Swingtraining.net has joined with Perfect Competition sports performance facility in order to provide comprehensive strength, speed, and hitting specific workout programs in the Southeast Florida area. Perfect Competition already has a well established reputation for their MLB Performance Enhancement program, and now Swingtraining.net will add the most specific hitting training available.
A couple of years ago, I made a post about resistance training for bat speed that outlined a weight lifting program that has been demonstrated through research to improve strength for high school baseball players. It’s basic multi-joint movements and progressive overload principle provide exellent results.
Something I think that was overlooked there was that the original NSCA article by Dr. David Szymanski also includes a simple protocol for increasing bat speed using overload/underload weighted implement training:
More from the Texas Rangers…..their Major League strength and conditioning coach, Jose Vazquez, has a series of instructional videos on baseball strength and conditioning, which include strength exercises, core stability, medicine ball work, and also stretching.
What follows below is information I first wrote in January 2006. I’m reposting it because I want to have the info on the ‘new’ version of the site (rather than just the old link) and also because it’s pretty good stuff.
There’s a video clip to show the progression, and the text details a number of things:
Since I have pretty much directed most of my work to MLB analysis, I thought it would be good to get back to a bit of the training side of things.
This is a recent article on resistance training for bat speed written by Dr. David Szymanski, who is one of my professors here at Louisiana Tech.
For you high school coaches out there, this may be a good guide especially for players who are not experienced with weight training. This protocol was used in a few previous studies by Dr. Szymanski and I experienced it myself this past fall in a study we did (which is not published yet, but referenced in this article). Also, if you have limited facilities, this is a basic way to help young players get stronger.
This is an overview, but you’re going to want to read the whole article:
The article explains general, special and specific conditioning and also explains possible differences in training high school and college players.
I’ve got to throw this in here too, because it was pretty cool to see:
These are references to the studies we have done so far, which have been a great experience. Maybe someday I’ll have my own publication? We’ll see…
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!)
Recent Comments