MLB.com

By Christie Cowles/MLB.com

MLB.com caught up with Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling recently to ask him about tips for young pitchers on pregame warm-ups and postgame cool-downs.

MLB.com: How early do you arrive at the field?

Curt Schilling: I leave about five hours before the game starts.

MLB.com: How would you recommend young pitchers get ready for a game?

Schilling: I think the main thing is to get warm. Whether it be with some aerobic activity, or something to get your body warm before you stretch. Stretching is one of the most important things that I do now. Not any one [type of stretch], everybody's different. What you have to identify is where you're the least flexible and work on that the most.

MLB.com: Are there different things pitchers do on non-pitching days to work out?

Schilling: On the non-pitching days you find somebody -- we use trainers and strength coaches here -- on the days that we don't pitch, we work on different things. Whether it be strength training or flexibility or aerobic conditioning, that what the starters do the four [non-pitching] days -- that's what we do in between days we pitch.

MLB.com: And on pitching days you only focus on getting ready for the game?

Schilling: Yeah, getting ready for the game, getting stretched, getting warm and winning.

MLB.com: Do you focus on certain pitches when you're warming up?

Schilling: Throw them all -- I throw a fastball, curveball, slider and a split-finger fastball.

MLB.com: How many pitches would you recommend young pitchers throw to warm up?

Schilling: That depends on the person. You have to learn your body and understand what it takes. Everybody's different, there's no one way to do it right. Everybody has a different program that works for them, and the most important thing is talking to people that know, that have done it right -- finding out from those people what they did to do it right.

MLB.com: What do you do after the game to cool down?

Schilling: Depends on whether I win or lose. [laughs] Usually after a start I ice my arm and shoulder after a game. A lot of it depends on how I pitch, how I feel. The weather -- if I pitch in cold weather, I usually don't have as much stiffness as I do if I pitch in warm weather or vice versa after a game. It really depends, everybody's different -- there's no one right way to do it. The most important thing is to get to know your body and understand your body before anything else.

MLB.com: Why do pitchers ice their arm after they pitch?

Schilling: When you pitch, you break down your muscles and the tissue in your body and you bleed internally, it's normal. But what the ice does is, it slows that down and then your body starts to recover.

MLB.com: Do you have a favorite type of pitch?

Schilling: Strike one.

Christie Cowles is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.