Baseball Training Methods: Articles

Off-Season Baseball Training Info You Need to Read

It’s now the baseball off-season for most levels of baseball – youth, high school, college, and minor league ball. If you are like most ballplayers, you are already thinking about next season and what you need to do over the course of the next 5-6 months to make it the best season of your career. At Baseball Training Methods, we seek out the best information possible in regards to baseball strength and conditioning so that you don’t have to. Below are three articles you should read as you begin your off-season baseball training.

How to Get the Most Out of Your Baseball Offseason Training – There are a few things you need to do in order to set a great foundation for the start of your off-season baseball training program. In this article, Mike Reinold will break down issues you should address prior to starting your off-season strength and conditioning including why you should take time off from throwing, why regeneration is important, and a better approach to rehabilitating lingering injuries.

To Play or Not to Play Multiple Sports? – Should young ballplayers play multiple sports or just baseball? Can playing multiple sports help your development as a baseball player and athlete? In this article over on the Full Windup website, Phil Tognetti looks at the benefits of playing multiple sports throughout the year, and if you only play baseball, what you need to be doing in the off-season to maximize your athleticism and lower the risk of injury.

The Biggest Mistake Pro Baseball Players Make? – While some ballplayers are eager to get right back into the gym when the season ends, in reality, many high school, college, and pro guys look to the fall season as a time to take off for an extended period. In this article, Eric Cressey makes the case for getting back in the gym as soon as possible. It doesn’t necessarily mean you need to lift super heavy and condition until you puke, but at least start the ball rolling on your strength training and your recovery process from the previous season.

Train Your Core with Anti-Rotation Exercises

When it comes to core training for baseball, incorporating explosive medicine ball exercises is a great way to work on rotational power that can translate to greater power at the plate and better pitching velocity off the mound.

However, baseball players need to train for stability through the core as well. Lack of stability through the pelvis, hips, and low back can lead to unwanted issues with the lower back and legs. And when problems arise in these areas, it can cause a lot of frustration for baseball players.

One of the best ways to incorporate core stability training is with anti-rotation exercises. Let’s take a look at a few examples that you can include in your next training session.

Quadruped Opposites

Quadruped opposites challenge balance and coordination while requiring good rotational stability of the core to maintain proper form. It is great for athletes beginning a training program or for more advanced trainees to include in a pre-hab routine.

Stability Ball Rollout

The stability ball rollout requires excellent control of the hips and lumbar spine. Many athletes will find that their low back wants to sag toward the floor or that their hips want to rotate. Stay tight through your middle throughout the movement as you would if you were holding a plank.

High Plank with Shoulder Taps

With High Plank Shoulder Taps, you want to maintain a neutral spine while resisting rotation and lumbar extension. As you lift each hand to touch your shoulder, the intensity of the plank will increase, forcing you to work harder to prevent any rotation and maintain the plank position.

Wide Stance Anti-Rotation Chop

The wide stance anti-rotation chop is definitely a more advanced exercise. You’ll need to have a good understanding of body awareness and be able to control various segments of your body separately. Be sure to get those feet extra wide to challenge you even more, keep your hips and torso locked down, and only move the arms through the movement while preventing any rotation through your middle.

Stability Equals Strength

There is no doubt that baseball players definitely need core power to hit and throw harder. But, it is core stability which can help balance out your training with all of those rotational reps you get from swinging a bat, throwing a baseball, or even dominating your medicine ball exercises. Stability equals strength. And staying strong and injury-free keeps you on the diamond and enjoying the game of baseball.

Quick and Easy Guide to Whey Protein

Every athlete, parent, and coach wants to know what the best protein supplement for baseball players is. Let’s start by saying this: If an athlete cannot establish a healthy nutrition plan with his food choices, then there is no point in giving him any information regarding supplements. Supplements are an addition to a proper nutrition game plan. Athletes, just like anyone else, need to start with the basics and become super diligent in mastering the basics before looking into supplementing (adding to) their plan.

That being said, let’s not waste your time with information you do not need. Here’s a quick and easy guide to whey protein!

What to Look For in a Protein Supplement

When looking at protein supplements, you want to keep a few things in mind.

1. You want to look for 100% Whey Protein.

Whey is a byproduct of the cheese-making process and is a better form of protein than soy, egg, or casein when it comes to post-workout recovery.

There are different types of whey protein: whey concentrate and whey isolate are the two most commonly found in protein supplements.
- Whey concentrate is typically of lower quality and usually costs less.
- Whey isolate is typically higher quality protein and costs more.

2. Supplement companies often combine concentrate and isolate into a blend to keep the quality somewhat in the middle while keeping the cost reasonable.

You will need to check the ingredients on the label to see what type of protein is being used. Remember, ingredients listed first are of higher concentration than ingredients listed later.

3. Here are three of the best options we like for baseball players with links to each on Amazon so you can see what the labels look like. Each link is to the Chocolate flavor and 5 pound bag or container so you can compare:

Gold Standard 100% Whey — This is a blend of concentrate and isolate and is one of the most popular brands on the market. Lots of athletes use this brand and like it. This is the best cost to quality ratio.

Dymatize Nutrition ISO 100 Whey Protein — This is a pure whey isolate and very high quality. That is why it costs a bit more. If you can afford it, I would go this route as the protein quality is better than a blended version.

EAS 100% Whey Protein — This is another blend of concentrate and isolate, although it is a little lower in quality than the Gold Standard listed above. Some athletes choose this brand because it costs less and some say it is better tasting than the Gold Standard.

Big League Nutrition

If you are looking for a baseball nutrition plan that can be individualized for you, then you need to check out Big League Nutrition. Not only will this resource go more in depth regarding protein, carbohydrates, and fats, it will also help you learn how much of each nutrient you need based on your body type. Furthermore, you will learn how to time your eating around baseball games, tournaments, and workouts to maximize performance in the gym and on the field.

Are You Training or Just Lifting Weights?

Most high school ballplayers have a passion for the game and a desire to constantly improve. They want to win a State championship. They want to earn a college scholarship. However, very few have the resources to put in the work that is needed to succeed. They want the end result, but do not have the right leaders to guide them through the process of achieving it. That’s too bad, because they are missing out on valuable lessons that are learned during that process – hard work, commitment, and time management are just a few that come to mind.

High school baseball coaches should encourage this “process” of development and improvement. Some are better than others. This is true in any community. However, many high school baseball programs have apathetic leadership. Apathy is contagious and trickles down to the kids on the field. Maybe it’s not apathy. Maybe it’s just a lack of knowledge or coaches don’t know where to begin.

Passion and enthusiasm are also contagious, and young ballplayers thrive in environments where coaches and administrators challenge them to improve their athletic abilities not by just attending practices and games, but by creating and incorporating a solid strength & conditioning program.

Consider this, at the college and professional levels, there is a lot of money to be earned for teams and schools that win. Teams and players that win sell more tickets, sell more merchandise, and sign better endorsement deals than their counterparts who do not win. Millions and millions of dollars are invested in strength & conditioning professionals and high-tech facilities so that “investments” (athletes) are physically prepared to perform at the highest levels and stay healthy. Physically under-prepared athletes and those that are injured have a much more difficult time winning than those that have trained in a quality strength & conditioning program.

I truly believe high school baseball coaches know the value of strength & conditioning, but do not have the time, resources, or knowledge to create something for their teams and players. Most coaches would rather spend all of their time in practice working on fundamentals or taking more batting practice. Or, they add game upon game to a schedule that only seeks to hit the maximum limit allowed by state high school rules. Obviously, you cannot improve your game without putting time in on the diamond, but 14-18 year old kids only have so much energy and focus before hours and hours of practices and games becomes counterproductive. This is where the investment in a strength & conditioning program can help.

Having a Weight Room is Not a Program

High school coaches really cannot go wrong by establishing a year-round strength & conditioning program. It can only help their players. And at the end of the day, having better players usually equals more wins. What coach doesn’t want to win more? Unfortunately, most high school athletic departments do not employ a full-time strength & conditioning professional or have a strength & conditioning program.

Do not confuse having a weight room or “weights coach” with having a program.

Often times, the school’s football or wrestling coach runs the weight room, so other coaches who are looking for a strength program turn to them for help. But are those coaches qualified to run a strength & conditioning program? Most strength & conditioning professionals don’t claim that they know how to coach football or wrestling or baseball. Why do the coaches of those sports insist that they can run a strength & conditioning program?

The problem lies in the thought process. Most coaches were once athletes themselves. As athletes, they lifted weights and so they think they can implement a program for their kids. But, a well-organized strength and conditioning program involves more that just lifting weights. As discussed before, a baseball training program should incorporate flexibility, mobility, soft tissue work, nutrition, and use conditioning as way to boost performance not as a form of punishment. Baseball players should not train like football players or basketball players. Each baseball player should have his own program that is specifically designed for him. A lot of coaches think you can train all athletes alike. While there are a lot of similarities, it’s important to make specific adjustments based on the sport, and even more so based on the individual athlete.

So, we know a strength and conditioning program is absolutely essential for high school athletes to perform at a higher level. But, a solid program also helps athletes stay healthy in the process. Resistance training is the basis for modern physical therapy, which also incorporates mobility work, stabilization exercises, flexibility, and other manual techniques to return injured athletes back to the field of competition. Again, it’s not just about lifting weights. If physical therapists utilize similar approaches to help injured athletes, what does that say about the indirect benefits of a strength & conditioning program to keep non-injured athletes healthy?

High school baseball coaches enjoy coaching and want to win. But, many are not willing to admit that their programs are incomplete. It’s sad, because the players are the ones who miss out. The job of a strength & conditioning professional is to complement the coaching they provide to their athletes. Strength coaches do not want to teach your baseball team how to execute a hit and run, or how to set up a double cut on a ball hit in the gap. Strength coaches want to make your ballplayers stronger, faster, and more “bullet-proof” so that you can accomplish great things with them. High school coaches and athletic directors who have a program in place with a knowledgeable strength & conditioning professional will always outperform the competition. If you are a baseball coach or athletic director, do yourself and your players a favor and get your kids involved in a year-round strength & conditioning program that is run by a knowledgeable professional. Neglecting this area of athletic development places limits on the very athletes you coach.

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If you are a high school baseball player or parent, please share this article with your high school baseball coach and tell him you want to get involved in a strength & conditioning program.