Pre-Game and Post Game Routines

PRE-GAME ROUTINE

Eat	- Breakfast - Lunch - Pre-Game Snack/Meal
Arrival at Park	- Make sure you arrive early enough to be fully prepared for today's game
Mental & Physically Check In	- Put the rest of the day behind you - It's time to prepare yourself to pitch today
Visualization	-Pitching Dress Rehearsal -Take some time off by yourself to envision yourself pitching well -Take notice of how the ball feels coming off of your fingers and exactly how your delivery feels
Pre-Game Warmup	1. Blood Flow Series (Jog/Backpedal/Shuffles/Carioca/High Knees) 2. Dynamic Warmup 3. Weighted ball series, bands, and/or football toss 4. Throw to loosen the arm 5. Flat ground throws 6. Pre-Game Bullpen Work 7. Visualization & Pre-Game Focus 8. Game Mound Warmup Pitches 9. 1st pitch of game/inning

POST-GAME ROUTINE

Recovery	-Training/Workout/Arm Care/Post-Game Meal
Post Game Evaluation	- Play back the game in your head - Never be too up or down on yourself - If you had a bad game, evaluate why it was bad but find something you did well in the game - If you had a good game, evaluate why it was good but find something you didn't do so well to work on
Team Responsibilities	- Be a good teammate - You pitched on the mound, make sure you take care of it - Pick up trash in dugouts
Mentally & Physically Check Out	- Leave the game at the field

Great Pitchers develop great routines and habits

A solid Pre-Game Routine will help prepare you both physically and mentally for today's game

A solid Post-Game Routine will help with the recovery your body needs from the damage caused by the stresses of competitive pitching both mentally and physically

Weighted Baseball Training

There is a lot of information out there regarding the use of weighted baseballs on a players arm.  I encourage everyone to read up on both sides of the argument and decide for yourself if this is something that you wish to incorporate into your training or not.  I will simply give you my take on throwing weighted baseballs and why I incorporate them in to the training my pitchers do.

Reason #1.  The use of weighted balls is a great way to get young athletes away from "pushing" the baseball.  Many young baseball players that come to me have been taught there whole lives to just throw strikes and not worry about velocity.  This causes a lot of kids to "push" the ball to the plate to just throw strikes, which in turn will severely damage their arm action and upper torso rotation.  Many believe velocity will come after you learn to throw strikes.  Velocity is going to increase but only because the kid will get older and stronger as he ages.  He will still be behind when it comes to velocity if he is "pushing" the ball.  He very well may be one of the best around at a young age because he throws so many strikes. However, if the end goal is to get noticed by college recruiters or pro scouts, this is not the way to go.  They are not interested in how many strikes you throw if you do not have something on the ball.  To me, parents are wasting a valuable opportunity by following this logic.  Research has shown that focusing on maximum velocity,speed, and/or power is a superior way to teach young athletes how to build efficient rotational force transfer mechanics. Throwing a heavy ball will help pitchers learn what it feels like to "push" the baseball and hopefully either create or restore explosive upper torso rotation.

Reason #2.  The use of weighted baseball increases the amount of external rotation in the throwing arm. I will be the first one to tell you that there is some danger to this.  When we increase the load on external rotation we are putting the pitching elbow at an increased risk.  However, external rotation is one of the main factors in how fast you can throw a baseball.  The more your arm "lays back" the more capability you have to throw the ball at a higher velocity.   Most young athletes lack the necessary external rotation to throw at a high velocity.  When it comes to arm safety, I am one of the most precautionary pitching coaches around.  I do not wish to put anyone in any additional risk on injury.  Studies have shown over and over again that experts have no earthly idea what leads to pitching injuries.  A couple things are very clear:  Pitching is a very unnatural movement and just by throwing a baseball overhead you elevate your risk for injury. When you throw at a high velocity, your risk of injury is elevated even more.  Sometimes, I feel we should just leave it at that.   If you were to take a MRI of a shoulder or elbow of any professional pitcher, most are going to have tears in a ligament either in the shoulder or elbow or oftentimes both.  Its just the nature of the beast.  It just becomes a matter of how severe the tear is on whether or not you have surgery.

I don't wish to scare anyone with Reason #2 especially.  Pitching is an extremely dangerous thing to do and in order to do it at a high level your risk of injury becomes elevated.  There are many ways we go about trying to eliminate as much risk as possible by making sure that we are at a high level of fitness and making sure we are as strong as can be, especially around the shoulders.  In order to play at a high level, you need to be able to throw at a high velocity, and I believe that the use of weighted baseballs is a valuable tool you can use to enhance your training regimen.

Group Training Off-Days

  On your days off from training at the facility, the daily throwing program consisting of long toss and a light pull-down is acceptable and encouraged.  Just remember to listen to your arm.  If your arm does not feel up to throwing, don't.  If it does not feel up to any pull-down that is perfectly fine.  Just stretch your arm out as much as it wants on that given day.  There is no reason to overdue it on these days as you are getting plenty of throwing in on the 3 days of training.  ALWAYS DO A PROPER DYNAMIC WARM-UP BEFORE YOU START ANY KIND OF BASEBALL ACTIVITY.  We are getting in plenty of shoulder care so it is not necessary to do so on the off days.  Depending on how your body feels it would be beneficial for you to get some conditioning in after you throw.  I will include examples of conditioning drills and intervals to use while doing so at the end.  Just remember to listen to your body.  Those of you who are playing this fall: After you are done pitching, it would be ideal to have bands on hand to get some shoulder work in after you are done for the day to make sure you are maintaining mobility in the pitching shoulder.  It would also be beneficial to get some conditioning in.

Conditioning Choices:

30-60 yards Sprints. 450-500 yards total.  That would be 8- 60 yard sprints (480 yards), 10- 50 yard sprints (500 yards), 12- 40 yard sprints (480 yards), 16- 30 yard sprints (480 yards). Walk back slowly to the start line after each sprint. That is your rest time.

120 yard Shuttles.  4-6 Shuttles.  Set up cones (can use anything for cones: hats, baseball, shoes, etc.) 30 yards apart. Sprint back and forth from cone to cone for a total of 4 touches (2 sprints to each cone).  These should be done in 25 seconds or less. Keep a running clock and start each new shuttle on the minute.  

Jump Rope or Jumping Jacks (fast). 10 sets of 100 jumps or 12 rounds of 30 seconds of jump rope and 30 seconds of rest

Burpees. Tabata style - 2 rounds of 2 minutes each (4 rounds).  20 seconds of burpees followed by 10 seconds of rest.  After your 2 minutes is up, rest for 2 minutes and go again.  Another option for burpees is 8 rounds of 12.  Start every round on the minute and do 12 burpees.  Rest until the next minute starts.

Velocity Clinic Video

Band Routine and Overload-Underload Weighted Ball Programs now posted

Click here for Band Program and here for Weighted Ball Program.  They are both listed on sidebar as pages also.

Schedule of Events for Velocity Clinic

Topics Covered

Monday, June 17 - 9 a.m - 12 p.m
8:30-8:45     Registration - be sure to have this printed and filled out
                    Introduction to what goes into velocity, Long toss discussion, Mechanical discussion, Mechanical drills, Video of each kid pitching, Pitch grips, Holding running game, Arm care

Tuesday, June 18 - 9 a.m - 12 p.m
                  Prehab, Separation drills, Overload/Underload training with weighted and light baseballs, Agilities, Arm care

Wednesday, June 19 - 9 a.m - 10:30 a.m
                Training Day (learning the right way to train)

Thursday, June 20 - 9 a.m - 11:30 a.m
                Video Breakdown, Pitching mentality, Preparation, Getting on a weekly routine, What to do before and after you pitch, Conditioning, Nutrition, Questions and answers

***No cleats as this will take place indoors so bring tennis shoes***
***Shorts and a t-shirt would be the ideal thing to wear***
***There is no a/c but there are fans.  It will be hot so bring plenty to drink***
***Days 1 and 2 will be the only days of throwing.  Day 3 you will not need to bring a glove.  Day 4 you should bring a glove because there may be time to work on a few things***

All District Members!

There were several players whose hard work has paid off this varsity high school season and have been named to the Northern Neck All-District Team.  There were 22 total players selected for this team. This is a list of players who have trained at Mozingo Baseball either individually or attended a clinic or showcase.

Devin Sisson - Rappahannock (Ivdividual Lesson)
Matthew Harris - Northumberland (Showcase)
Zack Newman - Northumberland (Clinic)
Brandon Walker - Northumberland (Showcase)
Carrington Balderson - Washington and Lee (Individual, Clinic, Showcase)

Division 1 Player of the Year - Eamonn Collins - Rappahannock (Individual, Clinic, Showcase)
Division 2 Player of the Year - Kinston Carson - Essex (Clinic)

Congratulations to all of these young men!

I also want to congratulate one of my former coaches, Tim Beamer of Essex High School, for being awarded Division 2 coach of the year!