Pitching lessons at any age don’t just focus on how to throw a curveball. Rotational athletes must also learn how to become stronger in a way that promotes more efficient pitching. This means learning foundation fitness to make the whole body stronger and more balanced. Foundation fitness helps players correct inefficiencies that occur from everyday physical stresses. Resistance training can encourage and worsen these imbalances and inefficiencies. However, foundation fitness helps balance them out.
What is Foundation Fitness? What Does it Have to do with Pitching Lessons?
Why should pitching lessons involve teaching fitness? Pitchers, from high school pitching athletes to MLB professionals, must gain balanced fitness for velocity and biomechanical efficiency. As we’ve mentioned, day to day activities can create weaknesses throughout the body’s muscles, bones, joints, and connective tissues. The goal of foundation fitness is to create stability, mobility, and flexibility in a balanced manner. For example, if you can lift more with your right arm than you can with the left, then you don’t have balanced fitness between your arms. Our pitching lessons help you even out these weaknesses.
Rather than continue to train in a way that increases the differences between your arms, foundation fitness works to create more balanced fitness throughout the body. In some cases, this means “de-training” areas that are too strong and strengthening weak areas. However, athletes shouldn’t be afraid of the idea of “de-training.” Once an athlete reaches balance, then continuing foundation fitness training can help increase fitness as a whole throughout the entire body.
Achieving Foundation Fitness for Pitchers
Foundation fitness as part of pitching lessons is a great way to help pitchers increase balance and reduce weaknesses. These exercises are safe and are generally body weight exercises. In addition, pitchers of any age, skill level, weight, etc. can take part in increasing foundation fitness. Even parents who attend pitching instruction with their athlete can do foundation fitness training with their player. It only takes between 30 and 60 minutes and pitchers can see results in just days. In fact, pitchers who pair foundation fitness training with other training protocols can even increase absolute strength gains by 10 to 15%. Therefore, achieving foundation fitness can not only help improve biomechanics, but also increase overall strength for increased velocity.
At National Pitching, we provide pitching lessons for players of all ages and skill levels. From Little Leaguers to Hall of Famers, we are here to help. Our goal is to make good pitchers great using the Tom House methodology for helping players increase functional strength, velocity, and biomechanical efficiency. At National Pitching, our coaches are certified in our health-first program, the only pitching program certified by the Institutional Review Board. We’re dedicated to athlete improvement both on and off the mound. To start the program and learn the tools you need for success, find a pitching coach near you or sign up for a V.I.P. online membership with access to a huge library of videos and training tools. We look forward to working with you!
