The Reality of Pitch Limits and where to find a pitching coach in Naperville who implements them

In today’s day and age, it’s unfortunately all too common to see young pitchers throwing 100+ pitches per outing and close to 200 pitches per week. Spades would like to bluntly state that this is child abuse. The reality is that most of these “coaches” don’t have a clue about arm health, really care about the long-term ramifications pitch counts will have on the athlete or understand how to implement a gameplan of controlling pitch counts.

Now that might seem a bit unfair to high school coaches, some travel ball organizations and a pitching coach in Naperville or two. It isn’t meant to be, they aren’t bad people, they do care for their kids. They just haven’t been properly educated on what pitch counts should look like per age group and they honestly don’t know that a pitcher’s body is still developing all the way up to 24 years old!

Let’s first dive into the ideal ratio of pitch mix ratios. A pitching coach in Naperville should have his pitchers in an ideal outing, to throw 60-65% fastballs, 20-25% breaking balls and 15-20% change ups/splitters. These pitch ratios come from The National Pitching Association, with over 30 years of research behind them.

Proper pitching preparation for a starting pitcher is to have them go through their warmup and then catch play before heading to the bullpen. Once they are in the bullpen, throwing approximately 30-45 pitches(dependent on age range, the younger the lower amount they should be throwing in their warm up pen) only the last 10-15 pitches should be at high intensity. AT NO POINT IN TIME SHOULD THE PITCHER BE MAXING OUT! Once your starting pitcher has been pulled, it’s in their health’s best interest to not put them back out into the field. However, if you must, second base or first base would be best to protect their arm. There isn’t a pitching coach in Naperville that implements these philosophies regularly, outside of Spades Pitching.

For relief pitchers the proper preparation looks a bit different, as we know these are most likely primarily fielders who come in to eat innings. Pregame, have them go through their warmups and catch play. In the first or second inning, have them go down to the bullpen and throw approximately 20 pitches, the last 5-8 at high intensity. Then in between innings they can play catch with the outfield to stay loose. A good pitching coach in Naperville, is going to understand these differences between their starters and relievers preparation.

Pitch count break downs by age group, as recommended by the NPA, are as follows:

11U to 12U:

·      75 pitches per game max

·      100 pitches per week

·      1,000 pitches per season

13U to 14U:

·      90 pitches per game max

·      125 pitches per week

·      1,000 pitches per season

15U to 18U:

·      105 pitches per game

·      130 pitches per week

·      1,250 pitches per season

18U to 24U:

·      120 pitches per game max

·      150 pitches per week

·      1,800 pitches per season

24U+:

·      130 pitches per game max

·      175 pitches per week

·      3,600 pitches per season

Recovery for post pitching for those under 90 M.P.H. is as follows:

·      20 minutes of cardio within 3 hours of the game ending

·      Day 1 post throwing, max aerobic and max weight training

·      Day 2 post throwing, max aerobic and medium weight training

·      Day 3 post throwing, bullpen with medium aerobic and minimum weight training

Recovery for post pitching for those over 90 M.P.H. is as follows:

·      20 minutes of cardio within 3 hours of the game ending

·      Day 1 post throwing, max aerobic and max weight training

·      Day 2 post throwing, bullpen with medium aerobic and medium weight training

·      Day 3 post throwing, max aerobic and medium weight training

The sad situation that we find ourselves in is that young ball players are simply overused. Between travel baseball and then their respective high schools. Pitch counts need to be closely monitored by coaches; we oversee the kids’ long-term health. Remember that pitchers’ bodies are still developing until they are 24 years old!

If you are in search of a pitching coach in Naperville that fully applies all these philosophies, you need to check out Spades Pitching.

For the sake of your pitchers’ long term arm health and ability to play this game as long as possible, please look at these guidelines and implement them into your programming.

Canes Illinois Youth Pitcher