Implementing Driveline Throwing Products in a High School Team Setting Part 1: The Basics

My high school baseball coach recently decided to invest in his first few Driveline throwing products. After numerous conversations concerning what to buy and how to integrate it into a high school practice and game environment, I decided to write out my thoughts. Part 1 will cover the basics: why this stuff matters, what to buy, and how to find time in an already packed schedule. Part 2 will cover the basics of individualization, mostly concerning plyo ball routines, and programming from a broad perspective.

This guide will also not be thoroughly covering why plyo balls are good, or the importance of other aspects of development. If you’re considering implementing this system yet don’t have a structured lifting program for your team, I insist you to repriortize.

It’s also important to mention here that for a high school baseball coach, getting deep into the weeds of a velocity program or extremely individualized programming situation just isn’t realistic. In my high school coach’s context, he has maybe 10–15 open gyms starting in January with questionable attendance, followed by maybe two 6-practice-days weeks of a preseason before their first game. On ramping alone is a difficult task in this environment. Proper utilization of practice or pregame time of upmost importance.

So, to start, a relatively simple daily routine would put everyone in a great spot going into the season while also providing a workload foundation to be built upon. Everyone wants to try to find time to do pull downs, but nobody wants to start with finding time to get their j-bands and wrist weights in. These misguided thoughts are byproducts of not being able to answer a more important question: Why? Why should we invest in plyo balls? Why should I spend valuable practice time doing these routines?

Consider the ladder analogy below.

Every high school program has the same goal: win a championship. But as well stated by James Clear, winners and losers are separated not by their goals but by their systems.

The ladder on the right is a stereotypical plan most high school teams use to try to win a championship. While it’s possible to win, too much is left to chance, or in our analogy, risky jumps up the ladder have to be taken, leading to most teams getting stuck or falling down the ladder. The reason it’s so popular? “It’s the way we’ve always done it” or some long invalidated logic like “Bunt defenses win and lose games.”

Meanwhile, the ladder on the left demands much more work yet offer much more reward. By taking a more methodical and planned approach, the climb to the top appears much more controllable. Nothing is ever guaranteed, but I’m a firm believer luck is the sum of the thousands of the micro-decisions we make every day. Lucky teams do seem to win, but if you look closer, they often made their own luck.

So, the question now is which ladder will you attempt to climb? Now, focusing on the throwing side, improving team performance on the mound is one of the most valuable and easiest ways to improve your chances of winning. These products and routines have been proven over and over to improve performance. So, there’s the why. Buy into it or don’t. Regardless, here’s my advice on how to implement it.

What to Buy

Before we can discuss what’s worth buying, we first need to set our scene. A typical varisty roster has roughly 15–20 kids on it. At the high school level, almost all of them are two way players (and rightfully so!) due to throwing workload considerations, density of games, and the quick turnaround from the start of the preseason to game #1.

Additionally, high school programs’ budgets are, well, minuscule at best. Even with fundraising, most programs don’t have the budget for a set of plyo balls per kid or anything of that nature. Factoring in both of these points, here’s my recommended shopping list:

• Two shoulder tubing bands: ~$70
• Two sets of plyocare balls: ~$130
• Two sets of leather wrist weights: ~$120
• Two 2 lb. medicine balls: ~$30

Want recommended brands? Jaeger Sports, Driveline Baseball, and Rogue Fitness. Does it really matter? No, but this equipment will get brutalized quickly. You get what you pay for.

Anyways, total cost is roughly $350. And if your school already has medicine balls that can be taken to practice and games and you’re willing to scour the used market, this can all be purchased for under $300. Remember, at this point, our goal is to establish an elite warmup routine. Plyo velo days, run and guns, and other aspects of velocity devleopment sound great, but we have to start with a daily routine. For under $400, you can get all the tools needed to prepare your team for catch play better than every opponent you face.

Finding Time

It’s now time to discuss the more important question: when is there time to do this during practice? Or before a game? These are fair concerns; I’m going to start by discussing practice. Honestly, most teams poorly utilize the beginning of their practice anyways.

Almost every high school coach starts practice the same way. Most begin with a short huddle to discuss the practice plan, followed by letting their players run off to the outfield to perform a player-led stretch. After they come back in, most coaches will start off with baserunning practice, which even with two or 3 added ghost baselines, involves a long line of players waiting to get reps. After 10–15 minutes, they tell the kids to go play catch to warm up for defensive work.

As every coach knows, stations and splitting kids up is essential to maximizing the amount of reps everyone gets. Avoiding the environment killer of kids just standing around waiting in line is essential to creating a productive environment. So, rather than doing the plan mentioned above, start with first doing a coach led dynamic warmup. Not only will this make it occur quicker, but it will also improve player engagement in properly warming up merely from your presence.

Next, split your team into two groups. How you split them is totally up to you. Go elite pitchers and depth pitchers, older and younger, or just straight up random. It doesn’t really matter. I would say avoid having the same groups every day, as it’s often helpful to have kids exposed to new eyes and environments frequently. So, we’ll now have two groups of roughly 10 kids.

Group 1 will do baserunning first. Nothing changes there; for 10–15 minutes, practice baserunning with them. Except this time, the group is small enough that a coach can emphasize the finer details and players get more reps overall.

In the mean time, group 2 now has roughly 10 minutes. I truly believe the essentials of an arm care program can be properly done using a circuit style system. Here’s how:

The Circuit

With 10 kids, we’re going to split them into groups of 2. So, that means we’ll have two minutes per station if we have five stations. With more or less than 10 kids, just add or subtract a station, knowing it will take 8 or 12 minutes now (or 20!). I’ve labeled them below as A, B, C, & D, followed by a list of Z’s. A-D are what I would describe as mandatory; they provide the foundation.

Those labeled Z could be described as optional, but I think there’s a ton to be gained from them. They fall into the more old school, “art of coaching” side, so they provide a great opportunity to have a station of whatever y’all want them to work on. Just a simple “hey let’s talk for two minutes about what y’all are going to work on in catch play today” has a ton of value. With 10 kids, crush A-D, then pick one from the Z list or do whatever else y’all want to do with them for 2 minutes. With 8 kids, just do A-D and move on, or have more stations with not every station being used at all times. With more than 10 kids, just add as many stations as y’all need. Plenty of stuff out there that can be used as a station.

Also, order doesn’t really matter here. There’s no reason to worry about where a kid starts. Would I prefer to do them in a specific manner? Sure. But it’s not a big deal if someone has to throw plyos before they do bands. Their bodies should be well prepared if they took their dynamic warmup seriously.

Anyways, to the list.

A: Shoulder tubing bands: We all know the drill here hopefully. Do the six exercises below, plus whatever else they / y’all want. The six below are must do’s in my mind.

Helpful tip: try to have them match their throwing intent for the day with their band intensity. If the kid has a bullpen, tell him to do the bands with some force (move fast!). If the kid has a lower intent day, encourage them to just focus on form and keep the resistance on the easier side.

Video: https://vimeo.com/522885442/2c45dd034e

• Forward fly to overhead reach
• Reverse fly to overhead reach
• Bicep curl with pronation
• Tricep extension with pronation
• Elevated internal rotation
• Elevated external rotation

B: Wrist weights: four drills; don’t skip these ever. Important to encourage them to find a flow while doing the reps; the previous rep should smoothly flow into the next one.

The Tom House cue of “your shoulders should burn before catch play” crudely applies here; kids should feel a good pump after but also shouldn’t be fatigued.

Helpful tip: Anecdotal here, but this is my pick for “if I had to pick just one drill to do before starting catch play, what would it be?” These are a great pick to answer the question of “Coach, I’ve only got 5 minutes, what do I do before catch play?”

Video: https://vimeo.com/522028661/2b5b8d3f7e

• Arm swings
• Overhead throws
• Cuban press
• Pivot Pickoff

C: Plyos: Ah yes, the big ticket item. I’m going to throw a lot of cues down below. Make sure they have their glove on for all forward throwing drills. Of the three throwing drills labeled A, B, and C, pick one for each kid. Part 2 will go in more in depth on how to pick which one, but for now, scap retractions are my go to. Easiest to implement and cue. No stride swivels are the next easiest, followed by pivot picks.

Of course, there’s many other plyo drills to cover, but to start, crush reverse throws plus one forward throwing drill. Then progress further. Again, this will be discussed more in part 2.

Helpful tip: Build a plyo wall. And once y’all get that plyo wall built, put some targets on it. Use athletic tape, chalk, spray paint. Whatever works. For throwing them in the gym, athletic tape on the wall works great. The tape should go head high on the throwing arm side. Crude depiction below.

Video: https://youtu.be/jPcIoNir06I

• Reverse Throws: Pretty straight forward here. Half kneeling, throw it back somewhat aggressively. It should hit the wall around head height and directly behind the arm; the ball should stay on the side of the body it was thrown from (it should cross over their kneeling leg). The front leg needs to brace hard into the ground; the raised knee shouldn’t move at all during the drill; this is harder than it seems but you must stay diligent on making sure kids don’t let their knee collapse.
• A: Scap retractions: Toss ball up, catch it and flow from the catch into the throw. Stride or no stride is fine.
• B: No stride swivels. No leg pick up. Cue hips before shoulders. Rotate feet, figure 8 arm swing into throw.
• C: Pivot picks: Easily the toughest to cue and teach an athlete. Their benefit is great when cued properly, but getting kids to do them correctly is tough. Easiest way to start is just to make sure kids set up correctly. Wrong foot forward, hands high. Then throw it.

D: Medicine ball: Avoid over-cueing your athletes here; just let them self organize. They should be chunking these at at least an 8/10 RPE. Doing a velo competition to see who can throw a ball the hardest is a really fun and safe way to create competition in practice.

Video: https://youtu.be/cRxnhZbqaLg

• Scoop throws (both sides): make sure they start feeling well connected to the ground. Load the hip.
• Shuffle punches (both sides): Step behind footwork pattern. Tell them to move powerfully, not necessarily as fast as possible.
• Neutral overhead throw: Get spinal here. The lean back is the most important part.
• Roll in overhead throw (both sides): Same as the neutral overhead throw. Make sure they switch feet when rolling in from the other side.

So, there’s a decent overview of A-D. Below you’ll find a much less thorough description of some ideas for other stations. A quick Google search will lead you in the right direction. If you’re looking for specific guidance on any of them, just reach out. I’ve personally experienced and coached successful outcomes with all of the ones listed below.

Z: Dynamic shoulder work

Z: Mental training / focal point for today

Z: Mobility routine

Z: Football catch play

Z: Soccer ball juggling / baseball juggling

Z: Football routes / 1v1's

So there it is. A 10 minute circuit that fully prepares guys for catch play. After 10 minutes, group 1 and 2 switch. ~25 minutes after starting practice, catch play begins with these kids being more prepared to get better for the rest of practice than any other team. Hell yeah.

As for pregame routines, keep the circuit the same, but now the baserunning group hits hitting plyos or wiffle balls in the outfield (this is assuming there’s no formal on field BP). Complete pregame routine looks roughly like:

• dynamic warmup
• group 1 and 2 for 20 minutes
• catch play
• I/O
• first pitch

Part 2 will cover the bascis of individualization and programming, especially concerning plyo drills. Sets / reps will be discussed, and printbale cheat sheets to take to the field will also be somewhere in there. A discussion concerning implementing a high / low model, stacking stress, and coordinating with the kids’ lifting program will also be discussed. Stacking stress is super easy and has huge performance implications; it just takes a little bit of planning ahead of time.

Thanks for reading. ~Mark