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- They’re Coming In Injured, Now What? - and - Managing Workload, Count it Backwards
They’re Coming In Injured, Now What? - and - Managing Workload, Count it Backwards

Total Reading Time: 9 minutes
Happy Monday! With most programs starting back for the fall we’re going to bring back the pitching zooms! Watch for an announcement regarding the zoom schedule along with some cool new programing.
Meanwhile, today we’ll look at handling pitchers that come in injured along with how to better manage workloads.
So Let’s Go!
They’re Coming In Injured - Now What?
Many of you know that I not only live in Southern California, but I have a 97 year old Mom who LOVES the Dodgers. As in we-watch-them-every-night loves the Dodgers. So I get a lot of cool information about a generational player 2-way player - Shohei Ohtani.
Following arm surgery in the off-season his return-to-play was very closely managed, and that’s what I think we can learn a lot from since many, if not most, of our pitchers will be coming in injured from extreme overuse this summer in travelball.
In looking at Shohei’s Return-to-Play protocol below there’s so much we can take and apply to our pitchers who desperately need to rest and recover, but also need to pitch.

Here are my main take-aways from Shohei’s guarded protocol, that I think we can apply to our injured pitchers to get them healthy while building up their overall strength for the season:
We’ve got to limit their number of total pitches by treating every pitch like gold. This includes WARMUPS since these are where pitch counts can skyrocket unmonitored.
Structure out the fall to be calculated for total number of pitches.
Start their pitching program with fastballs and changeups - the 2 least-stressful pitches we have.
Create a gradual build-up of pitches each week during Individuals and Team. Be very calculated and intentional. Less is more in the long run.
Use Live in a calculated way to help your pitcher/s return gradually and slowly build up their workload.
Carefully use your Fall Games as Shohei used his MLB games: slowly building up the innings, with specific objectives for each outing.
Allowing injured pitchers to still pitch, but do it in a very safe and calculated way helps the pitcher commit to the process of her recovery, while feeling good because she’s still pitching instead of sitting in the training room all fall.
I know the MLB is totally different than college fall ball, but I do think the lessons from Shohei’s return can TOTALLY apply, in a general sense, to how we better handle injured players.
I encourage you to take some time and plan out how you’ll bring some of your injured players back this fall, so they can be healthy and contribute successfully come spring!

Suggested Podcast
This week I had the privilege of being interviewed by Zach Brandon on his podcast, Threshold Lab Podcast, where he speaks with high performing coaches from all sports to help listeners think, work and lead better.
Our episode isn’t out yet, but in the meantime, here’s some episodes definitely worth a listen:
Kevin Eastman (Former NBA Coach and Executive for Clippers and Celtics) https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/kevin-eastman-former-nba-assistant-coach-and/id1809845911?i=1000717087274
Chris Petersen (Former D1 College Football Head Coach) https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/chris-petersen-former-di-college-football-head-coach/id1809845911?i=1000720487836
Tara VanDerveer (Hall of Fame Women's Basketball Coach at Stanford) -- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tara-vanderveer-hall-of-fame-womens-basketball-coach/id1809845911?i=1000715997254
Mike Candrea (Former University of Arizona Head Softball Coach) -- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mike-candrea-hall-of-fame-softball-coach-at/id1809845911?i=1000718185707
Managing Workload - Count it Backwards
A few years ago at one of our Pitching Summits, Jen Rocha - pitching coach at Oklahoma - gave a terrific presentation on how she learned to plan for the workload of her ace pitcher (her P1).
She had learned from experience at the previous year’s WCWS just how many pitches her #1 would need to throw as she watched her top pitcher simply run out of gas a game too soon.
Jen counted up the total number of pitches her P1 threw during the World Series, during the Regionals and Super Regionals, and then each weekend that season. The totals looked like this:

(Weekly Pitch Totals in Red)
WCWS: 386 pitches
Regionals & Supers: 332 pitches
February: 300 / 330 / 363 / 400 pitches (1,393 total pitches)
January: 200 / 220 / 245 / 270 pitches (935 total pitches)
The In-Season pitch count totals for her P1 ace, from January through the WCWS were: 3,036 total pitches.
She then went back and added the fall to her Pitch Count totals which then looked like this:

(Weekly Pitch Totals in Red)
The fall workload looked like:
September: 135 / 160 / 165
October: 185 /200 / 225 / 250 / 275
November: 225 / 180 / 200 / 180
December: 180-200
The Fall pitch count totals for her P1 ace, from September through December were: 2,560 pitches.
What I found amazing was how close in workload totals the Fall was to the Season. And, that someone at the height of her game like Jen Rocha, would need to figure out what role she could play in better determining the outcome of Oklahoma’s season.
After going through all of this Jen figured out the workload that her #1 pitcher needed to be strong enough to handle during the Spring. Which for Oklahoma usually includes the very last game of the WCWS. This backwards thinking let Jen calculate and plan how to build up her P1’s strength and capabilities to successfully be at her best at the very end.
Jen’s conclusions were:
She needed to know the pitch totals to plan for these pitch totals.
She needed to ensure that her #1 pitcher got some targeted work in mid-week, without adding to her already big weekly pitch totals.
Her #1 will be the one to get the ball in every big game in the post-season, so she needed to help her be strong enough and yet rested enough to be ready for it - to and through the last game.
She realized by watching her #1 run out of gas, that the necessary workload for her P1 was predictable and therefore planned for.

Thanks for reading this week’s Curveball Chronicles. I hope it helped give you some insight to help your pitchers, and to give yourself some encouragement, knowledge and grace.
Go make this a Great week!

Missed some previous issues? Don’t worry, I’ve got them all on my website: https://pitchingcoachcentral.com/curveball-newsletter/
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