The concept of Off-Ramping or De-Loading was a topic I wanted to learn about a number of years ago, so I reached out to a Randy Sullivan, who is a close friend, and is an expert in many areas of pitching development, including Bio-Mechanics. According to Randy, “Off-Ramping is a structured and gradual reduction in throwing intensity and frequency designed for pitchers (players) after a long season, allowing their bodies to recover and reduce the risk of injury. This controlled reduction helps maintain some level of activity to avoid a disproportionate amount of deconditioning (shocking the body), while facilitating physical and psychological recovery”.
In essence, Off-Ramping is allowing the body to “unwind” in a manner that is similar to how you On-Ramp – just think of doing it in reverse order. For the same reasons you should stretch after you run so your body recovers more effectively, Off-Ramping gives the body a chance to systematically and incrementally reduce the workload over a period of time in a manner that doesn’t “shock” the body. This is a very important transition to go through once a long season has come to an end, and from our experience, is a part of training that doesn’t seem to be talked about very much.
As you will see below, we have allotted 3 Weeks to Off-Ramp immediately after your season ends. Though this may not be an exact science at this point, I shared this formula with Randy and he really liked it. Naturally, feel free to consult your own Physical Therapist or Strength & Conditioning Coach.
Off-Ramping Schedule
- Week 1: Reduce your workload by 20%
- Week 2: Reduce your workload by 40%
- Week 3: Reduce your workload by 60%
This reduction in workload would include:
- The amount of days you threw
- The amount of throws you made (volume)
- The distance you went out to in your throwing routine
- Bull-Pens
As a simple example, if you were Long Tossing out to 300 feet on your higher intent day/days when the season ended, only go out to 240 feet the first week. If you threw a 75 pitches in your last start of the Season, only throw 60 “live” pitches off of the mound with 80% intent (the same formula applies to your Bull-Pen). If you made 150 throws in your throwing routine, only make 120 throws, with 80% intent. And apply this % to anything you can quantify in your throwing routine and mound work. Week 2 would then be reduced by another 20% (40% total), and Week 3, another 20% (60% total).
Again, listen to your arm/body/instincts and let it dictate how long it wants to Off-Ramp for. We’re basing this on ~3 weeks, but again, every arm is different based on the variables of your season. Therefore, if you feel like you need more time, and want to extend this reduction in your workload, feel free to do that as well. Again, having almost 5 months in your Off-Season is a tremendous luxury to have to adapt to each of these Phases based on your instincts.
Note: There is something to be said about the “tradeoff” of Off-Ramping after a very long season, and the need to immediately take a physical and mental rest. Though we feel like there is a great deal of value in Off-Ramping, if you feel that you are better served by completely “shutting down”, that can be understandable and justifiable considering that, again, you have 5 months to work with in the Off-Season (Thanks to Gabe Ribas for this important perspective).
For a more in depth look at the topic and science of Off-Ramping/De-Loading, here is a very insightful article by Randy Sullivan: (http://floridabaseballranch.com/blog/shut-it-down-or-keep-throwing-maybe-theres-an-alternative/).