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Early February.
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Spring tryouts are not even here yet, and you are already getting three messages at once.
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One coach says if your kid wants to throw harder, he needs to throw year round.
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A private instructor says he needs to shut it down for a couple months or he is going to break.
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And, social media is showing garage velocity clips that feel like if you take a week off, you are falling behind.
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If you are a parent, coach, or pitcher sitting in that tension, this episode is for you.
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I am the coach behind Velo reset.
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My work lives at the intersection of biomechanics, workload management, and long term arm durability.
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The lens here is simple.
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Understand first, train second.
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No hype, no shortcuts, just clear decisions that protect the arm while still allowing real development.
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Today, we are tackling a question that sounds like an either or debate, but really is not.
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Year round versus seasonal for youth pitchers.
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The real issue is not the calendar.
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It is how stress is dosed, how recovery is planned, and whether the athlete is actually ready for the workload being stacked.
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By the end, you will have a practical way to think about throwing across the year using phases, not fear.
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You will understand why both extremes can back fire, what readiness really means in plain English, and how to avoid the two traps that cause so many youth arms to get stuck in soreness, plateaus, or breakdown.
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The evolution of youth baseball into a year round sport has created complex challenges rowing management.
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What was once clearly defined seasons has morphed into an endless cycle.
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Fall ball flows into winter training, which leads to preseason, spring season, summer ball, and travel showcases, often leaving no clear breaks for young arms to recover.
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At the heart of this issue lie two competing truths.
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Throwing is fundamentally a skill that improves through consistent practice, while human tissue has biological limits and adaptation requirements that can't be shortcut.
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Many get caught in an all mindset, either throwing year round at high intensity or shutting down completely.
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Both extremes miss the nuanced reality of arm care.
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The central misconception is that more throwing equals better outcomes whether that's arm health, velocity, or skill development.
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Social media often pushes this narrative: throw more to throw harder, never take breaks or you'll fall behind.
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However, the science tells a different story: throwing creates stress, which is a negative as it drives adaptation, but it must be properly dosed, paired with adequate recovery, and matched to the athlete's current readiness level.
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When examining arm health, it's crucial to consider the entire throwing system, not just isolated parts like the elbow or shoulder.
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This includes movement patterns, sequencing, joint mobility, muscle capacity, tendon resilience, and recovery ability.
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Year round throwing without varying intensity and volume can build up hidden fatigue debt.
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An athlete may appear fine until suddenly they're not manifesting as persistent soreness, command issues, velocity plateaus, or seemingly pain onset.
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Conversely, complete shutdowns followed by rushed returns create dangerous workload spikes.
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They are from zero to competitive intensity in a compressed time frame, often leading to early season issues that linger.
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Research from the American Sports Medicine Institute, AS consistently shows that excessive pitching volume, inadequate rest, and frequent competitive throwing correlate with higher injury risks in youth players.
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Several key scientific principles should guide throwing management.
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First, tissue adapts more slowly than enthusiasm, especially in growing athletes where changing body proportions add complexity.
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Second, workload encompasses more than just pitch counts.
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It includes bullpens, long toss, warm ups, and position throwing.
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Third, high intensity throwing creates dramatically more stress than moderate throwing.
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Fourth, throwing efficiency depends on whole body coordination, not just arm strength.
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A more effective model focuses on distinct phases throughout the year.
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Competitive phase, in season performance and maintenance.
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Build phase, gradual return to throwing with progressive intensity.
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Deload phase, if today's episode clarifying, it's this.
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The real decision is not year round or shutdown.
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The real decision is whether your pitcher's throwing plan respects readiness, builds tissue capacity on a realistic timeline, and actually cycles stress and recovery across the year.
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When families get in trouble, it is usually not from one bad workout, it is from months of steady high intent throwing or a hard shutdown followed by a rushed ramp up that spikes workload.
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That is the lane Velo Reset lives in.
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Understanding first, training second.
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We help pitchers and coaches make calmer decisions with simple frameworks like tracking total throwing stress, separating throw days from recovery days, and using readiness as the filter before you add intensity.
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If you want ongoing, evidence aware guidance you can actually apply, visit veloreset dot com and click the ArmCare tips tab in the navigation bar.
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That takes you to the ArmLab newsletter where we share practical workload, recovery, and durability insights without hype.
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Reduce volume and intensity while maintaining movement quality.
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Recovery active restoration of tissue and movement capacity.
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This framework can work within both year round and seasonal approaches.
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The key is cycling stress rather than maintaining constant high intensity.
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A practical way to implement this is through the three buckets framework.
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First, skill, throwing ability, mechanics, command.
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Second, capacity, how much throwing the body can tolerate.
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Third, readiness, current preparedness for workload.
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Weekly planning should assess previous week's total throwing stress across all activities, readiness status, soreness, fatigue, sleep, motivation.
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Specific goals for the coming week, for youth pitchers, a structured approach might include two to three dedicated throwing days per week during offseason build phases balanced with one to two recovery days focused on restoration and supporting work.
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Recovery days aren't just about rest.
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They can include light movement, scapular control work, trunk strength, lower body development, and mobility work.
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Multi sport athletes require special consideration.
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While playing us can provide natural breaks from throwing, it's not automatically protective if the athlete continues high intensity throwing during these periods.
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The arm doesn't distinguish between pitching and other high effort throws.
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Total stress is what matters.
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High school athletes face particular challenges as they often throw for multiple teams and training environments.
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Having one adult track total throwing stress across all activities becomes crucial.
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Most overuse injuries aren't from malicious intent.
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They result from uncoordinated demands across different baseball activities where not the complete picture.
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Parents often worry that taking breaks will cause their child to fall behind.
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However, athletes who maintain healthy arms through proper stress management often surpass those who burn hot early but get stuck in injury cycles.
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Should be viewed as an outcome of proper development, not a target to be chased at all costs.
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The sustainable approach isn't choosing between year round throwing and complete shutdowns, but rather guiding athletes through appropriate phases that respect readiness and recovery.
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Success should be measured not by immediate velocity but by sustained healthy performance over time.
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The best development plan isn't necessarily the most intense or impressive on social media but the one an athlete can maintain long term without breaking down.
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For practical implementation, families should establish clear communication between all parties involved in the athlete's throwing.
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Coaches, trainers, and health care providers document total throwing stress, track readiness markers, and plan intensity cycles that allow for both development and recovery.
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Remember that ADAPT is through the balance of stress and recovery, not through constant stress alone.
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The goal should be developing athletes who can throw well not just this season, but for many seasons to come.
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This requires respecting biological limits while still providing adequate stimulus for skill development.
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When viewed through this lens, the year round versus seasonal debate becomes less about calendar structure and more about intelligent stress management.
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Thanks for spending your time with us today.
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If this episode helped bring a little more clarity to the year round versus seasonal throwing, that's exactly why this podcast exists.
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Arm health decisions can feel overwhelming, especially when every voice is loud and confident, but thoughtful.
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Long term development usually starts with better questions, not harder pushes.
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If you found this conversation helpful, consider subscribing and leaving a quick review.
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It helps other parents, pitchers, and coaches find grounded science based guidance instead of noise.
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And if you know someone navigating arm soreness, workload decisions, or recovery planning right now, sharing this episode might help them slow things down and think more clearly.
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For more education and resources focused on durability, readiness, and sustainable development, you can always visit veloresset.com.
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Thanks again for learning with us and we'll see you in the next episode.
