I have a group of 13's that I have told it's time for them to start thinking about getting stronger. I have them do pushups and situps at every practice. One of the parents said that since his son is a pitcher he does not want him to do pushups. What's your take on this?

I have them do 5 sets of 10 pushups and 5 sets of 20 situps at the end of practice.

Unless the kid gets on a push-up binge and suddenly bulks up in his shoulders and looks like the hulk I see no problem with pushups. Bulk muscle however, if built up too much can slow down the arm and limit its motiona and range of movement. I have seen kids who spend a lot of time in the weight room doing bench presses and cannot even throw 50 mph because of the limited arm and shoulder motion range. Sure, they could probably throw a 5 pound lead ball at that same 50 mph because of their strength, but the range of motion limits their ability to throw harder.

I think that as long as pushups are kept in moderation for the pitchers that they will truly benefit from the added strength.

I have also known kids who play football in the fall and do a jillion pushups during it and then come out in the spring and cannot throw as hard as the kids who played baseball instead of the football. It may be that the lack of throwing for the football kids slowed them up or it may be that bulking up in the upper body limited their throwing acceleration.

What are we really talking about here? Are you trying to increase arm strength, or just strength in general? Some of the greatest weaklings in baseball history could throw and hit lights out!

Personally, I think that if you want to make your team stronger as "baseball players" and be stronger at- throwing, running and hitting then push-ups and sit-ups probably are not going to get you there as effectively as a dedicated baseball strength conditioning program.

If you want the arms to be stronger to both throw harder and be less prone to injury do simple drills such as a rapid fire where two players stand about 50 feet apart and throw as fast and as hard as they can in rapid succession in repetition back and forth without letting them readjust their lower body. (after of coarse they are stretched and warmed up) This drill will both condition and strengthen the arm and allow the body to learn to quickly react to a sudden acceleration and reload.

Running drills I have found are almost always more effective if they are short sprints where they start from a standstill both in a batters box position and a leading off position and then accelerate quickly over a 90 foot space. Do that over and over again and their legs will bulk up correctly for what they are training to do.

Arm strength for batting I have always found to be -repetition, repetition, repetition. Do a soft toss drill with real baseballs against the backstop. Rather than going slow though, see how fast they can recover from the previous swing and load up and fire again. Do that about 20 times in rapid successsion and then break. Then move on to doing the same thing but throwing soft baseballs or wiffle balls at them in very rapid succession. What you are doing is conditioning and strengthening the body to accelerate hard and then recover to do it all over again just as baseball playing demands. The core strength of the baseball player increases without the un-necessary bulk that comes from strengthening with weights and pushups (slow strengthening workouts such as push-ups and bench pressing build bulk muscle rather than the type of conditioned muscle needed for fast accelerating baseball muscles) The key-

"Slow heavy workouts build slow heavy frames whereas fast rapid workouts build lean fast accelerating frames"

warningtrack,


My son is a 09 pitcher rehabing from elbow surgery and the throwers ten program is part of his rehab, which consist of push-ups. Push-ups are a good way for pitchers to strengthen their upper body in a controlled setting. The important thing is to also have your pitchers on a good throwing program to keep everything stretched out.


Banditsbb

The job of a 13 year old coach is to prepare the players for H.S. ball. That is one condition many parents do not understand- you are helping them for there future. They will need strength to succeed at the next level.

Gingerbread Man - thanks for the respone.

My main purpose for the pushups and situps was to try and get the kids to understand that at the age of 13 it's time to start building strength. If they want to play in High School they "need to step it up" if you know what I mean. I don't claim to know the best workout program but doing situps and pushups seemed to be a good place to start.

Pushups and pullups are fine, and should be done.

Just make sure elbows are staying close to body and not flaring out.

I agree w/ jon... pushups and pullups are fine... forget the sit-ups though.

Also, if your going to start getting them to be stronger, try doing some grip strength drills.

forget situps? You don't need a strong core? A strong core is the base for everything you do.

Sit-ups are not as effective as you might think.

Sit ups definately help, that just as, if not more important than pushups.

It's very, very important to have a strong core, but I understand where others are coming saying sit ups won't do much. You need to do variations of sit ups, medicine ball work, etc. But with this age group, I'd say most, if now all, have never done any type of working out. I'd start off slow.

Warning Track -
Push-ups and sit-ups are a good start at 13. I would stress to the players that the push-ups will do more for them as baseball players than bench presses will. The amount you have them doing is not that much to be concerned about. I would add pull-ups like Mr. Doyle suggested and also after warming up and stretching I would add sprints. This is a good time to teach them about stretching and how to do it properly so they don't go injuring themselves. Of course if you have a bunch of goofballs then you have to work with them - if they are serious players, then they will listen if you'll explain. Also, try and make stuff fun for them; they are only 13.

Tim Robertson

Yeah, I agree with what's already been said. Not sure why pushups or situps are perceived as bad whether you pitch or not?? I used to do hundreds at a time, all the time.

i am not an expert here, but wanted to add that for 13 year olds another fun activity that my son did and still does in college is ladder drills. Not anything to do with pushups which my son did all the time esp. before he started lifting weights and he always did push ups and sit ups every night before bed starting around 10 on his own wanted to get stronger.but ladder drills will help with quickr feet, explosiveness, there are some great ladder drills on the sparq site. some even incorporating doing grounders. Jimmy rollins I believe is demonstrating them Ladder drills are fun and accomplish a lot and really wont hurt anyone .if you order a ladder it comes with exercises to do. I think its good your getting 13 year olds to think about strength, it is very important for baseball.

Shantzee - situps aren't good, or are overrated?? Cooper's Inst. might have something to say about that... the key is balance... if you are gonna do pushups (anterior muscles) you gotta be doing something for the posterior muscles... they key is balance and overload....

if you do "x" amount of work with horizontal push exercises you need to balance with horizontal pull... same for vertical push/pull... abs done positive/negative/rotational...

why so many situps? that looks like a 1980's abs routine... curlups would prob be better suited if you wanted core work... situps will recruit hip flexors at a certain point... taking tension off abdominals...

JMO though...

DCH hit it on the head...you must balance out your physique...

And because most athletes are anterior dominant anyway (and ALL great athletes are posterior dominant) you must go above and beyond to "balnce out" a physique with muscular imbalances.

So if a kid does a ton of pushups and situps, in addition to his other daily activites that are anterior dominant (sitting in class, in car, on bus, computer, watching tv, etc) then he will develop MAJOR muscular imbalances that will not allow for maximum performance and will most likely lead to injury.

And, of course, pushups and situps are anterior exercises. Are they bad? of course not, very few exercises are "bad". However, application is what matters here.

Typically we need a 3-1 posterior to anterior workout volume to balance an athlete out over time.

Jdoyle-
Do you have any (other) dvd's, examples on web of a "pre-game" getting loose/warm up showing order and exercises that players can do before a game... I have one of yours... but had the "staff" to do certain routines - and that just isn't realistic with 18-20 players outside at a ballfield... because I am not going to tote them around...

any suggestions would be great...

Also... do you have examples (book, etc..) of pre-season/in-season/post-season workouts for players (not pitchers) that they could do in a gym setting....

Whicn oen do you have? The 7 Minute Warm-Up DVD?

We do that with large teams, 40-60 (college teams fall roster pre-cut) with zero problems...

Let me know what isues you have and I'll advise how to fix them.

I released an 18 week speed, strength & power workout about a year ago. It VERY specific.

Typically, I don't like cookie cutter programs, but let me know what you need and we can figure it out.

Thanks

yes, the seven minute one... i have not watched it in a while... but i think they used a "staff" of some kind during certain parts... and I just can't see me taking 20 of those to games, etc.... I will re-watch and then get in touch with you....

Oh, sorry. When you said staff, I thought you meant assistant coaches, not a wooden dowel!

yes, on a few exercises we use a wooden dowel. If you cannnot do that on road games, it's still extremely beneficial to do the rest of the warm-up. We only use that for a few exercises. You can substitute with a bat. In most cases, coaches will just have each player keep a wooden dowel in their bat bag. Fits easy & is light. Hope this helps.