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4 Goals for an Outstanding Pitching Warmup By: Cindy Bristow Provided by: Softball Excellence
I am constantly amazed at how LONG pitchers take to warmup, and yet how bad most of them pitch at the end of it all. Discover 4 goals every pitcher should have for her warmup. If your pitcher's warmup more closely resembles wrist-snap-day than pitching, and takes close to an hour to complete, then chances are your pitcher could benefit from knowing the 4 goals to an Outstanding Pitching Warmup.
Here are 2 facts that all pitchers must face, and all pitching warmups should consider: 1. You're warming up to dominate in the game, not in the bullpen! Make your warmup matter! Following a usual lengthy warmup, most pitchers go into the game only to struggle in the first inning and pitch better in the 2nd to 4th innings. If that's the case then the obvious question is – why couldn't she throw better in the first inning if she just warmed up? And the answer is, because her warmup didn't have enough to do with actual game-like pitching. If it takes the game for her to warmup, then save your pitcher some time and either don't have her warmup (not the suggested option), or improve her warmups. Watch any softball pitcher warmup and they all start to look the same. Close up flips or snaps, followed by other different body-position drills from various mid-way distances until the pitcher gets behind the rubber doing frantic walk-throughs that more closely resemble run-throughs. Until about 40 minutes later she's FINALLY on the rubber and mad about how she's pitching. If this sounds familiar it should – it's repeated every day by thousands of pitchers across the country who really believe they are "warming up". I'm not suggesting there's only one way to warmup and anyone who doesn't do it that way is wrong. What I am saying is that your pitcher's warmups should get them ready to be their best from the first batter on. And, just as pitching motions are slightly different for every pitcher, their warmups should be as well. Ask any pitcher why they do what they do in warmups and you'll usually hear "I don't know, I've always done it this way", or "My old pitching coach told me to do this". Pitching warmups are usually: • Sloppy And yet, when a pitcher goes into a game, she needs to be: • Precise Those two lists have NOTHING in common, so it's easy to see why pitchers struggle when they get into games. Instead of trying to make an old warmup routine fit into game qualities why don't we work backwards and take the qualities we need to have in a game and put them into our warmups? Makes all kinds of sense, doesn't it?! So with that concept in mind, let's look at the 4 Qualities Your Pitcher's Need to Have in their Warmups: 1. Warmup Your Body – get your body warm • Run, jog, stretch, jumping jacks – before you start pitching you must first make sure your body is warmed up by taking a jog around the field, doing some sprints, making sure you're good and loose before you grab your glove and start pitching. • Overhand – gently warmup your arm by throwing overhand to your catcher. This doesn't have to be very long, and shouldn't be very hard, but it helps your arm get warm and also sets the speed tempo for your pitching warmups. You don't start throwing over hand by playing burnout – so you shouldn't do that pitching. And likewise, you don't stand their doing "snaps" just to throw, so you probably don't need to add those to your pitching either. (more on that later) 2. Warmup Your Pitches – get your pitches ready to go • Pitch – all those drills and partial-pitch things are fine for after you've warmed up and its practice time and you're trying to fix a problem. But standing there doing mindless, sloppy "snaps" aren't going to come close to helping you nail specific, aggressive snaps in a game. Not even close. So do what you did overhand – you started easy and closer and then threw harder and back farther. Do that underhand. Believe it or not, you can actually pitch without starting 3 feet away and doing snaps or spins! Honest! • ALL of your pitches – I'm still amazed when pitchers ask me if they should warmup all their pitches. Or, they tell me they're finished warming up and I ask them to throw a riseball – and they ask me if they should warm it up first. These are TRUE stories! If you have pitches that you are going to actually throw in the game or in practice then you HAVE TO warm them up! You should warmup all your pitches every day! • Pick an order that makes sense to you (best, weakest, best) – create an order to your warmup by warming up your different pitches in a specific order that helps you the most. Lots of pitchers will warm up their worst pitch first and finish with their best pitch so they leave the bullpen feeling confident. Great. But, you might need to warmup your best pitch first, and then go through your others from weakest back to best. Whatever your order is – have one that works for you and that makes you BETTER! Then always warmup in this order, not just for games, or Big games, but always – including practice! Your practice warmup should be the same as your game warmup – warmup is warmup. • Spend warmup time where you'll spend game time – You pitch on the pitching rubber, so spend most of your warmup time on the rubber. Think about those warmups that start close them gradually work back, then go waaay back and then eventually end up on the rubber. Most of the warmup time was not spent where that pitcher will spend her entire game time – on the rubber! You're warming up to dominate in the game, not in the bullpen, so remember that when you warmup! 3. Warmup Your Mind – get your mind focused & ready • Get Your Mind Focused – this means you've got to have a specific purpose, make immediate adjustments & corrections and most importantly, take your mind away from your daily life and put it to work on your pitching! You can't be spaced out in warmups and expect to be dialed in in the game. So mentally dial yourself in during warmups – you'll notice a huge diference in how well you warmup. 4. Warmup Your Dominance – leave bullpen feeling on Top of the World! • Confidence – it's crucial that you feel like you can dominate the opposition when you leave the bullpen, and that's tied to your confidence. Having a specific warmup routine that you ALWAYS follow, and that you know will prepare you to pitch your best will really help you warmup your dominance! • Time It – when you warmup the same way every time, you learn exactly how long it takes you to warmup. That helps you know when you've got to head to the bullpen to start warming up. AND helps your coach know how much time to give you to warmup. If every day your warmup is different, then how do you know when to start, or when you're done? Having a specific routine helps your dominance! • Throw to different batters you know you'll face today – before you leave the bullpen throw to some of the hitters you know you'll face. Or, throw to 4-5 imaginary hitters that cover all types; lefty slappers, power-hitting righties, power-hitting lefties, good hitting righties & lefties. Do your prep work in the bullpen and you'll be ready to be your best during the game. • See yourself be good – sounds simple but too many pitchers just spend their warmups getting frustrated and feeling deflated. It's hard to be good when you don't feel good so make sure that feeling good is part of your warmup. • Leave some for the game – another problem with those LONG warmup sessions is those pitchers tend to wear themselves out during warmups so they can't finish a game strong. Remember that you're warming up for a game – so be able to throw the entire game! Leave the drills for practice. That's what drills are – they're practice tools to help address specific problems, not warmup tools. Once you get warm, if it's a practice day and you need to improve on something specific then do a drill that addresses that specific issue – but doing drills just to do them, or because you think they warm you up – well, that's wasting valuable warmup time. Remember, 2 very important things: • You're warming up to dominate in the game, not in the bullpen Make your warmup count!
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4 Goals for an Outstanding Pitching Warmup
