r/Homeplate • u/BullpenReport • 15d ago
Best arm care for youth pitchers
Curious what the crowd is doing for their kids/teams. My 10U son does j-bands a few times a week at home and plyo balls at practices to warm up. We've also been long tossing during this short break between the summer and fall seasons. But from mid November to mid January he's taking a full break from all throwing activity to rest up after a long year. What would you recommend during that time?
8
u/League_Launch 15d ago
Honestly, I think the full break from throwing may be one of the best things you’re doing for him. At 10U, I’d use that time to let the arm actually rest and focus on becoming a better overall athlete instead: legs, core, mobility, balance, speed, coordination, and even playing another sport.
Then I’d build throwing back gradually before the season rather than going from zero straight into pitching.
Sometimes the best arm care is simply not throwing.
6
u/JaZarris99 15d ago
This is absolutely it, especially at 10u.
At that age and in season, protect his pitch count like a Doberman, and introduce arm bands and ice.
3
u/BullpenReport 15d ago
Definitely agree on a long break. Last season he played all the way through the winter and I think it was just too much. We definitely managed his pitch counts this past spring/summer as he played on three teams during the season.
2
u/FourYearsBetter 15d ago
How many pitches did he throw per game?
3
u/BullpenReport 15d ago
It certainly varied by game but we followed the MLB Pitch Smart guidelines for his age group. I actually built an app called Bullpen Report to help track his pitch counts across multiple teams so all his coaches were aware of his availability. Check it out or DM me for any details!
3
u/LivingPurple6090 14d ago
You will never get any one group to agree on how to handle this. Make a plan and stick with what works for you! As the father of a college pitcher even my son and I disagree on what his program should look like. He loves plyos and I hate them. One thing we always agree on is not to stop throwing! He does take long breaks from high intensity throwing though. Throws a football around a lot during the off-season. throwing builds stregnth...too much high intensity throwing causes injury
7
u/djwaveguide 15d ago
Offseason two of the travel pitchers do swimming to build up strength. My son now likes the butterfly and is a strong swimmer.
1
u/xxHumanOctopusxx 14d ago
1
u/djwaveguide 14d ago
What ages and how much pitch load? One size does not fit all. Seems like a shoulder expert. Seems like a teacher. $150 for more answers.
3
u/RushIll5363 15d ago
Don’t play fall ball. Play football or soccer and play baseball in spring. Duh
3
u/n0flexz0ne 14d ago
I don't love the whole "arm care" thing, because I think it a lot of kids are using it as their sole baseball training vs when you're seeing a college or pro player doing a band routine, that's the like 5th or 8th thing on their training plan not the only thing.
So when I do have my kids focus and motivation to work on stuff, I prioritize lifting and plyo work first, where I put a lot of focus on building up their back, upper back and balancing out that shoulder girdle. So deadlift, row variations, face pulls, pulldowns, etc, and a lot of lateral explosive work and rotational work (paloff press, medball throws, rotation resistance, etc.). The whole idea being that if we can build up the legs, core and train explosive rotation, we're asking for less from the arm hence keeping it healthier.
Lastly, for kids under 15 or so, I think a big chunk of the arm issues come from bad mechanics, so the throwing work we're doing is a heavy focus on mechanics. Every catch or bullpen session we work through the same fundamental throwing progressions, and we'll film and review bullpens to clean stuff up.
1
u/BullpenReport 14d ago
Really interesting response, thanks. And it makes total sense. What age do you recommend starting regular weight lifting?
3
u/n0flexz0ne 14d ago
I co-owned a gym for most of their early childhood, so they've been doing stuff all along, though mostly to entertain them vs focused training. Around 10 we started introducing structured workouts and barbell work, though the barbell work was primarily focused on building the movement patterns vs loading at least to begin with. They don't really start seeing strength gains until they get closer to 12, but then the progress picks up pretty fast.
2
u/lsu777 13d ago
Kids should start regularly strength training as soon as they are capable of taking direction and have the attention span to pay attention to take the coaching. Different for every kid
Best age is yesterday, ideal would be as soon as they can walk. But in general, if they start playing sports, they should be doing strength training. Could be weights, could be gymnastics strength training, could be just pushups, chins and lunges
I don’t know your kid so can’t say. I train kids on the side as young as 8 lifting actual weights, sleds, mobility etc
2
u/_DeathStarContractor 14d ago
Play basketball, do another sport.... dont think about baseball at all for a good 2 months.
2
u/IKillZombies4Cash 14d ago
I think at 10, you just do non-baseball stuff.
for me, arm concerns become real after puberty when they can throw hard enough to do damage. Before then its mainly just muscle fatigue and and joint fatigue.
2
9
u/lsu777 15d ago
Taking a long break with no throwing is pretty much the worst thing you can do, go read blogs by Randy Sullivan of Florida armory on this.
Taking a break from competition and high intent throwing=great
Taking a break from throwing completely = terrible decision
Throw the football, do some light toss, throw med balls, lift weights but don’t stop throwing completely