PREPARING YOUR PITCHER Your Body Can’t Recruit What Isn’t Awake
One of the many mistakes made by pitchers today is that they are significantly underprepared for the volume (total workload) or stress intensity placed by pitching at the highest levels of competition. As humans, we often hope the job — any job —won’t be as arduous, complex, or complicated as we know deep in our subconscious that it could be. We have a saying here at The Ranch: “Your body can’t possibly recruit what isn’t awake.” If parts of your body are not fully awake, lubricated, and ready to be utilized, they simply will not be available to use.
If a pitcher has to primarily rely on their arm for peak velocity and performance, there is a greater risk of injury. That is why we view wake-up/warm-up as absolutely critical for success, and it’s one of the things we have zero tolerance for. Every single pitcher has the potential to be completely warmed up before a game, but very few truly are. At the end of the day, it is simply a choice. The most common excuse as to why someone isn’t fully warmed up is usually the fear of their warm-up being too extensive. They fear that they will be too worn out to last the entire game. But the way we see it — the way you view the problem may very well be the problem. If your warm-up has you feeling fatigued and affects your performance at game time, the warm-up may not be the issue. It may have to do with a conditioning issue, which is easy to solve. Always keep in mind that as the pitchers themselves are evolving and growing, so should their warm-ups! If you need a warm-up role model at the elite level to follow, take a look at the past greats like Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemmons, or Roy Halladay. There is, of course, no ideal, perfect warm-up process, but dedicating the time to find the right level of personal readiness for peak performance can make all the difference.
Throwing a baseball 70 mph at 12 years of age, or even 95 mph at 22 years of age, requires the full utilization of your body, not just your arm. We have found that most athletes hope they can perform at peak levels with less than full utilization/wake-up/warm-up of their bodies. But that isn’t realistic, and if anything, it’s extremely dangerous.
UPCOMING RANCH EVENTS
THIS MONTH IN BASEBALL HISTORY Frank Smith’s Second Career No-Hitter
ELITE PITCHERS BOOT CAMPS:
YOUTH PITCHING CAMP:
On Sept. 20, 1908, during one of baseball’s tightest pennant races, Frank Smith of the Chicago White Sox threw his second career no-hitter for a 1-0 victory over the Philadelphia Athletics. The “Piano Mover” made his mark as part of the White Sox’s dominant pitching staff in the early 1900s, utilizing a spitball that moved like a
•
OCTOBER 15 & 16, 2022
•
OCTOBER 8-10,2022
ELITE CATCHERS BOOT CAMP:
•
NOVEMBER 19-21, 2022
•
DECEMBER 9-11, 2022
•
DECEMBER 27-29, 2022
•
JANUARY 14-16, 2023
ADVANCED ALUMNI CAMP:
•
FEBRUARY 18-20, 2023
•
JANUARY 7 & 8, 2023
Details for these events can be found at TexasBaseballRanch.com under the “Events” tab.
A SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR OATES SPECIALTIES ! EQUIPMENT PROVIDER,
knuckleball. He nearly needed to pitch the 10th inning, but the White Sox walked it off in the ninth in a rather unusual fashion — White Sox shortstop Freddy Parent tapped an intentional walk pitch to the right side of the infield just slowly enough to let Frank Isbell score. Smith became the first White Sox pitcher to throw multiple no-hitters with his gem against Philadelphia.
www.OatesSpecialties. com/Durathro
3 Where You Can DREAM as BIG as Your Work Ethic Will Allow! PHONE (936) 588-6762
Published by Newsletter Pro • www.NewsletterPro.com
Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator