Your Kid Needs a Winter Throwing Program — Here's One That Works
November hits, the season ends, and most kids put the ball down for four months. That's a mistake. A structured winter throwing program for kids is the single best thing you can do between now and February to protect your child's arm and make sure they show up to spring tryouts ahead of everyone who took the winter off.
I built this plan for the families I work with who don't have access to a facility every day. You can run it at home, in a driveway, in a basement, or in a backyard. No fancy equipment. No excuses.
Why Winter Is the Most Important Time for a Young Thrower
Most parents think the off-season is a rest period. Rest is important — but total shutdown isn't rest, it's regression. The arm is a machine. If you park it for four straight months and then crank it back up full speed in March, you're asking for trouble. I've seen it over and over. Kid takes the whole winter off, shows up to the first practice of spring, throws hard for two weeks, and ends up with a sore elbow or shoulder that wrecks the entire season.
The fix isn't complicated. It's consistency at low stress. Keep the arm moving, keep the mechanics grooved, and build back into full effort gradually. That's the whole philosophy behind this plan.
What the Plan Actually Looks Like
This is a five-day-a-week program broken into four phases across November through February. Each phase builds on the last. Here's the simple version of how it's structured:
- November — Rebuild: Short toss only. Low intensity. Focus is arm care, mechanics, and getting the shoulder used to throwing again after the fall season. No max effort throws. None.
- December — Volume: Start adding reps. Distance stays controlled. This is where you groove the arm path and footwork. Your kid should feel like throwing is easy during this phase — that's the point.
- January — Intensity: Start pushing distance gradually. Add some crow hop throws. Outfielders and pitchers start working specific patterns. Catchers start working pop time mechanics.
- February — Game Prep: Full throwing. Simulate game situations. By the time tryouts hit, the arm is built up, not scrambling to catch up.
Every week includes built-in rest days. I'm not trying to build robots. I'm trying to build healthy, capable young athletes who are ready when it counts.
The One Thing Most Kids Skip (And Shouldn't)
Warming up to throw. Not throwing to warm up. Those are two completely different things, and most kids have them backwards.
Before any session in this plan, your kid needs to warm the arm up before they pick up a ball. That means dynamic movement — arm circles, band work if you have it, a light jog, whatever gets blood into the shoulder. Think of it like this: you wouldn't start a cold engine and immediately floor the gas pedal. Same idea. The arm needs oil in it before you rev it up.
I wrote about this in detail when I broke down how Shohei Ohtani prepares to pitch. The best throwers in the world spend more time preparing to throw than they spend actually throwing. Your ten-year-old should understand this concept too. It's not soft. It's smart.
Download the Full Winter Throwing Program for Kids
Everything above is the outline. The actual winter throwing program for kids — with daily rep counts, distances, rest protocols, and phase-by-phase instructions — is in the PDF below.
Print it out. Stick it on the fridge. Go through it with your kid so they understand what they're doing and why. When they understand the reason behind the work, they actually do the work.
How Often Should Your Kid Actually Throw in the Off-Season?
Five days a week sounds like a lot. It's not — because these aren't full practice sessions. Most days in November and December are 15 to 20 minutes. That's it. You can do this in a driveway before dinner. The whole point is frequency over intensity. Short, consistent, low-stress sessions beat one long Saturday throwing session every two weeks every single time.
The main lesson I tell every family I work with: in order to improve, you need to practice often. Not long. Often. That's it. That's the whole thing.
A Few Things to Watch For as a Parent
You're not the coach during these sessions. Your job is to make sure the session happens and to watch for these warning signs:
- Any elbow pain. Stop immediately. Not "let's see how it feels tomorrow." Stop that day.
- Throwing mechanics falling apart when they're tired. That's the body telling you the session is over.
- Skipping the warm-up. Don't let it slide, even once. Habits are built in November, not March.
- Max effort too early in the program. The plan phases up intentionally. Trust the progression.
If your kid complains about arm soreness that doesn't go away in 24 hours, get it looked at. I'd rather a kid miss three days in December than miss three months in April.
This Is How You Show Up Ready
Spring tryouts are a snapshot. Coaches see one or two sessions and make decisions. The kids who trained all winter show up with confident arms, clean mechanics, and no fear of throwing hard. The kids who didn't are still working the rust off two weeks into practice.
Which kid do you want your athlete to be?
Download the plan, run the program, and if you have questions along the way — reach out. That's what I'm here for.
Want your kid to get this kind of work done with real coaching and real reps this winter? Text me at 276-870-6198 or send a message and I'll tell you exactly what we have open.
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