Training a baseball player

[PHIL HERNON]

Any ideas? This kid is a freshman in High School.

 

[JAG]

Not sure how much help this is but

http://www.beabetterhitter.com/text/conditioning/strengthtraining/baseballstregthtraining.htm

and

**broken link removed**

 

[Marty44]

Baseball

You should focus on promoting flexibility. Speed and agility drills and eye/hand coordination exercises. It also depends a lot on what position he is focusing on. As a freshman, he probably isnt set in a certain position. If you could let me know what positions he plays I have breakdown of exercises for each type of position rather it be pitcher, catcher, outfield, middle infield etc...

 

[CrateBone]

Training in Baseball.

What position is he playing? If a pitcher, we used to do all sorts of lower back and leg workouts. High reps or coarse.

Alot of stretching as you want to maintain flexibility.

alot of Wrist curls as well. (this would be very benifitial to hitters for improving bat speed)

They also had us hold a dumbell in our hand and go through the pitching/throwing motion.

I loved doing this, however, once basball was over for me I was\am left with a very unsymetric back. My throwing side(left Lat.) is noticably larger. I've been trying to gain symetry for 5-6 yrs. now.

Basically, the daily workout would consist of circuit training with only 30-60sec. between sets moving between each exercise.(bench, shoulder press,rows, etc.) Then moving on to the more specialized exercises like mentioned above.

 

[PHIL HERNON]

He is a

Catcher.

 

[Mr Pickles]

catcher?

take care of his knees!! my boy is all messed up from catching, but he was overweight, very overweight

i'd say lower back, lower body strenght and flexibility... not sure about the rest

 

[Marty44]

Well, you're going to do the heavy weight training during the offseason..Here are some good exercises:

Legs- Dumbbell squats Lunges (w/wo dumbbells) Back- One arm dumbbell rows Stiff leg dumbbell deadlifts Chest- Incline dumbbell bench press Shoulders- Dumbbell lateral raise Biceps- Incline dumbbell curls Triceps- Dumbbell kickbacks Abdominals- Crunches (knees up) Reverse trunk twist (knees up)

The following should help out his bad speed/strength:

Use the cable pulley to simulate swinging the bat. Try to get him to simulate his own unique swing as much as possible.

For the wrist strength and grip needed to swing the bat effectively, there are several exercises. Wrist curls and its opposite movement, wrist extensions, both performed with dumbbells, help develop forearm, wrist and hand strength. squeezing hand rings, rubber balls or assorted grippers can also develop hand strength.

Focus more on the weight training during the offseason and just maintain during the season with flexibility exercises and cardio. Hope this helps

 

[btmagnus]

Also make sure that he is having fun and enjoying the game. That is most important. When he stops having fun, he might quit.
My brother was that way. He used to train with some former minor leaguers, and he was told that he had the talent to make it to the major leagues.
So, my father got into it and pushed him hard to be real good, to practice every day and work out. Soon enough after being pushed hard, he lost his desire to play and stopped having fun and quit.

 

[vitor]

My buddy barry from the giants told me Muscletech and cell tech work wonders for hitting

I would imagine lots of Squats, lunges, grip exercises,

 

[Conan21]

one thing that i experineced. I put on a decent amount of size and strenght in one off-season from baseball and i had a hard time throwing the baseball. Could not throw as well. always felt very tight in the chest/shoulder tie in.

but i was a much stronger hitter.

 

[dirkmoneyshot]

Keep the kid away from any chest exercies other than pushups - One of the biggest reasons we are seeing so many arm probelms now.

Second - Get the back as thick as possible, Lots of Rows.

Third - Rotator cuff exercises and working on equal development of ALL 3 heads of the deltoid (paticulary the posterior)

Triceps

Forearms

Core work (i hate saying that)

Obviously a strong Trunk.

Don't bother much with any Aerobic exercises, anything that lasts more than 20 sec. is to long in terms of endurance. Stick with Anerobic work that works on Speed and Agility.


Hope that helps Phil -

 

[Steak Helmet]

PHIL,

I would also work on his trunk strength...throwing from your knees is a tough thing. If he uses his shoulders all the time and does not rotate that trunk when he throws, he will not have an arm to throw to second, first, or third. My buddy was drafted by the YANKEES as a catcher and he threw so much in the first 5 days, he blew his shoulder out.


Also, his rotator cuffs are very improtant...probably a #1 or #2 priority.

Along with what everyone else said, I would work on his core strnegth.

 

[BrooklynJuice]

at this point overall strength and balance is key

 

[Jrflex10er]

speed and arm strength. If he ever goes to a try out for a minor league contract they look at speed....arm strength....and Defense. If he makes the cut for these then he gets to show off his real power of hitting the ball. If you don't make it passed these cuts they won't even let you hit. If you have speed and good defense they figure they can teach you the rest. They can't teach speed or hand eye cord. Just a little insight if he wants to go to the next level after high school.

PS If he is a catcher foot work and release is key. I've seen many catchers with avg. arms but fast as hell feet and that made up for their arm strength. LOTS of long toss as a catcher also. Just not for a catcher though. Long toss is good for every position player. Catcher is a huge part of a baseball game. If you can stop passed balls and throw people out it takes alot of pressure off your pitcher because he won't have to worry about a guy taking off.

 

[big_byrd52]

rotator cuff work with the shoulder horn. trunk rotation for bat speed and power. of coarse strong legs for speed. i agree with everything else.

another forearm exercise is to hold a bat in one hand, with a weight on it eventually, and flex wrist. do it both ways, with the end of the bat forward, towards the thumb. as well as the bat end by the pinky. its good for wrist rotation during the swing.

 

[Ivan]

Remember though

IT is a HITTER's game... That is the truth -- fielding is important (specially catcher) but if he can hit, and hit well, he will actually have a future in baseball (college). He needs to get his hips/ass as strong as possible, and then do hitting drills --- have him hit training balls (really small balls w/ numbers on them) and call out the numbers as he hits them...gotta get the bat speed up. This should be his main focus.

 

[Jrflex10er]

Depends......


Depends on what the Coach is looking for. When I went to visit LSU after I got out of high school I was going to go to college there and I talked to Skip Bertman (which was cool as hell by the way) he looked for kids that were strong as hell out of high school who could hit bombs (this was the last year he coached and when lsu was still Gorilla ball. He said that he could coach players to play defense but you can't teach someone to hit a baseball 400 ft consist. College is totally different from the major league scouts. Major league scouts are weird, but they have to be because or the competition they always see. Baseball is the hardest sport to make it to the pros if you ask me. There is MILLIONS of guys who try to make it AROUND THE WORLD. I think it has the biggest population as far as players go. To bad he wasn't a pitcher If you throw 90 out of high school you're getting drafted. Pitchers are a bunch of pussies Catchers are next on the list. Every team needs a great catcher. Other than that there is ALOT of competition between positions.

 

[G.E.R.M]

..

Any ideas? This kid is a freshman in High School.

maybe you can give him "the clear" or "the cream"

lol...

i would say all around strength training...

 

[joshbarnett]

dont forget those rotators and forearm/hand strength. strong legs/hips is the base for any athlete especially for hitting keeping those knees strong for a catcher

 

[spnsis1]

explosiveness is the key. so do exercises which promote that. higher reps are a must as well (10-15)