July 30, 2024 • 19 mins
In Episode 8 of Season 9 here on THE Robby Row Show Baseball Podcast we’ll be discussing ‘OFF-SEASON THROWING’ thru the lens of my personal experiences having played professionally since 18 years of age as well as having gone thru some injuries which requires a bit more attention towards how you go about your throwing program in the off-season.
I want to be clear in the simple understanding that every single ball player that i've ever played with/worked with/met has all been uniquely different from one another.. There's never really a singular absolute in this game when it comes to how you should go about your work. The goal is to be super intentional and mindful with understanding what your body AND mind need to be able to perform at the highest level possible.
So with that being said - Here’s some insights that maybe will help you better understand everything that goes into off season throwing as well as how to better prepare you for your journey in this game. That’s the foundation my dudes! Here to help! Speaking of, don’t hesitate to reach out to me via my question platform
Watch This Episode on YouTube 🎥
MORE LINKS FROM ROBBY ROW 👇
Click Here For DISCOUNTS on Products I Use
Click Here To Learn More About ME
Click Here to Checkout My Pitching Development eBooks
Click Here To Book a Mechanical Analysis
FOLLOW ME ON..
Thanks for listening + God Bless 🖖
I want to be clear in the simple understanding that every single ball player that i've ever played with/worked with/met has all been uniquely different from one another.. There's never really a singular absolute in this game when it comes to how you should go about your work. The goal is to be super intentional and mindful with understanding what your body AND mind need to be able to perform at the highest level possible.
So with that being said - Here’s some insights that maybe will help you better understand everything that goes into off season throwing as well as how to better prepare you for your journey in this game. That’s the foundation my dudes! Here to help! Speaking of, don’t hesitate to reach out to me via my question platform
Watch This Episode on YouTube 🎥
MORE LINKS FROM ROBBY ROW 👇
Click Here For DISCOUNTS on Products I Use
Click Here To Learn More About ME
Click Here to Checkout My Pitching Development eBooks
Click Here To Book a Mechanical Analysis
FOLLOW ME ON..
- TikTok
- YouTube
- Website
- Podcast Website Page
- Apple Podcasts
- Spotify Podcasts
Thanks for listening + God Bless 🖖
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Okay, guys, off season throwing, off season throwing. I will
try to do the best that I can to simplify
this to where everyone can get something out of it. Obviously,
like off season throwing is different depending on the individual,
depending on.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
The age, lots of different factors.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
So I'm not going to speak to any specific like
absolutes when it comes to what you should and should
not do. I'm just going to give you context from
my journey, my upbringing through Little league through high school,
brief context, and then context into my professional career, you know,
being someone that got drafted at eighteen and having to
spend a couple off seasons there at like eighteen, nineteen,
(00:36):
twenty twenty one years old, not really having a good
understanding because this is a whole nother dynamic we'll get into.
But things that the old time players used to do,
like guys in the eighties and the nineties in the
off season, because that's who I learned from. I learned
from my dad, who was a catcher in the late
eighties early nineties in Major League Baseball, and back then
(00:57):
it was a little bit different. Back then, it was
more so like when you did have the opportunity to
put the ball down, you put the ball down. So
when I was in high school, I was always playing sports,
you know, throughout the years, Like I played baseball, spring, summer, fall,
and then in the winter it was basketball. So I
in high school like more so unintentionally, like when I
(01:19):
became like a sophomore, junior, senior year, unintentionally would put
the ball down during basketball season just because there was
no time, right, there was no time to throw. The
dynamic changed my senior year of high school because I
was playing basketball, but I also was getting you know
a ton of like at home visits from scouts and
talking to a lot of teams, colleges, all these things.
(01:41):
So there was an obvious notion that I needed to
get ready sooner than I had in years past. And
I've always been one to get off to kind of
a slow start at the beginning of seasons, whether it
be like high school or professional baseball. For some reason,
I just got off to slow starts as I've gotten older.
And this is why I'm very confident in talking about
this approach. As I've gotten older, I've just realized a
(02:03):
little bit more when it comes to my body. And
the reason why I say my body is because obviously
it's different, but how adaptable the body is, and then
the specific things that I needed for me in the
career that I had. The best times that I felt
in spring training were the years that I went and
played winter ball. That means that I didn't really have
a whole lot of period of time in which I
(02:23):
put the ball down and physically didn't throw my first
three to four years of pro ball now definitely my
first three. I'd always get off to slow starts in
spring training, especially when I was eighteen, because I went
from like the high school season, like I said, earlier,
got ready a little bit earlier than I had in
years past, got into the basketball season, was kind of
doing both. Started throwing earlier, went through the whole spring
(02:44):
season in high school, got drafted, went to the whole
summer season, went to instructs, and there's a lot of throwing.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
So I just put the ball down.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Never have I ever felt worse than I did turning
nineteen in December, going into that January when I first
started picking with the ball. Instructs ended, I want to say,
like right around Holloway. So my birthday is December fifteenth,
and I would always pick up the ball right around
my birthday, whether it's like the fifteenth or the sixteenth
or the seventeenth, just right around there for my first
three years of pro ball, and never had I ever
(03:12):
felt worse than I did when I turned nineteen in
my first professional off season, because it was the first
time in a while that I intentionally said I'm not
picking the ball up, I'm not throwing for an extended
period of time. It was two months. I'll never forget.
It was like longest two months ever. But you know
that was during the time in which I was also
learning a lot about my body in the weight room.
I was strength training for the first time in my career.
(03:34):
There's a lot of things going on that could also
play into influencing me not feeling the best. So take
it with a grain of salt. Again, this is all
personalized context. This is not me telling anyone how they
should approach their offseason or downtime. The thing that I
have realized as I've gotten older that a the body
is adaptable to whatever stresses you put it through. But
(03:54):
there's also the understanding be that you have to kind
of look at the broad spectrum of your workload of
your work tolerance and cross reference that like with your
upcoming performance schedule and with where you're at currently, you know,
in your like.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Overall fitness level.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
So obviously kids in high school, man, they could just throw,
throw throw.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I really do believe that.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
I really do believe that kids in high school can
can throw and add a lot of volume.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Right.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
The conversation changes when there's talk about the goals for
that particular individual, whether it be velocity, whether it be
fine tuning movement patterns, so on and so forth. Velocity
goals are probably going to company ninety five percent of kids, right,
So I don't encourage the throwing time off, like not
picking up a ball, just because it's like the single
(04:46):
thing in all of life that we're expected to become
better at by doing a little bit less. Right, we
talk about this brake pedal approach that we're seeing nowadays
in cause for concern being the injuries. Right, We're seeing
these injur is that go up at an alarming rate.
So then our natural instincts are to limit that and
control the exertion, control the volume. That's going to hurt
(05:09):
two different things. One it's going to hurt the actual
like mindset behind your highest potential power output and the
movement that accompanies that. Because if there's a notion in
your brain that's like, oh, I'm going to get hurt
if I blow it out right, or if I'm going
to get hurt if I really let one go. If
you believe that, whether it's subconscious or consciously, then your
body is going to have a limitter on it.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Right.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
So that's one that's kind of a different conversation. And
then and then two the movement pattern things, you know,
like the the obtaining motion memory, certain movements in the
delivery that kids are trying to you know, accomplish to
alleviate the added load on the elbow or on the shoulder.
Movement progressions like they're not going to just happen. They're
not going to just be ingrained over time by not
(05:51):
throwing and just doing like dry reps.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Right.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
The brain is smart, man, It's it's it's obtaining the
movement of the particular task. It is, right, I really
do look at the biggest overarching dynamic of should kids
like throw during the offseason, not throw, put the ball down,
not put the ball down on Well, you know what
do I do? I just really believe that there's nothing
wrong with picking up the ball two to three times
(06:15):
a week and just getting it going, because I'll never
forget that year I was talking about earlier when it
was I was just completed my first year of professional
ball and I put the ball down, didn't throw, didn't
really do bands for two straight months, and I trained
like strength trained for the first time in my life.
And I remember thinking like, oh, I'm going to pick
this thing up and it's going to be a dang bazooka.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
And dude, let me tell you it.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
I grinded for probably the first three months my first
outing in spring training that year, I was eighty four
to eighty six.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Like I would always get off to these slow starts.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
And it wasn't until later in my career where I
just realized, like, oh, Rob, you should just probably throw
year round. So that's my approach now, is like I'm
just constantly throwing, and I'm adapting overtime, right, Like I
believe that I have intentionally adapted to where I can
throw multiple times a day, like I've worked with clients
(07:07):
now still to this day, and I loked off probably
four times a day. And the reason why I can
is because I do. Right now, that's obviously something that
you can't really market in today's day and age, because
the fear of blowing out and the fact that it
could potentially happen if someone goes out and tries to
throw the way that I throw. The thing that I
want to get across here before I ramble on about
(07:29):
something else is the fact that when I talk about
why I believe you shouldn't just completely put the ball down,
is because I really don't believe in picking up a
ball once or twice a week during your down time,
right during your off season and throwing. I don't believe
that that's going to drastically affect anything. The only thing
that I believe that if we do that approach, what
(07:52):
we could potentially see is like suboptimal movements, because I
am one to believe that when we're throwing, we're trying
to obtain specific movement patterns within the delivery to obtain
a high power output exerted throw. When we're trying to
obtain that, touching a ball once or twice a week
(08:13):
and just lightly playing catch in the offseason is probably
gonna prohibit you from obtaining the most optimal patterns in
your delivery, or it can actually take what you already have,
like the patterns you've already established, and it could slowly
but surely start to mold into a less aggressive approach.
So guess what I'm saying here is if you're someone
(08:35):
that wants to just keep the arm in decent shape
but doesn't want to like totally lose sight on like
where they're progressing with their movements, and they don't want
to drastically have to overhaul when they do get cleared
or they do resume their throwing, then I would just
encourage those guys to like do bands, wrist weights, clubs,
(08:56):
Indian clubs, bell clubs. The shoulder is the shoulder, like
the motion of the throw is the motion of the throw.
But if we are diligent with like a ban program
where you're doing it, you know, three three to four
times a week, high repetitions, low low power, right like
low resistance. The biggest mistake I made those first couple
(09:17):
of years in pro ball was the fact that like
I was just training, I was just strength training. I
was building all these muscles, right like, all this contraction,
all this tightness, and then now it comes time to throw,
which is a which is a loose an elasticity stretch
throw right, Like there's not much like contraction of the
(09:37):
particular throw.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
It's like a loose whip. Right.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
That is what I believe really affected me those first
couple of years, because obviously everyone's gonna, you know, strength
train in their off season. But then the feeling coming
back and throwing this ball, like it just felt for
the first time in my life like I'm stiff. I
never I've never felt stiff before, and I never wanted
to feel that again. So the thing that I implemented,
(10:01):
you know, later in my career, like I said earlier,
was playing winter ball. But even just keeping my arm
in shape little by little, it doesn't take much to
just continuously like keep your arm in somewhat of a
decent shape.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Right.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
I do believe that there's people like I know. I
listened to Max schers Or speak about his off season
one time, and he was talking about how he just
picks up a ball like once or twice a week's
and just touches it works for him fantastic, right, huge
advocate for just taking like a day or two during
someone's off season and just playing like lightcatch. Like I
said earlier, there's potential for those movement patterns to become
(10:36):
way less violent. But if you're doing it once twice
a week, probably not going to be a carryover. And
the fact that you can just take the legs out
of the equation, this.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Is another thing.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
This is another thing that I would encourage a lot
of kids, right is instead of just completely putting the
ball down for their off season, and if they are
in fear of like getting away from their movements because
the throwing that they will be making in their offseason
is lower power output, then just take the legs out
of the equation. Because again, it's the arm, it's the shoulder,
(11:08):
it's the elbows, it's the risk. Those were the things
that really jumped out to me those first couple of
years of like coming back and just being like, man,
I just do not feel good. I feel stiff, My
shoulder felt like had a cobwebs. Just getting like the
hand up felt like it was a difficult task. Right,
So my biggest encouragement is I don't love putting the
ball completely down and just not throwing, not doing any
(11:30):
bands because in reality, you you know, nowadays like we
have plyoballs. We have footballs, we have clubs, we have
things that we could actively throw, wrist weights, things that
we can do, like, I don't believe that there ever
should be a period in time in which we're we're
not going through a shoulder motion right.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Wrist weights, plyoballs right.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
And I guarantee you that when you do come back
to your season and resume your throwing, it will not
take you as long as it's going to take the
other guys that did put the ball down to get
back into shape and ready to go. I should have
prefaced everything I said that the last fifteen minutes by
saying that I have been known to be somewhat of
(12:11):
a head case when it comes to like the not
throwing right, because I am.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
I used to be not anymore yours of mindfulness.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
I used to be the guy that could not throw
in a game if I didn't like play catch the
day before, Like if we had an off day and
then I was starting the next day, I wouldn't just
go all off day and not throw.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
I that's like my I'd freak out, you know.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
So there's, like I said, identification of what gives you confidence.
For me, it's always been my preparation. So if I
feel if I don't go a day without throwing, right,
and then I go into a game and I'm competing
against a dude in the box, like my mental isn't
going to be where it needs to be for my
physical to be at the top of its ability, right,
because it starts for me, especially, it starts here. And
(12:53):
this is something I've learned over time. A lot of
people's not that way. It starts physically, right, mental is
just kind of a back seat. So that was kind
of how I realized I failed at like putting together
an approach, but I just learned right, Like that's how
we learn about ourselves is you do things and then
you reflect on those things and realize I responded well
(13:13):
to that, or I didn't respond well to that. Did
that improve me? Did that make me closer to reaching
my goals?
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Right?
Speaker 1 (13:22):
And like I said at the very beginning of this, man,
if you're a high school kid, younger kid, I hate
to say it because it's so cliche, but like, there's
no answer to these questions like should I throw in
the off season? The only answer comes from you truly
knowing about yourself. The only way you're going to do
that is by a one off season. I tried putting
(13:42):
the ball down and not throwing. How'd I come back?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Well?
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Shoot, I felt freaking great. I had the best year
of my life. Dude, heck yeah. It doesn't matter that
we have totally opposite the approach. It's what matters is that
you found that out for yourself, right, Or you do
that and it sucks, right like you do, you feel
you come back, You put the ball down for two months,
three months, come back, feel terrible great. Probably shouldn't do
that again now, you know, right, because like me Be
(14:06):
and me, I realized that right away when I was eighteen,
like that first spring train, I was like, I'm never
doing this again.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
This is terrible.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
But then the next year is like Forrick, I had
a long year. You know, this was my first actual
full season. When I was nineteen in pro Bawl, I
was like, boom, early camp. You know you report. I've reported,
because I was a prospect. I reported like February tenth,
you know, something like maybe even February first, something crazy.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
We always used to get to the facility.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Like a month early, and then you pitch all you
throw like all season and like I said earlier, with instructs,
you know your season ends, then you got to go
to instructs for like six eight weeks.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Right.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
So after that second year, even though it was my
first full year, I was like, man, this is my
that was a lot of throwing too, I'm going to
put the ball down.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
And I put the ball down.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
I think maybe eight weeks came back felt terrible, right,
kind of the notion of my entire career is like
learning a lot, obtaining a lot of information, really good information,
but just not putting that information in to practice to
become better.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
That's why I started my brand though, is because I've
realized so much good knowledge pertaining to myself and my
journey and my discoveries throughout that journey. So then I
could portray that. So then I could give that to
you guys, and you guys, can you know, potentially use
it better than I did, so you don't have to
go through the things I did, all right, But if
you have any questions pertaining to like the off season throwing,
(15:25):
the volume of throwing, like again, everyone's gonna be different,
don't don't hesitate to reach out Maybe we can get
a little bit more specific if you give me a
little bit more context on your situation.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
This whole thing changes.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
If you're a guy that's coming off like a surgery,
your guy coming off low innings, you're a reliever, right Like,
if you're going to prepare for a season at a company,
is like a lot of froze. Like, yeah, your instincts,
everything tells you like maybe I should prepare by like
resting and things like that.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
But like, again, the.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Adaptation of the body, the adaptation, the muscular adaptation, the
cellular adaptation, whatever it is, you're going to adapt to it.
And I think that's the underlying truth that everyone maybe
should look into understanding before they put together Like an
off season approach is just understand how your body handles stress.
My body, my arm, like, I handle it very very well,
(16:14):
and I adapt to become more resilient and my body
gives out what I put in. Right Like, whatever that
quote is, you understand. But the underlying truth is that
we're superior athletes. We throw a baseball, you know, pretty
much where we want it at a high power output.
We're superior athletes. We are probably the best adaptationers. If
you will adapters at stress on the planet. I never
(16:36):
want to say speaking in absolutes, but I would encourage
you not to look not to look at throwing as
a thing that you should fear, because there's a lot
of mental emphasis there too. Because the thing that we
fight is well, I'm not going to throw because I
don't want to get hurt. Well, you not throwing might
be the thing that does get you hurt. But we
can only know by truly experimenting, you know, in trial
(16:59):
and error. But it makes sense for me personally in
my journey why I felt the way that I felt
in certain spring trainings early in my career comparative to
late in my career. Late my career, I was always throwing,
I was always playing, and I always felt way better
going into the season as opposed to early in my career.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
You know, I wouldn't hit.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
It wouldn't be till like freaking May or June where
I'd finally catch like a groove, which crazy.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
So yeah, the.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Robbirocho dot com slash ask ask me your questions. If
you have any questions pertaining to throwing, volume would be
happy to help out. Obviously, there's going to be a
different a ton of different variables when we look at
off season throwing and throwing volume, and shoot even in
season throwing volume and stuff like that, right, and there's
never going to be a specific absolute answer. The only
(17:44):
specific absolute answer is what the individual that is throwing.
It's their career, it's their arm, what their mental and
physical belief is. Like if you believe thoroughly, even if
it's placebo effect, if you one thousand percent are convicted
in preparation that you're going through for your season, if
you believe in it wholeheartedly that it's going to get
(18:05):
you to become a better version of yourself as an athlete,
then that's the best version. Like that, then that's the
best thing, right, Like, that's the best training protocol for you.
If you believe that, you know it is, that's it.
It could be the worst one on the planet. It
could have the most terrible YELP reviews, you know what
I'm saying. But like, if you're mentally convicted and you're
(18:25):
bought in, one hundred percent sold in you know what
you're doing, then that's it. If you're one hundred percent
sold on, like I'm gonna throw all off season, I'm
gonna probably throw bullpens during the off season. I'm not
going to put the ball down, And if you're sold
on that, then it's the best protocol for you.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
But if you're.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Sold on, like I need to put the ball down
for at least, you know, a few weeks before I
pick it up again.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
If you're sold on that, then do it.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
I would never encourage people to do something that they
don't mentally believe in first, because, in my opinion, that
is the most important piece. I'm Robbie Row. You're listening
to the Rabbirol Show Baseball podcast. Yeah, see us
Okay, guys, off season throwing, off season throwing. I will
try to do the best that I can to simplify
this to where everyone can get something out of it. Obviously,
like off season throwing is different depending on the individual,
depending on.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
The age, lots of different factors.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
So I'm not going to speak to any specific like
absolutes when it comes to what you should and should
not do. I'm just going to give you context from
my journey, my upbringing through Little league through high school,
brief context, and then context into my professional career, you know,
being someone that got drafted at eighteen and having to
spend a couple off seasons there at like eighteen, nineteen,
(00:36):
twenty twenty one years old, not really having a good
understanding because this is a whole nother dynamic we'll get into.
But things that the old time players used to do,
like guys in the eighties and the nineties in the
off season, because that's who I learned from. I learned
from my dad, who was a catcher in the late
eighties early nineties in Major League Baseball, and back then
(00:57):
it was a little bit different. Back then, it was
more so like when you did have the opportunity to
put the ball down, you put the ball down. So
when I was in high school, I was always playing sports,
you know, throughout the years, Like I played baseball, spring, summer, fall,
and then in the winter it was basketball. So I
in high school like more so unintentionally, like when I
(01:19):
became like a sophomore, junior, senior year, unintentionally would put
the ball down during basketball season just because there was
no time, right, there was no time to throw. The
dynamic changed my senior year of high school because I
was playing basketball, but I also was getting you know
a ton of like at home visits from scouts and
talking to a lot of teams, colleges, all these things.
(01:41):
So there was an obvious notion that I needed to
get ready sooner than I had in years past. And
I've always been one to get off to kind of
a slow start at the beginning of seasons, whether it
be like high school or professional baseball. For some reason,
I just got off to slow starts as I've gotten older.
And this is why I'm very confident in talking about
this approach. As I've gotten older, I've just realized a
(02:03):
little bit more when it comes to my body. And
the reason why I say my body is because obviously
it's different, but how adaptable the body is, and then
the specific things that I needed for me in the
career that I had. The best times that I felt
in spring training were the years that I went and
played winter ball. That means that I didn't really have
a whole lot of period of time in which I
(02:23):
put the ball down and physically didn't throw my first
three to four years of pro ball now definitely my
first three. I'd always get off to slow starts in
spring training, especially when I was eighteen, because I went
from like the high school season, like I said, earlier,
got ready a little bit earlier than I had in
years past, got into the basketball season, was kind of
doing both. Started throwing earlier, went through the whole spring
(02:44):
season in high school, got drafted, went to the whole
summer season, went to instructs, and there's a lot of throwing.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
So I just put the ball down.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Never have I ever felt worse than I did turning
nineteen in December, going into that January when I first
started picking with the ball. Instructs ended, I want to say,
like right around Holloway. So my birthday is December fifteenth,
and I would always pick up the ball right around
my birthday, whether it's like the fifteenth or the sixteenth
or the seventeenth, just right around there for my first
three years of pro ball, and never had I ever
(03:12):
felt worse than I did when I turned nineteen in
my first professional off season, because it was the first
time in a while that I intentionally said I'm not
picking the ball up, I'm not throwing for an extended
period of time. It was two months. I'll never forget.
It was like longest two months ever. But you know
that was during the time in which I was also
learning a lot about my body in the weight room.
I was strength training for the first time in my career.
(03:34):
There's a lot of things going on that could also
play into influencing me not feeling the best. So take
it with a grain of salt. Again, this is all
personalized context. This is not me telling anyone how they
should approach their offseason or downtime. The thing that I
have realized as I've gotten older that a the body
is adaptable to whatever stresses you put it through. But
(03:54):
there's also the understanding be that you have to kind
of look at the broad spectrum of your workload of
your work tolerance and cross reference that like with your
upcoming performance schedule and with where you're at currently, you know,
in your like.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Overall fitness level.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
So obviously kids in high school, man, they could just throw,
throw throw.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I really do believe that.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
I really do believe that kids in high school can
can throw and add a lot of volume.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Right.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
The conversation changes when there's talk about the goals for
that particular individual, whether it be velocity, whether it be
fine tuning movement patterns, so on and so forth. Velocity
goals are probably going to company ninety five percent of kids, right,
So I don't encourage the throwing time off, like not
picking up a ball, just because it's like the single
(04:46):
thing in all of life that we're expected to become
better at by doing a little bit less. Right, we
talk about this brake pedal approach that we're seeing nowadays
in cause for concern being the injuries. Right, We're seeing
these injur is that go up at an alarming rate.
So then our natural instincts are to limit that and
control the exertion, control the volume. That's going to hurt
(05:09):
two different things. One it's going to hurt the actual
like mindset behind your highest potential power output and the
movement that accompanies that. Because if there's a notion in
your brain that's like, oh, I'm going to get hurt
if I blow it out right, or if I'm going
to get hurt if I really let one go. If
you believe that, whether it's subconscious or consciously, then your
body is going to have a limitter on it.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Right.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
So that's one that's kind of a different conversation. And
then and then two the movement pattern things, you know,
like the the obtaining motion memory, certain movements in the
delivery that kids are trying to you know, accomplish to
alleviate the added load on the elbow or on the shoulder.
Movement progressions like they're not going to just happen. They're
not going to just be ingrained over time by not
(05:51):
throwing and just doing like dry reps.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Right.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
The brain is smart, man, It's it's it's obtaining the
movement of the particular task. It is, right, I really
do look at the biggest overarching dynamic of should kids
like throw during the offseason, not throw, put the ball down,
not put the ball down on Well, you know what
do I do? I just really believe that there's nothing
wrong with picking up the ball two to three times
(06:15):
a week and just getting it going, because I'll never
forget that year I was talking about earlier when it
was I was just completed my first year of professional
ball and I put the ball down, didn't throw, didn't
really do bands for two straight months, and I trained
like strength trained for the first time in my life.
And I remember thinking like, oh, I'm going to pick
this thing up and it's going to be a dang bazooka.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
And dude, let me tell you it.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
I grinded for probably the first three months my first
outing in spring training that year, I was eighty four
to eighty six.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Like I would always get off to these slow starts.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
And it wasn't until later in my career where I
just realized, like, oh, Rob, you should just probably throw
year round. So that's my approach now, is like I'm
just constantly throwing, and I'm adapting overtime, right, Like I
believe that I have intentionally adapted to where I can
throw multiple times a day, like I've worked with clients
(07:07):
now still to this day, and I loked off probably
four times a day. And the reason why I can
is because I do. Right now, that's obviously something that
you can't really market in today's day and age, because
the fear of blowing out and the fact that it
could potentially happen if someone goes out and tries to
throw the way that I throw. The thing that I
want to get across here before I ramble on about
(07:29):
something else is the fact that when I talk about
why I believe you shouldn't just completely put the ball down,
is because I really don't believe in picking up a
ball once or twice a week during your down time,
right during your off season and throwing. I don't believe
that that's going to drastically affect anything. The only thing
that I believe that if we do that approach, what
(07:52):
we could potentially see is like suboptimal movements, because I
am one to believe that when we're throwing, we're trying
to obtain specific movement patterns within the delivery to obtain
a high power output exerted throw. When we're trying to
obtain that, touching a ball once or twice a week
(08:13):
and just lightly playing catch in the offseason is probably
gonna prohibit you from obtaining the most optimal patterns in
your delivery, or it can actually take what you already have,
like the patterns you've already established, and it could slowly
but surely start to mold into a less aggressive approach.
So guess what I'm saying here is if you're someone
(08:35):
that wants to just keep the arm in decent shape
but doesn't want to like totally lose sight on like
where they're progressing with their movements, and they don't want
to drastically have to overhaul when they do get cleared
or they do resume their throwing, then I would just
encourage those guys to like do bands, wrist weights, clubs,
(08:56):
Indian clubs, bell clubs. The shoulder is the shoulder, like
the motion of the throw is the motion of the throw.
But if we are diligent with like a ban program
where you're doing it, you know, three three to four
times a week, high repetitions, low low power, right like
low resistance. The biggest mistake I made those first couple
(09:17):
of years in pro ball was the fact that like
I was just training, I was just strength training. I
was building all these muscles, right like, all this contraction,
all this tightness, and then now it comes time to throw,
which is a which is a loose an elasticity stretch
throw right, Like there's not much like contraction of the
(09:37):
particular throw.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
It's like a loose whip. Right.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
That is what I believe really affected me those first
couple of years, because obviously everyone's gonna, you know, strength
train in their off season. But then the feeling coming
back and throwing this ball, like it just felt for
the first time in my life like I'm stiff. I
never I've never felt stiff before, and I never wanted
to feel that again. So the thing that I implemented,
(10:01):
you know, later in my career, like I said earlier,
was playing winter ball. But even just keeping my arm
in shape little by little, it doesn't take much to
just continuously like keep your arm in somewhat of a
decent shape.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Right.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
I do believe that there's people like I know. I
listened to Max schers Or speak about his off season
one time, and he was talking about how he just
picks up a ball like once or twice a week's
and just touches it works for him fantastic, right, huge
advocate for just taking like a day or two during
someone's off season and just playing like lightcatch. Like I
said earlier, there's potential for those movement patterns to become
(10:36):
way less violent. But if you're doing it once twice
a week, probably not going to be a carryover. And
the fact that you can just take the legs out
of the equation, this.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Is another thing.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
This is another thing that I would encourage a lot
of kids, right is instead of just completely putting the
ball down for their off season, and if they are
in fear of like getting away from their movements because
the throwing that they will be making in their offseason
is lower power output, then just take the legs out
of the equation. Because again, it's the arm, it's the shoulder,
(11:08):
it's the elbows, it's the risk. Those were the things
that really jumped out to me those first couple of
years of like coming back and just being like, man,
I just do not feel good. I feel stiff, My
shoulder felt like had a cobwebs. Just getting like the
hand up felt like it was a difficult task. Right,
So my biggest encouragement is I don't love putting the
ball completely down and just not throwing, not doing any
(11:30):
bands because in reality, you you know, nowadays like we
have plyoballs. We have footballs, we have clubs, we have
things that we could actively throw, wrist weights, things that
we can do, like, I don't believe that there ever
should be a period in time in which we're we're
not going through a shoulder motion right.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Wrist weights, plyoballs right.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
And I guarantee you that when you do come back
to your season and resume your throwing, it will not
take you as long as it's going to take the
other guys that did put the ball down to get
back into shape and ready to go. I should have
prefaced everything I said that the last fifteen minutes by
saying that I have been known to be somewhat of
(12:11):
a head case when it comes to like the not
throwing right, because I am.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
I used to be not anymore yours of mindfulness.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
I used to be the guy that could not throw
in a game if I didn't like play catch the
day before, Like if we had an off day and
then I was starting the next day, I wouldn't just
go all off day and not throw.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
I that's like my I'd freak out, you know.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
So there's, like I said, identification of what gives you confidence.
For me, it's always been my preparation. So if I
feel if I don't go a day without throwing, right,
and then I go into a game and I'm competing
against a dude in the box, like my mental isn't
going to be where it needs to be for my
physical to be at the top of its ability, right,
because it starts for me, especially, it starts here. And
(12:53):
this is something I've learned over time. A lot of
people's not that way. It starts physically, right, mental is
just kind of a back seat. So that was kind
of how I realized I failed at like putting together
an approach, but I just learned right, Like that's how
we learn about ourselves is you do things and then
you reflect on those things and realize I responded well
(13:13):
to that, or I didn't respond well to that. Did
that improve me? Did that make me closer to reaching
my goals?
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Right?
Speaker 1 (13:22):
And like I said at the very beginning of this, man,
if you're a high school kid, younger kid, I hate
to say it because it's so cliche, but like, there's
no answer to these questions like should I throw in
the off season? The only answer comes from you truly
knowing about yourself. The only way you're going to do
that is by a one off season. I tried putting
(13:42):
the ball down and not throwing. How'd I come back?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Well?
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Shoot, I felt freaking great. I had the best year
of my life. Dude, heck yeah. It doesn't matter that
we have totally opposite the approach. It's what matters is that
you found that out for yourself, right, Or you do
that and it sucks, right like you do, you feel
you come back, You put the ball down for two months,
three months, come back, feel terrible great. Probably shouldn't do
that again now, you know, right, because like me Be
(14:06):
and me, I realized that right away when I was eighteen,
like that first spring train, I was like, I'm never
doing this again.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
This is terrible.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
But then the next year is like Forrick, I had
a long year. You know, this was my first actual
full season. When I was nineteen in pro Bawl, I
was like, boom, early camp. You know you report. I've reported,
because I was a prospect. I reported like February tenth,
you know, something like maybe even February first, something crazy.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
We always used to get to the facility.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Like a month early, and then you pitch all you
throw like all season and like I said earlier, with instructs,
you know your season ends, then you got to go
to instructs for like six eight weeks.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Right.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
So after that second year, even though it was my
first full year, I was like, man, this is my
that was a lot of throwing too, I'm going to
put the ball down.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
And I put the ball down.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
I think maybe eight weeks came back felt terrible, right,
kind of the notion of my entire career is like
learning a lot, obtaining a lot of information, really good information,
but just not putting that information in to practice to
become better.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
That's why I started my brand though, is because I've
realized so much good knowledge pertaining to myself and my
journey and my discoveries throughout that journey. So then I
could portray that. So then I could give that to
you guys, and you guys, can you know, potentially use
it better than I did, so you don't have to
go through the things I did, all right, But if
you have any questions pertaining to like the off season throwing,
(15:25):
the volume of throwing, like again, everyone's gonna be different,
don't don't hesitate to reach out Maybe we can get
a little bit more specific if you give me a
little bit more context on your situation.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
This whole thing changes.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
If you're a guy that's coming off like a surgery,
your guy coming off low innings, you're a reliever, right Like,
if you're going to prepare for a season at a company,
is like a lot of froze. Like, yeah, your instincts,
everything tells you like maybe I should prepare by like
resting and things like that.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
But like, again, the.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Adaptation of the body, the adaptation, the muscular adaptation, the
cellular adaptation, whatever it is, you're going to adapt to it.
And I think that's the underlying truth that everyone maybe
should look into understanding before they put together Like an
off season approach is just understand how your body handles stress.
My body, my arm, like, I handle it very very well,
(16:14):
and I adapt to become more resilient and my body
gives out what I put in. Right Like, whatever that
quote is, you understand. But the underlying truth is that
we're superior athletes. We throw a baseball, you know, pretty
much where we want it at a high power output.
We're superior athletes. We are probably the best adaptationers. If
you will adapters at stress on the planet. I never
(16:36):
want to say speaking in absolutes, but I would encourage
you not to look not to look at throwing as
a thing that you should fear, because there's a lot
of mental emphasis there too. Because the thing that we
fight is well, I'm not going to throw because I
don't want to get hurt. Well, you not throwing might
be the thing that does get you hurt. But we
can only know by truly experimenting, you know, in trial
(16:59):
and error. But it makes sense for me personally in
my journey why I felt the way that I felt
in certain spring trainings early in my career comparative to
late in my career. Late my career, I was always throwing,
I was always playing, and I always felt way better
going into the season as opposed to early in my career.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
You know, I wouldn't hit.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
It wouldn't be till like freaking May or June where
I'd finally catch like a groove, which crazy.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
So yeah, the.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Robbirocho dot com slash ask ask me your questions. If
you have any questions pertaining to throwing, volume would be
happy to help out. Obviously, there's going to be a
different a ton of different variables when we look at
off season throwing and throwing volume, and shoot even in
season throwing volume and stuff like that, right, and there's
never going to be a specific absolute answer. The only
(17:44):
specific absolute answer is what the individual that is throwing.
It's their career, it's their arm, what their mental and
physical belief is. Like if you believe thoroughly, even if
it's placebo effect, if you one thousand percent are convicted
in preparation that you're going through for your season, if
you believe in it wholeheartedly that it's going to get
(18:05):
you to become a better version of yourself as an athlete,
then that's the best version. Like that, then that's the
best thing, right, Like, that's the best training protocol for you.
If you believe that, you know it is, that's it.
It could be the worst one on the planet. It
could have the most terrible YELP reviews, you know what
I'm saying. But like, if you're mentally convicted and you're
(18:25):
bought in, one hundred percent sold in you know what
you're doing, then that's it. If you're one hundred percent
sold on, like I'm gonna throw all off season, I'm
gonna probably throw bullpens during the off season. I'm not
going to put the ball down, And if you're sold
on that, then it's the best protocol for you.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
But if you're.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Sold on, like I need to put the ball down
for at least, you know, a few weeks before I
pick it up again.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
If you're sold on that, then do it.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
I would never encourage people to do something that they
don't mentally believe in first, because, in my opinion, that
is the most important piece. I'm Robbie Row. You're listening
to the Rabbirol Show Baseball podcast. Yeah, see us
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