Pre-hab, not Rehab - Injury Prevention in Pitching Shoulders

As a pitcher, one of the main focal points of your training both in-season and off-season should be shoulder injury prevention.  Nothing can slow down a pitcher more then a nagging ache or pain in the shoulder area.  Even worse- a serious shoulder injury can derail a whole season or more.

Shoulder injuries have roots in many different areas, with many different causes: some of which include improper mechanics and overuse or poor conditioning.  I work with many pitchers and while there are many different things I do to help develop each athlete’s individual needs, there are a few common things I do with all of them to help prevent injury in all of them: proper maintenance and strengthening drills.  

Proper maintenance and strengthening drills will not only make you a better pitcher and keep you on the field for more productive innings; they will also help you recuperate faster.  You must not just work on arm strength. You must work the core, the legs and condition the entire body as well.  

Too many coaches and athletes forget that it is far better to work on pre-hab rather then re-hab.  As I have stated many times before, you must continue to work hard on your off-field training no matter what time of the year or season… simply adjust the frequency and intensity to fit your in-season demands.  While I will not get into the scientific or medical breakdown of what is taking place in your shoulder when throwing, I will give you a couple of exercises to help keep your shoulder strong and healthy:

Always complete a proper warm up. Do not just throw a few pitches and then start firing away.

Make sure you do some arm rotations. Start by swinging the arm in small circles graduating to larger circles rotating both forward and backward and side-to-side.  Make sure you warm up the lower body as well. Do some high knee runs for short distances.  Warm up your core by keeping your lower body still while rotating your upper half from side to side. Finally, loosen your hamstrings by standing with your legs slightly wider then shoulder width, and slide your hands down your legs and over your shoelaces until you are touching your toes. Do not hold yourself in that position - just touch your toes or as far as you can and return back up your leg until you are standing straight up again. Be sure to keep your hands in contact with your body the entire time.

Do 4 or 5 repetitions, and finally start your pitching warmup: Start throwing short and get progressively longer and faster until you are on the mound and ready to pitch. This type of warm up should be done each time you prepare to pitch.

Now that you’re warmed up, here are a few of the drills many top pitchers are using to help keep their throwing shoulder healthy and strong.  Practice with these and it should help you become a stronger, healthy pitcher:

Shoulder Weight Exercises: Standing erect, hold a small lightweight or weighted baseball (2.5 pounds or even less for younger athletes). Holding the weight in your hand, raise your elbow directly out to the side of your body, with your hand hanging down toward the floor. Using the shoulder muscles, rotate the weighted hand straight up and try and raise the weight to 90 degrees, while keeping the top half of the arm straight out to the side of the body. Then lower the weight to return to the starting position. This exercise should be done for 12-15 reps with a light weight. This should be done 3-4 times a week.

Power Ball Raise and Slams: Standing, hold a Power Ball in both hands with your arms straight down so the ball is roughly at crotch height. Keeping your arms straight raise the ball up until it is directly overhead.  Still keeping the arms straight slam down in front of you. With each slam try to make it bounce it as high as possible. Do 3 or 4 sets of 6-8 slams. This can be done2-3 times a week.

Kneeling Throws: (Can be done with a weighted baseball or regular baseball.) Get down with the knee opposite of the hand that you throw with on the ground. For instance, right handed pitchers put your left knee down. Keeping the body upright, throw a ball to a catcher or backstop.  Start with the shoulder held high and focus on finishing with the throwing arm crossing the body so the hand ends up by the opposite hip. This helps strengthen the shoulder as it takes the lower body out of the motion.

As always, be very aware of total pitch count and innings pitched. Overuse is the number one cause of injury today in most young pitchers. Make sure you get plenty of rest. Be smart today and you will pitch tomorrow. Good Luck!

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Coach Scarpulla will be hosting the SPARQ PITCH, HIT and RUN Baseball Skills Clinic in Port Jervis, NY on Saturday June 30. Also on hand will be several ex -professional baseball players and top level coaches to teach proper speed training and position skill instruction.

Learn from the best to be the best. Sponsored by SPARQ Training.  For info and registration log onto myultimateadvantage.com

About Rick Scarpulla:
Rick Scarpulla is a highly sought-after and hugely successful coach and trainer, having worked with both male and female top athletes on a daily basis for over 15 years. He is the head Strength and Conditioning coach at West Point, in charge of Army Powerlifting since 2002, and is also a top NIKE Coach, traveling the nation working with top athletes at numerous Div.1-A schools. He is a top certified SPARQ Speed Trainer and certified SPARQ Ratings Coach. He is the founder and head trainer at Ultimate Advantage Training Facility in New York.Coach Scarpulla has worked directly with many top high school, college and pro athletes, and is currently a consultant and speaker to numerous top high school and college programs throughout the nation.

Visit his website at MyUltimateAdvantage.com
Email: Rick@myultimateadvantage