I am asked all the time, “How can I improve my arm strength?” It’s what everyone wants, isn’t it? Everyone wants to throw harder and have that blazing arm strength that makes scout’s jaws drop. The problem is that no one really understands how to develop arm strength. There are many theories and techniques used today to increase arm strength but what most athletes and coaches fail to realize is that while there are a variety of ways that you can go about increasing arm strength there are very few ways to increase your arm strength a without increasing your chance of injury. So in order to set up a throwing program that is going to help you maximize your arm strength while at the same time help protect your arm from injury you have to focus on three different aspects....Mechanics
I can’t stress enough the importance of mechanics. Just like in hitting mechanics enable us to work with the natural movements of the body to maximize throwing velocity and minimize injury. Now there seems to be this idea that “everybody is different”! That different mechanics work for different individuals. Let me put this theory to bed right now! While we are all different, we are also all the SAME! That’s right, we are all the same. Same muscles and bones, and when it comes to movements same muscular firing sequences. Let me give you an example: A good friend of mine is a doctor, he treats and repairs sports injuries and injuries to the muscles, bones, and joints. He may have two patients, one is suffering from severe knee pain, and the other is perfectly fine. When he does a study of these two patients he notices that the one in pain walks completely differently then the one who is fine. He then sets up a rehab and training regiment to enable the person in pain to walk like the person who isn’t in pain. Low and behold once the person who is in pain begins to walk like the person who isn’t the stress on their knee joint is relieved and the pain ceases to exist.
The same is true in throwing. You may be able to get away with poor mechanics, you may even throw hard with poor mechanics but you won’t be able to maximize your body’s full potential. At the same time while great mechanics don’t necessarily guarantee you won’t get hurt it does lessen the likelyhood of an injury. (Not everyone who smokes gets cancer but are you going to take that risk?) Before entering into any throwing program it’s imperative that you make sure you are mechanically sound. If you are not then you will just be wasting your time. Make sure you are enabling your body to be in it’s strongest position at the release point. This will immediately increase your velocity and at the same time decrease the stress on your arm.
Throwing Distance
Here is where the big debate comes in. To long toss or not to long toss? I recommend not throwing any farther than 120 feet. As a player you will rarely thrown any farther than that in a game. Plus any time you aren’t able to throw the ball on a line you are altering your mechanics. You end up putting yourself in a weaker position at release and placing more stress on your arm. I used to long toss a lot. While I did experience some gains in arm strength it was nothing compared to the gains I experienced when I played from 120 feet keeping the ball on a line. I was consistently in a better position when I threw and I developed more consistency with my mechanics since I wasn’t altering my mechanics to throw farther. Think about it, when you back up you essentially are throwing the ball as hard as you can to get the ball to your partner. What’s the difference if you are at 120 feet throwing the ball as hard as you can or at 300 feet? There isn’t any! You are still throwing the ball as hard as you can, so you are still getting the same benefit.
Keeping the ball on a line helps you maintain a consistent release point which will only benefit you when you get into a game. You will be able to throw harder more consistently because you will be using proper mechanics more consistently. You don’t need to back up any farther then 120 feet. Do yourself and your arm a favor and make 120 feet your limit.
Throwing Time
I think you are going to be shocked at the amount of time we need to throw in order to develop our arm strength. We all think that we have to go out and throw for 30, 45, or even 60 minutes in order to develop the arm strength that we desire. What we forget is that we throw with our muscles. In fact, we throw with very explosive, fast, easily fatiguing muscles. The muscles we us to throw with fatigue very easily and very fast. There is no way around it but yet we try to throw and throw and throw trying to develop strength in these muscles. The more fatigued these muscles get the more we have to alter our mechanics to throw the ball. Once those mechanics are altered you end up putting more stress on your arm and strengthening muscles that you normally wouldn’t use during throwing.
For these reasons I recommend throwing no more then between 5-8 minutes per day. WHAT? That’s right you don’t need more than 5-8 minutes of throwing a day. I also recommend altering days. What I mean is 8 minute days on your non game or non throwing days at practice followed by a 5 minute day the next day. Never go consecutive 8 minute days as your arm needs time to rest. In addition you should always feel like you could do more when you end your throwing program. If you feel so fatigued that your arm is just “done” then you probably altered your mechanics well before you ended your throwing session. Keep your throwing programs short. You will find that not only will you have more arm strength but you will also have less arm pain.
Below I have attached examples of throwing programs and how to set them up...
12 and under example 8 minute day (60 foot bases)
Distance Time
20 feet 1 minute
40 feet 2 minutes
50 feet 1 minute
60 feet 2 minutes
70 feet 1 minute
50 feet 1 minute
12 and under example 5 minute day (60 foot bases)
Distance Time
20 feet 1 minute
40 feet 1 minute
60 feet 1 minute
70 feet 1 minute
60 feet 1 minute
18 and under example 8 minute day (90 foot bases)
Distance Time
40 feet 1 minute
60 feet 2 minutes
90 feet 2 minutes
120 feet 2 minutes
90 feet 1 minute
18 and under example 5 minute day (90 foot bases)
40 feet 30 seconds
60 feet 30 seconds
90 feet 2 minutes
120 feet 1 minute
90 feet 1 minute
