There are more and more sites out there addressing “sport specific” training.  Baseball specific weight training, etc, etc. 

First of all, think of the term strength training.  Pavel Tsatsouline suggests in his book Power to the People that the amount of tension in the muscle reflects muscle strength.  You don’t necessarily need heavy weight to create tension, but if your training does not create a high amount of tension, chances are you are not gaining a high amount of strength.  I am coming to the conclusion that strength training is really teaching your muscles how to create tension (which can be viewed as a skill, but that’s another topic…)

Here is a question – is there any exercise you can do in the weight room that takes you through the full range of motion in the swing at near or above game speed?

Specificity is another issue, but I’m going to make a quick argument here that your lifting in the weight room is not going to be very specific at all – at least if you define specific by the terms mention in my above question.

You don’t bench, squat or curl on a baseball field.  So what is the point of lifting?  Hopefully the following information will give some insight. 

If you have been involved in some type of weight lifting program, you may have heard of different types of muscle fibers – Type I (slow) or Type II (fast).  I would like to suggest here that a good part of your lifting should involve recruiting Type II (especially IIB) fibers.

This past winter it was described to me that some high level players (MLB) were working on their “fast-twitch” muscles by doing light weights and moving them as fast as possible.  Their concern was that lifting heavy was too “slow”

Barry Ross makes a good analogy addressing this issue in his article Ballistics or Baloney:Heavy weights in the 90%-100% 1RM range can only be moved slowly. However, what you see on the outside does not match what is happening on the inside. What occurs in the neuromuscular system is the equivalent of the field commander’s tent during a heated battle. Calls have gone to the central command to recruit additional motor units; only the largest of which will do since it isn’t clear how long or how often this heavy weight will be lifted. The myofibrils in all of the fiber types are fully involved and working, their motor units firing them at full speed to keep the heavy weight moving. The weight is moving slowly but the motor units are firing as fast as they can, the larger motor units firing faster than smaller ones, to provide the necessary strength. All the new recruits will be trained and ready to work when it’s time for competition if command central believes that there will be a continuing demand for the larger motor units and more myofibrils. When the amount of weight is reduced, there is sufficient strength to overcome inertia and to move the weight significantly faster.

And the following is another excerpt from The Biophysical Foundations of Human Movement, which defines the difference between muscle fiber types and how to recruit type IIB fibers, which are the largest and most powerful:

Conclusion
Lift.  Lift heavy.  Rest.  Repeat.

Use your time in the weight room to teach your muscles how to create tension and to recruit as many of your most powerful muscles fibers as possible.

As far as specicifity goes and carrying this new-found strength onto the field, well that involves a different kind of training (hint: it involves a bat!)

I found this to be an interesting study:

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INTRODUCTION
Most research in the field of baseball and softball has been done to investigate the relationship to the properties of throwing the ball. Little research has been completed to determine the various aspects of swinging a bat. While throwing is a major portion of the game, hitting is becoming increasingly important. Hitting for power and higher averages are what are more important in today’s game.
One of the main focuses in hitting is the quickness with which a player can “get around on the ball”. This concept may be even more important in the game of softball than in baseball. Decreasing the amount of time it takes to swing the bat will enable the female softball athlete to have more time to decide whether to attempt to hit the ball.

Past research has also shown that the faster a bat is swung, the more force that can be applied to the ball causing it to travel farther in flight, all other factors being equal. Therefore, identifying factors that can increase bat velocity may increase hitting productivity. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship of grip strength (GS) and forearm size to softball bat velocity.

METHODS
Eighteen female college varsity softball players (age = 20.3 yrs; weight = 162 lbs) with a minimum of five years of competitive experience were used in the study. An electronic timing system was used to measure the time interval of each bat swing through a 0.54 m space over home plate. The system consisted of two infrared cells attached to a digital timer. Following five practice swings, each player was measured for three trials, and the average bat velocity used for all analyses.

Three right and three left isometric GS measurements were taken on each subject using a Jaymar hand dynamometer. The dynamometer was held to the side of the body with slight flexion at the elbow to maximize results (Vanderburgh, Mahar & Chou, 1995). Trials were done alternating hands to decrease fatigue, with approximately 45 seconds rest between each trial. The average for each hand was used. Right and left forearm circumferences were taken around the maximum girth immediately distal to the elbow. Forearm skinfold (SKF) measurements were taken on the lateral aspect of each forearm while in the anatomical position. These values were used to calculate right and left cross-sectional area (CSA) according to the following formula:

CSA (cm²) = [(Circumference - (pi)SKF/2)²] / 4(pi)
RESULTS
There were no significant relationships between bat velocity and any size or strength measurements (Table 1). The relationship between bilateral measurements were positive and significant, indicating symmetry in size and strength.

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DISCUSSION
The current study agrees with Adair’s theory that the torque applied by the hands and wrist during the bat swing are negligible (Adair, 1994; Adair, 1995). This may suggest that increases in either or both grip strengths beyond a minimal amount will have no effect on enhancing bat velocity. Performing exercises such as forearm curls to increase forearm CSA and strength will not have a measurable effect on bat swing velocity.
The current results may indicate that other factors not examined in this study may have more effect on bat velocity. Adair (1994) suggests that the energy for the swing must come largely from the large muscles of the thighs and thorax. The rotational force generated by these large muscles are then transferred to the arms for the swing in a carefully orchestrated summation of forces (Shaffer, Jobe, Pink, & Perry, 1993). Previous research has suggested that strengthening the triceps brachii muscles of the lead arm may increase bat velocity to a greater extent than grip strength (Kitzman, 1964). It would be worthwhile to determine the contributions of arm extensor strength and trunk rotational forces on batting performance (Shaffer et al., 1993).Effective batting may be more dependent on coincident anticipation timing of the bat to contact the ball over the plate than on strength (Mikel, 1984). Therefore, future research might include measures of both anticipation time and trunk rotational and/or arm extension strength. Identifying the contribution of these factors might provide ground work for the development of conditioning programs to improve hitting.

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REFERENCES

• Adair, R. K. (1994) The physics of baseball (2nd ed). New York: Harper Collins.
• Adair, R. K. (1995). The physics of baseball. Physics Today, 48:26-31.
• Kitzman, E. W. (1964) Electro-myographic study of batting swing. Research Quarterly, 35:166.
• Mikel, R. A. (1984) Relationship of specific variables to successful baseball batting in selected varsity college baseball players. M. A. thesis, Northeast Missouri State University, Kirksville, MO.
• Shaffer, B., Jobe, F. W., Pink, M., & Perry, J. (1993). Baseball batting: an electro- myographic study. Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, 292, 285-293.
• Vanderburgh, P. M., Mahar, T. M., & Chou, C. H. (1995). Allometric scaling of grip strength by body mass in college-age men and women. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 66:80- 84.

I had always been told that baseball players NEED strong hands and forearms.  Made sense – that’s what holds on to the bat and ball, a lot of MLB guys seems to have huge forearms – so, there I went with the wrist roller and rice bucket.  Didn’t get me too far.

On the other hand, when I started to learn a bit about specificity, over/underload and feedback, things started to change.  During the time when I really increased my bat speed, I did absolutely no direct hand/forearm strength training. 

And I have seen the same scenario play out for a number of other players as well.

Hey, just my experience.

Until I was 21 years old and a junior in college, the focus I had heard from almost every instructor I can remember was the hands.  Throwing the hands at the ball, quick wrists, use those hands, etc.  I’d never had someone explain to me what it meant to use my body efficiently. 

The following is an explanation on the role of the hands and forearms from Yale University Physics professor Robert Adair’s The Physics of Baseball:

The main thing that jumps out to me here is that the role of the hands is to TRANSFER energy rather than supply it.  So the hands/arm need to be strong enough to transmit energy generated by the body’s rotation.

More on “efficient” forearm/grip strengthening to come…