After almost five weeks away from throwing I’m finally back to it!
Over the last four weeks I’ve been focusing on tissue quality and mobility in order to be ready for the stress of throwing. I think I’ve definitely made some improvements in that time and I’ve felt pretty good during throwing so far. The real test will be in three to four weeks when I’m at full effort, because for now I’ve only been up to 50-60% effort and that isn’t very taxing for me.
Here’s some video from this week:
These next few weeks are about working on specific portions of the throwing pattern that I need to improve and acclimating to the stress of throwing again. I still need to work on my hip/shoulder separation, the stretch on my pec before and during the portion of the motion when my arm flips up, and the general “whippiness” of my arm. I know that term is non-specific, but I’ll explain what I mean.
I’ve always been someone who “muscles” the ball, meaning that I’ve relied on intensity to throw hard rather than allowing my arm to stay relaxed and create tension at the right time. The intensity approach has worked for me to some degree as I’ve had some success and still managed to throw pretty hard. But, I could throw even harder and be more efficient if I can correct some of these problems.
The other problem I think the intensity approach has caused is poor command. With all of the focus being on creating a ridiculous amount of force command becomes more difficult. Whereas, if I can stay relaxed a bit longer and allow my body to create some “easy” velocity I think my command will improve. So, along with the specific drills I’m doing, I’m also trying to make sure I stay as loose as possible while throwing.
Now that I’m throwing again I’ve gone from four days of lifting to three to allow for a greater focus on the sport specific aspect of training-which is my my main limiting factor at this point. I’m still in a “strength” phase, but it’s a modified strength phase because I’m using relatively lower percentages than I have in the past and I’m focusing on moving as fast as possible through the concentric phase of the movement. This is known as compensatory acceleration training (CAT). The most important part is the intent to move fast, even more so than the actual speed of the bar.
This phase also involves the use of isometrics during my main lifts. I think these might be even more difficult than the eccentrics from the previous phase. The other difficult part has been going from four days in the gym down to three and still working through everything I need to. I’ve had to become more focused with my programming since my time in the weight room is more limited now.
Tissue prep and mobility are still major focuses during this phase, but I’ve had to become more focused with my approach to these as well. I was doing frequent and high volume eccentrics for my forearm during the weeks I wasn’t throwing, but now that I’m throwing again I’m using them only on days I throw (post throwing) and I’ve dropped the volume on these days. Eccentrics are great for making tissue changes, but they’re damaging and can inhibit high level performance if adequate recovery isn’t allowed, so consolidating stress with these is important. Also, some of the mobility drills I’ve been using are pretty taxing on my CNS since they require a lot of focus and stiffness throughout my body to isolate specific movements, and in some cases maximum effort contractions, so I’ve had to use them only post throwing as well.
So far everything is going well, I just need to stick to the process and make sure I stay on top of the little things that can have a major impact on my tissue quality and recovery. I’m looking forward to seeing where I can take my performance!
Thank you for following me on my journey to the show and check in later this week for more content!