What you need to know about the 3 seasons of pitching. In today's game, baseball has lost control of its seasons. Most youth and even up to the professional ranks have eliminated the off-season program all together. They spend most of their time moving from pre-season to in-season and then back again. This is a destructive path to follow if you want to move up levels of the game and have a long productive career.
Don't get me wrong, game time spent on the mound is priceless but to much of it can become a major problem. My mother always said everything in moderation is healthier. This is the same for anything. The problem with spending too much time on the mound, during game time, and not enough time developing yourself in an off-season program is that you make yourself more susceptible to injury and you limit your ability to grow and develop. ASMI has already done the research on how high pitch counts per game and even per season are being ignored and that this is a reason why arm injuries are so high. The lesson to be learned here is that not enough youth, high school, college and even professional pitchers are separating their seasons into a moderate divide of a growth and development program. This would include a load building program and a maintenance and recovery program. These programs are the foundation of what I like to call the 3 season pitching system.

3 Season Pitching System

These three seasons should be a staple part of all pitchers yearly pitching cycle. Those pitchers who only using a 2 or 1 season system are limiting their ability to enhance performance and prevent injury. Sticking to this 3 season system will promote success in all levels of pitching.

Off-Season Pitching Program

The Off-Season should be around 3-4 months out of the year. Preceding your Off-Season program you need around 1-2 months of complete rest from any type of exercises. You should focus on nutrition and good sleep. This means going to bed at a good time and logging about 8-10 or more hours per night. This type of sleep should be consistent all year long.

Once your Off-Season begins it should include the following:

1. Dynamic Warm-up
2. A total Strength and Conditioning program based around an 8 week cycle to build speed, strength and ultimately power.
3. Joint integrity program to develop your small muscle groups, like your rotator cuff.
4. A throwing program that complements your strength and conditioning program to help program the new motor coordination around good pitching mechanics, like the 3x mechanics.
5. Anaerobic conditioning program to promote speed and power movements through a full range of motion along with building your ATP buffer.

Remember your Off-Season is focused around increasing performance without using a high volume of throws. This is the most effective season to increase velocity.

Pre-Season Pitching Program

The Pre-Season program should be around 1-2 months out of the year. The foundation of the program is transitioning your training from a speed, strength and power development program into a speed, strength and power maintenance program, so you can begin to build your pitching workload. This means you will need to begin to increase your volume of throws as you decrease your resistance training.

Once you begin your Pre-Season program it should include the following:

1. Dynamic Warm-up
2. A Soft Tissue Program to help reduce muscle density and promote healthy, fluid muscle contractions.
3. 1-2 days per week of higher rep and lower resistance training. Workouts should incorporate more medicine ball training than barbell training.
4. Joint integrity program to maintain strength in your small muscle groups, like your rotator cuff.
5. A throwing program to begin increasing your volume of throws with mound time as you gradually build up to your In-Season pitching rotation.
6. Anaerobic conditioning program to continue to increase your ATP buffer while providing some speed and strength maintenance.

Your Pre-Season program is a transitional period in the year where you must effectively convert your Off-Season program into your In-Season program. You have less time to make this happen, so you must work hard and smart to make sure your Pre-Season program works with your team practice schedule and gradually builds you up to your In-Season workload.

In-Season Pitching Program

The In-Season program should be around 3-5 months out of your year. This program is built around your pitching workload. This is your pitch count requirements based on your rotation. If you are a starter or a relief pitcher, your In-Season program should be scheduled around this rotation. The foundation of the program is to continue to maintain speed, strength and power with a major focus on recovery. The better pitchers are able to recovery faster between appearances. A good In-Season program would promote this recovery.

Once you begin your In-Season program it should include the following:

1. Dynamic Warm-up
2. A Soft Tissue Program to help reduce muscle density and promote healthy, fluid muscle contractions.
3. Med Ball strength maintenance program or weight training maintenance program.
4. Anaerobic conditioning program to support speed, strength and power maintenance and also to promote increased ATP buffering.
5. Joint integrity program to maintain strength in your small muscle groups like your rotator cuff.
6. Throwing program to help promote motor coordination synchronization without a high volume of throws.
7. Nutritional and supplementation guidelines.

The goal of your In-Season program is to maintain your Off-Season gains, as long as possible, while promoting a quick recovery between appearances.
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