Registration Open for the 2021 Throwzone Academy Holiday Training and Pitching Camp!

We’re pleased to announce our 10th annual Throwzone Academy Holiday Training and Pitching Camp for baseball players who are serious about taking their training, conditioning, and throwing development to the next level.

This training will be available for players from 13-20 years of age. 

This 6-day training is consistent with our summer training program. It will feature both throwing and pitching conditioning and involve all of our summer lifting, agility, and explosiveness workouts as well as throwing measurements with radar readings for immediate feedback on strength and throwing velocity.

The camp will also include mental mindset pre-workout training with videos, worksheets, and breathing techniques to help ease each player’s hurried mind into a state of deep focus for our day’s work.

After our daily workouts, there will be many different arm protocols available for each player, including MarcPro, cupping, band work coupled with Theragun units, and other massager equipment.

Each class will consist of the following activities:

*Mindset video and relaxation drills

*Dynamic stretch and agility conditioning

*Explosive-activity conditioning with a focus on training the core and lower half

*Med-ball core strengthening

*Arm care

*Deceleration and pronation stations

*Weighted ball protocols

*Mound work with mechanical assessments each day

*Post arm conditioning

*Mobility banding, cupping, and Marc Pro stimulation

 

The dates for Holiday Training and Pitching Camp are:

Week 1

Monday, December 20th

Tuesday, December 21st

Thursday, December 23rd

Week 2

Monday, December 27th

Tuesday, December 28th

Thursday, December 30th

 

Each class will run from 10am – 12:30pm.

 

Cost for the camp:

$274 for all 6 days

$169 for 3 days

The cost includes a video analysis.  A $100 deposit holds your spot.

Payment can be made either by cash, credit/debit, check, Venmo (@throwzone listed under James Wagner with a cell number ending in 2147), and Zelle (661-644-2147).

Our Holiday Training and Pitching Camp will ONLY  be available to 16 TOTAL students. As of this writing, I’ve already had 5 players contact me about holding their spot. Registration is on a first come, first served basis, so be sure to sign up now.

Baseball’s spring season, however that will look in 2022, will be here within the next couple of months, but the off-season never ends. Throwzone Academy has held this seasonal camp for the past 10 years knowing exactly what players need to work on during the holidays. Our camp is tailored to meet the needs we know our players are expected to have once they report back to their respective schools or universities.

Though it may seem like downtime is needed this time of year, the exact opposite is true. Once the holidays are over, the player who comes back to the team in the best shape has a greater chance at a starting position than anyone else. This is one of the top reasons for getting a head start or just maintaining your competitive edge in anticipation of spring training!

Get registered now for this popular and successful training camp at Southern California’s top baseball-only training facility!

To sign up or if you have any questions, contact Jim at jim@throwzone.com or at (661) 644-2147.

We look forward to seeing your player this holiday season!

Happy Veterans Day!

With deep respect, honor, and gratitude, Throwzone Academy recognizes all the veterans who have served our country!

November 2021 eNewsletter: ‘Tis The Season

As hard as it is to believe that November has arrived, it’s equally strange to see our television sets broadcasting commercials with Thanksgiving and Christmas themes each break. Time waits for no one. You look up once and see the temperature is going to 100 degrees in the summer, and the next time you look up it’s already the holidays.

At this writing, Thanksgiving is almost three weeks away with Christmas and the holiday season six weeks from now. The year has moved fast, and with the way our world operates these days, it’s not surprising that we’re coming close to another year’s end.

One of the joys of the holiday season for high school players is that games are being played at a fast and furious rate. Every Saturday, doubleheaders are commonplace for our local Santa Clarita Valley schools. For the younger players, tournaments are being played all through the final months of the year.

Typically, players tend to slow down around this time of year. However, here in sunny Southern California, the baseball season never ends. November weekends with 75 degree weather is the perfect time to play multiple games through the week, and even December tends to be filled with tournaments and such up until the final days before Christmas. Then, what happens at the beginning of 2022? Baseball season is “officially” underway with MLB Spring Training beginning 6 weeks from the start of January. And then the cycle repeats.

Training is something that our players do on a year round basis. However, how do you approach training when an injury occurs in the throwing shoulder or elbow? Very slowly.

This time of year, when games are going and our pitchers are in full pitching mode, it’s common that soreness, fatigue, and the occasional shutdown is needed for pitchers. In college, this is all too common as a few of my D1 guys are down and just beginning to ramp back up. You want pitchers to be ready for the start of the season in February and not necessarily in October and November!

It’s imperative that once the pitcher is shut down for a throwing ailment, they follow this template:

For every week a pitcher is shut down, you need to double that amount for him to come back and pitch in a game again. Meaning, if a pitcher is down for two weeks, they need four weeks to build back up again and get to full strength and then pitch in a game.

Now, during that 4-week period, the pitcher needs to ramp up his arm strength for the first 10 days, then begin a bullpen routine of pitching to a catcher every five days until that pitcher can throw up to two sets—I call them innings where I work—with 15 pitchers each inning.

Once that 4-week period is done, the pitcher gets one inning with 20 -22 pitches max, then builds up his pitch count until he’s back to his normal routine of pitching once per week. Of course there are situations that arise that can throw off the routine, but as a general rule of thumb that’s what I advise my pitchers to do and how they build back up at their respective schools.

Pitchers HAVE to be honest with their coaches and not just try to “suck it up” because the coach says so. It’s unbelievable how many coaches get mad at a player for taking this much time. I tell them it’s better to miss four weeks now than four months later during the season.

Hopefully this is something you can work on with your son and his coaches, particularly travel and rec ball coaches. The player in high school may have to sit down with his coach to convey his message about the injury and the recovery road he’s going on.

As a first mention, we’ll be hosting our annual holiday throwing camp at Throwzone the weeks of December 20th and 27th for those players who want to continue to ramp up their workload and be ready for the rigors of many games come January. More information will follow, but it’s our annual event that sells out each year.

Please know we’re thankful for you—our clients—and wish you the very best Thanksgiving with family and friends. We can’t wait to continue on to an exciting holiday season.

Until next time…

Jim

Quote for the Week

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference. 

– Robert Frost

 

Turn Your Clocks Back This Weekend!

It’s that time of year again: Daylight Savings Time has arrived. So don’t forget to “fall back” an hour and reset your clocks Sunday morning!

Quote for the Week

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore. Dream. Discover.”

– Mark Twain