3 Buckets of Elite Arm Care

In order to become an elite baseball pitcher, there are many areas to focus on. And in the age of social media, it’s difficult to know what you really should focus on and do.

As much as we’d like to believe that you just need to do one thing; one training tool, one pitching drill, or one “velocity program,” deep down I think we all know there’s more to it than that. 

The reality is there are 3 main buckets to developing an elite pitcher.

• Arm Care: The key to shoulder and elbow health is building an efficient and resilient shoulder, elbow, and forearm. A solid arm care program is foundational to MLB pitchers routine, but is often ignored in our youth athletes.
• Strength and Conditioning: Not all programs are optimal for baseball players, who have unique demands and stresses. You can enhance your performance by focusing total body strength, linear and rotational power, and general athleticism.
• Throwing Mechanics: Work with a coach to develop your pitching mechanics and learn how to pitch. One of the keys to a resilient arm is having efficient mechanics.

Once you’ve dialed in these three buckets, then you can start to focus on more advanced techniques to improve velocity, such as long toss and weighted balls.

Unfortunately, many youth athletes nowadays focus on velocity improvement first and optimizing their body second. This leaves athletes vulnerable and susceptible to injury.

That said, most pitchers pick 1-2 of these buckets, but if you really want to optimize, make yourself more resilient, and improve your performance, you have to focus on all 3.

Kaizen Performance Therapy can help you maximize your arm care and strength buckets, so you can focus on throwing with your coaches.