Integrated Performance Blog

What is the main goal as a pitcher? To throw absolute fire, right?! We want to blaze it right past the hitter, don't even let him have a chance to get the bat off his back shoulder. If he does, the ball is already in the catcher's mitt. 

We also want to pain the corners. If for some reason...

By Dr. Edwin Porras, PT, DPT, OCS and Dr. Nathan Denning PT, DPT, SCS, CSCS

Are you looking to prevent common baseball injuries?

Are you wondering how to improve performance as a baseball player? 

Well, what if you only needed to do three things to reach the highest level? 

What if...

I often get asked, what all needs to be done to keep an arm healthy and strong for a baseball player. There are many things that can be done, but most get broken into two categories to train:

1. Train movement
2. Train the arm itself

The body has to move well in order to limit stress on the arm when...

Velocity is talked about a lot on the area that most players want to improve. Pitcher's and fielders could both benefit from improving their throwing command whether it is on the mound or throwing across the diamond. 

There have been many drills and exercise's to improve throwing velocity to...

Long toss is an integral part of building arm strength and arm speed. If done correctly, you can get big improvements on your throwing velocity as well. If done incorrectly, you may find yourself with a tired or painful arm at the wrong time and possibly even an baseball injury. 

A...

In order to perform at our best day-in and day-out, we need to make sure that we are ready to perform at our peak for that day, but also have the next game or outing in mind. In order to do this, we have to balance readiness and development daily.

We can do this by performing activities that get...

Pitching is a violent, high velocity activity. Over the course of a game, a pitcher's tissue quality will decline. After an outing, it is best to restore some of those tissue and movement qualities that may have decreased over the course of the game.

There are 3 key things to target when...

A pitcher wants to make sure their body is fully prepared to step on the mound and throw their first pitch before a start. Pitching not only includes the arm but also the rest of the body.

When planning out a specific warm-up for an individual pitcher, there are 4 main groups of exercises that...

Ankle mobility is crucial in pitching to allow you to load into your back hip to produce the most force towards home plate. This allows a pitcher to become more efficient to perform at their best and to be durable. There has also been some evidence that limitations in ankle mobility has been...

The ability to be able to stop yourself with your lead leg as a pitcher is crucial to be able to transfer force from your body to the ball. Without hip internal rotation, you may not be able to transfer this force efficiently which can lead to a decrease in performance (velocity and accuracy) or...

A baseball season can be long and tiring, especially for a pitcher as the innings and pitches begin to add up. If you notice that you are starting to feel a little sluggish and your velocity is starting to drop a little, you may be losing thorax, or upper back, rotation.

Thorax rotation is...

If you are starting to have discomfort in your shoulder as the season goes on, especially in the front of the shoulder, you may be losing how well you can control shoulder external rotation

As you throw, your external rotators are forced to control an extreme position in layback. The constant...