Latest Articles
Subscribe to our NewsletterWinter Workouts Help Spring Baseball
Carrying their bats and gloves, more and more baseball players are seen leaving the weight room, walking past the baseball diamond and heading to the track. Weight sleds, tires and rubber tracks awaitthe boys of summer for the kind of workouts typically reserved for those who make their living on another kind of field, the football field.
Coaches and baseball players are beginning to see that these non-traditional winter workouts, a mix of strength and endurance training, football cutting drills and some common baseball moves, make the athlete quicker, more prepared for spring training and better equipped to stay healthy for the season.
By focusing on the fitness of the feet, including strength and mobility, quickness and footwork you change the game of baseball by focusing on speed and fitness. Improving strength and mobility in your feet can help alleviate pain, boost athletic performance, and enhance your quality of life.
Sure, there’s work in the batting cages and on the field, but it’s all about building athleticism. If you can build athleticism, usually you can make adjustments more quickly. The more athletic you are, the more core stability you have, the more explosive you will be. It’s not baseball-specific, but all athleticism translates whether you’re in the outfield turning to track a ball or stealing a base.
Baseball players generally are not as big nor as strong as their football counterparts, so workouts shouldn’t typically be the same. However, a baseball player is going to do things to get stronger and more explosive while ensuring that they build their endurance for the season.
There are a handful of simple strength and mobility drills that baseball players can practice two to three times a week to improve their kinetic chain. 1) Dead Bug- this move teaches you how to stabilize your pelvis and spine while moving. 2) Hip Thrust – this exercise strengthens your gluteus maximus and hamstrings. 3) Banded Side-Step- this works your gluteus maximus and minimizes rotation of your thighs and ankles. 4) Seated Towel Pickup – strengthens your foot arch to help prevent pronation or arch collapse. 5) Single-Leg Balance on a foam pad – this exercise activates all the muscles in your legs and core while also strengthening your arch and all the intrinsic muscles of your feet.
In baseball, there is a lot of movement. Training for these movements the right way will help most stay healthy. Essentially, once players have been training for movements on a consistent daily basis, they will be ready for anything that happens on the baseball field.
Podcasting, Are You Listening?
Just like technology, the art of coaching baseball is staying up-to-date on information, and where you get your information is just as important. As many of us spend countless hours driving in our cars, podcasts are the up & coming go-to source to get some of that valuable information. The Youth Baseball Edge, Travel Ball Talk, and The Baseball Drive are a few of the top podcasts available.
With over 100 episodes, Rob Tong from The Youth Baseball Edge blog interviews experts in youth baseball and related fields as they share their practical actionable secrets for youth baseball success. He shares coaching tips, resources, drills, practice plans, strategies so that coaches can help develop more complete ballplayer and team. Whether you coach travel baseball, Little League/Ripken/Babe Ruth/Pony/USA baseball or just your local park league you can help develop a love and passion for the game in the kids you lead.
Rich Prado with Travel Ball Talk brings you conversations with coaches, owners and founders of the best travel baseball organizations. Topics include the current state of travel baseball, opportunities of improvement, recruiting, communication, technology and as many tips and tools as possible. The conversations are with coaches for coaches.
Tim Banos with Baseball Minds of Driveball Media host The Baseball Drive. It is a show for students of the game who are dedicated to providing a better baseball experience for their player(s) and explores current trends and topics throughout the game of baseball and how they might impact the next generation of athletes. They interview leading experts in the field with a focus on the growth of the game, both in development of the individual player, and in striving to increase overall participations rates coming from some of the games top baseball minds.
With the busy lives we lead, working full time jobs, and raising a family how we get our information is important and podcasts makes getting that information just a bit easier.
