’t the answer, but it’s the reality sadly, hence his recommendation. The answer is to better manage workloads and the macro/micro cycle throughout the entire year.

I don't think your analogy is correct. Might you be worse at pull ups the day you return? Yes. If your long term goal is to be able to do a lot of pull ups you are likely to be much better by taking a month or two off once per year as well as managing the macro/micro cycle. If you are so committed that you work to the extent we are discussing, you are much more likely over a 10+ year career to injure yourself or mentally flame out and have that be the cause of failing to achieve your goals rather than because you missed a month of practice once per year. Rest is not an impediment to your goals. It's an important enabler.

 

[JayW]

I don't think your analogy is correct. Might you be worse at pull ups the day you return? Yes. If your long term goal is to be able to do a lot of pull ups you are likely to be much better by taking a month or two off once per year as well as managing the macro/micro cycle. If you are so committed that you work to the extent we are discussing, you are much more likely over a 10+ year career to injure yourself or mentally flame out and have that be the cause of failing to achieve your goals rather than because you missed a month of practice once per year. Rest is not an impediment to your goals. It's an important enabler.

i thought the same. the whole point of weight training and body resistance exercises is to stress the muscles. rest allows the muscles to repair themselves and grow back bigger and stronger.

 

[Towny9]

I don't think your analogy is correct. Might you be worse at pull ups the day you return? Yes. If your long term goal is to be able to do a lot of pull ups you are likely to be much better by taking a month or two off once per year as well as managing the macro/micro cycle. If you are so committed that you work to the extent we are discussing, you are much more likely over a 10+ year career to injure yourself or mentally flame out and have that be the cause of failing to achieve your goals rather than because you missed a month of practice once per year. Rest is not an impediment to your goals. It's an important enabler.

I agree 100% on the value of rest. If I wanted to become great at pull-ups I would do pull-ups one day and then rest for 2 then rinse repeat. I would do different pull-up variations and vary the resistance. I would never take 2 months off from doing pull-ups and expect it to make me better at pull-ups.

After a while I would mentally fatigue from the pull-ups probably. Just like I would with softball. Rest is great for the mental side of things, but 2 months of prolonged rest doesn’t make you physically better at something.

 

[Tazman]

I agree 100% on the value of rest. If I wanted to become great at pull-ups I would do pull-ups one day and then rest for 2 then rinse repeat. I would do different pull-up variations and vary the resistance. I would never take 2 months off from doing pull-ups and expect it to make me better at pull-ups.

After a while I would mentally fatigue from the pull-ups probably. Just like I would with softball. Rest is great for the mental side of things, but 2 months of prolonged rest doesn’t make you physically better at something.

Even if I concede your point on the physical in isolation, if you fatigue mentally and it leads to long term inconsistentcy on the physical work, you still lose in the end. They are connected and if the goal is long term performance, they both have to be considered. Thank you for the discussion.

 

[Towny9]

Even if I concede your point on the physical in isolation, if you fatigue mentally and it leads to long term inconsistentcy on the physical work, you still lose in the end. They are connected and if the goal is long term performance, they both have to be considered. Thank you for the discussion.

I agree!

 

[knuckleballer]

DD is a 2028 who just moved from 10U to 12U this fall. Team is dark for 6-8 weeks, so I’m trying to determine the best use of that time. She threw 252 innings in 2021, so I’m debating whether to give her 6 weeks off to completely rest, or to keep throwing short bullpens (2-3 days a week) just to stay sharp.

True, you need to keep working if you want to stay sharp with what you've learned. In HS and college this is a good idea. However, at that young of an age, she still has YEARS of learning to hone her abilities if she so chooses. That being said I can offer two observations from when I was a young pitcher.

• When I took time off from throwing during the off-season I came back feeling "reset" and I was often able to make some mechanical changes that I just couldn't make after settling in at the middle/end of a season. The same muscle memory that helped me with pitch consistency later in the season also prevented me from learning new mechanics. The off-season allowed my muscles to temporarily "forget" which, in turn, freed me up to learn a new pitch or a slightly different way to throw an existing pitch. It took 3 years of resets before I finally learned how to throw a dancing knuckleball for strikes. It became my kill pitch. No resets, no knuckleball.
• After taking time off from throwing, each new season was all the more exciting, in part because I knew the level of play would be better than the previous year. The excitement is what gave me the energy and motivation to work hard to try and stay ahead of my peers. The fresh start to the season is when most of my significant improvements were made. I typically don't see that same excitement from players that never take time off.

I'm not saying this is the formula for producing a national phenom pitcher. It's just how I recall some of my biggest pitching improvements were made.

 

[tommyGunZ]

Thanks all for the feedback. I really appreciate the discussion and shared experiences. Happy holidays.

 

[Tango]

I have allows wondered how you count time off for being sick. If you miss a week from a cold, do you count that off as far as time off during the season. (new computer and question mark do not work or the apostrophe)