Author Archives: BTM

TRX for Baseball

Many athletes are beginning to include more bodyweight training into their strength and conditioning programs. Baseball players are no exception, and the TRX Suspension Trainer is one of the tools baseball players and strength coaches are using to incorporate bodyweight training.

Baseball is a sport that requires strength, mobility, and the ability to rotate powerfully. Baseball players definitely need to lift heavy weights during the off-season, but utilizing a piece of equipment like the TRX can help incorporate bodyweight exercises as well. Some of the TRX movements used by baseball players can also help reduce the risk of injury.

Depending on the time of year (off-season, in-season, pre-season), the type of athlete, or the training program itself, a baseball training program can include various TRX exercises. In some rare cases, baseball players can even perform an entire baseball workout with just the TRX.

Portability

The TRX is lightweight, portable, and easy to set up. It also fits into its own carrying bag, so ballplayers who own one can take it with them anywhere. This gives ballplayers the ability to maximize their training time with full body, efficient workouts wherever they are – in the gym, on the field, or even when on the road for those travel teams, college players, and pro athletes.

Versatility

Whatever level of the game you play, the TRX can adapt for any level of baseball fitness. Baseball players can train in three planes of motion with the TRX, allowing various muscle groups to work together to build muscle strength and core stability – not to mention flexibility and balance.

There are literally hundreds of exercises that can be performed on the TRX. Once younger athletes learn and master the more basic movements, they can try more advanced movements or combine different TRX exercises to create challenging movements that can be included in a baseball training program. For baseball players, the greatest benefit of the TRX comes with incorporating mostly back, core, and posterior chain exercises.

Put a TRX in Your Baseball Bag

Now don’t go thinking that the TRX is the end-all-be-all for baseball strength training. Baseball players still need to lift heavy weights, throw medicine balls, and push sleds. However, the TRX can be effectively included in a well-designed baseball training program. To learn more about the TRX and how it can benefit you, check out the TRX Training website.

Strengthening the Core for Baseball

Core training for baseball has come a long way from situps and crunches. In today’s world of baseball strength and conditioning, strength coaches teach their athletes that the core is the center of power. We are not just talking about the abs here. When discussing the core, you need to think about the hips, abs, obliques, low back, and even the scapular area. Some ballplayers have trouble relating the athletic movements needed to hit, throw, and run with core exercises that can improve these attributes. Again, core training is more than just situps.

The Core as it Relates to Baseball

Most know that the core muscles help with rotating the body for swinging and throwing. However, another important function of the core involves power transfer. The legs generate the initial speed and power, but the core helps transfer that power from the legs through the torso and into the arms and hands. This is where bat speed is created for hitters and where arm speed and velocity is generated for pitchers. Needless to say, if you have a weak core, you will not be able to effectively transfer power created by your legs and apply it to your baseball-specific skills.

As we mentioned before, situps are a thing of the past for ballplayers looking to strengthen their core. Instead, baseball players should incorporate movements that involve rotation, flexion, and lateral flexion to enhance the similar movements we see in hitting and pitching.

You need to be selective with these exercises, though, as you do not want to cause overuse injuries to the core muscles that also stabilize and protect the spine. To strengthen the core stabilizers, you can perform anti-rotation, anti-lateral flexion, and anti-extension movements.

3 Sample Baseball Core Exercises

Whether reinforcing on-field movements or stabilizing to protect against injury, baseball core training can use medicine balls, cables, power bands, or just the athlete’s body weight. Let’s take a look at 3 sample baseball core exercises that you can begin using in your strength and conditioning program today.

Pallof Press

Split Stance Medicine Ball Rotational Throw

Body Saw

Core Power for Baseball

If you are looking for more ways to help create a stronger core, check out Core Power for Baseball. With this program you’ll learn core training and baseball training exercises designed to drastically improve your throwing power and bat speed. This program includes videos detailing every exercise with progressions so all levels of athletes can perform the designed baseball workouts. Check it out today!

Good luck!

Forearm Strength for Baseball

Strong hands, wrists, and forearms can make a huge impact for baseball players. Whether hitting, fielding, or throwing, forearm strength and grip strength are involved in nearly every part of the game. While forearm strength is an afterthought to many coaches and players, think about this for a moment. Baseball speed and power begins with the legs. The core, hips, and trunk help to transfer the strength and power from the legs up through the ballplayer’s body and into his arms and hands. Obviously, the hands hold the bat for hitting, the ball for throwing, and the glove for catching. This is where you see that baseball power being unleashed. So at this point, if the ballplayer is weak at the elbow, wrist, or hands, then he is losing some of the power that was so effectively started by his lower half.

We don’t want all that power losing steam right when it means the most. So, ballplayers need to dedicate some portion of their baseball training to forearm strength and grip work. Training the lower arm (everything from the elbow down through the fingers) will also help in protecting the elbow, wrist, and hands against injury.

Ultimate Forearm Training for Baseball

There are many exercises and methods for training grip strength. While consistency is always important in a strength and conditioning program, varying the types of exercises performed can have a positive impact on your success as well. When incorporated into an overall baseball strength training program, forearm and grip exercises are often completed near the end of a training session. Depending on your level of strength and the amount of time it takes you to recover, some grip training exercises can be done 2-4 times a week. Movements that are designed more as pre-hab exercises (injury prevention) should be done nearly every day.

According to Jedd Johnson, the wrists and forearms need to be worked from all directions to develop the most size and strength. Jedd is the creator and author of Ultimate Forearm Training for Baseball. It’s safe to say he’s knows a thing or two about grip strength.

When it comes to training the hands and forearms, most baseball players opt for the wrist roller, rice buckets, and barbell wrist curls. But there are literally hundreds of exercises that can be done to enhance the strength and power of the forearms and hands. Depending on your needs and goals, ballplayers can incorporate certain exercises for bat speed, finger pressure on the ball for pitching, or recovery and injury prevention. A solid forearm training program can also help with your fielding ability, specifically catchers, whose hands get beat up on a regular basis behind the plate.

With so much unlocked performance potential in the hands and forearms, it’s time to stop skipping this aspect of your training and dedicate a portion of your strength and conditioning program to grip training. Make sure you get your copy of Jedd’s Ultimate Forearm Training for Baseball and begin bulletproofing your elbows, forearms, wrists, hands, and fingers today.

Run a Faster 60 Yard Dash Today

Photo by Charlie Neibergall/AP

Sprinting speed is a priceless attribute to have on the baseball diamond. Speed is so important to baseball scouts and coaches that the 60-yard dash is the first thing evaluated at every showcase and tryout. The “60” can give coaches and scouts a solid idea of a player’s home to first speed, base stealing ability, and running speed from second base to home on scoring plays.

Most tryouts give players two attempts at the 60-yard dash, often running two players at a time. Run a time under seven seconds and coaches will take note. Over seven seconds? Then you’ve got work to do.

So how can you stand out by running a fast 60-yard dash?

Running Technique

One of the first things you can work on is your running form and technique. Better technique translates into more efficient sprinting. And when you are more efficient, you waste less effort and energy to accomplish your task. Here are two key elements in having better sprinting technique.

Arm Swing – Your arms should be bent at the elbow roughly 90 degrees. As you sprint, your arms should move from the shoulder joint and in a straight forward and backward motion keeping the elbows tucked close to the body. Any lateral movement with the arms can cause trunk rotation and will only serve to waste energy and make you less efficient in sprinting straight ahead. As your arm moves forward, think of driving your hand past your hip and up to face level. When your arm moves backward, pretend your hand is the head of a hammer and you are driving a nail down into the ground. Straight forward, straight back.
Knee Drive – Many ballplayers think they need to take short quick steps. Unfortunately, they just end up taking a lot of steps and do not cover much ground. Aggressive knee drive forward (not upward) elongates stride length will help you gain more ground with each step. This will also allow the athlete to apply more power to the ground at foot strike, propelling him forward.

Strength Training for Speed

While running mechanics are a big part of running faster, having a solid strength program can help you build muscle and power that will also translate to speed.

There are many ways to incorporate strength training into a baseball training program, but to really focus on developing speed, baseball players need to perform plyometric exercises and lift heavy.

Plyometric exercises can help train muscles to fire quickly and explosively. Ballplayers can perform 2-3 plyometric movements per training session, 2-4 times per week. Reps are usually kept relatively low to focus on power output and good form.

Examples of plyometric exercises include:

Jump Rope
Box Jumps
Squat Jumps
Broad Jumps
Single Leg Bounds (linear and lateral)

When it comes to lifting heavy, baseball players should incorporate squat variations and deadlifts, as well as single leg lifts such as lunges and step-ups. With heavy weight, you should be performing 3-6 sets of 1-5 reps for squats and deadlifts. For exercises such as lunges and step-ups, stick to the 5-8 rep range. Strong hamstrings are also a must and can be strengthened by incorporating RDL’s and glute/ham raises.

Conditioning Drills for Improving Speed

Finally, baseball conditioning is another way to work on speed development. Long distance running will not help you in your pursuit of speed. There is no baseball-specific value in running long distances. Remember, recording a fast 60-yard dash time is about being fast and explosive, not slow and steady. You can check out these three conditioning drills that are better than running poles, and remember to focus on arm swing and knee drive.

60-Yard Dash Secrets

These are only a few tips to help you in pursuit of a faster 60-yard dash time. If you are looking for more ways to help shave a few ticks off your 60, check out 60-Yard Dash Secrets. With this program you’ll learn how to adjust your steal-start technique for improved quickness, why the 60-yard dash is different than other speed tests, how to manipulate the variables in your favor, and how to improve your running mechanics even more for better 60 times, improved base stealing ability, and a faster home to first time.