Strength in Numbers #87
It is always interesting to me when injuries start to happen in Spring Training. People sit together after the day, wondering what happened, and throw out different explanations for losing a player for the season.
Even minor problems become problematic because of the fear that they may become chronic or progressively get worse. Sometimes this results in reduced playing time or even a complete shutdown. Holding players back from the season hurts the ball club, especially starting pitchers who are counted on to keep the team in games and give the offense a chance to score more runs than the opposition.
I always wondered why this regular occurrence happened despite meticulous care and attention, at least until it didn’t happen.
The first year we evaluated throwing arm strength and created individualized arm care programs, we did not have a single pitcher on the active roster lost to surgery. However, we had a few not break camp to prevent conservative, non-surgical injuries from worsening.
That year was 2019, and we had great scheduling, communication, monitoring, and training processes.
The following year was a crazy one for the entire world, the COVID season. In 2020, it was the first time we did not have anyone held back from injuries, and I cannot recall anyone missing a game in Spring Training until the season was on hold.
How could that be?
Well, the simple approach in communication that was not simple was undertaken and spearheaded by a few people, such as the MLB pitching coach Mickey Callaway, sports medicine and strength and conditioning MLB staff members, myself, and our very own Jordan Oseguera.
HABIT INTERVIEWS
We came so far in such a short time in pitchers and catchers camp to record and understand everything possible about our pitcher’s preparation before, during, and after the game. We were learning our learners.
Each interview with a pitcher had varied times. Some pitchers would take 20 minutes to describe everything they did, and others would take five minutes.
Interestingly, the athletes with longer habit records were more exposed to injury problems than those with shorter habits because they were pre-fatiguing themselves before pitching. Too many throws, too much metabolic effort, and the wrong focus.
Similarly, those with little habit records were also no better. There must be a sweet spot and an objective process to evaluate their performance.
Our ability to steer the discussion to optimize their preparation routine and recovery strategies was tremendous. It led to our second no-surgery season on the active roster for the pitching staff in 2020.
An appropriate preparation schedule must have the following daily elements:
- A wake-up ritual (a progressive daylight strategy to lower melatonin and increase cortisol)
- A breakfast and hydration strategy (2 bottles of water when waking up)
- A travel approach in the car that is energizing (music selection, speaking with friends and family)
- A daily arrival approach in the clubhouse (quiet time in the locker and acknowledging staff and teammates)
- A soft-tissue approach
- A lunch fueling and hydration strategy
- Testing hydration prior to catch-play routine (a body weight check can work)
- Pre-Catch Play Routine
- A Catch Play Warm-Up Routine on the Field
- Throwing program undulated approach and partner selection
- Post-throwing conditioning undulated strategy between energy systems, speed, and agility.
- Post-throwing arm care routine that is individualized to their strength qualities and range of motion
- Post-conditioning lift focused on strength, speed, and power
- Soft-tissue work and regeneration
- A post-practice hydration monitoring strategy (a body weight check can work)
- A post-practice fueling and hydration strategy
- A psychological strategy for mindset, being in the moment, raising sympathetic nervous system drive when down, or lowering it when too elevated
- A potentiation routine for game days
- A pre-game routine
- An in-game routine
- A post-game routine
- A post-game hydration check (a body weight check can work)
- A post-game fueling and hydration strategy
- An evening routine
- A gratitude routine
- A sleep routine
There are many more, but some athletes needed clarification on these items, and some athletes had more to bring to the table.
One relieving thing for our staff was when the athlete did not have to rely on anyone to be prepared. Generally, those athletes were our best and could do things for themselves.
This is where I found the ArmCare Platform and wanted to bring it into the fold for our players to be aware of their strength needs, use it as an isometric training tool and monitor their fatigue, weakness, and recovery when not at the stadium with our staff, not to mention offload our staff from monitoring and collecting data.
HOW WE COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER?
I saw one major problem with what we were doing. We needed the ability to evaluate the most important aspect of their habit list, the pre-throwing routine.
We could not catch this observation, as it was challenging to test after the warm-up, as we already did a pre-bullpen strength test. If we had done that, we would have even greater detail into what was happening with the throwing arm.
But with the Arm Care platform, it’s pretty simple to evaluate. Use the strength tester after the warm-up to see if your strength has improved. If the total strength measure is not better than where you started, you have a bad warm-up process.
There’s a lot to unpack about warm-up strategies and evaluation. If you are thirsty for more expertise in perfecting the most crucial habit before being on the bump, take our certification courses to determine how to drive greater performance, minimize injury risk, and have everyone break camp and contribute to wins right away through a data-led warm-up process.
