Resistance Training for Bat Speed

____________________________________________________________________________

Basic Training - this is a look at strength training primarily from my experience in a college setting with baseball and softball athletes.

____________________________________________________________________________

Physiological Needs

Baseball and Softball are predominantly anaerobic, power sports.  This is classified by short, repeated, high intensity bouts of throwing, swinging, or sprinting.

Exercise Selection

Primarily multi-joint exercises

• focus on major muscle groups
• promote athleticism and coordination for total body synergy
• promote time efficiency in order to afford more specific training and skill work
• on-field performance rarely, if ever, calls for isolated muscle activity

Primary Lift Examples

• Deadlift
• Squat & variations
• Bench Press & variations
• Pull-ups, Chin-ups

Power Lift Examples

• Olympic lifts & variations
• DB or kettlebell swings

Secondary Lift Examples

• RDLs, Glute-Ham raise
• Lunge and variations
• DB rows, inverted rows
• Push-ups

*Arm Care Examples

• Scapula program – protraction, retraction, elevation, depression w/ bands
• Throwers 10

Training Frequency

Off-season strength training is typically done 3-4 times/week.

In-season strength training in a high school or college setting can be 2x/week.  Relatively speaking, it is not that difficult to maintaing off-season gains.  The misconception that I see here is that players and coaches are still scared to do anything with higher intensities during the season due to fear of fatigue, among other things.  Lifting with lower weights and higher repetitions, however, typically creates higher workload volume and fatigue.  Don’t be shy about keeping the intensity up, but duration down during the season.

Exercise Order

1. dynamic warm-up & mobility
2. shoulder complex
3. power lift
4. primary lower body
5. secondary lower body
6. upper body pull
7. upper body push
8. core work & stability

This order isn’t etched in stone, it’s an example.   Sometimes it depends on the trainging phase or point of emphasis.  The template is fairly simply though – warm-up, power movement, two lower body that split between quad/ham emphasis and/or hip/knee dominant.  Then upper body pulling move, with pushing movement.

Training Load & Repetitions

Intensity of the load should generally be consistent with a range that calls for <6 reps because stength and power are the primary needs of the sports.  Here is the load and rep range assignment in Essentials of Strength and Conditioning from the NSCA:

Volume

Low overall volume

• prevent muscle fatigue
• allow for strength and power gains to increase mass specific force production
• allow for special and specific training (med balls, over/underload training)

Rest Times

When strength and power are main goals, rest times should be designed to allow for muscle recovery.  This can be from 3-5 minutes (although this is not often a luxury of time crunches in some real world settings).  As a general rule, as intensity increases, so should rest intervals.