Outfielder looking to increase arm strength

[fastpitchrocks99]

My daughter who is 15 is interested in increasing her arm strength as an outfielder. She would really like to be able to throw the ball harder and farther when she is playing and needs to get the ball to a bag in order to throw someone out. I was wondering if there were any suggestions as to how this can be accomplished. I don't know if this matters but she is also left handed.

Thank for for all of your help!

[rbi]

Long Toss, long toss, long toss (the more you do it the stronger you will get), with focus on mechanics, including but not limited to footwork (crow hop), arm motion, keeping ball on straight line as much as possible ( no rainbows), as well as holding ball across seams and staying "on top of ball" which assures maxiumum distance and no tailing off.

[rocket319b]

I would agree that working on mechanics will be very helpful. I would also suggest that she work on building her core muscles. There are sports specific exercises that she can do as well as gym's that offer programs for specific sports. My DD is a left handed outfielder and we went through this same thing, building her core muscles made the biggest difference...

[greenandblue]

Long toss EVERY DAY with a maximum of 50 throws. Start with 40 feet and increase to whatever distance results in accurate throws. Probably 75-80. You'll see a difference in about 2 weeks, keep doing the drill for 5 or 6 weeks at longer distances and you'll see a vast improvement. My 17 yo daughter is a catcher and outfielder (and left handed) and the results were obvious at both positions.

[Comp]

One thing I would like to add to this discussion is not to ignore working the back muscles also. My daughter is suffering from a shoulder injury that was most likely caused by over development of the pectoral muscles and under development of the deltoids. As the surgeon described to me, yes, the pectoral muscles have to be built up to accelerate the arm and improve speed and distance, but, there also has to be a braking system to stop the arm, and that is the deltoids. If the deltoids arent also worked on and developed at the same time, it can lead to torn rotator cuffs and torn labrums.

Check into the throwers 10 program. Both of her doctors have told her that every thrower should use it without exception.

[fastpitchrocks99]

thanks for all of your help! I will take all of this into consideration while helping her this summer!

[softballperformance]

Arm strength can usually being improved as a result of three things:

1) Overall strength and power development

Here are a few softball conditioning tips:

Softball Conditioning Tips

2) Throwing Mechanics

As mentionned above, this is key. You want to optimize your throwing mechanics.

Best video I have ever seen on the topic is the old classic Thowing Mechanics and Drills from Mike Candrea. I don't know if it is still available.

3) Softball-Specific Conditioning - Long Toss, Overload-Underload Throwing Protocol, etc.

Overloading-Underloading

1. Ensure proper warm-up before you start this protocol
2. Do this protocol early in a regular softball training session
3. Every throw is an all-out throw
4. Like anything, stop if any pain.
5. Don’t go heavier than 8.5 oz.

This protocol takes about 10 minutes to do and needs to be done twice a week to be effective.

Equipment:
• 5.5 oz softball
• Regular softball
• 8.5 oz softball

Protocol:

2 cycles of:
- 8 throws with 6.5 oz ball
- 8 throws with 8.5 oz ball
- 8 throws with 5.5 oz ball

Take a 2 minute break between each cycle.

Hope that helps.

Marc Dagenais
Softball Peak Performance Coach