If you want to be a successful baseball player you need:
1. ACCELERATION when sprinting to first base or getting a jump on a ball in the gap
2. STRENGTH when swinging the bat, throwing "gas," or firing a ball from deep in the hole
3. POWER when driving a ball in the gap and exploding off the mound in the late innings
4. STABILITY to control ALL of these movements
** You need even more STABILITY in the shoulder if you’re a pitcher.
Aside from the obvious ones I stated above, listed below are my top five reasons why it is a necessity that baseball players become involved with an off-season strength training program.
1. Weaknesses
"What’s your bench bro???" This is probably one of the most frequently asked questions with athletes when they step into a "gym" or training facility. Sad to say, how much someone can bench press has very little carry over to sport performance other than powerlifting. Walk into any gym in town and watch who spends the most time on their back pressing weight. You guessed it! The middle and high school boys!
Take a step back and identify your weaknesses or areas that need improvement. Is it your bat speed? Is it the time it takes you to sprint to first base? Or is it that you have been dealing with specific painful areas such as the shoulder, elbow or hip while in season?
Figuring out where you can make the biggest improvement for next season will only make you that much better and keep you off the injured reserved list. Remember, you’re only as strong as your weakest link. Having an intervention with yourself, your coach and/or your strength coach is one of the most important first steps before beginning an offseason program.
2. Your Core
When you hear everyone talk about training your core, what’s the first exercise that comes to mind? A million sit-ups? That’s typically the #1 answer received. Unless you’re looking for increased disc pressure and zero improvement in rotational core strength and stability, then go ahead and do your million sit-ups.
Believe it or not, your core muscles are built to transfer energy from your lower body to your upper body. Coming up in a future post we will go into greater detail on the importance your core development has on throwing and hitting power. Understand this concept for now. When looking at baseball players, their entire sport is built around generating power through rotation. Hitting and throwing are both major repetitive rotational movements. All the energy generated in these motions begins at the ground. The more stable your core the more energy gets transferred to the upper extremities, which equals more power (velocity in arm and bat speed).
The key when looking at the best baseball players is that they are all in sync from the ground through their legs, their core and all the way to their upper extremities.
Plank and bridge variations along with anti-rotation holds and presses are among the top core activation exercises.
3. Strengthening and Maintaining a Healthy Rotator Cuff
The words baseball throwing and rotator cuff (RC) go hand in hand. However, many players and coaches lack understanding of RC function let alone how to optimally train it. We will cover this topic in greater detail in another post but for now here are the basics:
Envision this: A pitcher begins his wind up and starts his controlled fall to the mound. As the front foot hits the ground, the throwing arm makes it's approach to the release point and in a fraction of a second a 98mph fast ball explodes out of his hand. The arm didn't create the power. It was simply the end of the bull-whip. As a result the shoulder has to internally rotate at approximately 7,000°/s during the acceleration phase (just prior to ball release). This is not only one of the most biomechanicaly dangerous movements in sports, it's the fastest motion in all of sports.
The rotator cuff muscles are too small to be responsible to decelerate the arm (slowing down the arm after ball release) by themselves. Other physical components such as hip internal rotation thoracic rotation play a roll in assisting the deceleration phase. Aside from these other components, keeping the rotator cuff strong, stable and maintaing consistent ranges of internal and external rotation throughout a season can be very complex. We will discuss what to look for and how to manage this in an upcoming post.
4. Soft Tissue Restoration
Soft tissue is recognized as tissue that connects, supports or surrounds other structures and organs of the body. These tissues include muscle, fascia, tendons and ligaments. When a muscle becomes damaged it also becomes dense or thick with inflammation. To relieve the density of these damaged tissues, certain forms of self-myofascial release are necessary including foam rolling and massage. Performing these techniques daily will help players recover faster, maintain better overall muscle tissue quality and decrease the risk of injury.
Some soft tissue restoration techniques we use at CSF are below:
5. Be A Better Athlete
With the days of youth sport specialization upon us, younger athletes are focusing on just one sport at too early of an age. The result is a decrease in overall athleticism and overuse injuries. The danger with baseball is that it's primarily a static sport. With the focus on repetitive, single-direction, rotational patterns that involve throwing and hitting, asymmetrical muscular imbalances can develop. Several other athletic attributes such as foot speed and agility can be suppressed.
If you look at the rosters of most collegiate and pro teams, many of the players were multi-sport athletes throughout high school. Don't kid your self, college and pro-scouts are looking for good baseball talent. But what they're really focusing on is your overall athleticism. They want athletes!! Can you run fast, be agile, can you move, are you strong, etc. If you can do all the above and bring some baseball talent, you will be a complete player, reduce your chances for injury and attract some attention.
Start your preparation now and get involved in a structured and supervised off-season strength and conditioning program. Combine this with continued refinement of your baseball skills and this will not only help you with your baseball development but with your overall athletic development as well. This could be one of the most important decisions you will make in your career.
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