by Alan Jaeger, Jaeger Sports

In order to establish the best time to rest and rebuild a pitchers arm, you must establish...

1. What the pitchers’ workload has been like from the previous season/seasons (their past season may have been only the summer, or it may have been the preceding spring, fall and winter season as well), 
2. Find out how much 'pitching' they’ve been doing as opposed to 'training' or conditioning (unfortunately, many pitchers 'pitch' year round, and leave little or no time for training or conditioning), and
3. Devise a plan that gives pitchers a chance to shut down and rest (minimum of 2-3 weeks), and rebuild their arm for an additional 4-6 week period before getting back on a mound.  It is very important to keep the pitchers off the mound because the arm is best developed by conditioning without any unnecessary demands on it during the rebuilding phase.
   

In the case of a typical pitcher who just finished his summer season, he should typically take a minimum of 2-3 weeks off to rest (physical and mental) after he‘s thrown his last pitch of the summer, and spend the subsequent 4-6 weeks to do nothing but 'train' and recondition his arm. There is nothing more important than establishing this 4-6 week training window after proper rest.

As you will see throughout this series, establishing rest at the right time, followed by the rebuilding or conditioning phase are the single most important factors in getting a pitcher into what we call a 'positive cycle' that can last until the end of the season.



Our philosophy is pretty simple - it’s of minimal importance as to 'when' a pitcher is expected to throw his first bull-pen in the fall/winter, considering that the pitcher has the balance of the year to work off of the mound.  What matters most is what the pitcher does in this 4-6 week window leading up to the first bull-pen, and understanding how to maintain or strengthen this base throughout the remainder of the Fall, Winter and Spring. Without the proper base in place by rushing your pitchers back to the mound is like worrying about putting a roof on a house that doesn’t have a structure in place yet.

The desired rest period of the pitcher, along with the 4-6 week window of conditioning is the single most important factor in determining the pitchers health, strength, endurance and recovery period for the entire year (season) - or until that point in which he feels he needs another significant break (rest), and begin a new conditioning cycle. 

What we’ve found with the guys who have gone through our training program at Jaeger Sports, and have been allowed to maintain their long toss (maintenance) program throughout the year, is that they have less of a need to have a significant rest or conditioning period throughout the year.  But I would strongly recommend that every pitcher consider having a rest/conditioning period twice a year, even if it‘s only for 2-3 weeks.


The primary goal of our throwing program is to build an extremely strong base or foundation, progressively. Taking into consideration that a pitcher is coming off of an extended rest of 2-3 weeks, like anything else you would 'build' in life, start off slowly and surely - walk before you jog and jog before you run. By not being in a hurry to 'get in shape', the muscles have a chance to stretch out more progressively, develop more efficiently,  and recover more quickly.  That’s why the first two weeks of our throwing program place such a huge emphasis on Surgical Tubing and the Stretching Out phase of Long Toss.
 
Chief among all of our principles of our throwing program is the principle of 'listening to your arm'.  In essence, listening to your arm means to let it guide you - to follow it.  As opposed to having a throwing program with a predetermined limit on how many throws you are to make, or for how many minutes you are to throw for, our philosophy is based on learning how to trust your arm by listening to it - allowing it to dictate the pace, amount, and distance of throws for that day.  I love the metaphor of allowing your arm to take you for a walk.  Since your arm is your lifeline as a baseball player, there could be nothing more important than being in tune with it.  This is what happens when you learn how to listen to your arm and let it dictate the pace.

Only your arm knows from day to day what it needs, and by eliminating predetermined restrictions on your arm, your arm will probably surprise you as to how many throws it wants to make each day, and how many times a week it wants to throw.

Because endurance increases through this process as the muscles 'get in shape', recovery period improves because swelling tends to be minimized.  This is conditioning at its best because we are allowing the higher intelligence of the arm to guide us, and you will almost assuredly find that the more you allow your arm to throw (smartly and progressively), the more your arm wants to throw.  Or, as we like to say, "the more you use it (correctly) the more it produces."

The arm will tell you what to do from day to day, and even throw to throw. On days that you don’t feel great, try throwing through this feeling unless it is obviously a sign of pain.  The reason I mention this is pitchers may often shut down early because of 'false' signs.  If the feeling doesn’t get better after a couple of minutes, or the pain is obvious, then shut it down.  Ironically, the more throwing you do, the more you understand the difference between unhealthy feelings and a 'good' soreness that you can throw through.