Swimming and Baseball – Is swimming good or bad for baseball players and pitchers?

It depends on what you define swimming as. If you are defining swimming as the four traditional swimming strokes free style, butterfly, breast, and back stroke, then no, swimming is not good for baseball players and pitchers.

However, there are many things that baseball players and pitchers can do in a pool besides actual swimming to get a good workout. Let’s first talk about why it is bad for baseball players and pitchers to use swimming as a training tool.

You see, swimming, especially the freestyle swimming stroke and the butterfly swimming stroke, can cause a lot of forward shoulder impingement. It was reported that 12% of college level swimmers experienced impingement while they were performing the crawl stroke (also known as the freestyle). This is not good for baseball players or pitchers.

Any kind of shoulder impingement is bad and can lead to more pain, inflamed shoulders, and weaker arms. If the chance of injury doesn’t scare you from not swimming, let me tell you why it doesn’t really even help to swim as a baseball player or pitcher.

When you are throwing a baseball, at your release point your arm is around the same area as it would be when entering the water in a traditional freestyle stroke. The only difference is, during a throw, the arm is at full speed to the release point and then starts decelerating. During the swimming stroke, the arm feels resistance when it hits the water, after where the release point would be in a baseball player or pitchers throwing motion.

Swimming is actually completely opposite of throwing so why would a baseball player or pitcher swim to get better at throwing? It doesn’t make sense. Although, most of the forward swimming techniques are not beneficial for baseball players and pitchers, some strength and conditioning trainers argue that the back stroke is ok to do by baseball players and pitchers because there is no forward impingement. I would still caution you to be careful and do not over due it on the back stroke.

As I mentioned before, there are other exercises that a baseball player or pitcher can do in the pool besides actually swimming that are great for conditioning and strength. One exercise baseball players and pitchers can do in the pool besides swimming is to go through their shoulder routines. Just as a baseball player or pitcher would do with their resistance training bands, follow the same paths, just perform the activity under water, up to the neck.

Performing the shoulder routine under water creates a very low stress environment and gives a good amount of resistance at the same time. The good thing about performing these shoulder exercises in a pool under water is that it is easier to work full range of motion because the resistance is constant. It is also great because the baseball player or pitcher is forced to set their scaps because there is no weight pulling them forward only resistance on the back side.

Other exercises that a baseball player or pitcher can do in the pool besides swimming is cardio. Doing high knees, butt kicks, side shuffles, backwards runs, power skips, are just a few examples of what a baseball player or pitcher can do for some cardio exercises in the pool besides swimming. These are great exercises because the water resistance will really make it difficult and you’ll be amazed at how tired you’ll get from doing only a few reps of each.

With that being said, swimming, doing the shoulder routine, or the cardio exercises in the pool on the day of or before a game is not good. In fact, swimming and the other activities mentioned above should be put together more as an off season program, rather than trying to mix it in during the season.

One exercise that I forgot to mention before is swinging a bat under the water. Some argue that this is not a good exercise for baseball players because you are trainer slow twitch muscles and therefore not gaining any bat speed. This is true and you won’t gain any bat speed from doing this exercise under water, but I do think that there are some benefits of it. You see, the water provides resistance, which is great for strengthening your forearms and core through your swing path. Finding consistent resistance through your swing path is hard to do, unless you are under water that is. Again, this will not increase your bat speed, but used in moderation, it can help build the forearm, core, and stability strength through a baseball players swing path, which is not a bad thing.

Another thing that you may not even be thinking of when talking about whether swimming is good for baseball players or pitchers is what the water can do to your skin and fingers. Pool water can soften the callus on the throwing fingers which could change the way a baseball player or pitcher throws the ball. If the callus gets too soft, chances of a blister increases, and we all know what it is like throwing with a blister on our finger. So, that’s just another thing to think about when determining if swimming or any kind of underwater pool activities are good for baseball players or pitchers.