By Jonathan Massey –
At the Texas Baseball Ranch®, we take our warm-ups seriously. So seriously, in fact, that our running joke is that your underwear should be soaking wet before you ever pick up a baseball. If you’ve been here, especially during our Summer Program, you know that joke is fairly accurate.
That said, today’s article isn’t about the importance of warm-ups—we all understand how critical a quality warm-up is. It’s also not about what goes into a quality warm-up. There are plenty of articles on this topic, and I believe a personal hybrid is often the best approach. Instead, this article will focus on something that I believe is frequently overlooked: the need to develop multiple warm-up plans or routines.
Plan A: The Ideal Warm-Up
Plan A is exactly what it sounds like. If everything were ideal, what would your warm-up routine look like? How much time would you need? Would you play long toss or just regular catch? These are just a few of the questions we ask our players to help them think through and develop their ideal warm-up routine.
While there is no universally “perfect” warm-up, there is an ideal warm-up for you.
The most common problem I see among amateur players is that they stop here. They understand the importance of a quality warm-up and develop a routine that works for them, but they fail to move beyond it. Ideally, you would be able to do your Plan A warm-up every single time you pitch. The reality, however, is that at least 15% of the time you won’t have the necessary amount of time, and you’ll need something else.
Plan B: The Slight Duress Warm-Up
Have you ever been on your way to a game and gotten stuck in traffic, arriving later than you wanted? Of course you have. Heck, in college, our bus broke down on the way to a game once.
Your slight duress warm-up is your 30–45-minute routine.
Now, I know some of you are probably thinking that your ideal warm-up wouldn’t even take that long. And that might be true for some. But for others, you’re barely into your long-toss routine at the 30-minute mark. If you’re someone who needs a longer warm-up, that’s perfectly fine, but you’d better have a plan for when you don’t have enough time to complete your regular routine.
Plan C: The Moderate Duress Warm-Up
Have you ever been sitting on the bench thinking you weren’t going to play, only for the coach to walk up and say, “So-and-so got hurt in the bullpen. We need you to start the game”?
I have.
Your moderate duress warm-up is a 10–15-minute routine.
Plan D: The Extreme Duress Warm-Up
If you are a reliever, or have ever been one, you’ll understand why I often refer to this as the “Oh crap” warm-up.
As a reliever, you might sit for five or six innings while the starter does his job. Then it goes: single, walk, walk… The head coach looks at you and says, “Oh crap, get hot!” Then comes a double, another walk… And now the coach is looking down at the bullpen to see if you’re ready.
From the time the coach tells you to get hot to the time you’re in the game is often five minutes or less.
Where to Begin
We recommend starting with Plan D, your high-duress, five-minute warm-up routine. Decide on the two or three things that make your arm feel the readiest. This is something that can be done in two to three minutes.
Once you’ve figured out your Plan D warm-up, you can move on to Plan A—your ideal routine. My guess is that most of you already have some idea of what your Plan A looks like. But if you’re reading this and thinking, “I’ll just do whatever my team does,” I highly encourage you to start designing a warm-up routine specific to you.
Once you have Plans A and D figured out, Plans B and C become much easier to define.
Your Four Warm-Up Plans
- Plan A: Ideal Warm-Up – No time constraints
- Plan B: Slight Duress Warm-Up – 30–45 minutes
- Plan C: Moderate Duress Warm-Up – 10–15 minutes
- Plan D: Extreme Duress Warm-Up – 5 minutes or less
Of course, nobody wants only five minutes to warm up. In an ideal world, a coach would always be able to give every player more than enough time to prepare. But that’s a fantasy. In the real world, you will encounter every one of these scenarios at some point in your career.
And at the end of the day, you alone will be held accountable for your performance…regardless of how much warm-up time you were given.
So you’d better have a plan.
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Important TBR Updates
- Two dates remain for our Winter Elite Pitchers Bootcamps. Get your spot now for one of the upcoming dates!
Jan. 17-19 (Sat-Mon) Martin Luther King Day Weekend
Feb. 14-16 (Sat-Mon) President’s Day Weekend
To register or learn more CLICK HERE
- Join us for our annual Ranch on the Road Camp in Minnesota at Blizzard Baseball Academy January 30th – February 1st. If you would like more information, please email Adam Barta at abarta@minnesotabaseballacademy.com.
- Coach Wolforth is hosting a special 90 minute webinar – “The Velocity Code: 3 Secrets to Improving Velocity and Staying Healthy” on Thursdays at 7pm CST. If you’d like to attend the next webinar, CLICK HERE to register.
- Coach Wolforth is also hosting another webinar – “The 4 Pitching Pitfalls that Sabotage Velocity, Arm Health & Long-Term Success” Mondays at 7 pm. CST. CLICK HERE to register.
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