A particularly strong driving motivation for me as a coach is to offer the players the baseball environment that I have always wanted. Together with Markus Solbach and Markus Winkler, I have finally been able to implement one of these things - an all-encompassing offseason pitching program.
Not only do we have concentrated know-how from many years as players and coaches - it is even delivered directly to your cell phone! There is no easier way to implement a program when the coach is not on site.
For each day, you will receive your throwing program and strength/conditioning program, with all the details that leave (virtually) no questions unanswered, directly on your cell phone. The only question is - are you going to do it or not?
The Offseason Pitching Program is available in two versions - a 12-week version that mainly prepares you for the season, and an 18-week version that also includes a development block.
The 12-week version contains the following phases:
On Ramp- Getting the arm fit, learning drills and making initial adjustments - both mechanically and physiologically. The increase in workload was derived from the findings of numerous studies in the field of general and throwing-specific workload management. We have even created our own model that can (approximately) represent different scenarios with the associated risk of injury - but that's a topic for another blog post.
Mound Blend - Getting used to the mound and transferring what you have learned to the mound
Blend to Season - The final touches before the season
Required training equipment
Necessary:
- Baseball
- Plyoball set (2kg, minimum: 1kg, 450g, 225g, 250g, 100g)
- Wall/net for plyoball throws
Recommended:
- Wristweights (between 3-5kg)
- J-Band
The 18-week version contains the following phases:
On Ramp- Get the arm fit, learn drills and make initial adjustments - both mechanically and physiologically.
Mound Blend - Getting used to the mound and transferring what you have learned to the mound
Command - Work on your command and document your progress (alternatively, you could dedicate the command bullpens to improving your pitch arsenal, for example)
Blend to Season - The final touches before the season
Required training equipment
Necessary:
- Baseball
- Plyoball set (2kg, minimum: 1kg, 450g, 225g, 250g, 100g)
- Wall/net for plyoball throws
Recommended:
- Wristweights (between 3-5kg)
- J-Band
- Driveline Command Balls or 6oz and 4oz ball (for command training)
The drills
Each training day includes a section of pitching drills. These are largely based on the methods of backwards chaining and chunking (dividing the movement into individual parts, starting at the end of the movement) and differential learning (creating deviations that lead to small inefficiencies in order to challenge you to find the optimal solution). We often create the deviations (variability) using different heavy and large balls(plyocare balls), which lead to different speeds and increased or decreased perception of the movement (proprioceptive feedback). The training equipment is used in more or less restricted forms of movement (to improve various areas of the throw in a reinforced and isolated manner or to bring all parts together and make them interact).
Training program options
You can opt for the following versions to make the whole thing even more suitable for you:
- Pitching only (12 or 18 weeks)
- Strength/condition only (12 or 18 weeks, beginner/advanced, 3 or 4 days per week)
- Pitching AND strength/condition
If you want the program to be even more tailored to you, we can determine your starting point via a (remote) assessment and then adapt the drills, phases and focus points exactly to you (initially only the pitching part). But if you want this, you should hurry - the offseason should start in mid-November, and there are only limited spots!