I released a blog post on the off-season pitching plan for the team I coach, in it, I talked a bit about each phase of the program. I want to take some time to explain what each phase is actually trying to accomplish and ideas on how you can implement this yourself as an athlete or as a coach.
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On-Ramping is a throwing phase.
On-ramping, mound-blending, velo-building, blend-to-season are all phases of an off-season throwing program. These phases have been categorized by Driveline baseball and their popular Hacking the Kinetic Chain throwing programs.
For those that have never heard about Driveline and their throwing programs - or maybe you have - and you just have never really bothered to think about these phases closely - I hope to shed some light on each phase and help you learn the basics of an off-season throwing program.
So what is on-ramping actually trying to accomplish?
On-ramping is the first phase to any good off-season throwing program. You can call this whatever you what - but as the name suggests - this is the phase to build up throwing volume slowly after taking take off from throwing.
After taking anywhere from 2-8 weeks off from throwing you can't just jump right into high-intensity throwing or high throwing volume. We must gradually build up our throwing fitness to prepare the body to handle the stress of higher volume and/or higher intensity.
This video showcases one of the most common drills done in on-ramping - the reverse throw.
The on-ramping phase typically lasts 3 weeks, depending on how many days per week you are throwing, you may need to adjust the length of this phase. Most of Driveline's programs are a 7-day schedule. While this doesn't mean that you are throwing 7 days per week, it assumes that you have access to a training space every day of the week and can add days during the week as you progress through this phase and into the next phase.
In the amateur baseball world, this becomes problematic.
Take my team, for instance, we only practice twice a week. Driveline's programs typically start the on-ramping phase with 3 throwing days and progress to 4 by the end of the phase.
Most amateur teams cannot follow this type of schedule.
So while a Driveline program may schedule on-ramping to only last 3 weeks, it is probably wise to lengthen it by a week or two depending on your situation.
TLDR:
On-ramping is a period of building up throwing fitness and preparing the athlete to move onto more high intensity throwing whether that be a velocity building phase or going straight into mound-blending.
How to implement:
For most amateur athletes I would suggest a 4-week on-ramping phase. Start with two days a week of throwing at the beginning and progress up to three if that is available to you. If going up to three days is impossible for whatever reason you will have to increase volume and intensity throughout the phase.
This is something that is not communicated well in Driveline's programs.
They give you these great plans but it is easy to just look at it at face value and think that after taking a month off (3-4 months in the extreme case) that you are ready to just pick up plyocare balls and throw long-toss out to 80%.
How much time off the athlete has had will dictate how long, the initial volume - and how quickly the volume and intensity are progressed throughout this phase.
When I think and talk about the on-ramping phase, I always urge people to understand that early on less is more.
For example:
Most of the athletes I work with end up taking close to 3 months off of throwing. While I certainly do not recommend that (this is a topic for another post) we have to take athletes time off from throwing into consideration.
Ideally, what I would do is cut down the volume of plyocare throws for the first week by half (from what is prescribed by Driveline's HTKC) - and also - reduce intensity to 60-70%. For the first week or two, long-toss should be capped to around 60-70% of max distance.
This video showcases the pivot pickoff drill which is commonly used during the on-ramping phase with plyocare balls.
After that initial week or two, I would then increase the volume slowly each session and allow the athletes more autonomy to increase their intensity. I do not mind guys pushing their intensity past 80% in some of the plyocare throws and long-toss - especially considering that in my situation we only practice twice a week - that leaves lots of recovery time.
These are just some things to consider when implementing an on-ramping program.
For guys that only take 3 or 4 weeks off from throwing you should probably feel comfortable prescribing the same volume of plyocare throws from Driveline's plans. I would still ease up on intensity early on - encouraging the athlete to start at 60-70% for the first couple of training sessions and then move up to 80%.
I would also limit long-toss for the first week. Encourage athletes to just "take their arm for a walk" and go out to whatever feels like a reasonable distance for them. Hopefully, your athletes have good feel - for those that don't - you are best to cap them at a certain distance for the first couple of days.
Believe me, most athletes end up hating this phase of the program. After taking a month or more off throwing, all they want to do is just let it eat. This is where most of our job as coaches in this phase of the off-season is to hold back this eagerness and progress them slowly. The last thing we want is an injury from going too hard, too fast in the first couple of weeks of practice.
This is also the best time of the off-season to start making mechanical changes, implementing plyocare drills and routines.
For instance, this off-season every player had their own individual throwing drills. We also had 6 new players on our team. I took my time in the on-ramping phase to teach the drills, explain why each matters for them - and why we use plyocare balls.
By taking advantage of the extra time allotted in this phase you can foster better buy-in from your athletes - not to mention - set up a smooth transition into the next phase of your throwing program.
Next Steps
Lastly, it is important to understand that just because an athlete has completed this phase of an off-season throwing program does not mean that they are ready to get off the mound and throw high-intensity bullpens.
Instead of immediately progressing guys onto the mound and full out bullpens, it is a good idea to separate athletes into a couple categories (or "buckets") to help prioritize what they need when it comes to planning their next throwing phase.
For example, you may transition some athletes into a velocity development phase where they perform high intent plyocare days and pulldown days, and transition others into a mound-blending phase.
By proceeding to the mound prematurely the athlete could be missing out on valuable development time as a thrower. While work on the mound is important to the success of the pitcher long-term - we have to be cognizant of developing a well-rounded athlete and thrower.
Conclusion
On-ramping is the first phase of an off-season throwing program. It's goal is to build up throwing fitness and prepare the athlete for high-intensity throwing. In general 3-5 weeks is a normal time period for this phase depending on your individual circumstances.
In future posts, I will cover the rest of the off-season throwing phases. If you found this post helpful be sure to subscribe to my mailing list to be notified when my next post goes live!
For any question or general inquires you can contact me via email at lennon@richardsbaseball.com.