How much should my youth pitcher/player be throwing on their own?
Here are some things to consider.
First, every youth pitcher should start with the following:
Dynamic Warmup (including band routines)
Quick Feet Warmup (to get the blood flowing and heart rate up)
Position player throwing routine with an emphasis on hitting a small and very specific target. In the indoor facility the target should vary the way you see on our YouTube channel. Throw to the #1, then #2, then #3, then #4, and then star. Every five throws start over with the #1…
Try to throw consistently three to five days a week to maintain arm health.
Never throw with intensity more than two per week, and always ensure you have at least three days to recover (no intensity throwing) between high intensity training days. High intensity training days can include throwing sessions with more volume or velocity. Throwing off a mound always counts as a higher intensity day. Be very cautious of increasing throwin volume and velocity. Our recommendation with youth pitchers is to never focus on velocity. Velocity for youth pitchers should be the result of athleticism and arm health.
An example of a high intensity training week could be to do a bullpen day of two to three innings and then after three days of recovery, do a position player workout that involves making 30 to 60 higher intensity throws while getting reps fielding ground balls or fly balls or as a catcher, making throws down to bases.
Again, do not do high intensity throwing days more than twice a week and make sure you have three days of low intensity throwing between those sessions.
Never make more than 10 to 20 higher intensity throws in a row without taking a five- to eight-minute break between those blocks of 10 to 20 throws. We recommend training with small groups of four to five kids when doing position player throws because it gives players a break between their own throw while the other three or four players take their turn. Go through that line 10 times, and now it’s time to pick up the bucket of balls for five to eight minutes. Kinda cool how that works huh? Everything should be done in a calculated way and done with a plan.
If you’re training by yourself, you need to be more cognizant of how much your player is throwing and how many high intensity throws they are making. Never make more than 10 to 20 throws in a row and ideally you want 20 to 30 seconds between each of those throws.
What is a bullpen inning? An example of an inning is 15 to 18 pitches, with 20 to 30 seconds between each pitch, and always work on something specific. Command (strikes) and tempo (time from first move to when the ball hits the mitt or target from the appropriate pitch distance) should always be the focus at younger ages. As we get into 10 and 11U and beyond, our goal is to have a tempo of less than 1.4 seconds with the goal being 1.2 seconds. Our command goal is 80% strikes.
When throwing multiple bullpen innings, make sure the pitcher is taking eight minutes to rest (for example, go hit for eight minutes) between innings. Players younger than high school age should not throw more than three innings in a training session. Also, do not start by throwing three innings. Ramp up to that workload. Spend a couple weeks only throwing one inning. Then a couple weeks throwing two innings, then a couple weeks throwing three innings. Then, ideally, take a week off no throwing or no intense throwing (de-load week). Then take a week or two to ramp up by only doing our position player throwing routine. And then repeat that cycle to help mitigate overuse injuries.
It is very important to understand that arm soreness can be the result of simply growing. Growth plates are vulnerable.
NEVER throw through any arm soreness. If there is any soreness or fatigue, do not throw with intensity that day. Focus on our recovery routine. If there is any pain, take at least a week off to rest completely and then ramp back up slowly. Ramp ups take weeks. They are not done in one throwing session or in one week.
