September 9, 2025 • 11 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today's all about pitchers, baseball and softball
and those routines that they canactually adopt that'll give
them the best chance of success.
Raising athletes the thingsthat causes all dads to go bald
and moms to buy minivans.
Empowering parents to helptheir kids succeed.
So welcome back to the onlyshow that matters if you're a
(00:21):
parent and you are raisingathletes because we are in this
together, the tide rises for allships and I'm here to support
you and encourage you along foryour journey.
So my name is Rob Tarmin and I'mthe host here at Raising
Athletes.
And yes, I've got athletes,I've got triplets.
Currently they are sophomoresin high school and they are in
year 11 of athletics and I talkabout them a lot.
(00:45):
And through that journey I'vegained a lot of experience.
I've gone through the good, thebad, the ugly.
I've coached, I've been on thesidelines and I offer a unique
perspective.
I also am an athletic directorof a really large athletic
association and I own a trainingfacility.
So I got my hands in a lot andthat means that I can really
help you guys out with theinsight that I have.
(01:06):
The experience that I have andeverything that I've experienced
is yours.
So I want to help everyone asmuch as possible, and today we
are talking about pitchers,baseball and softball, and what
are the routines that they canlearn that'll help them to
become more successful?
(01:27):
And, specifically, what are theroutines that pitchers should
have prior to pitching in a gameand also in their practice,
prior to and for warming upduring their practices?
Personally and there's somedifferences in opinion here but
what I personally teach, andwhat I strongly encourage
(01:47):
parents to discuss with theiryoung athletes, is to develop a
very specific warm-up routine.
This should be an amount oftime that they need and specific
things that they do.
We want to train our mind andour body to ready itself for
high impact, and even thoughhigh impact for baseball and
(02:09):
softball is different, let's say, than than football, it's still
on high impact stress on theirarms, on their joints, muscles,
tendons, ligaments, and so if wetrain our body through specific
drills number one, it helps youdecrease the chance of injury.
We want to decrease risks ofinjury for kids.
It keeps them on the fieldlonger.
(02:31):
Also, it helps their body toget to the place where they can
perform at a high level in agame versus just maybe some kids
I've actually heard they don'twarm up at all.
They go from bench into thegame and that's really dangerous
, not just for injury isconcerned, but also it doesn't
(02:51):
put that child in a positionwhere they're going to maybe
have a high success rate now onthe mound.
So there are things that we cando, that we can teach our kids
to help increase that successrate, and that's what we are
talking about today.
And so I want to talk aboutsome of the things that I teach
kids.
And it does change as a childgets older and older and they
advance through their athleticjourney.
(03:12):
Of course their body is goingto be able to handle certain
stresses that when they're older, that their body can't handle
when they're younger.
So this is an evolving routinethat you should take into
consideration the child, howlong they've been playing and
how old they are now.
(03:33):
So what we're going to discussis a basic sort of approach that
now you can adopt and adapt toyour specific child.
So if it's baseball or softball,there are definitely
differences in the pitchingmotion, but for me I teach that
there are similarities acrossthe board across those two
sports.
And I'll simplify it for youTwo things.
(03:56):
Number one you want yourathlete to find their release
point and to find their legs.
I'll explain what that means.
And there are things in betweenthat help the progression to
get their body ready for a 100%high impact, high stress
environment of a game.
So, finding a release pointit's exactly what it sounds like
(04:16):
.
You want an athlete, regardlessof age, to get a feel for the
ball releasing from their hands.
There is a correct releasepoint and there's an incorrect
release point, and I like tostart there.
So I start all my athletes.
For the first thing that we dois we're going to find our
release point in a non-stress,low impact on the shoulder and
(04:41):
arm motion and it's literallyflicking the wrist and so it's
loosening up the wrist right, sowe want to get positive blood
flow and so that wrist opens up,because for both baseball and
softball pitchers, the wrist isa huge part of pitching.
So I like to start with gettingthat release point, finding
that child's release in, again,a non-stress sort of motion.
(05:07):
And the next part and this is aprogression as we progress up,
and now we're we're working intoour rotations, feeling that
that tension in our, in our core.
Now I want the pitcher to findtheir legs because, just like I
was saying before that releasepoint.
Your wrist is such an importantpart of pitching.
(05:28):
Your legs are critical forpitching, for both baseball and
softball.
So part of that routine is nowgoing to introduce helping the
athlete find their legs, get afeel for the legs, weight
distribution in their legs,getting power in their legs, and
that often now comes in aprogression where you start
(05:48):
closer to the person.
In this case let's say it's awarmup catcher, or it could be
you, a parent or a coach, so youmight start close where you're
eight to 10 feet away, whereyou're doing your wrist motions
and you're getting your releaseand as you progress further,
back and back and back,depending on how old your child
remember they pitch fromdifferent distances.
When I get to the point wherenow I want them to find their
(06:13):
legs, I actually now have nowworked my progression where I am
now further than their pitchingdistance.
Let's give an example.
So in baseball we know themaximum distance gets to 60 feet
six inches.
So if it's a pitcher now whoseage has now gotten them to the
point where they're pitching 60feet six inches in a game, when
(06:33):
I am now to the point where Ihave worked my progressions, now
I'm going to go further.
I'm going to put that childabout 10 feet could be 20, 30
feet behind that pitcher's moundbecause I want them to do
walkthroughs and feel their legsgenerating that power in their
legs.
Same thing now with softball.
(06:54):
Max distance is 43 feet forpitching.
What I'll do is I will backthat softball pitcher up could
be about 8 to 12 feet behind thepitcher's mound and I have them
walk and now aggressivelyeventually remember this is the
progression and violently intotheir motion so that they are
getting a feel for their legs.
And what I want to do this isalso an important part here of
(07:17):
understanding what a warm-uproutine should look like is the
amount of time and the amount ofpitches.
It's important that it's both.
You don't want to necessarilydo just time, because some kids
might not throw enough withinthat time span, and the same
thing you don't want to just dopitches, because your body needs
(07:38):
time to adjust and for it toreact to what you're doing.
So I do time and I do pitchesand what I like to do, generally
speaking, each progression I'lldo about a minute and a half
and about five to eight pitchesand then I work my progression.
So I might be starting at abouteight feet and then as I
(07:59):
progress back and I go eightfeet, then I go 15 feet, then I
go 25 right and whatever thatprogression is, depending on the
sport and the age of the child.
I'm working in about a minuteand a half and about five to
eight pitches.
Now you might be a child whoyou're like I need 20 minutes
for my warmup.
I have other kids that I workwith where they need 12 minutes
(08:23):
to warm up.
I have another kid that I workwith.
He's older, he knows his body.
We've now worked together for awhile.
That person needs 25 minutes.
It's a little bit of a slowerprogression.
We work in, for example,throwing a football and there's
other things there, right?
So there's no one size fits all.
So this is another thing Iwanted to talk about today is as
(08:43):
a parent who's raising anathlete.
We know there's lots ofopinions out there.
Maybe your child has alreadyhad a few coaches and each coach
had a different sort ofapproach to this particular
warmup routine.
I want you to understand thatno one's gonna know your child
better than you and it'simportant to really make sure
(09:03):
that a one size fits allapproach is not what is being
given to your child, becauseyour young athlete, like I said
before, might be that athletethat needs 25 minutes for a
warmup or might need the 12 to15 minutes for a warmup.
It's important to develop aroutine with you and your
(09:25):
private instructors who reallyintimately understand that
particular young athlete and candevelop a program.
Don't just, let's say, go toyour team practices or just have
your private one-on-oneinstructions where you're just
talking about mechanics orlearning another pitch.
I would definitely work withyour private instructor to come
(09:45):
up with a healthy warm-uproutine.
This is neglected, which, in myopinion, is one of the
contributing causes for so manyyoung athletes being injured now
and, unfortunately, having togo the surgical route and
getting Tommy John surgery andall these things.
One of the reason is it's allabout velocity, it's all about
(10:06):
exit velocity, exit, velo, velo,velo, right.
But how about we also take timeto work with young athletes to
develop a healthy warmup andrecovery routine so that these
kids can stay on the field andhave longer careers, instead of
just focusing on velo, velo,velo?
(10:28):
That's unhealthy.
It's increasing risk of injurythere.
So what I recommend as parents,because we're raising athletes
together is help your childdevelop a healthy warm-up
routine that they understand andthat they can do when you're
not around.
That's also important.
(10:48):
That's why I say that theyunderstand, talk to them about
it and come up with this greatroutine so they understand what
they need to do to get theirbody ready to do something
that's physically demanding,that's physically stressful.
So it's not just about goingfrom the bench to the mound.
We wanna make sure our kids,whether they're practicing or
it's prep work for a game, havea routine that gets their body
(11:11):
and gets their mind ready fordoing something that is
stressful, and by actuallycreating that healthy routine,
it's giving your child a betterchance of success.
Guys, I hope you guys foundsome value in today's episode.
If you did, do me a favor.
Let's grow this communitytogether and share it with
someone that you know who's alsoraising an athlete.
(11:32):
Take care, guys.
Today's all about pitchers, baseball and softball
and those routines that they canactually adopt that'll give
them the best chance of success.
Raising athletes the thingsthat causes all dads to go bald
and moms to buy minivans.
Empowering parents to helptheir kids succeed.
So welcome back to the onlyshow that matters if you're a
(00:21):
parent and you are raisingathletes because we are in this
together, the tide rises for allships and I'm here to support
you and encourage you along foryour journey.
So my name is Rob Tarmin and I'mthe host here at Raising
Athletes.
And yes, I've got athletes,I've got triplets.
Currently they are sophomoresin high school and they are in
year 11 of athletics and I talkabout them a lot.
(00:45):
And through that journey I'vegained a lot of experience.
I've gone through the good, thebad, the ugly.
I've coached, I've been on thesidelines and I offer a unique
perspective.
I also am an athletic directorof a really large athletic
association and I own a trainingfacility.
So I got my hands in a lot andthat means that I can really
help you guys out with theinsight that I have.
(01:06):
The experience that I have andeverything that I've experienced
is yours.
So I want to help everyone asmuch as possible, and today we
are talking about pitchers,baseball and softball, and what
are the routines that they canlearn that'll help them to
become more successful?
(01:27):
And, specifically, what are theroutines that pitchers should
have prior to pitching in a gameand also in their practice,
prior to and for warming upduring their practices?
Personally and there's somedifferences in opinion here but
what I personally teach, andwhat I strongly encourage
(01:47):
parents to discuss with theiryoung athletes, is to develop a
very specific warm-up routine.
This should be an amount oftime that they need and specific
things that they do.
We want to train our mind andour body to ready itself for
high impact, and even thoughhigh impact for baseball and
(02:09):
softball is different, let's say, than than football, it's still
on high impact stress on theirarms, on their joints, muscles,
tendons, ligaments, and so if wetrain our body through specific
drills number one, it helps youdecrease the chance of injury.
We want to decrease risks ofinjury for kids.
It keeps them on the fieldlonger.
(02:31):
Also, it helps their body toget to the place where they can
perform at a high level in agame versus just maybe some kids
I've actually heard they don'twarm up at all.
They go from bench into thegame and that's really dangerous
, not just for injury isconcerned, but also it doesn't
(02:51):
put that child in a positionwhere they're going to maybe
have a high success rate now onthe mound.
So there are things that we cando, that we can teach our kids
to help increase that successrate, and that's what we are
talking about today.
And so I want to talk aboutsome of the things that I teach
kids.
And it does change as a childgets older and older and they
advance through their athleticjourney.
(03:12):
Of course their body is goingto be able to handle certain
stresses that when they're older, that their body can't handle
when they're younger.
So this is an evolving routinethat you should take into
consideration the child, howlong they've been playing and
how old they are now.
(03:33):
So what we're going to discussis a basic sort of approach that
now you can adopt and adapt toyour specific child.
So if it's baseball or softball,there are definitely
differences in the pitchingmotion, but for me I teach that
there are similarities acrossthe board across those two
sports.
And I'll simplify it for youTwo things.
(03:56):
Number one you want yourathlete to find their release
point and to find their legs.
I'll explain what that means.
And there are things in betweenthat help the progression to
get their body ready for a 100%high impact, high stress
environment of a game.
So, finding a release pointit's exactly what it sounds like
(04:16):
.
You want an athlete, regardlessof age, to get a feel for the
ball releasing from their hands.
There is a correct releasepoint and there's an incorrect
release point, and I like tostart there.
So I start all my athletes.
For the first thing that we dois we're going to find our
release point in a non-stress,low impact on the shoulder and
(04:41):
arm motion and it's literallyflicking the wrist and so it's
loosening up the wrist right, sowe want to get positive blood
flow and so that wrist opens up,because for both baseball and
softball pitchers, the wrist isa huge part of pitching.
So I like to start with gettingthat release point, finding
that child's release in, again,a non-stress sort of motion.
(05:07):
And the next part and this is aprogression as we progress up,
and now we're we're working intoour rotations, feeling that
that tension in our, in our core.
Now I want the pitcher to findtheir legs because, just like I
was saying before that releasepoint.
Your wrist is such an importantpart of pitching.
(05:28):
Your legs are critical forpitching, for both baseball and
softball.
So part of that routine is nowgoing to introduce helping the
athlete find their legs, get afeel for the legs, weight
distribution in their legs,getting power in their legs, and
that often now comes in aprogression where you start
(05:48):
closer to the person.
In this case let's say it's awarmup catcher, or it could be
you, a parent or a coach, so youmight start close where you're
eight to 10 feet away, whereyou're doing your wrist motions
and you're getting your releaseand as you progress further,
back and back and back,depending on how old your child
remember they pitch fromdifferent distances.
When I get to the point wherenow I want them to find their
(06:13):
legs, I actually now have nowworked my progression where I am
now further than their pitchingdistance.
Let's give an example.
So in baseball we know themaximum distance gets to 60 feet
six inches.
So if it's a pitcher now whoseage has now gotten them to the
point where they're pitching 60feet six inches in a game, when
(06:33):
I am now to the point where Ihave worked my progressions, now
I'm going to go further.
I'm going to put that childabout 10 feet could be 20, 30
feet behind that pitcher's moundbecause I want them to do
walkthroughs and feel their legsgenerating that power in their
legs.
Same thing now with softball.
(06:54):
Max distance is 43 feet forpitching.
What I'll do is I will backthat softball pitcher up could
be about 8 to 12 feet behind thepitcher's mound and I have them
walk and now aggressivelyeventually remember this is the
progression and violently intotheir motion so that they are
getting a feel for their legs.
And what I want to do this isalso an important part here of
(07:17):
understanding what a warm-uproutine should look like is the
amount of time and the amount ofpitches.
It's important that it's both.
You don't want to necessarilydo just time, because some kids
might not throw enough withinthat time span, and the same
thing you don't want to just dopitches, because your body needs
(07:38):
time to adjust and for it toreact to what you're doing.
So I do time and I do pitchesand what I like to do, generally
speaking, each progression I'lldo about a minute and a half
and about five to eight pitchesand then I work my progression.
So I might be starting at abouteight feet and then as I
(07:59):
progress back and I go eightfeet, then I go 15 feet, then I
go 25 right and whatever thatprogression is, depending on the
sport and the age of the child.
I'm working in about a minuteand a half and about five to
eight pitches.
Now you might be a child whoyou're like I need 20 minutes
for my warmup.
I have other kids that I workwith where they need 12 minutes
(08:23):
to warm up.
I have another kid that I workwith.
He's older, he knows his body.
We've now worked together for awhile.
That person needs 25 minutes.
It's a little bit of a slowerprogression.
We work in, for example,throwing a football and there's
other things there, right?
So there's no one size fits all.
So this is another thing Iwanted to talk about today is as
(08:43):
a parent who's raising anathlete.
We know there's lots ofopinions out there.
Maybe your child has alreadyhad a few coaches and each coach
had a different sort ofapproach to this particular
warmup routine.
I want you to understand thatno one's gonna know your child
better than you and it'simportant to really make sure
(09:03):
that a one size fits allapproach is not what is being
given to your child, becauseyour young athlete, like I said
before, might be that athletethat needs 25 minutes for a
warmup or might need the 12 to15 minutes for a warmup.
It's important to develop aroutine with you and your
(09:25):
private instructors who reallyintimately understand that
particular young athlete and candevelop a program.
Don't just, let's say, go toyour team practices or just have
your private one-on-oneinstructions where you're just
talking about mechanics orlearning another pitch.
I would definitely work withyour private instructor to come
(09:45):
up with a healthy warm-uproutine.
This is neglected, which, in myopinion, is one of the
contributing causes for so manyyoung athletes being injured now
and, unfortunately, having togo the surgical route and
getting Tommy John surgery andall these things.
One of the reason is it's allabout velocity, it's all about
(10:06):
exit velocity, exit, velo, velo,velo, right.
But how about we also take timeto work with young athletes to
develop a healthy warmup andrecovery routine so that these
kids can stay on the field andhave longer careers, instead of
just focusing on velo, velo,velo?
(10:28):
That's unhealthy.
It's increasing risk of injurythere.
So what I recommend as parents,because we're raising athletes
together is help your childdevelop a healthy warm-up
routine that they understand andthat they can do when you're
not around.
That's also important.
(10:48):
That's why I say that theyunderstand, talk to them about
it and come up with this greatroutine so they understand what
they need to do to get theirbody ready to do something
that's physically demanding,that's physically stressful.
So it's not just about goingfrom the bench to the mound.
We wanna make sure our kids,whether they're practicing or
it's prep work for a game, havea routine that gets their body
(11:11):
and gets their mind ready fordoing something that is
stressful, and by actuallycreating that healthy routine,
it's giving your child a betterchance of success.
Guys, I hope you guys foundsome value in today's episode.
If you did, do me a favor.
Let's grow this communitytogether and share it with
someone that you know who's alsoraising an athlete.
(11:32):
Take care, guys.
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