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Should i lift weights if i want to pitch?

Ok so im doing offseason baseball workouts, i usaully pitch with my pitching target solo at the field about every 4 days in a real game situation. But i want to increase my pitch speed, and tighten up a few screws on my pitching really, but mostly just increasing the velocity, but i like to weightlift, so does weightlifting slow me down? or how many times a week should i weightlift+number of reps? or just leave benchpressing alone.

I'd pitch more if I were you, try to get at least 2 (and try for 3) pitching sessions (100% intensity while videotaping with the goal to improve), as pitching is a two-phase motor skill.

Out of 7 days, it's as many (I'd say at least 2, try for 3) as you can. The Japanese throw 100+ pitch bullpens, Korean youths pitch over 200. They're able to do that in games as well.

I'd recommend doing it on non-lifting days (IE. if you work out mon/wed/fri, I'd throw tue/thur/sat). It depends on the individual, it's what's known as the Principle of Individuality. Some people need 48 hours (IE. Throw on Tuesday at 6 PM, Thursday at 6 PM would be 48 hours), while some need 72 hours. Some can throw back to back. It depends on how you're feeling. I can't tell you, only you know.

I will give you some advice. Do you stretch before you play baseball/pitch/work out?

"Stretching reduces the strength-endurance capability of a pitcher (Kokkonen, Nelson, & Arnall, 2001).
Excessive stretching in warm-ups inhibits strength performance (Kokkonen & Nelson, 1996) and force production (Behm, Button, & Butt, 2001; Evetovich, Nauman, Conley, & Todd, 2003; Fry, McLellan, Weiss, & Rosato, 2003).
Stretching routines should be moderate to minimal and cease at least one hour before the game (Fowles & Sale, 1997).
Stretching reduces throwing velocity (Noffal, Knudson, & Brown, 2004).
Stretching does not prevent injuries (Herbert & Gabriel, 2002; Wilkinson & Williams, 2003).
Some researchers have said that no stretching should be performed at all before explosive activities (Young & Behm, 2003)."

Not only in pitchers mind you, it decreases speed, power, and force production. In exercises, in sprints, etc...

"When muscles are stretched beyond natural voluntary ranges of motion, the muscles and tendons are stretched unnaturally. Excessive stretching damages tissues and promotes inflammation" (Yang, Im, & Wang, 2005). Continual stretching can lead to "lengthened" muscles. That condition leads to two performance altering states.

1) The range of movement of the joint about which the lengthened muscles gird is increased. That results in the range of effective contraction of the muscles being altered. Maximum muscle performance will have to occur in a different range of motion to the original natural range. IF a lengthened muscle is required still to perform in the orginal natural range, then performance in that range will be reduced because of the extra stretch. Maximally lenghtened muscles about a joint are associated often with a loosening of the joint. Increased leaxity can expose the joint to increased injury through collisions or simply through maximum efforts. Intra-joint movements can also stimulate aggravations to other structural tissues as well as bony structures.

2) If continued for a long time, muscles, tendons, etc... will start to loose some of their elastic properties, which would further decrease power and speed.

What you want to do is a dynamic warm up:

High knees
Butt kickers
Side shuffles (feet nearly touch in between each rep)
Backwards running
Lunges (get low)
Karaokes
Arm Swing, circles
Running, sprints
Push ups

Or, if you live close enough, take a 10 minute hot shower. The goal is to raise the body temperature 1 - 1 1/2ºC, enough where a light sweat breaks out on the back of your hands, upper lip, and forehead.

For exercises, all baseball training should be based around large compound ground-based activities.
Ground-based activities is where your feet are in contact with the floor at some point in the exercise and you are also in an upright position at some point as well.

Examples: squats, deadlifts, cleans, snatches, military press, push press, windmill, home run press, lunges, box jumps, etc.
All workouts should revolve around variations of - and please note there are 20-80 variations of - the following...

Squat (or quad dominant exercises)
Deadlift (or hip dominant)
Push Press (vertical press)
Power Clean and Power Snatch (Olympic Lifts)
Pullups (Vertical Pull)
Pushups/DB bench (horizontal press)
Rows (horizontal pull)

Typically we will use a weight between 45-65% of a 1 rep max aimed an optimal bar speed and controlled, not slow and controlled. In order to gain fast-twitch a muscle must be exposed to that type of recruitment.

To create fast-twitch muscles. You have to find the right balance between weight on the bar and bar speed. Too heavy a weight and bar speed is very slow. Too light a weight and not enough resistance. The key is developing the ability to generate force, which happens using a weight between 45-65% of a 1 rep max.

I keep my athletes in the 2-5 rep range at an intensity of 45-65% for major lifts to foucs on speed strength and force production. These are two of the most critical aspects of strength for the baseball player.

Also, keep in mind that proper post-workout nutrition helps speed recovery so you maximize your training sessions and are fresher for the next one.

The general rule of thumb is a 2-1 carb to protein ratio within 30 minutes following your training session.

This can come in the form of a drink or whole food, but since most people do not like to eat immediately after their workout and are usually away from home when training, the drink is easiest way to get these nutrients.

In addition, the drink is absorbed by the body quicker than most foods.

An example of a workout is:

Monday:
Front Squat
Dumbell Shoulder Press
Pull Ups
Dumbbell bench
Core stuff

Tuesday:
Pitching and Running

Wednesday:
Power Cleans
Jumps Squats
Jump Shrugs
Bent Over Row
Core Stuff

Thurday:
Pitching and Running

Friday:
Squats
Deadlift
Chin-ups
Reverse Flyes
Core Stuff

And for pitching, sprints are great. You'll have to work the anaerobic system the most. I'd suggest doing ultra-short interval training.

3 sets of 5 repetitions of running 20 meters at 100% intensity, with a 25 second break inbetween each rep (so no lactic acid builds up), and after every set, walk for 2 minutes.

Then 4 sets of 5 reps of running 10 meters at 100% intensity, with a 20 second break inbetween each rep, and jog 2 minutes between sets.

Finally, 2 sets of 10 reps of running 10 meters at 100% intensity with a 15 second break inbetween each rep, and jog 2 minutes between each set.

If your performance begins to deteriorate, the set should cease and the two-minute break should begin.

And you should also do some aerobic fitness as well (ie. running long distances, try to run continuously for 60 minutes. Start off at first at a pace quicker than a walk, and do that for 60 minutes, then keep increasing the speed as the weeks go by), as it helps in quicker recovery from and increases the capacity to perform skill trials at practices, as well as increases mental alertness and tolerance to heat.

Now, to work on increasing velocity (I know, this is getting long right? Heh, but this will definitely help you).

For velocity, the answer is simple, really, but feared by quite a few coaches and pitching instructors. Why? Because many teach what they have been taught, not necessarily what has been scientifically proven.

To increase velocity, a great way to do it is to increase your speed of movement and your momentum.

From 31.5 of The Science and Art of Baseball Pitching: "As has been pointed out earlier, once the arm is cocked to throw, the arm movement propelling the ball is not powered by muscular contraction (Jobe, Tibone, Perry, & Moynes, 1983). Propulsion comes from elastic energy stored in the appropriate structures. As a tangential explanation, this is why weight training of any form will not increase arm throwing velocity; because arm-throw velocity is not caused by the muscular movements trained by using weights. Finally, after the ball release when the arm segments have to slow down to prevent injury, high levels of muscular contractions take place to slow the join movements and absorb the kinetic energy in the high-velocity limb movement.

A basic rule in the stretch-shortening (elastic energy) cycle is, the faster the structures about a joint are put on stretch, the faster will be the ensuing release movement. If one wanted to jump high from a standing position, a quick leg dip will result in a higher jump than would a slow dip. The quicker a movement is, the greater is the amount of kinetic energy it forms. The greater the amount of kinetic energy, the greater is the amount of elastic energy that can be developed."

Now just incase I lost you there, it's saying the quicker you move (which shows up in stride length), with good momentum and no hesitation, the faster you'll throw.

As soon as you lift your leg (the one closest to the plate) up, make a strong lunge, push or leg drive into a longer stride. (You want to move leading with your front hip)

The main focus is to move your body faster toward the plate, which will equate into a longer stride. I suggest looking at this video of Sandy Koufax. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm8oHYRS6hA
No hesitation in his delivery, a stride length of what looks to be close to his height if not even further out. It was the same with Nolan Ryan as well. It will put your body in a better position to throw the ball, thus less chance for injury and better control.
Also, look at 0:31 and 0:43 of that video. Do you see him taking a step directly back? That adds more momentum because you're putting your body at a greater distance from the plate. More momentum = more velocity.
Also

http://youtube.com/watch?v=hAviGQNvJrE

87 MPH with a 133% stride length. Talk about speed of movement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77TE0xvG8Ds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZF8VUvumXw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4WuWu1scBY

Look at his speed of movement. He's not a huge weightlifter, but he moves explosively. 92 MPH. That is speed of movement and momentum right there. That is how you increase your velocity the most.

From 28.6 of The Science and Art of Baseball Pitching: "Skill learning is determined by performing skill repititons and obtaining feedback (meaning, the catcher asked for a fastball low and away. Was it there?) in the absence of fatigue.

For skill learning to occur, learning has to take place in blocks so that feedback from one trial can be used to modify the next trial. That feedback gradually causes good elements to be retained and poor elements to be altered. The essential feature of learning is that the proximity of trials allows the learning benefits (the feedback) from one trial to transfer to the next. However, when other activities intervene between repititions of a skill, the benefits of feedback are disrupted. This interference means that what is experienced in one trial quickly becomes masked by the intervening unrelated activities. Consequently, sporadic trials wth unrelated trials in between do not foster learning. This is a major reason for skill development not being an artifact of a game experience. A block of repititions of the same skill should promote learning and improvement.

Fatigue is the other main feature that must be considered when planning or conducting skill development in a training session. Fatigue impedes learning. Skills and tactical elements are learned faster and retained better when learning occurs in non-fatigued states. All learning should precede (be before) any occurrence of fatigue in a training session... it has been shown that techniques and tactics learned in non-fatigued states produce better performances in fatigued states than do skills that have been learned in the persence of fatigue (Barnett, Ross, Schmidt, & Todd, 1973; Williams, McEwan, Watkins, Gillespie, & Boyd, 1979). The phsiology of learning supports this finding. The formation of neuromuscular patterns is inhibited by increases in acidity of the supporting physiological environment. Thus, when lactic acid accrues (increases) because of physical fatigue, the potential for learning is reduced. The other and more common complication of fatigue involvese neuromuscular patterns. Each skill trial lays down catecholamines at the nerve synapses in the evoked neuromuscular pattern. On the next trial, nerve impulses find it easier to follow the "chemical trail" than when there was none. That is why specific skill warm-ups and mental imagery work. They invoke the appropriate chemicals pattern of a movement and make it easier to perform the skill reliability.
However, if each skill trial is varied, the catecholamines are laid down in several patterns, some of which might be better than others. In time, the body becomes confused as to which neuromuscular pattern should be invoked because there are so many possible pathways to be followed." Once that happens, you'll want to stop and rest for awhile, if not the rest of the day, until the chemical status surrounding the nerves return to normal.

*End scientific stuff. Begin: what I say*

What all that above explained is if you want to get better (velocity, control, able to throw more pitches), you're going to have to throw in blocked sets - with rest in between - so as not to fatigue, and to also go over what you need to work on during the next block in order to improve.

You'll want to throw 5-6 of the same pitch in the same location (and it'd be nice if you had someone watch you to offer advice, or what would be better is videotaping, so you can see yourself what you need to fix), then take about 1 1/2 to 2 minute break, then do this again.
Keep record of how many times you hit the desired location, and always try to become better than the pitch before.

This will all help you improve. The more you pitch (and with good feedback so you know what to do to improve), the better you'll become.

If you're expected to throw 100 pitches in a game, you better be able to do it in practice. If you don't, you won't be fit to pitch those 100 pitches. That's where people hit the so called "wall", their control goes south, their velocity might lower, and their chance for injury (because your body might not be using the same motion because of fatigue) increases. That's why you should build up your bullpen pitches higher and higher (not right away, but as I said, build up the number of pitches gradually).

As your mechanics are improved, and your skill improves, then start pitching both in non-fatigued and fatigued states. "Arnett, DeLuccia, and Gilmartien (2000) showed that males and not females benefit from practicing in fatigued conditions. Performance in fatigued situations improved after condition-specific practice. A coach must be wary not to practice only in fatigued states but to balance the two experiences and to err on the side of too little rather than too much fatigued practice."

And finally (this isn't to you, but to the answerers out there)...

STOP RECOMMENDING LONG-TOSS! IT. DOES. NOT. WORK.
For the millionth time, READ THIS AND GET IT THROUGH YOUR HEADS!

Luttgens and Hamilton (1997), in their book on kinseiology about The Specificity of Neuromuscular Patterns: "Skillful and efficent performance in a particular technique can be developed only by practice of that technique. Only in this way can the necessary adjustments in the neuromuscular mechanism be made to ensure a well-coordinated movement. (p. 507).

That supports that if you want to get better at pitching, you do it from 100% intensity while being videotaped on the mound so you can see what you're doing wrong and make the necessary corrections. You do not go out and do long-toss, which doesn't replicate the pitching motion 100% intensity off the mound.

From 8.2 of The Science and Art of Baseball Pitching: "Total actions (e.g., those to be used in a competitive setting [ie. pitching]) need to be practiced. The partial or isolated training of movement segments (e.g., long-toss, resistance training) would not replicate the unit function in the total action [it's not the same as pitching from the mound]. Thus, once techniques (total response patterns) are being refined, partial practices will serve no purpose other than to learn another movement. There should be no intergration of the partial practice movement into the total response movement once an individual-determined level of skill competency is reached. The only way a highly skilled pitcher can improve his pitching, is to practice pitching. No axuiliary training activities will contribute to skill enhancement once the skill has achieved a resonable level of proficiency."

The specificity of movement patterns and control is a scientifically established principle of human exercise. There has been no wavering on this scientifically validated phenomenon over the past century, although minor theoretical incursions have been attempted. The training of the pitching skill and its variants has to be specific and hole.

The key is that baseball pitching is overwhelmingly a skilled acitivty. Every long-toss throw replaces a throw that could be made from the mound while working on perfecting better mechanics, stimulating game conditions, and mentally focusing and rehearsing the very refined and difficult skill of hitting the glove with all pitches.

Strength in the throwing shoulder is equal with the strength in the non-throwing shoulder (Sirota, Malanga, Eischen, & Laskowski, 1997). Ellenbecker and Mattalino (1997) also showed there were no differences between both shoulders in isokinetic work in professional pitchers. Strength did not differentiate the throwing arm and non-throwing arm and therefore, is an element that is irrelevant for pitching. It shows that strength in the throwing shoulder is not that important (for velocity) because it is no different to the non-throwing shoulder.