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5 Pitches = Adequate Warm-up?
by Dave
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Diana writes to ask:
"What is the proper about of warming up a pitcher should have before a game? My daughter is in high school and her coach doesn't believe pitchers need any warm up at all - only the 5 pitches the umpire gives them when they first get on the mound."
Hmmmm, Diana, you're saying that you believe the 5 pre-game pitches is inadequate warm-up for a pitcher? I'm pretty sure I agree with you! I'll go out on a limb and say that 5 pitches before a game is a recipe almost guaranteed to deliver disaster!!
After pondering this question for some time, I wonder if it isn't a bit of a hoax. I just cannot fathom a coach limiting his or her pitcher to that unless they were deliberately trying to lose a game or had no other choice because the bus pulled up too late for warm-ups. There's no way I can see any reasonable coach limiting their pitcher to that kind of non-warm-up. Still, I'll use the question as a jumping off point to discuss a proper pitcher warm-up.
For openers, the right amount of pitcher warm-up varies by individual. That's not to say that a 10 year old, first year pitcher should be allowed to decide for herself than 10 pitches along the sidelines is enough. But certainly a high school girl with a lot of experience can handle deciding when she is warmed. I have observed high level high school pitchers who throw for almost an hour before a big game and others who need no more than ten to twenty minutes (50 or so pitches). It really depends on the kid. An experienced pitcher knows how much warm-up she needs because she's gone through this process perhaps hundreds of times.
Another issue which needs to be considered when discussing warm-ups is the nature of play. The question involved high school players but if this were, instead, a tournament setting, my answer would be different. Tournaments can vary quite a bit but typically you sometimes have a large chunk of time between games and sometimes you have barely enough time to take a drink of water or visit the restrooms. Usually what we try to do for tournaments is have all the pitchers warm-up initially before the first game and then get in just a brief warming before games in which there is no time to do a thorough one.
Also, I have been told that sometimes in high school ball, the bus gets lost or hits traffic in which case there is not much time for warm-ups once the team arrives at its destination. I have some thoughts about this circumstance. My first thought is to get the pitcher and catcher (in full gear) off the bus first and start throwing immediately. Then the coach should approach the opposition and umpires and tell them the team will not be prepared to play for X number of minutes. If the opposition or umps disagree, I suggest to you that you raise the spector of injuries caused by their haste. I wouldn't want to be responsible for any girl suffering an injury due to no opportunity to warm-up. Pitchers need time to warm-up and so does the rest of the team. If the opposition and/or umpires cannot afford you at least ten minutes, there is something wrong. You, the coach, must insist that your girls get at least that long to loosen up before playing.
Now to the issue of an appropriate pitcher warm-up. As I said, this varies by individual but here is a general approach I like to use. My pitchers start with isolation drills. They perform wrist snaps followed by arm-only pitching. Usually they do ten to twenty wrist snaps for the fastball and whatever they need to loosen their wrist for other pitches. The arm-only pitching is sometimes done on one knee, sometimes done while standing, depending on the girl and her personal regimen.
Next, she gets her legs and back involved with one or two drills. Some pitchers do a slingshot-type pitch with an almost full step. Some pitch a full windmill with a simple step forwards. Some push off an imaginary pitcher's plate sideways with a full windmill. It depends on the girl and the drills her pitching coach has her doing. My daughter does most of these drills and then moves into a full windmill motion. Some girls like to do slingshot pitching with a weighted ball. Some like to perform extended arm-only pitches.
The bottom line is to get all the muscles, tendons and ligaments involved heated up and then do some stretching. I've said it before and I'll say it again, you have to get warm before stretching. Cold stretching does nothing. A pitcher should break a sweat before starting to stretch.
After some warm-up drills and a good stretch, the pitcher should begin to work through her pitches. I like my pitchers to get as close to a game time speed fastball as they can before moving through the other pitches. Once that has been achieved, we usually move to change-ups.
Every pitcher has a different number of change-ups needed to get her to where she needs to be. I know of one pitcher who needs to throw just 5 and as long as they are under control, she moves to the next pitch. Another girl needs to do 10-20 change-up wrist snaps before she is ready to throw any change-up pitches. Then she throws 5 before she can even remotely control it, after which she throws another 5 and is ready to go. I've observed a girl throw as many as 25-50 changes before a game because the pitch was extremely important to her repertoire, it was a very big game, and she was one of those kids who warmed up a lot before games.
After the fastball and change, we usually move on to the most important pitch. In my daughters' cases, that is the screwball, drop or drop-curve. One kid uses the drop as her most frequent pitch. Another goes with a mix predominantly made up of screws and drop-curves. Whatever is most important ought to command the most attention. Also, every girl has something different working on any given day. One day it might be the rise, another the screw, curve, or whatever. During warm-ups, she ought to try to figure out what is working for her best on that day.
After the fastball, change and best pitch have been warmed up, all of a girl's other pitches should at least be addressed to some degree. I get anxious if my own daughters don't throw each secondary pitch until it is at least under control. That's a minimum of 5 (rarely) and a maximum of 20 (hopefully) for each pitch. Once they have thrown everything and gotten important pitches down, I usually encourage a little cool down period. You know, get out of the sun, get a drink, towel off. Once a girl has warmed properly and hopefully cooled down, I like to encourage her to throw lightly along the sidelines before going into a game and getting "her 5."
Typically, I like my pitchers to warm-up about 45 minutes before a game, longer if a longer warm-up is needed. 45 minutes gives a kid 25 - 30 minutes of warm-up, 5 - 10 minutes to cool down, and another 5 to throw lightly before the game begins. That is my ideal warm-up.
Just to address the "late high school bus syndrome," I believe pitchers can warm sufficiently in this circumstance, assuming they get themselves in the right frame of mind on the bus, get off the bus first, and get right down to business. This requires wrist and arm motions while riding the bus. For example, the pitcher ought to have a ball in her hand and perform the basic wrist snap while riding the bus if it seems likely the team will arrive after the scheduled game time. A pitcher can flex and stretch her muscles some while just sitting if she is sufficiently warm to begin with - early spring east coast games are not the right situation for this. As I said, you really cannot stretch without being warm but if you sit there flexing your muscles well enough, you can warm up a bit and begin stretching some.
The coach should make sure the warm-up catcher has her gear on before the bus arrives and get her off the bus immediately upon arrival. The pitcher gets off the bus next! She should rush through the basic isolation drills with a sense of urgency and begin real throwing as soon as possible, but after a couple minutes of stretching.
Also, keep in mind that in the late bus circumstance, usually you are the visiting team. So long as your pitcher is either not hitting or at least not hitting in the 1 - 4 slots, she ought to get in 20 or so throws after the game starts and before you have to take the field. In extreme circumstances, you want to make sure your batters do their best to stall and take a few pitches so your pitcher will be basically ready by the time she has to go out and throw.
As I said earlier, tournament ball can create its own set of strains on your warm-up time. I've been involved with tournament games in which we had fewer than five minutes between one game and the next. On rare occassions, we have been scheduled to play back-to-back-to-back games. In these circumstances, before the first game, all pitchers should be warmed up like they're going to pitch that game. There are advantages to following this practice anyway but when you are playing consecutive games, this allows your starter for games number 2 and 3 to warm-up a lot more quickly than they might otherwise. If you have the luxury of a big lead or the agony of a big deficit, sometimes you can insert the starter for the next game into the last inning or two of the previous one. We've availed ourselves of this practice from time to time with positive results.
Finally, a word about young pitchers. Sometimes pitchers, even girls who should know better, fail to warm-up adequately. If they are left to their own devices, they throw about 20 pitches, don't break a sweat, and claim, "I'm ready to go." Experience will probably tell you and them otherwise. One of my daughters can warm-up pretty quickly though she does better if she preps for a longer period. I'll let her cut her warm-up short if the day is very hot and humid. Another daughter does better the longer she warms up. She likes to cut things short but if I force her to warm to my liking, she invariably does better. The younger the kid, the more likely she is to try to cut her warm-up short. If you allow your kid or the pitchers for the team you coach to get away with this, usually the result will be a tough couple of early innings. In extreme circumstances, the result will be a very poorly pitched game. You just have to take stock of how long each kid needs to really warm-up and then require her to get that much warm-up without any negotiation.
It may take some trial and error to determine exactly how much warm-up a particular pitcher needs. But I sincerely doubt there is any pitcher on the planet who can come out of the box (off the bus) with 5 warm-ups and pitch to an appropriate level in the first inning. I'm almost certain Diana was exaggerating but I can't be sure. We've all seen some pretty bizarre stuff in this game though that one seems extreme. If you know of any coach who thinks a 5 pitch warm-up is sufficient, please disabuse him or her of the notion! Let them know that they may be the primary cause of a serious, perhaps career ending injury, and they may get into a little unwanted legal action as a result.Labels: pitching
 
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