Strength in Numbers #189
Managing bullpen sessions effectively is crucial for baseball pitchers to maintain peak performance and minimize injury risk. Proper scheduling, pitch counts, and recovery protocols are essential components of a well-structured bullpen regimen.
For the athletes seeking my help with SLAP tears and ulnar collateral ligament injuries, I cannot tell you how many scheduling and workload errors I see are all over the map related to their previous bullpen management.
Research has shown that a significant number of season-ending injuries for pitchers occur during practice, particularly in bullpen sessions, which are the most intensive form of in-season training for pitchers. Many pitchers play for multiple teams and work with various coaches, including pitching performance specialists. As a result, they may be off the mound four times a week, throwing 40 to 60 pitches in each session.
You may think that sounds nuts, but it happens more often than you think.
Let’s dive in and talk about how to structure, monitor, and manage the riskiest activity your pitchers experience throughout the year. You must be even more focused when it comes to two-way players who are competing more often in the week.
Challenges of Inadequate Recovery
Insufficient recovery time between bullpen sessions and game days can lead to overuse injuries and diminished performance. Pitchers require adequate rest to allow muscle repair and prevent fatigue-related issues. Engaging in additional pitching lessons during the season can inadvertently double the recommended workload, surpassing PitchSmart guidelines and increasing injury risk.
One of the simple ways you can lessen your risk of injury is by spacing bullpen sessions with enough days between. This comes from science. One of the first studies I read in baseball performance was focused on markers of muscle damage in pitchers.
The graph below shows the muscle damage spike and delayed onset muscle soreness that comes after pitching in a game. This paper was published in 1992 and has received little to no attention outside of our education with ArmCare.com.
Science shows us that every other day bullpens, especially during Spring Training, perpetuate muscle damage. Muscle damage comes with a loss of muscle function, and as we always say, STRENGTH MATTERS MOST.
Remember that stronger arms are harder to kill. If the arm is damaged, it’s easier to kill. You are in a world of trouble when you ask it to throw at high octane while it is begging for recovery.
With the ArmCare.com platform, test your athletes often and make sure they are ready to accept the most physically demanding training day in the week – bullpen sessions.
Here are three simple rules:
- Schedule your bullpens with at least two full days between mound days.
- Do your best not to schedule a bullpen session the day before or after games.
- Always perform fresh exams before bullpens and post exams after them.
Data-Led Bullpen Structure to Optimize Performance and Workload Responses
To prevent overexertion, limiting consecutive pitches in a bullpen session to no more than 30 in a row is advisable. Breaking the session into “innings” of 15-20 pitches allows pitchers to simulate game scenarios while managing fatigue effectively.
This approach promotes endurance and helps maintain pitching mechanics throughout the session.
Our suggestions include the following:
- Breaking bullpen counts over 30 into groups of 15-20 pitches.
- Separate sets of 15-20 pitches by 5 min rest.
- For simulated games and Live Batting Practice Sessions, provide warm-up pitches according to your league standards before asking the player to throw at maximal effort for each simulated inning.
SCALING YOUR BULLPENS
Below is a schematic of how we determine adjustments in bullpen workload. Our highest-level pitch total in-season is 30 pitches in a row. In-season, we do not advise pitching beyond this number in the pen, and testing is highly recommended for athletes who are working with pitching specialists in addition to playing for multiple teams and positions.
For pitchers who are not middle school age, we recommend that bullpen sessions never reach levels higher than 50 for general safety. With two games and a pitching lesson per week, our pitchers are definitely throwing above the PitchSmart Guidelines, however, when using the ArmCare platform, our individualized pitch count feature scales where the arm is at and reduces risk when in competition.
In looking at our flow chart from our ArmCare Accelerator education, we activate the throwing arm and then test and identify key functional and “feel” based measures.
FUNCTION + FEELING ARE BOTH EQUALLY IMPORTANT
Athletes need to determine if what they feel is real. Sometimes an athlete will show high level strength and feel terrible, and the opposite can occur as well where the athlete feels outstanding, and the arm is under-recovered. For that reason, we need to scale both function and their subjective opinion of how pitchers’ arms feel.
Our flow chart below puts all the pieces together and is taught in our Accelerator Courses.
UNDERSTANDING THE FLOW CHART (FEEL+FUNCTION)
8+BLUE = You are good to go for the bullpen (arm is an 8 or better on feel and no alerts)
<8+BLUE = Throw 60-90 feet lightly and check in on how your arm feels as it feels less than 8. If it becomes 8+BLUE (the arm feels at an 8 out of 10 or better with no alerts), you are good to go.
If the arm doesn’t feel any better, PUSH THE BULLPEN TO THE NEXT DAY, REPEAT THE PROCESS, AND REPEAT THE FRESH EXAM. We also recommend a fresh exam on game day, even if the arm feels better the next day, to engage in the bullpen session.
WATCH ALERT – If the arm feels like an 8 or better, but you hit a recovery alert, download the bullpen pitch count by 50%. Let’s take our ceiling bullpen count of 30 pitches. If an alert pops up, drop it 15, as shown in the Adjusted Pitch Count Chart. If you see a watch alert and your arm feels less than an 8 out of 10, push the bullpen a day, recover and repeat the process.
DO NOT FORGET TO DO YOUR POST EXAM
After the pitchers complete their bullpen, it’s time to do the post-exam. We must understand what to prescribe for the week by understanding how our athletes respond to their bullpen workloads.
We are looking for all BLUE in the app. With no fatigue alerts, everything is good to go. If we are in the offseason, there is an option to increase the bullpen workload by 5 pitches. Remember that after 30 pitches, which is the highest number we recommend in-season, we must pitch in simulated innings or blocks of 15-20 pitches.
If a fatigue alert is seen, a WARNING ALERT on a particular muscle requires the pitch count to be downloaded by 50% on the next bullpen outing, and if it is a WATCH ALERT, we recommend a reduction of 30% on the next bullpen.
After the next bullpen, re-test, and if it’s all blue, resume where you left off previously, follow the flow from fresh exam to post exam, and make logical increases in your throwing volume according to our bullpen pitch count chart above. That means if you left off at 30 pitches and reduced the bullpen pitch count and found the arm fatigue alert-free, go back to 30 pitches and reassess post bullpen.
Spring training games and college ball is in full swing this weekend. The next bullpen you have scheduled for your pitchers, remember not to guess, and make sure you test!
Strength Matters Most,
Ryan