Long Toss: Reevaluating Feeding the Arm
Long toss is a staple in building arm strength in the game of baseball. If you have played, coached, or are a fan of baseball odds are that you have either performed, watched, or heard of long tossing. Long tossing is a throwing routine that builds arm strength and health. All of this is well known in the baseball community, but what is not well known is the proper way to long toss. This is something I thought I knew a lot about, but after listening to one of my favorite podcasts, "Baseball Outside the Box" I soon learned that I knew little. What I thought I knew about long toss, was simply catch play. This post is to help spread the proper way of long tossing from the guru of arm health Alan Jaeger.
Within the "Baseball Outside the Box" episode with Alan Jaeger, Mr. Jaeger tells many stories about his experiences with the misconceptions of long tossing. One of my favorite stories that was eye opening to me was when Alan and a professional baseball player had been building arm strength in the offseason. This athlete had built up his arm health up to throwing the baseball to over 300 feet. When the athlete went to spring training, this athlete could not showcase his newfound arm strength because his team was dictating based off of throws and timing how far that they wanted their players to throw the ball. If this athlete could have showcased his arm strength perhaps he would have opened up a few eyes within the organization. All of this has changed though within many levels of baseball, especially professional baseball. Teams want their athletes to showcase their arm strength and to build up to the strongest and healthiest arm possible.
So what is the difference between long toss and catch play? Catch play would be what I described that the organization had their athletes do during spring training. This is perfectly okay. Catch play such as this builds upon focus and accuracy. Both skills that baseball players need, but to strengthen the arm you must long toss. Long tossing has many phases throughout the year.
The biggest difference between catch play and long toss is long toss is a yearly method to build strength in the arm and to keep it healthy. For the first three weeks of long toss, throw with an arc. Don’t necessarily worry about distance at this point. There are no pull down phases at this point. A pull down phase is when you start throwing the ball on a line to your throwing partner. After three weeks, you can start the pull down phase and have your throwing partner work in. It’s important to keep the same throwing velocity of your maximum distance with the focus to throw the ball to a shorter distance. It’s also important for the players to understand that it is better to miss lower than higher. A throw thrown high could mean that the student-athlete is decelerating early and not finishing the throw.
Another thing to understand is when specific types of players should long toss. Pitchers should long toss every other day, while position players can long toss every day. I would suggest following Jaeger Sports yearly long toss routines. This will allow the athlete to create resting periods and start up periods.
Lastly it’s important for the players to do J-Band exercises before and after long tossing. This is important for massaging and strengthening all of the arm muscles. In summation, to create arm strength and health then long toss. As Alan Jaeger says, “Your arm will thank you.” Again, this was a fascinating information that I wanted to pass along to all of my readers. I hope this information will be as helpful to you as it was for me.
The biggest difference between catch play and long toss is long toss is a yearly method to build strength in the arm and to keep it healthy. For the first three weeks of long toss, throw with an arc. Don’t necessarily worry about distance at this point. There are no pull down phases at this point. A pull down phase is when you start throwing the ball on a line to your throwing partner. After three weeks, you can start the pull down phase and have your throwing partner work in. It’s important to keep the same throwing velocity of your maximum distance with the focus to throw the ball to a shorter distance. It’s also important for the players to understand that it is better to miss lower than higher. A throw thrown high could mean that the student-athlete is decelerating early and not finishing the throw.
Another thing to understand is when specific types of players should long toss. Pitchers should long toss every other day, while position players can long toss every day. I would suggest following Jaeger Sports yearly long toss routines. This will allow the athlete to create resting periods and start up periods.
Lastly it’s important for the players to do J-Band exercises before and after long tossing. This is important for massaging and strengthening all of the arm muscles. In summation, to create arm strength and health then long toss. As Alan Jaeger says, “Your arm will thank you.” Again, this was a fascinating information that I wanted to pass along to all of my readers. I hope this information will be as helpful to you as it was for me.
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