Which? Shutdown or No Shutdown for Pitchers this Off-season

Right about this time every year, as fall ball programs wrap up, pitchers are faced with a few decisions about their upcoming off-season training. At the top of the list is a potential shutdown period at the end of the season.

Should you, or shouldn’t you?

Well, like all things pitching, the answer is, it depends. During any given year, every pitcher has a different experience, not only vis-a-vis other pitchers but also against their own prior experience. So, the answer to the question is very much pitcher specific.

In this article we’ll take a look at the ever-controversial topics of an off-season shutdown vs. an active recovery throwing program. What do they mean and what are their implications. We will also break it down into two specific age athletes, 16 and older vs. 13–15-year-olds.

First let’s cover the topic of a shutdown!

The body reacts to stress in many different ways. Connective tissue has a grain or a pattern to it, and its cells always align themselves along the lines of stress to which they are exposed. This is referred to as Davis’s Law, which is used in anatomy and physiology to describe how soft tissue models along imposed demands.

A complete shutdown sometimes can cause an athlete’s soft tissue (ligaments and tendons) to temporarily forget how to effectively move in the throwing motion. Combine this with unaddressed physical constraints, biomechanical inefficiencies, and strength training (which while is really the un-sung hero of velocity), forces the body to develop slightly different movement strategies and could create the perfect storm for tissue failure.

Shutting down completely may allow time for tissue restoration, but without stress, the tissue becomes disorganized. Disorganized tissue makes the pre-season ramp up slow, and quite honestly, increases the risk of injury right as throwing intensity ramps up.

Now let’s review an Active Recovery program!

An Active Recovery program is an alternative to a complete shutdown which is essentially used to allow the athletes to decompress from high intensity throwing while still “Taking the arm for a walk”.  As simple as that!

Here at RPP, we believe in active recovery, which takes place in the month of November, right after fall ball ends and the winter program starts.

Taking these two topics, shutdown vs. active recovery, further requires a delineation between older, more physically developed athletes and younger, less developed ones.

Ages 16 and Older

During this period, for our older guys who are more skeletally mature, athletes will throw 3 times a week, typically Monday-Wednesday-Friday to align with their strength schedules. These throwing sessions include:

• • Mobility / Activation Work – Effective mobility and activation work for pitchers is not just about the arm. It should take approximately 20-25 minutes and really should be a full body endeavor with multiple components that support the arm in a highly ballistic movement pattern.
  • Light Catch and / or Plyo Drills (Mon/Fri) – Individualized throwing drills based off of the athlete’s mechanical disconnects, 20-25 throws @ 50-60% intensity (RPE)
  • Long Toss… Going Out Only (Wed) – Day 2 volume and intensity are ramped up a bit allowing the arm to “air out” and remember that it stills throws a baseball… 25-35 throws @ 65-75%
  • Reactive DNS Training – These are developmental movement patterns that emphasize more “freedom of movement”. Drills such as waterbag work among other methods in order to allow the athlete to be more reactive and “flow” in order to take out any time spent “thinking” while throwing are performed.
  • Post-Throw Routine – A post-throwing arm care and recovery protocol is just as important. Drills such as Rebounders as well as soft tissue help to restore mobility that can be lost even from even light throwing

Ages 13-15

For ages 13-15, we like to delineate between those that didn’t play fall and those that did.

• • You Didn’t Play Fall Ball – Even in our younger athletes, many who have yet to hit puberty and are still dealing with open growth plates, we believe that throwing 2 days/week at 50-60% RPE is a must to keep the tissue organized and throwing lightly THROUGH growth spurts. We also recommend putting down the baseball and picking up a football. The football’s shape and weight encourage a shorter, more compact arm action, which can reduce stress on the shoulder and elbow compared to throwing a baseball and allowing full arm extension.
  • You Did Play Fall Ball – This is one of the rare occasions when we do believe after playing from March to August and then continuing through the fall, that the young athlete is best served by taking 3-4 weeks off to not only give their arm a break but their mind as well. There is so much more to do at this age than throw year-round!

Summary

To summarize, active recovery doesn’t mean throw, throw, throw. The goal of the active recovery phase is to make sure you’re not going back to ground zero while preparing the body for the volume, frequency, and intensity of throwing that our pitchers will experience in the winter throwing program.

Our winter program encompasses a Ramp-Up, Velo Phase, and a Pitch Design/Live ABs Phase. And after a long year of throwing, we understand that some athletes are far fatigued and need a few weeks off.  As highlighted earlier, a shutdown vs. active recovery is somewhat individual and personal decision.  In either case, it is the first step towards making sure our athletes are pain-free and feeling their best heading into their off-season training.

By Matt Hartshorn and Nunzio Signore