“The body is made to move.”
— Randy Sullivan, Florida Baseball Armory

First of all, I’d like to thank our incredible Jaeger Sports team – Jim Vatcher, China McCarney, and Jonbo Spendlove – it’s hard to put into words how much I appreciate you guys. I’d also like to thank Brian Bannister, Ben Brewster, Rolando Garza, Ricky Meinhold, Gil Patterson, Gabe Ribas, and Randy Sullivan for your incredible support and meaningful words. I have so much respect and appreciation for each one of you as coaches, but even more so, as people. And a bonus thanks to Cory Popham for the proofreading and edits.

The ultimate goal of our Off-Season Throwing Manual is to help you navigate the entire 5 month Off-Season so that you can show up to Spring Training in the best shape of your life from a Health, Strength, Endurance, Recovery, Athleticism, and Feel perspective.

In addition to the 34 years of experience of training and developing arms, a great deal of the following Manual is based on an 8 Week, Off-Season Training Camp that we held for Professional Pitchers and Position Players for almost 20 years. The camp ran from the first Monday in January until the players report date in Spring Training (6 Weeks for players going to early camp).

The main focus of our Pro Camp was to insure that our players build a great BASE through Low Intent Throwing (“Massage Throws”) at the onset, and then, deepen or “stack” this base by progressively adding VOLUME and DISTANCE to these Low Intent Throws. By developing arms in this manner, we saw our players get into optimal shape the right way – by CONDITIONING their arm in a way that allowed it to physically and intuitively adapt to each new threshold without shocking it.

To borrow a phrase from Dr. Marcus Elliott (Founder, P3 Performance), we were simply “managing the delta”. And even though this approach felt right based on our experience and instincts, it was a great feeling to see this substantiated by our athletes, year after year, as they left for Spring Training.

We also found that by focusing on this incremental, Low Intent Volume Throwing as a baseline, our athletes were able to extend out to their maximum Long Toss distance organically, and without “being in a hurry” because they were so intimate with their arm (as a point of reference, almost all of our players throughout the years extended out to 300 feet or more). In truth, what we were doing was simply allowing the arm to “stretch out” in the same manner that any muscle stretches out – slowly, progressively, and adaptively.

Extending our players out to their maximum distance in this manner was Step 1. This BASE – the Stretching Out Phase – which typically took approximately 4-5 weeks to build (closer to 6-8 weeks because we recommended that the players start throwing lightly in December), also set the tone for the second phase, or Step 2 of our Throwing Progression – Pulling Down.

Pulling Down, or High Intent throws would be introduced as the last phase of our Throwing Progression (which doesn’t occur until late January and February in this Manual). Knowing “when” to Pull-Down is imperative because one of the most important aspects of building up an arm correctly is to make sure that it is not “shocked”.

Shocking the arm is not only a major concern at any time of year, but it can be especially concerning in the Build-Up phase of throwing if the BASE isn’t firmly in place. Therefore, Pull-Downs are only introduced once the arm has been properly CONDITIONED and extended out to its maximum distance and should only take place on days that the arm has been FULLY stretched out to its maximum distance.

For the purpose of this manual, Pull-Downs will only occur in January and February, but it should be noted that In-Season Pull-Downs will most likely occur on your Bull-Pen and Start Day if you are a Starting Pitcher (much more on In-Season Maintenance, including Relief Pitcher guidelines at the end of this Manual).

Ultimately, the by-product of establishing a great base, having our players’ arms so well conditioned, and then having them Pull-Down at the appropriate time ideally positioned their arm to optimize the last phase of our Throwing Manual, or Step 3, Mound Work & Pitch Count Build-Up.

The reward of being patient through this entire progression of this Manual is that your arm not only thrives when it gets on the mound, but it RECOVERS extremely well the next day as a result of it. How your arm RECOVERS from day to day not only plays a major role in how well your arm progresses throughout the entire Off-Season, but truly, how well it transitions into Spring Training, and throughout the entire Season. Simply put, RECOVERY plays an instrumental role in the Health, Strength, Endurance, and Longevity of your career. And our entire Throwing Manual has been created with this in mind.

In Summary

One of the greatest satisfactions of training our players each Off-Season was watching them leave for Spring Training, year after year, knowing that they were in the best shape of their lives. This was not only something we saw with our own eyes, but the feedback from the players validated it. And because our approach and methodology gave us such predictable and repeatable feedback over close to a 20 year period – not to mention our work with countless other coaches and teams that have adopted our throwing philosophies over the years – we feel strongly that you will have a great deal of success, and peace of mind knowing that you are implementing a program that has a long and proven track record.

Lastly, it’s important to note that despite our Pro Camp occurring only in the months of January and February, we’ve also spent a great deal of time consulting with many players over the years, and mapping out their Off-Season schedule that included the months of October, November, and December. This includes collaborating extensively with the Tampa Bay Rays for their 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 Off Season Throwing Manuals. We’ve also leaned on many highly respected people in the baseball community as well for some of this information, including Randy Sullivan (Off Ramping/De-Loading), and Eric Cressey (Active Rest).

Ultimately, our experience in this field for 34 years, and the incredible feedback from players and coaches over the years has truly been the driving force behind our belief that our Off-Season Throwing Manual will position you to have the best Off-Season, and In-Season of your career.