The Luis & Tyler Weightlifting Program and its Effects on a College Baseball
Pitcher’s Performance
Introduction
The most controllable competitive advantage for any
individual is the effort and hard work they put into
their sport. It is unknown however what is the most
effective training protocol to increase performance.
The purpose of this study determine if a customized
training program for pitchers can increase
performance give them a competitive advantage.
Hypothesis
Pitchers who participate in The Luis & Tyler
Weightlifting program will: exhibit greater ball
velocity post program and demonstrate less muscle
fatigue as measured by changes in velocity.
Participants
The participants were four male college baseball
pitchers at Immaculata from ages 19-23. Inclusion
criteria included male college baseball pitchers,
member of Immaculata baseball team, and have
experience with weightlifting/pitching/playing
baseball.
Weight Training Program
Exercise Sets Repetitions Load
Upper Body 3 10 60%-80%
Lower Body 3 10-15 60%-80&
Core 3 10 60%-80%
Experimental group pitchers will follow this program
for 8 weeks, 3x a week. Compliance to the program
is being tracked with training logs. Participants have
completed X of the 24 sessions to date and mid-
assessments have been completed.
Luis Flores & Tyler Tillery
Faculty Mentor: Dr. DiRosa
Data Collection and Analysis
Pitchers were randomly assigned into a control and
experimental group. Baseline and mid intervention
velocities have been measured. Velocity of 25
pitches was measured at each assessment using a
radar gun owned by the IU baseball team. The
overall average of the pitches were calculated as well
as the change in velocity at each 5 pitch interval to
measure fatigue.
Results
Figure 1. Pitch Velocity (mph) by Group
Figure 2. Fatigue by Group
Results (con’t)
Data indicates a significant difference in velocity (p=
0.001209862) and fatigue (p= 0.000604931)
between the experimental and control group at last
assessment. At pre-test, all participants
demonstrated fatigue however at mid-assessment,
the experimental group demonstrated a resistance
to fatigue as evidenced by a return to or above
average velocity in pitches 20-25 as well as an overall
maintenance of velocity over 25 pitches. In
reviewing the weight training logs, this group also
recorded increases in their repetitions per exercise.
Discussion/Conclusion
It can be concluded that The Luis & Tyler
Weightlifting Program that focused on specific
exercises for pitchers can help performance among
college pitchers. Limitations include a small sample
size of N=4 and not having the full weight training
program completed to date. To limit bias, both
groups had a starting and relief pitcher as starters
tend to throw harder than relievers. By combining
both in the two groups, we were able to
demonstrate the differences in both types of
pitchers. Our weightlifting program supported our
hypotheses that increase of velocity and decreases
muscle fatigue are possible with consistent weight
training.
Further Research
Further research is required for college baseball
pitchers outside of Immaculata for reliability. Also,
research about the benefits of the program for any
athlete is needed to show adaptability.