85 Drills and

Exercises for

Foreword njp 1
BUCK SHOWALTER

7
to
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
FORT WAYNE, INDIANA 46802

You may return this book to any location of

the-Allen County Public Library

DEMCO
 1 I

-« L
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY

II III! II III II
IJIttlUIJIIlllUillWIIIIllllillllllW
3 1833 03Q75 1108 IV IV|

796". 35707 M95c

Murphy, Pat.
C Complete conditioning -for ^

basebal

MMMLL
Pat Murphy
Head Baseball Coach

Arizona State University

Jeff Forney

Strength and Conditioning Coach

Arizona Diamondbacks

Human Kinetics

J
 Library
Allen County Public
900 Webster Street

PO Box 2270
Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Murphy, Pat, 1958-

Complete conditioning for baseball / Pat Murphy, Jeff Forney
p. cm.
ISBN 0-87322-886-3
1. Baseball-Training. 2. Physical fitness. I. Forney, Jeff, 1963- . II. Title.

GV875.6.M87 1997
796.357'07--dc21 96-48333
CIP
ISBN: 0-87322-886-3
Copyright © 1997 by Patrick Murphy and Jeffrey Forney
All rights reserved. Except for use in a review, the reproduction or utilization of this
work in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying, and recording, and in any
information storage and retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permis-
sion of the publisher.

Developmental Editor: Rhoda; Assistant Editor: Sandra Merz Bott;

Julie
Editorial Assistant: Jennifer J. Hemphill; Copyeditor: John Wentworth; Proof-
reader: Bob Replinger; Graphic Designer: Stuart Cartwright; Graphic Artist: Tom
Roberts; Photo Editor: Boyd La Foon; Cover Designer: Jack Davis; Photographer
(cover): Anthony Neste; Photographer (interior): Jeffrey Forney; Illustrators: Beth
Young and Tim Stiles; Printer: United Graphics
Human Kinetics books are available at special discounts for bulk purchase. Special
editions or book excerpts can also be created to specification. For details, contact the
Special Sales Manager at Human Kinetics.
Printed in the United States of America 10987654321
Human Kinetics
Web site: http:/ www.humankinetics.com/

United States: Human Kinetics, P.O. Box 5076, Champaign, IL 61825-5076

1-800-747-4457
e-mail: [email protected]
Canada: Human Kinetics, Box 24040 Windsor, ON N8Y 4Y9
1-800-465-7301 (in Canada only)
e-mail: [email protected]
Europe: Human Kinetics, P.O. Box IW14, Leeds LS16 6TR, United Kingdom
(44)1132 781708
e-mail: [email protected]
Australia: Human Kinetics, 57A Price Avenue, Lower Mitcham, South Australia
(08)277-1555
e-mail: [email protected]
New Zealand: Human Kinetics, P.O.Box 105-231, Auckland 1

(09) 523-3462
e-mail: [email protected]
 CONTENTS
_
Foreword v

Introduction vii

Chapter 1 Benefits of Complete Conditioning 1

for the Baseball Player

Chapter 2 Nutrition Basics 9

Chapter 3 Flexibility and Warm-Up 19

Chapter 4 Strength Training 39

Chapter 5 Application of Strength Training 81

Chapter 6 Speed Training 105

Chapter 7 Agility Training 125

Chapter 8 Plyometric Training 137

Chapter 9 Medicine Ball Training 153

Chapter 10 Combination Training Drills 165

Chapter 11 Training Programs 181

iii
 FOREWORD

As a Major League baseball manager, I've had the good fortune to

manage some of the best players in the game. The one thing they all have
in common is the solid baseball skills needed to get to the top of the
game. What distinguishes the great players from the good players, aside
from natural talent, is an elevated level of dedication to improving their
overall game —
everything from baseball skills like hitting and throwing
to their strength and conditioning regimen.
When became the manager for the Arizona Diamondbacks, I knew
I

we had a unique opportunity to see the organization develop from the

ground level. One of our main objectives was not only to get the most
talented players for our Major League team, but also to establish a
comprehensive program for our Minor League players, many of whom
will become our future stars. Our approach to achieving this goal has
included a solid strength and conditioning program, and Jeff Forney has
brought just such a program to our organization.
Jeff's program isn't a generic routine for athletes of various sports
it is designed specifically for
altered to apply to baseball players. Rather,
meeting baseball player's needs a uniquely— baseball-specific condi-
tioning program. It takes into account the need for such skills as speed
and agility in the field, as well as strength and explosive power at the
plate.
Since implementing this conditioning program during our initial

seasons, we've seen our players improve noticeably. By following our

training program, they

• developed far more flexibility and agility,

• maintained body weight while increasing muscle mass and

decreasing percent body fat,

• increased upper and lower body strength,

Foreword vi

• enhanced explosive power, and

• gained a better awareness of the importance of conditioning in
their overall baseball success.

Not only have we experienced these dramatic gains, we've also

established a basis for continued improvement. This baseball-specific
conditioning program —much of which in complete conditioning for
is

baseball —keeps the athletes interested by varying the workout routines

and incorporating a variety of training tools and techniques. The work-
outs are designed to help you achieve the maximum amount of im-
provement in the minimum amount of time.
We feel we've identified a key component of our organization's
success. Our conditioning program enhances our players' performance
and establishes a standard that we believe is among the best in the
league. You may not have access to a professional strength and condi-
tioning coach at every training session, but you can use the information
provided in Complete Conditioning for Baseball to help you improve your
physical development and raise your overall game to a higher level.

Buck Showalter
Manager, Arizona Diamondbacks
 INTRODUCTION

All baseball players, from Little League through the majors, must be
physically ready to perform the skills the game requires. "Ready" means
different things to different people. The best players, those who go the
furthest in the game and achieve the most success, don't feel ready
unless they can perform the skills their position demands to their utmost
ability. A progression of the skills necessary for baseball success can be

represented by a pyramid (figure A) At the wide base of the pyramid are

.

seasons full of games and thousands of excited athletes with various

Figure A Baseball progression pyramid.

VII
 viii Introduction

degrees of skill and potential. As the levels progress, the pyramid

narrows because fewer players have the required levels of skill, physical
talent, and enthusiasm for the game to continue playing. Only a small
fraction reach the top of the pyramid — —
the major leagues but no matter
what level of baseball you through proper physical training and a
play,
positive attitude, you can excel. Don't ever sell yourself short do what—
it takes to reach vour maximum athletic potential through total body

conditioning.
Baseball coaches will tell you that what separates the best players from
the rest is athletic ability. This is why such a premium is placed on the
player who
possesses rare physical tools, such as the combination of
speed and power of Barry Bonds, the brute strength of Frank Thomas,
or the great durabilitv of Xolan Ryan. These players are not born with
these skills. Thev were born with the capability to achieve them. If they
hadn't drilled their speed, honed their strength, and built their power
through hard work and proper conditioning, they would never have
become the valuable players that they did. Xolan Ryan says his longev-
ity was largely due to his strength and conditioning program. Carlton
Fisk, who played in the majors well into his 40s, maintained a daily ritual
of postgame strength and conditioning workouts —even after extra-
inning night games.
Total body conditioning requires a combination of exercises and drills
aimed improving overall aerobic fitness, flexibility, power, and reac-
at
tion time. For the baseball player, a complete conditioning program
helps improve base-running speed, fielding reaction time, and speed
and power at the plate or on the mound. A successful conditioning
program also includes sound nutrition to help the plaver stay tuned up
and healthy. It took a while for baseball coaches and players to embrace
complete conditioning. The old school of thinking viewed conditioning
in baseball as an unnecessary evil. After all, Babe Ruth hit 714 big-league
homers with a beer gut, right? More recently, John Kruk won a batting
title while citing his lack of conditioning and couch-potato habits. But

what if the Babe and Kruk and many other players past and present
worked as hard on their physical training as they did when they were
—
playing on the field? Who knows a healthy and conditioned Babe
might have hit 1,000 homers.
The majority of today's coaches and managers know that solid meth-
ods specifically for improving baseball skills and conditioning are out
there. These methods strengthen players, helping them swing the bat
harder and hit the ball farther, or pitch or throw harder and faster. The
player with greater speed improves his base-stealing potential and can
run down more balls in the field. Increased flexibility allows a player to
 Introduction ix

reach and stretch farther for those oh-so-close outs at the base. And of
course, during a long season, the well-conditioned player will less likely
succumb allowing him to play at his best for the whole
to injuries,
season. It is who works smart, not just hard, who succeeds in
the player
this game. Our goal is to help baseball players improve both physically
and mentally through our complete conditioning program.
Baseball has been around a long time and is justifiably labeled America's
pastime. Not until recently, however, have scientifically proven tech-
niques and methods specifically for improving baseball become avail-
able. In this book, we will describe these methods and techniques and
tell you how to apply them through drills. In chapter 1 we'll discuss the
basic foundation of complete conditioning for baseball players and
introduce training concepts such as periodization and specificity so you
can developing a complete training program. In chapter 2 we offer
start
basic nutrition guidelines for baseball players —
because you can't play
your best if you don't fuel your body right. In chapter 3 we'll show you
how to warm up and stretch prior to your workouts. The remaining
chapters are then devoted to helping you develop in specific areas.
Chapters 4 and 5 focus on exercises to improve your strength and power;
in chapters 6 and 7, the emphasis is on increasing your speed and agility.
In chapters 8, 9, and 10, we present increasingly advanced, specialized
drills and exercises to continually challenge players and develop their
abilities. Finally, in chapter 11, we describe sample training programs to
help you tailor the information we've provided to best fit your needs.

Wherever you are currently in your game, if you apply the knowledge
we pass along in these pages, you'll be ready for the next step. Good luck,
work smart, and most important —have fun!
 CHAPTER

BENEFITS OF
COMPLETE
CONDITIONING
FOR THE
BASEBALL PLAYER

Because of baseball's long tradition

in this country, many ideas are slow to change regarding how baseball
players should be trained. Some coaches choose to take the "safe" route
of doing things the way they have always been done. Other coaches
want to try something new but are reluctant to incorporate systematic
programs in fear of hindering their athletes by implementing a
training
program based on unfounded concerns and fallacies. For example,
2 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

many people still think that weight training makes baseball players
bulky and limits their —
range of motion. This is not so in fact, weight
training the right way can improve range of motion and does not
necessarily cause bulk. Of course there is much more to a good training
program than just lifting weights. Our goal in this book is to help educate
the baseball community on the benefits of a comprehensive and prop-
erly administered conditioning program. Over the years, we've seen
many athletes program weak and underdeveloped. Through
enter our
conditioning, they become faster, stronger, and better all-around play-
ers. The myths and rumors you hear about training and baseball being

a bad mix are simply inaccurate. We have seen far too much evidence to
the contrary!

BUILDING THE FOUNDATION

When you build a house, you don't start with the roof— you first lay the
foundation and then build up from there. So it goes with baseball
conditioning. A good training program begins with a strong foundation
phase that includes both cardiovascular fitness and muscle endurance.
As you know, playing baseball requires certain levels of fitness, strength,
and speed. The higher the level you achieve in these areas, the greater
potential you have as a player. It's often the case that an increased level
in one of the areas leads to an improvement in another. For example, to
increase your speed, you need to exert more power against the ground.
The ability to exert more power comes from an increase in strength. So,
to increase your speed, trysupplementing your wind sprints with
squats and power cleans. These exercises use three times the muscle
mass of any other weight-training exercise for the legs while approxi-
mating the movements used in the sprint stride. We'll discuss how this
works in more detail in chapter 6. For now, let's take a quick look at the
building blocks of our conditioning program: cardiovascular fitness,
range of motion, strength and muscular endurance, and speed.

Cardiovascular Fitness
Basically, cardiovascular training allows you to accomplish more work
with less fatigue; it leads to faster recuperation between sets, exercises,
and workouts. Cardiovascular exercise fits into one of two categories:
oxygen) and anaerobic (without oxygen). Aerobic training
aerobic (with
 Benefits of Complete Conditioning for the Baseball Player 3

increases the body's demand for oxygen, which in turn adds to the
workload of the heart and lungs. This kind of training gets oxygen to the
muscles more efficiently, allowing them to work longer during condi-
tioning or competition. It also works to burn excess or unnecessary body
fat. Some of the more popular forms of aerobic exercise include distance

running, cycling, stair climbing, and jumping rope.

Anaerobic training includes exercises that burn energy without the
use of oxygen. Glycogen stored in the muscles is the primary fuel used
during anaerobic exercise, which includes activities requiring short
bursts (10 to 20 seconds) of energy, such as sprinting and weightlifting.
These short bursts also lead to an increase in your heart workload,
although not for the. sustained period that aerobic exercise requires.
Because baseball movements are generally short and explosive, condi-
tioning for baseball includes much more anaerobic training than aero-
bic.

Range of Motion
Once we have established good cardiovascular fitness, we want to
improve our range of motion, which is critical in baseball. Stretching
exercises and warm-up techniques that take the muscles through a full
range of motion help improve overall flexibility. WeTl discuss flexibility
and warm-up in detail in chapter 3.

Strength and Muscular Endurance

We stressed earlier that a sound baseball conditioning program consists
of more than just weight training. However, weight training is the
primary means of building the strength that helps us improve our speed,
power, and agility. The key is to keep the focus on improving strength
and not just bulking up. Following the guidelines provided in chapters
4 and 5, weTl help you target the essential muscles used in our game.

Speed
Speed is a measure by which all good athletes, including baseball
players, are judged. A player with speed automatically possesses a
weapon that separates him from a slower opponent. There is no way to
defend speed except through speed itself, so if you can become quicker
than the players you face, you will have an edge over them. WeTl discuss
speed in detail in chapter 6.
4 Complete Conditioning for Baseball
 .

Benefits of Complete Conditioning for the Baseball Player 5

TRAINING PRINCIPLES

Knowing the areas you need to improve in and learning a few exercises
that address these areas is not enough to design a successful condition-
ing program. To yield the best results, you need to know which exercises
todo when and the specific ways to do them best that is, you need to —
apply training principles. These principles include periodization; speci-
ficity and adaptation; and intensity, frequency, and duration.

Periodization
The success of a training program depends on the logical development
of successive training sessions, or periodization. Unfortunately,
periodization is absent from many training programs. A good coach
understands the reasoning behind his or her training program and
continually adjusts the program to optimize results while reducing the
risk of injury and overtraining.
was developed in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe
Periodization
to train high-level athletes. The theory behind periodization is to divide
phases of training into small, manageable segments so that the body
does not adapt to the training; this creates a gradual, planned increase
in performance that peaks in time for competition. Periodization signifi-
cantly reduces the risk of injury because it emphasizes a gradual
increase in overall training levels.
Periodization is a systematic approach tailored for an individual or
team. The training cycle can last any length of time, from a few weeks to
a year.The guesswork of what kind of workout or exercise to do today
istaken away, as each workout is part of a progressive, planned pro-
gram. The progression from one period to the next is gradual, and as the
stages come together we get our systematic linking.
A mistake commonly made when designing a workout program is to
place too much stress on a player before his body can adequately tolerate
it, which causes an injury. In the always better to err on
beginning, it is

and set your

the side of caution rather than risk injury to an athlete early
program back tremendously. For this reason, you should design your
program with gradual increases in intensity, through periodization.
Periodization as we apply it to our baseball training program consists of
six standard training phases:

1 Regeneration
2. Strength
6 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

3. Power
4. Specific power
5. Preseason

6. In-season

Regeneration: All baseball players need this phase. After a long

season, you need not only a physical but also a psychological renewal.
This is a transition phase to our upcoming training season and also a
good time for necessary surgeries and rehabilitation. The regeneration
phase lasts anywhere from three to eight weeks, depending on the
length of the season just completed and the physical condition of the
athlete. During this time, you can have an active rest when you can
participate in other sports that you enjoy at your leisure. You should try
to do some type of exercise three to five times per week during this
period.

Strength: This is the adjustment period after the regeneration phase or

for newcomers to weight training and total conditioning. The focus here
is on building overall cardiovascular fitness and light weight training.
This phase includes exercises that are light in intensity, with rest be-
tween sets of one to two minutes. This phase could last two to six weeks
depending on the athlete's background and fitness.
Power: This phase converts strength gains into power. This is achieved
through plyometrics, speed work, and agility drills. This phase lasts five
weeks.
Specific power: In this phase the focus ison developing maximum
strength, sport-specific power. Strength is the key ingredient for both
power and muscular endurance. During this phase, we use the heaviest
amounts of weight possible. This phase lasts from two to three weeks,
depending again on the fitness of the athlete or team and how much time
is available.

Preseason: The goal of the preseason phase is to slowly taper off the
heavy weights and training sessions to prepare for the season. This is
where we begin to cut back on the intensity, frequency, and duration of
the workouts. During this two-week phase we start focusing on actual
baseball skills such as throwing, hitting, and fielding.

In-season: This is sometimes called the maintenance phase. Our focus

now is on playing baseball. Training sessions two to three times a week
during this phase are sufficient to maintain strength gains attained
during the previous phases.
 .

Benefits of Complete Conditioning for the Baseball Player 7

This brief outline of periodization intended to give you basic

is

training concepts. Remember to emphasize both individual and team

needs. Working smarter rather than just harder is key to maximizing
gains in conditioning.

Specificity and Adaptation

and adaptation are terms to know when you're ready to
Specificity
what exercises to include in your training program. Specificity
consifler
means that the area or skill requiring improvement must be specifically
trained. For example, we're targeting speed gains, we need to imple-
if

ment aimed at improving speed running me-

exercises specifically —
chanics, leg strength, stride, and so on. Adaptation as it applies to
conditioning is the process of familiarizing your body systems to
exercise. We want to constantly manipulate that adaptation to challenge
our bodies to perform at higher levels.

Intensity, Frequency, and Duration

You are probably familiar with the terms intensity, frequency, and
duration, but we want to define them here as they'll be used in this book.
Intensity is the power output or rate of performing the work in an
exercise. We can usually increase intensity by using a heavier resistance
or movingthe load faster. Frequency is the number of training sessions
over a set period of time. Duration is the length of each session or the
amount of time it takes to perform an exercise.

NEEDS ANALYSIS

To customize our conditioning program for baseball, we should make a

biomechanical analysis of the sport. While determining the muscle
groups used most often in our sport and targeting those muscles with
specific exercises to strengthen them, we should consider the following:

1 Which muscle groups need to be trained?

2. What are the primary sites of injury for baseball?

3. Which exercises best strengthen the muscles used?

4. What individual needs of players need to be addressed?

 .

8 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

Once you have assessed the needs of your training program, tailor the
program accordingly. Here are some key points to remember when
applying your program (these points will be discussed in more detail in
later chapters):

1 More is not better. Don't run down your athletes. Use training cycles
that allow proper rest for muscles.

2. Never teach an exercise that you can't perform or teach properly.

3. Stress the importance of mental focus. Emphasize working smarter,
not just harder.

4. Stay involved. Maintain enthusiasm and avoid monotony by chang-

ing exercises to continually challenge the athlete.

EFFORT AND MENTAL FOCUS: BE LIKE CAL!

A great example of a player who has displayed and benefited from

developing a great mental focus is Cal Ripken, Jr. His accomplishments
as baseball's Ironman would not have been achieved without great
physical and mental preparation. As you know by now, baseball requires
a tremendous amount of mental focus. It's mind boggling that some
players can stay so mentally tough throughout a long season. But others
have trouble maintaining a strong mental focus. The attitude that I'll be
prepared physically and mentally and through this preparation I'll gain
confidence that will helpme perform better is a great advantage for a player
to have. We
have all heard the saying that 75 percent of this game is
played above the neck.
We want our training program to include the mental side as well as the
physical. Getting the most from your workout means bringing more
than just your muscles to the gym. To maximize our performance, we
need our workout to be not only demanding and challenging but also
efficient and precise. When you stay mentally locked and focused, you
can put out 100 percent effort and get 100 percent of the benefit. When
you lose focus, the effort could still be 100 percent, but the benefit is a far
lower percentage. At these times we are apt to deviate from mechanics
and perform the activity in a way that does more harm than good.
Particularly when you are strength training, a raised level of focus is
crucial. If necessary, work out with a partner and remind each other to
keep your focus on correct technique.
 CHAPTER
PTER M
NUTRITION
BASICS

As you know, when people search

the sports world for the best conditioned athletes, they barely even
glance toward baseball. Take a look at some of the game's more visible
players and you might understand why baseball players are not held up
as prime examples of great conditioning. While football and hockey
players need brute strength and speed, and basketball and soccer
players require great stamina, baseball players seem to need only a great
arm or a powerful swing. Because of baseball's long periods of what
seems like low-intensity action, punctuated by great plays, casual
observers might think that baseball players don't need to be fit to be
good at the game. Of course, those of us closer to the game recognize
such thinking as misguided.
In fact, complete conditioning, including sound nutrition, does help
make baseball players better. Proper nutrition benefits players of all

abilities and helps elevate the "natural athlete" to the next level. Despite
 1 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

the few exceptions you might be able to point out, the vast majority of
baseball players simply cannot reach their full potential unless they eat
right. Proper nutrition enables the body to make gains in size, strength,
endurance, and conditioning. All the conditioning in the world will take
you only part of the way toward improving your complete game. The
other part depends on how well you fuel your body to perform the
activity you require of it. Food deprivation and other improper diets
jeopardize and limit the total strength and muscle-building process.

THE RIGHT MIX

Food fuels thebody with energy It seems only logical that someone
exerting and expending more energy than another will require more
fuel. But just more fuel is not enough. Just as a high-performance car
requires a high-performance fuel, the highly trained athlete requires
high-performance nutrients. These high-performance nutrients neces-
sary for baseball players include the right mix of fluids, carbohydrates,
proteins, and fats.

Fluids

Baseball players are often called the "boys of summer" because the game
is played in the warm weather of summer. Warm weather climates mean
that baseball players can lose more fluid through sweating than those
who play cool-weather sports. When lost fluids are not replenished, the
body's temperature rises, which usually causes faster exhaustion, a
decrease in performance, and greater risk of heat injury. For these
reasons, fluid intake is as necessary to the baseball player as a glove and
a bat.
You avoid the risk of dehydration by replenishing your body regularly
with fluids prior to the onset of thirst. If you wait until you're thirsty,
you've waited too long. By drinking fluids, you also improve your
performance by supplying your muscles with enough water for maxi-
mum muscle output. Not just any fluid will do. Cool water is best. Water
between the temperatures of 40 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit will be
absorbed faster by your intestines with less risk of cramping. The
average person needs 64 ounces of water a day to maintain normal body
functions. The well-trained baseball player needs at least that amount,
—
and we recommend much more at least 32 to 48 more ounces a day.
 1

Nutrition Basics 1
1 2 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

Consuming 12 to 14 eight-ounce glasses of water a day is a good practice

to follow both in season and off season. Eating plenty of fruits and
vegetables at meals and as snacks will also help replenish your fluids. As
a bonus, these items are loaded with vital electrolytes, minerals, vita-
mins, and fiber — all necessary for your overall health.
Avoid fluids such as coffee, tea, and caffeinated soft drinks, as these do
not rehydrate the body but act instead as diuretics, dehydrating you and
robbing your body of precious nutrients. Also avoid alcohol, as it both
dehydrates your body and inhibits performance. While sport drinks and
juices provide water and are a good source of additional vitamins and
carbohydrates, they tend to be more filling and can lead to less frequent
intake. Again, water is the fluid of choice. For adequate hydration prior
to a game or a workout, drink 2 1/2 cups of water two hours beforehand
and another 11/2 cups 15 minutes before the practice or game begins.
—
Remember you'll need another 8 to 10 eight-ounce glasses a day on top
of this.

Carbohydrates
Many consider carbohydrates the master fuel. For generating energy
during practices and competition, they are definitely the fuel of choice.
The body breaks carbohydrates down into glycogen, which directly
supplies fuel to your muscles. The calories carbohydrates contain are
also quickly and efficiently burned during exercise. Most researchers
agree that athletes should keep their carbohydrate intake at 60 to 70
percent of their daily total calories.
There are two types of carbohydrates: complex and simple. Complex
carbohydrates provide a gradual release of energy over a long period of
time. Simple carbohydrates offer a quick but
temporary rush of energy
followed by low blood sugar, which can rob you of overall energy and
performance intensity. Ideally, consume complex carbohydrates, which
are found in fruits, root vegetables, beans, pasta, rice, grain breads, and
cereals. Here are some foods that are high in carbohydrates:

Carbohydrates

Breakfast Lunch/dinner Dessert/snack

Hot/cold cereal Pasta with sauce Angel food cake

 Nutrition Basics 13

Breakfast Lunch/dinner Dessert/snack

Pancakes / waffles Vegetables Pudding

Muffins Bread /rolls Oatmeal raisin
Toast /English muffin Potato/rice/beans cookies
Fruit /fruit juices Fruit juices Frozen yogurt
Sherbet

Protein

When you hear the word protein, you used to think red meat. Today, the
trend toward low-fat diets has shed light on the many other excellent
sources of protein. And contrary to our old beliefs that athletes should
consume great amounts of protein for muscle growth and repair, we
now know that too much protein will only be converted to fat and can
deter hydration. For an athlete, protein should account for 15 to 20
percent of the day's total calories.
Beef, pork, lamb, poultry, and fish are excellent animal sources of
complete protein. Complete protein means that 90 to 95 percent of the
protein is absorbed by the body. Try to eat only lean meats, not the cuts
that are high in fat. Grains, nuts, beans, and tofu are also good sources
of protein, but only about 75 percent of these nonanimal sources of
protein are absorbed by the body. By limiting the amount of animal
products consumed and including sources such as beans and dairy
products in your diet, you should easily meet your daily protein
requirement. Some complete protein foods include the following:

Complete Sources of Protein

Meat Fish Dairy

Beef Haddock Cheese

Chicken Salmon Eggs
Ham Tuna Milk
Turkey Yogurt
14 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

Fats

Despite all the bad press does have an important role in

fat receives, it

the athlete's diet as a source of concentrated energy.Although carbohy-

drate energy (glycogen) will be the first fuel your body uses during
activity, you rely on energy from fat once the glycogen stores have been
depleted. Glycogen is usually used up after about 30 minutes of strenu-
ous activity. Because baseball rarely requires 30 minutes of straight
activity, glycogen is the major fuel used in our game.
Ideally, limit your fat consumption to 15 to 20 percent of your total
calories. Although fat does play a dietary role, too many fatty foods will
likely lead to unnecessary and unwanted weight gain. Almost all foods
contain some fat, but try to avoid high-fat sources such as fried foods,
candy, potato chips, doughnuts, cookies, dairy products (whole milk,
cheese, cream, butter, ice cream), mayonnaise, and red meats. There are
several ways of lowering your fat intake without reducing taste or
substance:

• Prepare foods by broiling, baking, steaming, or poaching rather

than frying.
• Remove the skin from poultry and fish.

• Drink skim milk or water instead of whole milk.

• Substitute fish and white-meat chicken for red meats.

• Avoid foods packed in oil.

Again, you don't want to eliminate fat from your diet, but it's best to
keep your intake below 20 percent of your daily calories.

PRE- AND POST-EVENT MEALS

Pre- and post-event nutrition is also very important. Whether training

or playing, you should eat two to four hours before activity. This meal
can prevent your blood sugar from getting too low, which can cause
fatigue, dizziness, and other detrimental effects, and permits the ab-
sorption of carbohydrates as glycogen for optimal fuel use during
exercise. —
Avoid overeating eat only enough to fill your stomach to
avoid hunger.
Before games, avoid foods with high cellulose content, such as lettuce,
as they are more difficult to digest, and can lead to gastrointestinal
irritation. Avoid spicy and fatty fried foods for the same reason. Too
 Nutrition Basics 15

Nutritional Guidelines

When considering your dietary needs, remember the numbers

for caloric intake:
Carbohydrates = 60 to 70 percent
Protein = 15 to 20 percent
F^t = 15 to 20 percent

Follow these general guidelines:

1. Eat breakfast. It is your foundation meal for the day you —
should consume about one-third of your daily calories at break-
fast.

2. Eat extra carbohydrates instead of extra protein.

3. Drink plenty of fluids, especially during hot weather.

4. Eat four to six small meals a day for better absorption of calories
and nutrients.

5. Eat meals 2 to 4 hours before competition or training.

6. Eat within 1 to 1 1/2 hours after competition or training. Your

body will absorb nutrients and replenish itself better at this time.
7. Don't eat Because you're relatively inactive
late in the evening.
at night, most calories won' t be burned off and are instead stored
as fat.

much protein and sugar intake can lead to dehydration and should be
limited in pre-event meals. Liquids should be low in fat content and
easily absorbed. Water is the best choice, but skim milk is also accept-
able. Fruit juices can have a mild laxative effect, which might cause
discomfort during Don't drink beverages that contain caffeine
activity.
because they act as diuretics and may increase pregame nervousness.
Whether it be breakfast, lunch, or dinner, stick with a high-carbohydrate
pre-event meal for optimal performance
Post-event nutrition as important as pre-event nutrition. Eat your
is

postgame or postpractice meal as soon after the game or practice as

possible to replenish carbohydratesand other nutrients your body
burned during you should
activity. Ideally,eat no later than 60 to 90
minutes after the game, when your metabolism is at its highest. Your
16 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

muscles are starving for nutritional replenishment, and at this time

recuperating muscles will absorb the highest amount of nutrients from
food. After 90 minutes, the body's metabolism begins to slow down and
tends to store food as fat instead of converting it into energy for muscle
stores.
It's your body's fluids soon after a game or
also important to replenish
and high-carbohydrate sport drinks are good
practice. Fruit, fruit juices,
sources for quick carbohydrate and nutrient replacement.
Late night postgame meals are common for baseball players. Keep in
mind that your body will be slowing down because of the postgame
recovery process and the time of day. Eat a high-carbohydrate, low-fat
meal such as a turkey sub sandwich on wheat bread, or a grilled chicken
or lean roast beef sandwich. Choose snacks low in fat such as unbuttered
popcorn, fruits, raisins, bagels, pretzels, or graham crackers.

DINING OUT

When —
eating away from home as more and more active people are
—
doing to save time you can still make healthy meal choices. In general,
fast food is high in fat and low in such nutrients as calcium, vitamin C,
and vitamin A, so you need to be careful when picking from the menu.
Here are some suggestions from several popular fast-food restaurants:

Good Choices When Dining Out

Breakfast Lunch/dinner

McDonald's McDonald's
Scrambled eggs Two chicken sandwiches
English muffin with Side salad with low-calorie
strawberry jam dressing
Orange juice 2% milk

Wendy's Wendy's
Hot cakes with Two chicken breast sandwiches,
butter and syrup no mayonnaise
 Nutrition Basics 17

Breakfast Lunch/dinner

Wendy's Wendy's
English muffin Baked potato or two servings
with strawberry jam of chili
Orange juice 2% milk
Arby's Arby's

t Two junior roast beef

sandwiches with lettuce
and tomato
2% milk
Taco Bell Taco Bell
Two tostados
Two plain tortillas
One bean burrito
2% milk
Pizza Hut Pizza Hut
Large spaghetti with meat sauce
Breadsticks
2% milk
or
Medium cheese pizza
Breadsticks
2% milk

STAYINGAWAY FROM DRUGS,

TOBACCO, AND ALCOHOL
As illogical as it seems, many high-profile athletes are lured by the
glamour of their professions into using a variety of drugs, most notably
alcohol and cocaine. Of course, these drugs do nothing to enhance
performance on or off the playing field. Drugs lure athletes into a false
—
sense of security, leading them to believe their game will improve then
the next they know they become dependent on the drug, both physically
and psychologically The addiction becomes consuming and soon robs
the athlete of peak performance, and often also destroys his personal life.
The best way to a void this cycle is to simply not use any illegal drug such
18 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

as cocaine, marijuana, steroids, or barbiturates.Even legal drugs such as

tobacco, alcohol, and inhalants should be avoided, as they can be every
bit as lethal as the illegal drugs.
Smokeless tobacco use by baseball players is widespread but has been
aggressively attacked by the baseball community. It has been banned
during competition in the minor leagues and at the high school level.
Although smokeless tobacco remains allowed in the major leagues,
many people in the baseball community, including ex-major leaguer Joe
Garagiola, are actively lobbying to ban its use during competition at all
levels of the game. Smokeless tobacco does pose serious health risks.
Many people have died of oral or throat cancer caused by this habit. It
can also lead to general periodontal destruction. But the substance
contained in smokeless tobacco products, nitrosonornicotine, is more
addictive than the nicotine found in cigarettes, so once you start chew-
ing, it can be hard to quit. As with all other drug use, it's best not to start
at all.
 CHAPTER

FLEXIBILITY AND
WARM-UP

Before beginning a workout or any

other physical activity, you need to warm up your muscles and stretch.
Although many people think that stretching is a part of the warm-up, the
two activities are actually different parts of your program. You should
warm up your muscles before you stretch them. Warming up raises the
temperature of your deep muscles and connective tissues, allowing for
greater flexibility, reducing the possibility of muscle tears and ligament
strains, and helping prevent muscle soreness. Stretching focuses on
increasing flexibility, which is the range of movement of a joint or joint
group as influenced by the surrounding muscle and connective tissues.
A good stretching routine aids in decreasing joint injuries, and greater
flexibility contributes to improved athletic performance.

19
 . .

20 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

WARMING UP

A proper warm-up, though key to any training program, is often

underrated or ignored by many coaches and players. Stretching is not a
replacement for warming up the body in preparation for training. Our
purpose in warming up is to prepare the body through gradual move-
ments for the full effort it will perform following the warm-up. Three
goals to warming up include

1 creating internal muscular warmth and through slow stretching

movements preparing nerves and joints for the explosive move-
ments to come,
2. implementing biomechanically correct movements that incorpo-
low intensity, and
rate fast fire actions at a

3. gaining fullrange of motion with dynamic and static stretches

after muscles have become warm and flexible.

As noted, a chief objective in warming up is to prepare your muscles,

tendons, and ligaments for the explosiveness of strength and speed
training. It is more important to warm the body up through gradual
movements and acceleration than slow stretching alone. Properly
warmed muscles respond much more quickly to neural stimuli than
—
unwarmed muscles do this is important in preventing injury.
Your warm-up can be a variety of several exercises. What we call a
continuous warm-up includes performing a combination of the techni-
cal skills involved in your sport or activity This warm-up routine
gradually warms the muscles while teaching proper and new neuro-
muscular patterns. A good warm-up consists of 10 to 15 minutes of
continuous exercise. Varying your warm-up will make it more enjoyable
and upbeat. We list several warm-up exercises at the end of the chapter,
but here are some other suggestions:
1 Jog slowly 20 to 30 yards back and forth, four to six times, keeping
the distanceand time constant.
2. Jog while doing arm circles on either side.

3. Jog while raising your arms overhead and back down to your sides.
4. Combine high knees (exaggerated skipping) with large arm swings.
6. Side-shuffle 20 to 30 yards; change sides and return.

7. Back pedal 20 to 30 yards back and forth several times.

 1

Flexibility and Warm-Up 2

8. Perform cariocas, side-shuffling while crossing one foot over and

then behind the other (left over right, step right, left behind right,
step right, and repeat). Return facing the same direction but start-
ing with the other foot.

You can perform all these movements and skills while playing tag or
relay games. Or you can make the warm-up competitive by running
partner or team relays and backward and forward races. The main
objective is to warm up the muscles, and since there are dozens of ways
of do^ig this, there's no excuse for letting your routine become stale.

STRETCHING

Flexibility and stretching have always been a part of baseball. It used to

be that the warm-up routine consisted mainly of stretching exercises.
Now we understand that warming the muscles is probably more impor-
tant than stretching them. Although many people still believe that poor
flexibility increases your chances of getting hurt, in fact this condition
has never been proven to be the primary cause of an injury. If you pull
a quadriceps muscle, it's not just because you lack flexibility. However,
a lack of flexibility can hinder performance. If you are tight through your
hamstrings and lower back, your running mechanics will be affected.
When poor flexibility starts to limit your performance, you need to
increase your range of motion through a good stretching program.
There are four basics types of stretching techniques, including static
dynamic or ballistic stretching, slow movement stretching,
stretching,
and PNF stretching.

Static Stretching

Static stretching, the most common stretching technique, consists of a

voluntary passive relaxation of the elongated muscle. The main advan-
tage of static stretching is that you can do it without assistance. In a static
stretch, you slowly and gently stretch a muscle to the point of tension,
causing a slight discomfort that should never reach the point of pain. At
the point the stretch becomes uncomfortable, hold it for 10 to 15 seconds,
then repeat the stretch on the opposite side.
 —

22 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

Dynamic or Ballistic Stretching

Ballistic stretching places the joint and muscle group in a stretched

position and then bounces slightly against the stretch. Some frown upon
this method because of its rapid contraction of the muscle, but the
advantage to dynamic stretching is that it prepares the range of motion
for a larger joint and muscle group. These stretches closely resemble the
ballistic movements required in baseball, such as running, throwing,
and hitting. To some degree, with proper technique and instruction, you
should incorporate dynamic stretching into your stretching routine.
Keep in mind, however, that if performed too aggressively or when
muscles are not properly warmed, this type of stretching can cause
muscle tears or pulls. It is extremely important to perform these stretches
in a controlled manner in order to avoid muscle damage.

Slow Movement Stretching

The value of slow movement stretches are that they serve as a form of
warm-up. Slow movement stretches such as neck rotations, arm rota-
tion, and trunk rotation help to slowly stretch and warm muscles. The
movements are similar to dynamic stretches but are not as violent on the
muscle while allowing for the same flexibility gains.

Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF)

PNF stretching is a good option for the athlete who
is very tight and

wants to aggressively increase flexibility. Thiskind of stretching re-

quires a workout partner and takes more time than the other stretches.
The partner holds you in a stretched position while you contract the
muscle and push against your partner's resistance. This method is used
in rehabilitation and also to stretch a pitcher's shoulder area. PNF
stretching is one of the best methods for increasing ranges of motion
but it is also potentially dangerous if performed improperly or without
good concentration from your partner, who must apply resistance
slowly and smoothly.

Which Stretch Is Best?

Which stretching technique you employ depends on your knowledge of
the stretch and the effectiveness of the technique as it applies to your
sport. Baseball players use static stretching as the primary stretch
 Flexibility and Warm-Up 23

because of its tradition and because

can be done without assistance.
it

However, to maximize a stretching program, all four methods should be

incorporated to some extent. All stretches are effective, but because of
the risk involved in PNF stretches, we recommend using static and slow
movement stretches primarily, as these can be performed individually
and the intensity levels can be controlled. Combining slow movement
and static stretching will help increase your range of motion and also
prepare you for upcoming movement and exercises.

COOLING DOWN
An active cooldown after exercising is recommended to decrease lactic
acid levels in the blood and muscles. By gradually diminishing the work
intensity, you keep the muscle pumps active while preventing blood
from pooling in your arms and legs. Jogging for 30 to 60 seconds
followed by three to five minutes of walking is usually sufficient for
circulation and various body functions to return to pre-exercise levels.
A light static stretch is also advised after a workout to help circulate the
lactic acid in the muscles and prevent muscle soreness.
 .

24 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

HIGH-KNEE SKIPS

Focus: To elevate body temperature and warm and stretch ham-

strings, gluteals,and quadriceps area
Procedure:
1 In a skipping motion, lift your knees toward your shoulders.
2. Follow proper running form, pulling toe up, heel up, and knee up.
3. Work your arms to get foot-arm action. Opposite arm, opposite leg.
Distance: 10 to 15 yards, repeating two to three times.
 .

Flexibility and Warm-Up 25

BUTT KICKS

Focus: To warm hamstrings and gluteals and practice proper running

form
Procedure:
1 Staying on the balls of your feet, try to touch your butt with your
heels.

2. Db not lift your knee. Point the knee straight toward the ground
during the exercise.
3. Move your legs in a fast and aggressive but controlled pace.
Distance: 10 to 15 yards
 .

26 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

ARM KICKS

Focus: To warm hamstrings and gluteals

Procedure:
1 With a skip, extend a straight left leg up to your left arm, then repeat
with the opposite leg and arm.
2. Perform this drill slowly, with control.
3. Excellent warm-up exercise also teaches the aggressive firing
pattern of the gluteals and hamstrings and the driving action of the
feet when you sprint.

Distance: 10 yards
 .

Flexibility and Warm-Up 27

OUT AND OVER KICKS

Focus: To warm up and increase range of motion in the groin and inner
thighs

Procedure:
1 With a skip or light run, kick your leg out and over in a large circular
motion, then repeat with other leg.

2. Perform this exercise with control.

Distance: 10 yards
28 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

KNEE-TO-SHOULDER LIFTS

Focus: To warm hip flexors, hamstrings, and gluteals

Procedure:

1. While skipping, lock vour hands and place them in front oi your
chest or belly.

2. Using good leg lift mechanics, try to drive your right knee up to
vour right shoulder.
3. Repeat with other leg.

Distance: 10tol5vards
 Flexibility and Warm-Up 29

Note: All of the following static stretches can be performed with a partner's
assistance to create PNF stretches. However, we don't recommend PNF
stretching except under strict supervision by a professional.

NECK STRETCHES
Focus: Neck and trapezius muscles

Procedure:
1. Stand with feet shoulder- width apart and knees slightly flexed.
2. Place both hands under your chin and gently push your chin up
until the back of your head rests on your shoulders.
3. Hold this stretch for 10 to 20 seconds.
4. Take your right hand across the top of your head and rest your
hand on your left ear.

Duration: Repeat the stretch on opposite side.

 .

30 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

STANDING SPINAL TWIST

Focus: Lower and upper back

Procedure:
1 Stand with your feet together, legs straight, and hands on each hip.
2. Keeping vour torso upright, turn and slowly twist to your left to

look at your left heel.

3. Hold this stretch for 10 to 20 seconds and then repeat to opposite

side.

Duration: Repeat on opposite side one time.

 . 1

Flexibility and Warm-Up 3

TRICEPS SHOULDER STRETCH

Focus: Triceps and rear deltoid area

Procedure:
1 Stand with your feet shoulder- width apart and knees slightly bent.
2. Place your right hand behind your head with your elbow bent and
your palm flat in the middle of your back.
3. With your opposite hand, gently apply pressure to your right
elbow.

4. Repeat on the opposite side.

Duration: Hold stretch 10 to 20 seconds each side one time.

 .

32 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

FOREARM AND WRIST STRETCH

Focus: Muscles of the lower arm
Procedure:
1 With your arm extended in front of your body and parallel
left to
the ground, point your left hand and fingers toward the sky.
2. Place your right hand at the base of the fingers of your left hand and
gently pull back toward your body.

3. Hold the stretch for 10 to 15 seconds.

4. Pointing your fingers toward the ground, gently pull back toward
your body with your right hand and hold for 10 to 15 seconds.

Duration: Repeat on opposite side one time.

 .

Flexibility and Warm-Up 33

LUNGE

Focus: Hip flexors, quadriceps, groin

Procedure:
1 In a lunge position, extend your left leg out in front while keeping
your heel flat.
2. Extend your right leg back and right foot up on your toes.

3. With your left knee bent at about a 45-degree angle, lower your
rightknee about five inches from the ground.
4. Place hand on your left quadriceps area. To increase the stretch,
lower vour chest toward your thighs.
Duration: Hold stretch 10 to 20 seconds each leg one time.
 .

34 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

SIDE HURDLE STRETCH

Focus: Groin, gluteals, hamstrings, hip flexors

Procedure:
1 Start standing with your legs spread at arms' width and both feet
facing forward.

2. Bend to the right and lower your butt down until your right thigh
is parallel to the ground. Keep your right heel as flat as possible and
your torso upright.
3. Your left leg is extended to the side, straight and with your foot
facing forward and flat.

4. For a variation, turn your foot on its heel with your toes pointing
up to focus more on the hamstrings.

Duration: Hold stretch 10 to 20 seconds for each leg one time.

 Flexibility and Warm-Up 35

SITTING V STRETCH
Focus: Hamstrings, gluteals, lower back
Procedure:
1. In a seated upright position, spread your legs wide in a V shape,
keeping them as straight as possible.
2. Slowly lower your chest toward your right thigh. Extend your
right hand out toward your right toe.

3. Grab your toe and hold this position.

4. Use your left hand to help increase the stretch by pressing down on
your right knee to keep your leg straight or by extending it to grab
your left foot.
Duration: Hold 10 to 20 seconds each side one time.
36 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

BUTTERFLY STRETCH

Focus: Groin, inner thigh

Procedure:
1. In a seated and tall upright position, bring your feet together
between your legs and grab your feet or ankles.
2. Relax your groin area and force your knees toward the ground.

3. To increase the intensity, use your elbow to lightly apply down-

ward pressure on your knees.
Duration: Hold the stretch 10 to 20 seconds one time.
 .

Flexibility and Warm-Up 37

SEATED SPINAL TWIST

Focus: Lower back, outside gluteals

Procedure:

1. In a seated upright position, cross your bent left leg across your
straight right leg.

2. Twist your trunk and lower your back to the left.

3 Take your right arm across your body and place your elbow on the
outside of your left knee.

4. Apply force with your right elbow as you twist your upper torso
around.
Duration: 10 to 20 seconds on each side one time.
 dSIMk

CHAPTER

STRENGTH
TRAINING

The game of baseball requires you

major muscle groups of your body. Throwing, catching,
to use all of the
hitting, and running demand the power of the leg muscles, the hip
flexors and gluteals, the support of the abdominal and back muscles,
and the skill and strength of the shoulder, chest, and arm muscles. While
some sports require higher levels of strength, all baseball activities
require a certain degree of strength. We want to build strength primarily
in our core area to help increase our speed and power, not to bulk up or
build mass. Bulking up can actually hamper the execution of baseball
skills. Rather, to optimize baseball skills through strength training,

you'll want to focus on sport-specific strength gains.

With all the information out there on weight programs, it can be hard
to decipher what's good and bad for players. Coaches should be respon-
sible for gathering strength-training information specific to baseball and

39
 .

40 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

creating a program based on that information. Briefly, here are the basic
goals of a properly administered weight program:

1 To increase muscle strength and endurance

2. To increase flexibility and range of motion
3. To strengthen connective tissue (tendons, ligaments, overall joint
stability

4. To improve neuromuscular (muscle and nerve) efficiency

5. To decrease chance of injury
6. To shorten rehabilitation time in the event of injury
7. To aid in player longevity

BUILDING A STRENGTH FOUNDATION

Strength training is one of our foundations for building a better athlete.
It serves as a strong base for any effective training program. All the
speed, and baseball drills in the world will do little to enhance
agility,

your game you don't have the necessary strength to perform them
if

correctly and effectively. To use the example given in chapter 1: To

increase speed, more power must be exerted against the ground; to exert
more power requires greater strength. Often it's not an athlete's lack of
ability, will, or effort that limits his performance but a lack of physical
strength. This is why strength training becomes such an important part
of your complete conditioning routine.
Whendesigning your strength program, focus the majority of your
training during the off-season. During the season, you don't want to tax
your muscles and cause added fatigue through a vigorous weight-
training program. Instead, incorporate an active strength program in
which players weight train three times a week throughout the off-
season. The program should peak during the preseason, when workouts
should be done two to three times a week. Once the season begins, limit
your workouts to one to two times a week. Remember that key factors
in any sound strength-training program are intensity and the overload
principle. If you don't incorporate these principles into your program,
your strength gains will be minimized.
 —

Strength Training 41

INTENSITY

In chapter 1 we defined intensity as the power output (rate of perform-

ing work) of an exercise. Intensity in lifting weights can be increased by
adding weight or moving a given resistance faster. High achievers are
willing to work hard. The intensity of an exercise must challenge your
athletes. When prepared and organized properly, intense efforts do not
drain the athlete but vitalize him and move him closer to his goal. Great
player? like Nolan Ryan, Will Clark, Dennis Eckersly, and many others
are fierce competitors whose intensity levels are very high. They are
extremely focused when they're on the field, and it shows in their ability
to perform at exceptional levels. Every athlete wants to feel self- worth
the effort to achieve this goal and become a better player should be worth
giving.
But intensity is relative. What's intense for one person may be easy for
another. In strength training, we know intensity is the tension of stress
put on the muscle, and we know people have varying intensity levels.
So,how do we measure intensity? By using a percentage of a player's
one repetition maximum (1RM). The 1RM can be an estimation of the
person's maximum lift if a maximum test cannot be performed. If we
want athletes to work in different intensity zones, we define those areas
this way:
Heavy: 90 to 100 percent or more
Medium: 70 to 90 percent

Light: to 70 percent

Example: A player has a 1RM of 200 pounds in the bench press. If his
workout calls for 80 percent of 200 pounds, he will work out at 160
pounds for that day.
When these variables are manipulated, athletes make faster gains. For
it is not recommended to handle maximum poundage at every
instance,
workout session or to work at the same intensity at each workout.
Effective increase in training stress through variation of intensity is a
good practice to keep the muscle from becoming stagnant.
The maximum lift chart (table 4.1 ) helps athletes figure out the percent-
age of 1RM they need to work at on given workouts. Example: If an
athlete's maximum leg press is 250 pounds, you simply look up 250
pounds on the maximum lift chart. If you want the athlete to work at 65
percent of his maximum for a prescribed number of reps, scroll over to
65 percent down to the 250-pound line and you find that 65 percent of
250 pounds is 160 pounds.
42 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

^
IN in in in in in in in o in in m in m m in in m in
ri
ON GO CTv o CM in SO IN CO ON o
CM
rH
fN
CM
CM
CO
CM CM
in
CM

^ o § O
m o
s g o o ©
CN in in in in in in in in in in
Ov SO IN GO ON O fN CO in CO ON
CN Cn| CM
CO
CM CM CM

tf
CO CN
ON
in
IS
in
co
in
ON
o
o O
H
o O
tn
o -<*
in in
in
in
sD
in in
CO
in
ON
in
o O OCM
©
CO
©
CN CM CM CM CM

^
o o m m
t OV
in
sO e o
co
o
0>
o
o O H
in in
cm
in
m
in
-r m O
in
VO
o
co
o
ON o O
r- rH
in
CO
g CN CN CM CM

*
m tN
GO
O
sD
o o
co
©
ON
m
ON
m
o
in
r-
in o
co
o
-r
o
m in
in
in
sO
in in
co
in
ON § O
H O
CO
CM CN (M CM

^ o o o
in O o o O in
m o o o in
o © O
vO in in in in in in in
00 VO IN CO ON r- CO tn r* sO t> CO CO ON CN
CN CM

^ o o m © O o m o
IN CN
00
o
sD
in
sD
in
tN
in
CO ON
in
o ©
in
r- tn
Cn| m m
in sD
in
CO
o O
ON o
CM
in
o
in

^
o o o
o o O © o O O o ©
00 in in in in in in
00 R CO ON ON r- CN fO tn in sD
§ IN co ON ©
(N
rn
<N

£ m o © O m
ON IN
IN
o o
co co 0>
g O
o in
rH
in
fN tn T Q
in m o
in
sO
in
GO
©
ON
O
O
g
£
o ID
IN e
in
tN
o
co
o
ON
a
o O O o
CM
m
If)
CN
m in
-r
o
m in
in
m
so
O
CO
in
CO
in
ON
rH
H r- tn
r-t
H rr r- r- rH rH r- rn

fcS
rH £* in o in in © in O in m © m
s co 5 2 s SO g co GO
rH t^ SO co ON rH r- CO rt
| ^
^
cn o
IN
in
V0
O
t>
o
co
m ON
co o o O
© O in
r-
O
fM
in m
CO
O
rt
in in
in
o
sO
O in o
co
tH

# o m o o
IN o o O o O o o c ©
in in in in in
VO so t> t> co cF ON r- rH CM tn CO in in sD in
1
£ m in m
in
V© m osO
in
e o
CO CO
o
ON
o m © in
o o H
in o
CO
in
CO
in o m o
m in VO 8
^
m m m o m o m m
S o r- CN CM CO o
CN
VO
in o
in in
in
sO
o
IN
in
IN
©
CO
o
ON
in
Ov -<*
in o in
I
tf
o
VO
o
m o
in
in
in
o
sD
m O
sO t> 3
m
CO
o
ON
in
ON
o
c O
rr
m o
CN
in o
CO
o in ©
in
in
in

^
IN o O in
s
in O in m § in
o a
in in o in ©
1ft in sO so t> CO CO ON H r-
S CN
|
in

ID g
c in
m o
9
in o
m in
in
Q
sO
m
so R
in
IN
in
00
o
ON
m
ON o o O
o in rn
in o
CN
m
CM
o ©
CO 9
in
o
•j
6 £
a cn
m in in in m
m o in in o m o m c o ©
o in in o m o m
CO -t- NO NO g 00 CO 0> ON r- CM CO
rsiCO
01
E
o Sn
o o m
o o ©
in in o in o m in o in o in o in o in ©
H
a»
m co -t- in in NO g In CO CO ON ON rH rn CM CM co

X>
S
9 R o o o
o o o ro
o o o o o o o o o O O © m© s
1 H
-c GO -t in sO CO CM CO "HH

2 J CN CN CM CM CM CM
 Strength Training 43

^ o o
rH IN in in
X m
in o
o rH m m
o o o o o o
m m X
o B B om o
m o r- m
On ON
•
eM rsi rsi
ni
m CD in
m sC rn
Os
-r
3
-r

£ m O o g o
fN IT> IT, in
©
in in in
o in in
m p o o OO o
H o s
m X m
On in In GO On
ni rsi rn m en <* in
m m m sC
m ON
en
fN
-r

£
n o o m o o o ° o o B
s g o m
in in in in
CD
o o m
in
m in
m rn m m o
N© IN co CO ON s©
m m m 00
rsi r- Os.
fN fN m
rsi ni rsi en en 9 T
^
o m g o o m
<tf B o in
o
in ino o o o g o in in
m m m © X B
o> in v© co ON Os rj
ni ni m rsi rsi m m in m en
Os
m m ON
rn -r

£
Iff IN m in
m in o B m m m in o o o in m m
00 ©
m o
m H m X
rt 00 ON in v© os
m m tn
m m m en m IN
rsi
rsi rsi ni fn m
^ m in m
n© in
m o
o m ni o Os
o
§ in in in o o o o in in o
m m
© o r-
m mm m 3 © X
00 rt v© In
Cs| rsi N en
rsi en en m m fn m
£ c o o o g o in m
in fN IT,
m
in in
X in o o o in in in o
m ON m B m m
oo rj <* in s© ON r— rsi <* in N© IN
fN rsi m rsi en m en m m rn m
£
o m m
00 in
m O
m o g in
© o o o in m o o
o o in
m in o o©
m H
00 r- in in IN 00 ON ON <*
rj rsi rsi rsi ni rsi ni m cm
en
en
en m m infn m
* m o o in
<3\ IN in
O H
in o o in ing in o o in ino o
m N fM X X s m
IN tn-* insC ON r- eN r4
m tn in
rsi
rsi rsi ni m en en en m
*
o in S o
5 nj
H
in in g
m o m in o B OX m
X
in o in o o
o fn
m rn 3
In ri ni in V© Os r-
rH
m ni ni r4
rsi m rsi m en m fN m
tf
ts in o o m m o
in m g o X o m o 8 in
rH
rH fN a-
r-
5
ri
r—
rj
T-H m in
m
m rsi rsi
in
in
rsi
sO
n ni
in in
ON
eN
in
ON
fN
o m tn fM
m r- m
*
o 3 in in B in m B m m o in
m O o o o g
cm in in in
rH In
— o H
9 a- m H rsi
9
ri
rsi
rsi
in s© SO
m ni ni X
m 00
ON
fN
o
m fn rn
m
*
In o in o in o O in m g in in in in in in
\D 8 9 ON H
1 ri m en in in s© X g ON o
m
•— H rH ni eM rsi ni ni rsi ri fN fN

* m o in ON
o
i o r- o o o
in in in in in in in in
— — 8 9 m t m m X X
VD en in s© v©
rH •— rj R rsi ni rsini m m rsi fN fM
rsi

^
fN B in O B in in in o m o o in o in m in o
s©
— — 00
1-H — 9"
1 rj H eN ni m
o ni n4 ri N
in m
fN g
ni
rs»
fN
X
fM

* o
3 Q
X!
p in
IN
B
oo
m
co
o
ON
B in o
S o eN
in
r-
o o in
m m O in o
m O
© in
s© 1^.
r-i rsi ni n4 ri ni rsi fMri fN ni

* m o o O
IN
in m o
in in
sO
a B
X
in
00
in
X
in
ON
o in
o o ri
in g
m in
en
in
rt
in
in s©
m r-
Cs| rs| rj eN fN
-r
n4 m <N ni

*
m g m o o X X o
B o o in c o m o o
in in in in in in
1
O m ir, V© © IN ON o
r4
o
rl
H N ni
N
rsi
CM
m fN
ni
<*
fN
in
•w*
-—
'£
tf
B
a CM m s B m o m o in in
o o
in in Oin in
in 9 2;
sO X 00
z a- §
ri ni
H
rj CN m m
| nj
rsi fM
en
eM
E
— l-
o m m o o o o
o X X o
o
in in in in in in in in
-t H ft i m s© ©> IS O; ON o o
fN
I— r-
rsi
fM
fN
0)
-O
z £
3 ^ g B § B o om o o o X o
o s
m o
ON
o o o
n4 m O
o
5 8
m in
-rrsi sO
z 3 N rsi m en m en m m -r iff
44 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

£
X a
T— r^ H) Iff) LT, iff) LT, ir> LT. LT. LT. ir, Iff) LT. in in LT.
ON or 3*
q cj l»)
in
LT, X 9 V* in
-r -r LT. LT, LT. LT. ir, LT. iff) Iff) SO

^
cm in
On
LT, iff) LT.
X 3^
LT.

q
LT,
q o
m 3
-r
3 q LT. X g o
g o 3 LT.

-r LT. LT, LT. in LT, LT. in LT sO 3 3

LT.

$N
cn cm Iff) LT,
q
X q g a in LT, LT.
m t
LT. LT. LT. LT. in g g
ON ir,
-* t q
m LT. in LT, if) LT,
ir,
LT. LT. m 00
m
3^
in
5
£
o 3 g o 3 3 g
**
ON -TH)
Q lc, H)
X
LT.
o HI
— rj
Iff) LT.
X
-r -r <* -r in LT. ir. id LT. LT. in LT.

£
IN Q a X o
a o Q P
IT) LT. LT. LT. LT. LT. LT.
00 cn -r LT. a* i q ri in
-r -r -r -r LT. Iff) LT, LT. in m
£
q Q X 3 3 in
a eg g
sC in LT. LT. LT. in ir.
00 cj
-r
HJ
*t
-r LT. i>
-r
IN
<* LT.
rj
LT,
m
inir,
-r
in
B)
LT,

i*
tx cm a
X a
LT,
o
LT.
N Q
q m
LT. LT. o p g
X -r
X
LT. a o 3 LT.
00
CDm
-T
-r
LT. IN
-J-
g
LT. m in
in

£S
00 o
00
ir.
N G i a — LT. Iff)
rj
g q o
m LT. ir.
X
LT.
s a q
— rj
en en en-r -r in LT,

£ m q
a
a 3* a 3 q X o
g
as IS Iff) Iff) LT. LT. LT,
IN Iff) 9 -T LT. LT. IN 3^
q
m enCD en -r -r -r -T -r -r <* -r

£
m
o IT.
Q a X Q
LT,

q —
a o q
LT, Iff) 3 q q LT.
X X
LT,

m Nm en en q -t
1-1 IN "1" If) r> fir -rLT SO
m HI -r -r it -r -t

$
rH £* q a g g in H) a
q cn 5 m p
ir, LT. LT. LT. LT. LT.
rH t* (•3
en
«*
en
LT,
cn in
N
m IN
cn
X
m
3*
in
5 o
-r it
cn
T 1- ^t
in IN
-r

£
p q a g q p 3X X o g o — a o g
cm in LT, H) LT. LT. u) LT. Iff)

rH t^ m
in
-r in
cn in in
r>
m cn in
ON
cn -r -r -r -t-
in
-r
IT,
-r
iff)

-J-

8S
in 3
— cj a q LT.
g q H) p o X a g in 3 O
LT. in a g
SO
cn CD
in
m in
-1-
cn
LT.
in in
>3
in
r>
cn
00
cn en
3*
in
q q ri
-r
CM
it
in-r
-r

^
IT,
C 5
Iff)

3
LT.
rj
o
m -r
LT.
g
Hi
3 in
sO
m
IN X 3
3^
LT. in
3*
ino
a 5 —
LT.

m cn tn m in cn cn cn cn m en cn en -t-

^
CM a IT. LT. m q o
LT.
m cn
m
LT. H] o HI a O LT.
g
X
in g LT.
sC
cj m in cn m cn -r
cn
in
en en
40
in
r>
en in in
or
in
ON
en
q
-r
q
^
o
sC IN
Q LT.
3^ g
a a
3
o rj
LT. a
in
LT. in
cn
g
-t
a IT.
LT.
H)
q H) a o
00 X 3
H)
or
rj CJ rj m cn in cn m cn en in en cn in in cnen in in

^
IN n IN
a a
X rj
X
in g HI a
— H) o a
m q LT. H) q LT, o p H)
a cn
a cn m m
in 3^ r- CM -r H) H) so r>
cj rj m cn cn cn cn en en cn en m en

^
tfl

C in
in
LT,
ir. z
iff)
IN
a X q
X rj 3^
LT. LT.
3^
g
5
o LT.
q LT. O
in
LT.
cn
g
-r
in
<* h!
ir.
LT.
o cj cj rj rj CM m en en m en en cn in in
—
#

*-
v ^
a cm
in
D
-r
ir,
m q
LT. LT.
r>
g X g
X T4 3^
LT, in U)
a —
5 m
3 LT, o — o
cn
LT, in
cn
3
pi
In
rj cm CI CM CM m in en en cn cn cn

o o g q LT, 3 o g g a m a
LT. H)
M in -t in
LT,
LT, IN
LT.
IN 00
LT.
X 3^
Iff)
3* 5 in —
a cn r-i
sV cm cm cm rj rj rj CM c\ rj CJ in en cn cn
£>
6 o g g
3 £ g
3* g
5
a q o
in
q o
in sO
p q g
X in
3*
g a 3 en
5 — rj LT.

2 3 LT, LT. h) LT. H) in H) sC

LT.sO 3
 Strength Training 45

m o o o o o m
o m m
r-l IN in IT) in in in in in
On in
vO
nO
nO
in
NO
O
NO
O
IN
rH
IN
eN
IN
en
IN
in
N
NO
IN
co o H
CO GO
•
^ m
fN 1ft in in o O o 8 o o o
On
NO
en
nO nO
in
NO
in
IN
vO CO
ts
o. 5
GO

££
en CN
On
O
H O o o
CD in
m
in
in
no
in
in
in
CO
in
O o
O o o in in in in m in
(N es in x>
nO nO SO 3 NO NO NO N£> NO NO IN IN
r-i
IN IN ts

£
O m © m m
<*
o O o o o o o m
in in in in
on r- fN
in vO IN

# m
f m in in o o o o in o o m in in O o
00
m GO
inm o
o nO
rH
NO
eN
NO
en
NO NO
in
NO
m
NO
GO o o
NO
o
IN
rH
IN
m IN

£ o o m m in
no> in o o o
« * ^ m in o o
o o in in
N o
o
00 nC
ID m in CO
in NO NO NO NO NO NO
GO
NO NO IN IN

tf
IN fN o o o m ino o
O no o o o in in o O O
00 no
in
CO
m CO
in in
On
m no rH eN
no NO
in
NO
in
NO
NO
NO
IN
NO
CO
NO
o
NO

^
00 o
00
o
en
in
m
en
in
in
m m
o
IN
in
in
IN
in
moo
O ©
CO
in in no
in
fN
o
en
NO
o o
in
se NO
in
in
NO
in
NO
NO
8
N©

£ o o o
C7n t^
IN rH fN
in in
en
o o
rfin no
in
no
in
in
o
co
in
co
in
o o o
o NO
in in
fN
o
<n
o in
<*
in in in in in in in in in in in in NO NO NO NO NO

s£
O ITi
IN
o
© o
rH
m
in
iH
o
en
o
**
o
in
in
in
o
no
in
NO
o
CO
in
co
in
o o
o o m in
fN
o
en
rH
m in in in in in in in in in in NO NO NO NO NO

s£
r-l £* o m in o
o o m in
^ in o in ino oo in
r-l In 00 CO
in
en
in
en
in in
in
in
NO
in in
IN
in m o
GO
in NO
o
NO

# m m
fN p
IN 3 CO
in
ON
in
O o
en
o
rf
in
-r
in
in
o
NO
in
NO
m o
N CO
o
o
r-l
** in in in in in in in in m in in in in

tf
In
sC
in
rf
o
in
m
Q NO o
o in
o o in in o
en
in
m o oin
in
in
in
NO
9 in in in in in in in in in in in

*
m m
o O o S ° o o m o in o o in
in in in inin
\D en in in go o
m in
fN
in m m
fN
in in
9
in

tf
fN
v£>
in
i-h
o
fN
in o r* in in no
m
GO
o
o o o
in
o o r-i
in
-* m in in §
^
O
no
in
O o
o o
H
m in
eN
o
en
in o in o 8 in
IN
o
CO
in
GO o o
o o
in
o
en -<t -r 9 in in

tf
m o
in m O O m in m in in o
5 s
CO
m CO
en en en
eN <N en en in
9
NO IN
<*
GO

^
</)

C ir, o
CO
in
CO
Q in O m HI
o o o o H 8
in
rl
O
m
in
en
o in
-f
o
in
in
in
o
NO
o en en en en en m en -r -r -+ -r 9 9
-^
23 * m o o m
O o e o o o
o o o
a> fN in in in in in in
a
0)
ID **
en
m
en
in
en
NO
en en
in
en
00
m
in
CO
en
o
en 9 9
rH fN fN en <n
m
V4-,

o ^
o o m O o o o o in o
g in in in in
en en 9 m o
in in in NO x> In IN CO GO r^ fN
0) en en en en 1*5 en m en en «n en "5* Tt
X>
§
3 £ o o o
O o o
o eN m o IN
o o o o
8 GO o o o o o
nOt^ 8 NO r^ fN en <*
z nJ nOno 2 NO IN tN IN IN CO CO CO GO
46 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

ri IN it. LT. Ml in
in
in
X
LT. LT. o
o g o
P m ©
in
g 8 ©X o
in
Os
©
—
as
X -r
x mi X ao
SO
X X s?
X IN X c^ 9 9 9* o> 9 B> 9 3^ OS s
S
in © Ml in Ml Ml in in a O
LT. LT. © © in
CM — — MlLT.
X 8 8 8
ON
x X CM
X
en
ao X Ml
X X
IN
ao X X g CM en -r
OS 9 a- Os 9
£
en CM
g o o © in Ml
LT, o LT. © — © g © in LT.

X 3 ©
X X
1 i
in LT
X ao
CM
X X Ml X X X ts
X X X OS 3- 9
Ml
OS Os

&
o © q o © © z. a o
^ X o
LT. LT. inMl inLT. LT. in LT.
o> N
Is IN
os
IN
§
X X rj m
X ao
m
X X X XC IN
LT
X X
X X ©
9 9 9
CM CM
* Ml
OS

s£
in IS © 5 in in LT, © 8 o n in Ml in LT. in© © O inin
X 9
X XZ X X X ©
ao HI IN in OS OS
Is IN Is X X X X X X X X z
^
m o o g 3 m © © © 8
s© LT, a in IT. LT.
X
LT. in inin
ao mi
IN
in
IN
Z Is
IN IN IN
5 X X X
CM
X en
X -r 2
X X X X X X
X
£
t^ CM LT.
9
Ml
a — 8
o o © - in in -z.
X
LT.
X
in in
© q © m
n o in
ao in sO
X en
X X X Ml
LT.
IN IN IN X X X
£
o o © in o ©
ao © LT. in in
m in g P P Ml
X g i
in
00
1 i Z Is
Ml
IN r>
IN
X X X X m
CM
X
£ m a m © ©
crs In
^ LT,
LT. 8 X Z g
in
rj
g
Ml
g in in
in
in
X X i
Z SO In Is S IN Is. X
£ m p o o
o in © LT. LT. o o Ml
X o
LT. in Ml
o — ri
in LT.
S g Ml z.

S m
M] 0^ o> Ml -r sO IN X
lH t-N
3 -r
z z SO sO IN IN Is IN IN IN

rH
£
CM O in o a LT. o Ml LT. o in LT. © Ml in © ©
r* t^
2 § so so
LT. SO
SO SO
X or o ©
IN In
rj
Is
rj
IN
en
IN IN Is

£
o a a o o © Ml
p
CM
rH Is.
Ml
— in in
CM m
Ml
Ml
in
<* in Z
in
X
LT.
X
LT.
g in in
CM
! sO sC sO sO C z. sO sO 8 IN

^ o ©
X o
IN LT. LT. in in o
— in in a LT. LT. in LT. 3 LT. in in
z
LT.
I>
LT. m
o>
in 5 sO
CM
sO
Ml Ml
sO
-r
sO
in
sO
m Is
sO
X
sO
OS
SO
z
-z

j£
in
sO
in
LT,
LT.
Z
o X a
X in O
LT.
o
9 sO
in
o
LT.
rj
©
en
LT.
en
in
-r 8
in
Ml
in
sO 8 LT,
IN
Ml LT. in in in in sO sO so sO SO

^
CM
£ Ml LT.
mi
a
-r
in
<*
o
in
© in
sO
in
IN
Ml
X 9
in
§
LT. © in o
en
Ml
en
in
-r
LT. LT. LT. in in in in in m in in in sO so 3 sO sO sO

^
o o © © ©
s© — — a o
© LT.
m in
CD
©
-r
LT.
-? in
o
sO
in LT.
ts X OS
M] g in LT.
n
LT. in m
LT. m LT. Ml in in Ml LT. LT. in in in 3 5 sO so

!£
o o © m © o
X a q g
IN LT. Ml in Ml in LT. LT. in LT. in in
in
-r
9 9 o
-r -r in
o
in Ml LT.
CM
m m m
inin
-r
LT. LT.
in
in
sO
m Is
in Ml
IN
Ml
X
in
X
in in

01 ^ o o ©
s in
in
LT.
Is
©
X
in
ao
o
Os Z g
in
LT.
a o
P P
Ml
in
m «*
LT.
-T
g
LT.
in
Ml sO
in
sC N
o -r in LT. in Ml Ml
LT. in in LT LT m in in LT.

—
#

-
—
ai
a CM
in
in
5 § m
sO 8
Ml o
X X g
in Ml in
© © IT- ©
en
in
en —
ai
1 <*** -r
IN
<* -r
Br
-r Ml m Ml Ml Ml Ml in m
E
SIN
o o a o © o p © g © ©
LT. LT. in LT. in LT. in in in Z.
In m mi Ml Ml LT. SO SO X X 9 5 m ri
3 <* -r <* <* -r -r<* -r in in in LT.

Si
£ © ©
3 Z o o © a o P © P o
a g — —
s.
X s
Ml ao
X X X X © CM LT Z OS X 9 CM
9 5 p ©
en
© P
2 nJ 9 9 a* 0^ 0> OS
 Strength Training 47

THE OVERLOAD PRINCIPLE

For a muscle to get stronger, itmust be overloaded. The overload
principle simply means putting stress (amount of weight) on the muscle
greater than what it is used to. The game of baseball demands great
devotion of physical energies. Great players like Barry Larkin, Paul
Molitor, and Ozzie Smith view these mental and physical demands as
challenges, not as boring chores. The love and passion required to play
this g^me needs to be reflected in your preparation. For improvement to
occur in your workouts, you must impose a demand on the body system.
Studies have shown that baseball players should train at loads between
70 and 90 percent of their maximum for strength and speed to be
optimally increased. Loads greater than 90 percent produce no addi-
tional measurable strength and lead to shortened workouts due to early
"maxing out" or tiring. Anything less than 70 percent leads to the
increase in mass that athletes such as body builders and football players
work to achieve. These percentages should not be confused with cardio-
vascular exercise targets, which target heart rates.
Most of us are familiar with the immediate results associated with a
new program. Right from the start, your muscles feel firmer and
stronger. The motivation and the discipline are there, and the results
come quickly. But as the weeks pass, the progress starts to slow down.
The same workout that was once so motivating becomes boring. You
don't have the same zip or pep as in the beginning. Well, that same
feeling also applies to muscles after they repeat the same work day after
— 7
day they get "bored/ and their progress slows. As an analogy of this
process, think that every time you lift, you're breaking down muscle
fibers. These fibers are basic building blocks of the muscle. The rebuild-
ing of these fibers is what adds mass to the muscle and makes you
stronger. However, the body being the finely tuned, intricate machine it
is will use only the amount of muscle fibers necessary to complete the

job. Studies have shown that the body can adapt to new exercise routines
in as few as three or four workouts. Consequently, you need to con-
stantly shock your muscles with something they haven't done before.
Adaptation and exercise change will be discussed in chapter 11, Training
Programs.
48 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

RANGE OF MOTION AND

FULL LIFTING
MECHANICS
Wasted productivity is probably one of the biggest villains in the weight
—
room. I think we're all guilty of it the swinging of weights or exhibiting
bad mechanics when we try to lift too much weight. Baseball places
tremendous stress on joints and ligaments. Strong emphasis is on
throwing mechanics to help protect the shoulder girdle and elbow to
minimize this stress. So why would we want to go to the weight room
and defeat this whole protection process by lifting improperly?
In order to make them stronger and to take some stress off the tendons
and ligaments, muscles must be worked through a full range of motion.
Muscle contractions occur quite rapidly when the muscle is doing work.
But if we start to increase intensity without control or start moving the
weight faster than the muscle can contract, serious amounts of undue
stress are placed on joint areas. When momentum gets the better of the
athlete in the weight room, the joints rather than the muscle end up
taking the stress to try to control or stop the weight. This can easily cause
an injury.
Proper lifting mechanics lead to muscles being worked through a full
range of motion. A muscle that is strong through its full range is more
explosive and can generate more reactive power. Improper posterior
alignment such as hanging your head, hunching your shoulders, or
swaying your back shortens the spine and limits the range of motion in
joints and muscles. This places undue stress on ligaments, tendons, and
the lower back and again increases your risk of injury. Ballistic and
uncontrolled movements often associated with too heavy weights, poor
mechanics, and improperly prepared programs are not beneficial for or
conducive to becoming better baseball players.
If you've spent much time in weight rooms, you' ve seen those athletes

who approach weight training with lots of enthusiasm and brawn but
not much brain. We call them "danger rangers" because they are prime
candidates for a weightlifting injury caused by unskilled technique.
—
Don't you be a danger ranger give lifting the care and control it
deserves.
 Strength Training 49

CORE AREA
The abdominal muscles, back muscles, gluteals, hips, and chest and
shoulder muscles make up what we call the core area of the body. The
core is the main target area for athletic performance. These areas must be
well conditioned and strong for optimal performance. The primary
function of the core is to transfer force generated by the lower body to the
chest, shoulders, and arms, where the force is applied. The action and
strength of this core area contributes to over 50 percent of the force
generated in throwing and hitting. This area also stabilizes the trunk
area when running. Because of its great importance in baseball, weTl say
quite a bit about strengthening the core area. First, let's focus on the core
areas and core exercises that apply in the weight room.

Iliopsoas

Hamstrings Rectus femoris

Gastrocnemius

Quadriceps

Major leg and hip muscles.

 .

50 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

LEGS AND HIP REGION

The legs and hip region is undoubtedly the most important area for any
athlete involved in a movement sport. This region contains some of the
largest and strongest muscles in the body, including the muscle groups
at the front and back part of the legs known as quadriceps and ham-
strings. These groups drive the muscles of the gluteals area and hip
flexors, which serve like firing pistons in explosive movements such as
running and jumping. Development of these large muscle groups in the
body's power zone is best achieved through specific core exercises.

SQUAT
Unique and unparalleled in its position of eminence in athletic strength
training and conditioning, the squat is the king of all weightlifting
exercises and stands atop in its ability to maximize athletic potential. The
squat stimulates optimal physical growth and development by strength-
ening the body's power base (quadriceps, gluteals, hamstrings, and
abdominals). The biomechanics of the squat are similar to most power
thrust movements from the hip and thigh area in baseball. This powerful
thrust is required in running, jumping, throwing, and hitting.

Focus: The large muscle groups in the body's power zone —the lower
back, hips, buttocks, and thighs

Procedure:
1 Position the bar across the shoulders with the load distributed over
the mass of your back.
2. Position your hands comfortably about shoulder-width apart on
the bar.

3. Keep your head up, chest out, shoulders back, and back flat with
an arch at the base.
4. Keep your feet flat on the floor and spaced wider than shoulder-
width with your toes turned out slightly.
5. Slowly bend your knees and descend under control until your
upper legs are parallel to the floor with your back straight and your
butt thrust back. Now rise back up in an explosive but controlled
manner. If you're unable to squat completely parallel, go as far as
possible, always maintaining proper posture.
 Strength Training 51

Variations: You can also use dumbbells for resistance. Hold dumb-
bells at sides and squat.
Repetitions: 8 to 12 controlled, 3 to 4 sets

LUNGE
The lunge is an excellent core exercise work single-leg strength and
to
prevent strength imbalances. Several movements in baseball occur
away from the center of the body. Pitching, throwing, and hitting all
place the body with higher percentages of weight on a single leg at one
point due to the weight shift involved in these skills. Obviously, running
also involves single-leg control and strength.

Focus: Gluteals, hip flexors, quadriceps, hamstrings

Procedure:
1 . Use the same placement of bar and alignment of the chest, shoul-
der, and back as in the squat.
52 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

2. Step forward with one leg.

3. Bend your knee and lower your body down.

4. Keep chest behind your knee and your knee behind your ankle.

5. Explosively push back to starting position and then work other leg.

Variations: You can also use dumbbells for resistance. Hold dumb-
bells at sidesand lunge.
Repetitions: 8 to 12 controlled, 3 to 4 sets
 .

Strength Training 53

LEG PRESS

The leg press is a great exercise to alternate with the squat. It works the
entire hip, thigh, and buttocks area with less emphasis on the lower
back. The leg press is great for working the hip flexor region.

Focus: Quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteals

Procedure:
1 Me or sit with your back flat against the pad and your feet secure
against the platform.

2. Bend your knees and lower your weight slowly until your knees
are at about a 90-degree angle.

3. Press up explosively back to the starting position.

Repetitions: 8 to 12 controlled, 3 to 4 sets

 .

54 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

LEG EXTENSIONS

Leg extensions target the muscle group involved in any activity in which
the leg is extended, including running and jumping movements com-
mon in baseball.
Focus: Quadriceps
Procedure:
1 In a seated position, with your leg bent and feet secure against the
pads, extend your knee until your lower leg is parallel to the floor.

2. Slowly lower to the starting position.

Repetitions: 8 to 12 controlled, 3 to 4 sets

LEG CURL

Leg curls work the hamstrings, one of the most often injured muscles in
sports. It's necessary to allow sufficient time to increase strength in this
area. The hamstrings are crucial to the powerful contraction of leg
extensions and vital to all jumping and quick start movements.
Focus: Hamstrings
Procedure:
1 Lie face down with your legs extended and the backs of your heels
against the pads.

2. Grasp the handles to stabilize your body during the exercise.

3. Lift your legs upward until the back of the pads are touching your
buttocks.

4. Return to the starting position.

Repetitions: 8 to 12 controlled, 3 to 4 sets
 Strength Training 55

BACK REGION

The upper and lower back play key roles in baseball as they are involved
in all throwing and swinging actions. The back makes up a huge muscle
group that includes the rhomboids, latissimus dorsi, rotator cuff group,
trapezius, and rear deltoid. Neglecting this group will leave you weak
and open to injury. The muscles of the back provide the agonist/
antagonist balance for all major pressing and pulling actions.

Pectoralis major

Anterior
deltoid
Posterior deltoid

Latissimus dorsi

Quadriceps

Back and leg muscles used in hitting.

 .

56 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

LAT PULLDOWN
Focus: The upper portions of the latissimus dorsi (the muscles that fan
out from your arm pits to midback)
Procedure:
1 Grasp the lat pulldown bar with hands slightly wider than shoulder-
width apart.
2. Pull the bar straight down until it touches the front of your upper
chest.

3. Return to original position and repeat.

Variations: Use the same mechanics but pull down to the base of your
neck or lean back and pull to the bottom part of your chest.
Repetitions: 8 to 12 controlled, 3 to 4 sets
 .

Strength Training 57

GOOD MORNING BENDS

This exercise targets the lower back muscles, which are vital to hitting,
throwing, and balance.

Focus: Lower back region

Procedure:
1 Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and the barbell behind
your neck, resting on your shoulders.
2. Bend forward at the waist until your upper torso is parallel to the
As you bend forward, slightly bend your knees.
floor.

3. Return to starting position.

4. It's important to start with light weights. Do not jerk to assist
movement. Keep your head up at all times.

Repetitions: 8 to 12 controlled, 3 to 4 sets

 .

58 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

SEATED ROW
Focus: Lower back
Procedure:
1 Take a seated position with your knees slightly bent.
2. Grab the handle firmly and row to the chest area.

3. Straighten your back, pause, and return to the starting position.

Repetitions: 8 to 12 controlled, 3 to 4 sets

Abdominals
For a baseball player, strong abdominals are a must. Since baseball
involves rotational movements in the trunk and abdominal region, this
area must have exceptional strength. Strong abdominals also help
prevent lower back injuries. Train the abdominals often and their
recovery time will be minimal.
 Strength Training 59

MEDICINE BALL TOSS

Focus: Upper abdominals, lower back

Procedure:

1. Bend your knees at a 90-degree angle and have a partner lightly

stand on your toes.
2. From a lying position, holding the medicine ball, sit up with
abdominals contracted and toss the ball to your partner.
3. Catch the ball from your partner in an upright position.
4. With abdominals contracted, return to the starting position and
repeat the exercise.

Repetitions: 20 to 25 with a nine-pound medicine ball

60 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

JACKKNIFE SIT-UP

Focus: Abdominal wall and lower back

Procedure:
1. Lying on your back, bring your legs straight up to an L position.
2. With the medicine ball on your chest, press up to your toes,
bringing your shoulders off the ground.

3. Hold at the top for one second, then return to starting position and
repeat.

Repetitions: 20 to 25 with a nine-pound medicine ball

 .

Strength Training 61

RUSSIAN TWISTS

Focus: Oblique musculature (side abdominal muscles)

Proceedure:
1 With knees bent, grasp a medicine ball firmly and extend it out in
your chest.
front of

2. Bring your back off the ground about halfway toward your knees.

3. Hold this position and in a quick, controlled fashion rotate the

abdominals and trunk area.

Repetitions: 20 to 25 with a nine-pound medicine ball

 .

62 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

HEEL TOUCHES

Focus: Oblique musculature

Procedure:
1 Lie with your shoulders flat, knees bent, and heels together.
2. With both hands starting on the chest area, bring your shoulder
blades off the ground about six inches and hold this position.

3. With your right hand, reach around and touch your right heel and
return to your chest.

4. Proceed with your left hand to left heel.

Repetitions: 20 to 25

CHEST

The pectoral area plays an instrumental role in throwing and hitting and
is needed for keeping good balance with the back for good upper body

strength. Core presses that work the chest coupled with core upper back
exercises also greatly improve shoulder joint stability.
 Strength Training 63

BENCH PRESS
Focus: Chest area
Procedure:
1. Lie flat on a bench with your feet securely on the ground at either
side.

2. Grasp the bar with an overhand grip just a little wider than
shoulder-width.

3. Lower the bar with control to your chest, then press upward.

4. Variations include the incline bench press for the upper chest area
and the decline bench press for the lower chest.
Repetitions: 8 to 12, 3 to 4 sets
 .

64 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

DUMBBELL BENCH PRESS

This is a great variation of the traditional bench press. Dumbbells really

emphasize muscle balance.
Focus: Overall chest area

Procedure:
1 Lie flat on a bench with your feet secure on ground on either side.

2. Grasp the dumbbells with an overhand grip.

3. Balance each dumbbell and lower until parallel with your chest,
then press upward.
Variations: Try performing these with incline and decline bench posi-
tions.

Repetitions: 8 to 12, 3 to 4 sets

Strength Training 65
66 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

SHOULDER

The shoulders make up a very large and powerful muscle group that
assists in almost all upper body movements. The deltoid and rhomboid
muscles that make up the bulk of the shoulder area are powerful, dense
muscles seldom injured in baseball. It's the smaller muscle groups in the
rotator cuff area that are more susceptible to injury.
The shoulder joint area is one of the most complex regions of the body
because it's able to perform multiple movements, which is quite amaz-
ing for a joint with minimal stability. Sports like baseball that involve
repetitive motions from this area increase chances of injury to the
shoulder region. You should have a sound understanding of this area
before working here to increase strength. Movements of the shoulder
girdle include

adduction/abduction —horizontally, laterally, vertically;

internal /external rotation; and

flexion / extension.

The shoulder will perform many other movements, but these are the
main areas we're concerned with. The muscles of the shoulder girdle
conform around the scapula, a bone much like a small shallow saucer.
The scapula allows for extreme range of motion. However, because of
this freedom, the ligaments that keep the shoulder in place are relatively
weak compared to the ligaments that help keep the hip in place. Stability
comes from muscles and tendons running across the joint and a small
rim of cartilage that increases the depth of the socket. These must be
maintained with flexibility and strength work to help prevent injury.
Large muscles in the shoulder area and the arm, deltoid rhomboid,
triceps, biceps, and latissimus dorsi help to stabilize the shoulder.
Four small but very important muscles that make up the rotator cuff
along with their tendons are the subscapular, supraspinous, infra-
spinous, and teres minor. This group is located on the rear of the scapula
or shoulder blade. Neglecting these small muscle groups in a strength-
training program would be detrimental to a baseball player. Common
imbalances of front deltoid muscles and the weakness of these small
muscles is one of the major reasons for chronic and acute arm problems.
These muscles cannot be isolated through conventional shoulder
exercises. To maximize conditioning of this area, you need to use specific
 Strength Training 67

exercises with light weights and tubing. We strongly recommend that

baseball players warm up this area before starting their weight program.
Do the tubing exercises for the shoulder three to four times a week as part
of your warm-up before weight training. As we approach the core
exercises for the shoulder, you'll see that we avoid heavy weight
pressing specifically for the shoulder. As mentioned before, the shoulder
area is involved in almost all upper body movements, so it gets its fair

share of the work. We want to avoid the big imbalance often achieved
between the front deltoid and the posterior deltoid.
68 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

jilb

Shoulder Joint Warm-Up Tubing Exercises

External rotation at 0-degree abduction: Standing with the

involved elbow flexed 90 degrees at your side and the involved
arm across the front of your body, grip the tubing handle with the
other end of the tubing fixed straight ahead, and pull with your
arm, keeping your elbow at your side. Return tubing slowly, with
control.
Internal rotation at 0-degree abduction: Stand with your elbow
at your side flexed 90 degrees and your shoulder rotated out. Grip
the tubing handle with the other end of the tubing fixed straight
ahead, and pull your arm across your body, keeping your elbow at
vour side. Return tubing slowly, with control.
External rotation at 90-degree abduction (slow): Stand with
your shoulder abducted 90 degrees and your elbow flexed 90
degrees. Grip the tubing handle with the other end of the tubing
fixed straight behind and, keeping your shoulder abducted, rotate
your shoulder back, keeping your elbow at 90 degrees. Return
tubing and hand to start position slowly, with control.
Internal rotation at 90-degree abduction (slow): Stand with
your shoulder abducted to 90 degrees, externally rotated 90 de-
grees, and elbow flexed 90 degrees. Grip the tubing handle with the
other end of the tubing fixed straight behind. Keeping your shoul-
der abducted, rotate the shoulder forward, keeping your elbow at
90 degrees. Return tubing and hand to start position slowly, with
control.
Diagonal pattern (Dl) flexion: Gripping tubing handle in the
hand of the involved arm, begin with your arm out from your side
45 degrees and your palm facing backward. After turning your
palm forward, flex your elbow and bring your arm up and over the
uninvolved shoulder. Turn your palm down and reverse to take
your arm to starting position. Perform this exercise with control.
Diagonal pattern (D2) flexion: With the involved hand, grip the
tubing handle across your body and against the thigh of your
opposite-side leg. Starting with your palm down, rotate the palm
up to begin. Proceed to flex elbow and bring your arm up and over
the involved shoulder, with your palm facing inward. Turn the
palm down and reverse to take your arm to starting position.
Perform this exercise with control.
 Strength Training 69

Diagonal pattern (D2) extension: The involved hand grips the

tubing handle overhead and out to the side. Pull the tubing down
and across your body to the opposite side of your leg. During the
motion, lead with your thumb.
Repetitions: 15 to 20 for each arm for each exercise

SHRUGS
Focus: Entire shoulder area

Procedure:
1. Hold a barbell or dumbbells
with an overhand grip ex-
tended down in front of your
body.

2. Lift your shoulders up in a

circular motion.

3. Lower and repeat motion.

Repetitions: 10 to 15, 3 to 4 sets
 .

70 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

LATERAL RAISE

Focus: Medial head of deltoid

Procedure:
1 Grasp a dumbbell extended down by your side with an overhand
ri
g P-

2. Raise the dumbbells laterally to shoulder height with your arms

parallel to the ground and your palms facing down. Keep your
elbows soft or slightly bent to reduce elbow stress.

3. Lower back to your side and repeat.

Repetitions: 10 to 15, 3 to 4 sets
 Strength Training 71

DUMBELL MILITARY PRESS

Focus: Entire shoulder area

Procedure:

1. Seated on a bench with back support, start with the barbell at the
top of your chest area.

2. Press the bar above your head, not quite locking your arms.

3. Lower the weight and repeat.

Variations: You can also do this exercise with a dumbbell. To perform

a behind-the-neck press, lower the weight behind your head to the
base of your neck and extend up.
Repetitions: 10 to 15, 3 to 4 sets
72 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

AUXILIARY MUSCLES

—
So far we've focused on the core area of the muscles the legs, back,
abdominals, chest, and shoulders. Now we'll turn our attention to the
smaller, secondary muscles of the upper body: the biceps, triceps, and
forearms. Building these muscles appeals to many young lifters who
want to acquire the "big guns" of a Juan Gonzales or Jose Canseco. Yet,
young players need to be reminded that such arms are built over years
of intense conditioning and training and that as impressive as arm size
can be, what's more important is to achieve optimal proportions and
—
strength throughout the core region this is where Gonzales's and
Canseco's power really comes from. The smaller muscle groups alone
provide a minimal amount of power. Rather, these smaller muscle
groups assist the larger muscles when lifting and playing baseball.

Trapezius

Biceps Pectoralis major

Deltoid

Latissimus dorsi

Tensor fasciae latae

Gluteus maximus

Hamstrings

Gastrocnemius

Soleus

Muscles used in midswing.

 Strength Training 73

Trapezius

Deltoid

Triceps

Serratus anterior

External oblique

Gastrocnemius
Soleus

Muscles used at end of swing.

When the core area is worked in a strength-training program, the small

muscles also receive quality amounts of work. For this reason, when
planning a workout, the multijoint or core exercises should be per-
formed first, followed by the single joint (secondary) exercises. Because
if you perform triceps extensions before the bench press, for example,

you will not be able to handle as much weight on the bench press. The
secondary exercises, such as triceps extensions, are usually single-joint
movements that isolate a particular muscle group. They are very taxing
to a particular muscle and will decrease that muscle's work output when
you need it to assist the larger muscles. We recommend a combination
of multijointand single-joint exercises. Below are some auxiliary exer-
cises for good body balance. Incorporating these exercises into your
workouts will be discussed in the Combination Training Drills chapter
(chapter 10).
 .

74 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

CALF RAISES

Calf raises along with the leg extension and leg curl exercises presented
earlier help strengthen the auxiliary muscles of the leg and hip region.
Focus: Calves
Procedure:
1 . Place the front half of your feet on a raised platform with your feet
shoulder-width apart.
2. Raise up on your toes, squeezing your calf muscles at top.

3. Return to starting position. This exercise can be varied to hit

by pointing toes out or in.
different parts of the calf

Repetitions: 20 to 30, 3 to 4 sets

PREACHER CURLS

Focus: Biceps

Procedure:
1 Seated at the preacher bench with a bar held in an underhand grip,
—
extend your arms straight down do not lock your elbows.
2. Slowly raise the bar to your shoulders.
3. Return to starting position
Repetitions: 8 to 12, 3 to 4 sets

STANDING STRAIGHT BAR CURLS

Focus: Biceps

Procedure:
1 Stand with your feet shoulder- width apart grasping the bar with
an underhand grip.
2. Begin with your arms extended below your waist and slowly lift

the weight up to your shoulders by bending your elbows.

3. Slowly return to starting position, being careful not to lock your
elbows.

Repetitions: 8 to 12, 3 to 4 sets

 Strength Training 75

^ V'-ft-^ "

* <
 .

76 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

ALTERNATING DUMBBELL CURLS

Focus: Biceps

Procedure:
1 Sit or stand with your feet together and knees slightly bent, with a
dumbbell in each hand in an underhand grip at your sides.

2. Slowly raise one dumbbell in front of your body to your shoulder,

keeping your elbow tight to your body.
3. Slowly return to starting position and repeat with your other arm.
Repetitions: 8 to 12 each side, 3 to 4 sets
 .

Strength Training 77

LYING TRICEPS EXTENSIONS

Focus: Triceps

Procedure:
1 Lying on a bench, grasp a bar in an overhand grip slightly less than
shoulder-width apart and raise the weight directly above your
chest so your arms are straight. Do not lock your elbows.

2. Keeping your elbows stationary, bend your arms and lower your
hands to your forehead.
3. Return to starting position.
Repetitions: 8 to 12, 3 to 4 sets
78 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

TRICEPS PUSHDOWN
Focus: Triceps

Procedure:

1. Standing with your feet shoulder-width apart, grasp a bar in an

overhand grip. Keeping your elbows tight to your body, push the
—
bar straight down so your arms are extended do not lock your
elbows.

2. Keeping vour elbows stationary, bend your arms until the bar
reaches your lower chest.

3. Return to starting position

Repetitions: 8 to 12, 3 to 4 sets

 Strength Training 79

TRICEPS KICKBACKS

Focus: Triceps
/ Procedure:

/ 1. Standing with your feet

shoulder-width apart, knees
slightly bent and leaning
forward, hold a dumbbell in
each hand in an overhand
'.-.-^ gri P-
2. With your back straight and
the dumbbell held at a 90-
degree angle at the side of
your body with your elbow
up, extend your arm straight
back, keeping your elbow
stationary.

Z 3. Return to starting position.

Repetitions:
3 to 4 sets
8 to 1 2 on each side,
 .

80 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

WRIST ROLLS

Focus: Forearms
Procedure:
1 Stand with a free weight attached to a bar held in an overhand grip
in front ofyour body with your arms straight.
2. Slowly lower the bar moving your wrists only.
3. Return to starting position.
Repetitions: 15 to 20, 3 to 4 sets

HAMMER STRENGTH WORK

Focus: Forearms and biceps
Procedure:
1. preacher bench with a dumbbell in each hand in an
Sit at a
overhand grip with your knuckles facing in. Extend your arms
straight down.
2. Slowly raise both dumbbells until touching your shoulders.
3. Return to starting position.
Repetitions: 8 to 12, 3 to 4 sets

BARBELL WRIST CURLS

Focus: Forearms
Procedure:
1 Sit with arms resting on knees and a barbell held in an underhand
ri
g P-

2. Slowly lower the bar moving your wrists only.

3. Return to starting position.
Repetitions: 15 to 20, 3 to 4 sets
 CHAPTER

APPLICATION
OF STRENGTH
TRAINING

If you look back on the history of

weight-training programs, you'll find that most methods were designed
by power lifters, Olympic lifters, and body builders. But we understand
as baseball players that we will not be effective if we train the same way
a body builder or power lifter does —the demands of our sport are far
different. Nonetheless, it will help us to know the various training
7
methods and systems these athletes use. Lifters proven track records of
manipulating training variables and the muscle to bring optimal gains
in size and strength are second to none.
We return to a question many have asked us: "What is a good strength-
training program for my team or athlete?" There's no one answer to this
question. Coaches and trainers need to understand various methods to
help them choose the best program for their baseball players. Maximum
gains in strength and size involve mixing various training programs and
manipulating the weights and exercises accordingly.

81
82 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

The biggest problem with most conditioning programs is that they fall
into a rut of one training system.Coaches forget about the specific needs
analysis of certain athletes and apply a single system to the whole team
for the duration of the season. This is a major mistake, as it inevitably
leads to below-maximum gain everyone and does not address the
for
individuals' particular needs. Working within one system, players tend
to lose focus quickly, and their muscles adapt to the training, leading to
plateaus in strength gains. As discussed in chapter 4, for continuous
improvement, workouts must impose a demand and a consistent change
on the body system. Let's look at the different training methods and
systems used most commonly to build strength and power.

CIRCUIT TRAINING

Circuit training along with multipurpose work stations became a popu-

lar and convenient form of training in themid 1970s. Circuit training
involves a series of weightlif ting exercises performed one after the other
with minimal rest (15 to 30 seconds) between exercises. The goal of the
circuit program is to improve your cardiovascular condition and muscle
mass. The limited rest between exercises allows the heart rate to remain
elevated for the duration of the routine. This program's added appeal is
that it's very efficient with large numbers of athletes or under time
constraints.
With the rapid succession of exercises, the resistance is fairly low, at 40
to 70 percent of one's maximum. As you'll recall, this percent 1RM range
builds muscle size rather than targeting improved strength. If circuit

training is your only feasible means of weight training, then by all means
do it. However, we do not recommend this method of training as your
principal system. Except for the beginning of the strength phase (first

two weeks), circuit training will not give you the strength gains you're
looking for. The main reason for incorporating a circuit-training routine
in baseball conditioning is to add variety to your workouts.
Circuit training is most effective during the in-season phase of your
training cycle. It's a great method to incorporate into heavy core pro-
grams when working auxiliary muscles, as discussed in chapter 4.
Circuit training can also be incorporatedall through your conditioning

program segments to change or work small muscle groups. Large

in
muscle groups cannot be worked in the circuit method, as they need
proper rest to recuperate in order to work at the high levels needed for
 Application of Strength Training 83

maximal strength gains. Again we come back

to the percent 1RM
necessary for optimal strength gains. Circuit training does not work
above 70 percent 1RM, where strength increases noticeably occur.
Greater size alone is not going to enhance your game as a baseball player.
Table 5.1 provides a sample circuit schedule.

Table 5.1 Sample Circuit Schedule: Weeks 1-2

Primary training focus: Muscle adaptation to training

and muscle endurance

No. of
Muscle group Exercise Sets/reps % max. days Intensity

Chest (choose from 2-3/10-12 70 3 Low

exercise option
chart)

Legs 2-3/10-12 70 3 Low

Back 2-3/10-12 70 3 Low
Back 2-3/10-12 70 3 Low
Shoulders 2-3/10-12 70 Low

Auxiliary circuit

Biceps 2-3/10-12 70 3 Low

Abdominals 2-3/20-25 — 3 Low
Triceps 2-3/10-12 70 3 Low

MULTIPLE-SET SYSTEM

Most programs use a variation of the multiple-set principle.

training
This method calls for two to three warm-up sets of increasing weight,
followed by three to four sets of the same prescribed weight. Five to six
reps per set offer optimal gains using this system. This is a very good
method to employ when working the core area.
84 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

Multiple-set training is implemented by focusing on two to three

best
on Monday you
target areas per circuit training workout. For example,
might do chest and leg work, on Wednesday shoulder and back exer-
cises, and on Friday triceps, abdominals, and back work (see table 5.2).

Table 5.2 Sample Multiple-Set Training Table

Day/muscle No. of sets % No. of sets % fixed

group Exercise warm-up warm-up fixed work work

Monday
Chest 3-4 3-4
50-60 80-85
Leg 3-4 3-4

Monday
Chest

Leg

Wednesday
Shoulders 3-4 3-4
50-60 80-85
Biceps 3-4 3-4

Wednesday
Shoulders

Biceps

Friday
Back 3-4 3-4
50-60 80-85
Triceps 3-4 3-4

Friday
Back

Triceps

Note: This can be incorporated into the power or specific power-training

phases for a portion of the prescribed number of weeks.
 Application of Strength Training 85

Super Setting
—also called the "beach
You're likely familiar with the super set method
biceps" workout —in which you rush into the weight room and start
doing consecutive sets of various curl exercises to get the instant pump
on your biceps. You conclude your workout by rolling up your sleeves
and walking out of the gym, hoping someone will notice. The idea
behind super setting is to work a muscle group more intensely by
challenging it with at least two different exercises performed in succes-
sion. The initial exercise exhausts the muscle, then the second one places
a new demand on it, making it work harder. While this is one of the best
86 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

methods for increasing muscle size (but not maximum strength), the
merit of super setting for baseball players is to help break up tedious
workout ruts and really shock the muscle. A different type of stimulation
to the muscles from time to time is healthy for muscle and strength
growth. After the initial strength phase of your program is completed,
we recommend doing super sets every three to four weeks in your
training cycle. This adds variety and a new challenge for your muscles.
Use super sets for one whole body revolution.
Example: Monday — Legs and back
Wednesday —Chest and biceps
Friday — Triceps and shoulders

Push-Pull Method
A great method to train opposing muscle groups, both large and small,
is the push-pull method.Opposing muscle groups include upper back
and and biceps, and the lower back and abdominals. Try
chest, triceps
using this method along with multiple-set training to maximize the
work to large muscles on heavy training days. You can divide the core
area into various body parts and hit both parts hard without the fatigue
factor affecting or diminishing the work for the other part. This tech-
nique has an injury prevention benefit, as well. When you work oppos-
ing muscle groups together, you stretch one muscle group while the
other works. Studies have shown this method can help prevent exces-
sive stress and strain of the muscle.
The harmony of the muscle groups working together is also great for
maximal strength gains. The push-pull is a very efficient method for
large muscle groups and provides opportunity for high amounts of
work for the core area in less time. An example of the push-pull method
is working the chest and back together. Working the chest pushes your

arms away from your body. The back is then worked with a pull that
brings your arms toward your body. You should use this method with
all opposing muscle groups using a variety of combinations. For ex-

ample, pull with your biceps and push with your triceps; pull with your
back and push with your shoulders; and so on.

Pyramid Program
The pyramid program, which has several variations, is one of the most
widely used training methods today and is believed to be the best
system for increasing strength. We practice the pyramid system for the
 Application of Strength Training 87

majority of our strength training program (60 to 70 percent). Two basic

objectives of the pyramid system are increasing the intensity of each lift
while decreasing the number of repetitions.
The pyramid is set up to overload the muscles as much as possible with
the fewest number of reps. Your pyramid can be set up to meet any
number of repetitions as long as the weight is being increased. In our
program, we usually cap our pyramid with 3-rep maximums. A pyra-
mid starts with a set of light weight of 10 to 12 repetitions. With each set,
the weight is increased and repetitions are decreased until you reach
your prescribed maximum. Then you work your way back down the
pyramid, decreasing the weight. Finish with a set of 10 to 12 repetitions.
A full pyramid consists of both the upward climb of the pyramid and the
descent of the pyramid.

PERIODIZATION

In chapter 1 we explained the periodization phases for baseball, which

include regeneration, strength, power, specific power, preseason, and
in-season. Table 5.3 is a chart. Use this program
sample periodization
Remember, you can use this as
chart to periodize your training seasons.
a guideline for the number of weeks available to you or your team. For
percentages, see table 4.1, the Maximum Lift Chart, on pages 42-46 in
chapter 4.

Table 5.3 Periodization Table

Phase No. of days/ No. No. %max. Intensity No. of

week of sets of reps weeks

Regeneration 3-5 NA NA NA Low 3-8

Strength 3 3 10-12 70 Low 2

Power 3 3-4 6-8 80-85 High 4

Specific power 3 4 1-4 85-90 Very high 2-3

Preseason 2-3 2 12-15 65-70 Low 1-2

In-season 2-3 2 12-15 65-70 Low Season

88 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

Use table 5.4 as a guide to identify specific muscle groups and areas.
Use table 5.5 to identify specific exercises with muscle groups.

Table 5.4 Specific Areas and Muscle Groups

Focus area Primary muscle groups

Legs- -front Quadriceps group:

•Vastus lateralis •Vastus medialis
•Vastus intermedius • Rectus femoris
Adductor group
Abductor group
Legs- -back Hamstrings group:
•Biceps femoris •Semitendinosous
Gluteus group
Back Latissimus dorsi
Middle and lower trapezius
Rhomboid
Spinal erector

Chest Pectoralis major

Anterior deltoid
Pectoralis minor
Shoulders Upper trapezius
Anterior deltoid
Pectoralis minor

Focus area Secondary muscle groups

Arms Biceps
Triceps
Forearm
Calves Gastrocnemius
Soleus

Table 5.5 Exercise Option Chart

Focus Core/major lift Secondary/complementary

lift

Legs Leg press Leg curls

Squats Leg extensions
Lunges Calf raises

(continued)
 Application of Strength Training 89

Focus Core/major lift Secondary/complementary

lift

Hack squat Adductor machine

Step-ups Abductor machine

Back Seated row One-arm rows

Lat pulldown Pull-ups
Bent-over row Back extensions
Good morning bends

Chest Bench press Dumbbell bench press-

Inclinebench press flat /incline
Decline bench press Dumbbell fly-
flat/incline
Pec dec
Push-ups

Shoulder Shoulder press Front deltoid raise

Shrugs Side deltoid raise
Plate raises Rear deltoid raise

Arms Biceps curl-barbell Triceps pushdowns

Dumbbells curl- Triceps kickbacks
incline/seated
Preacher curl Triceps extensions
Concentration curl Seated dips
Hammer curl Wrist rolls

Abdominals Medicine ball toss

Jackknife sit-ups
Russian twists
Heel touches

Weight-Training Guidelines to Prevent Injury

1. Avoid incorrect technique. The most common injuries dur-

ing weightlifting are caused by incorrect technique. When lifting
weights, work to become as proficient and precise as possible when
performing the exercises.
2. Use the right amount of weight. The higher you go up in
weight, the higher the risk potential of injury. Proper control of the

(continued)
90 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

weight as you lower it and push it up must be maintained within

its biomechanical boundaries at all times.

3. Avoid overtraining. Overtraining affects the body's overall

level of strength and conditioning. Proper rest to restore the body's
energy sources will help in the recovery and growth phases of
training.

4. Warm up and stretch properly. Proper warm-up and stretch-

ing help to relax and elongate the muscle and make it alert
neurologically and more pliable and less susceptible to injury.

5. Eat nutritiously. Heavy training accompanied by improper

dieting can also lead to injury. Remember proper nutrition is the
fuel for growth, strength, and energy.

6. Concentrate. You need to stay focused. Allowing yourself to

be distracted or preoccupied during a workout is an invitation to
injury. Focus on your training and train smart.

Strength Phase
The strength phase is designed to reacquaint your body to strength
training (see table 5.6, a-b). This phase is crucial, as it is the foundation
ofyour overall strength-building program. Note that during the first
two weeks a total body format is used. These two weeks help serve as a
muscle conditioner stage and prepare the body with six lifts before the
power phase, when the body will be broken into smaller body segments
for the subsequent workouts.

Table 5.6a Sample Strength Phase Chart: Week 1

Day/ Station No. of

week 1 Exercise no. sets Reps % max.

Monday Bench press 1 3 15,12,10 See table

5.3.

Squats 2 3 15,12,10

Biceps curls 3 3 13,12,10

Lateral raise 4 3 15,12,10

Lat pulldown 5 3 15,12,10

(continued)
 Application of Strength Training 91

Table 5.6a Sample Strength Phase Chart: Week 1 (continued)

Day/ Station No. of

week 1 Exercise no. sets Reps % max.

Triceps press 6 3 15, 12, 10

Wednesday Incline bench press 1 3 15, 12, 10

Leg press 2 3 15, 12, 10

Straight bar curls 3 3 15,12,10

Shoulder press 4 3 15, 12, 10

Pull-ups 5 3 15, 12, 10

Triceps pushdowns 6 3 15, 12, 10

Friday Dumbbell
bench press 1 3 15, 12, 10

Lunges 2 3 15, 12, 10

Preacher curls 3 3 15, 12, 10

Shrugs 4 3 15, 12, 10

Seated rows 5 3 15, 12, 10

Triceps kickbacks 6 3 15, 12, 10

Table 5.6b Sample Strength Phase Chart: Week 2

Day/ Station No. of

week 2 Exercise no. sets Reps % max.

Monday Step-ups/ 1 3 15, 12, 10 See table

leg extension 5.3.

Incline curls/ 2 3 15,12,10

wrist rolls

Lat pulldown/ 3 3 15,12,10

seated rows

Bench press/ 4 3 15,12,10

pec dec

(continued)
92 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

Table 5.6b Sample Strength Phase Chart: Week 2 (continued)

Day/ Station No. of

week 2 Exercise no. sets Reps % max.

Monday Shrugs /rear deltoid 5 3 15,12,10 See table

5.3.

Pushdowns/ 6 3 15,12,10
kickbacks

Wednesday Squats /leg curls 1 3 15, 12, 10

Russian twist/ 2 3 25, 25, 25

heel touches

Forearms 3 3 25, 25, 25

One-arm rows 4 3 15,12,10

Triceps extension 5 3 15,12,10

Friday Dumbbell bench

press 1 3 15, 12, 10

Lunges /leg 2 3 15,12,10

extension

Preacher curls 3 3 15,12,10

Shrugs 4 3 15,12,10

Seated rows 5 3 15, 12, 10

Abdominals 6 3 15,12,10

Power Phase
The power phase focuses on increasing strength and power. Specific
muscle groups used in baseball such as the gluteals, shoulders, and arm
muscles are targeted during this phase. Specific body parts are worked
on certain days (add weight accordingly). Follow the program chart
(table 5.7, a-e) for the specific power phase and preseason phase. For
weeks 4 through 7, see table 5.5, the Exercise Option Chart, for choice of
exercises. Additional abdominal exercises are presented in chapter 9.
 Application of Strength Training 93

Table 5.7a Sample Power Phase Chart: Week 3

Day/ Station No. of

week 3 Exercise no. sets Reps % max.

Monday Bench press 1 3 10,8,6 See table

5.3.

Pec dec 2 3 10,10,8

%
Squats 3 3 10,8,6

Leg curls 4 3 10,10,8

Bar dips 5 3 10, 10, 10

Abdominal work 6 3 10,10,8

Forearm work 7 3 25, 25, 25

Leg press 8 3 25, 25, 25

Wednesday Seated rows 1 3 10,8,6

One-arm rows 2 3 10, 10, 8

Preacher curls 3 3 10,10,8

Seated dumbbell
curls 4 3 10,10,8

Lat pulldown 5 3 10, 10, 8

Hammer curls 6 3 10,10,8

Abdominal work 7 3 25, 25, 25

Friday Dumbbell
military press 1 3 10, 8, 6

Side lateral raise 2 3 10, 10, 8

Triceps extension 3 3 10, 8, 6

Triceps kickbacks 4 3 10,8,6

Shrugs 5 3 15,12,10

Triceps pushdowns 6 3 10,10,8

Abdominal work 7 3 25, 25, 25

Forearm work 8 3 25, 25, 25

94 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

Table 5.7b Sample Power Phase Chart: Week 4

Day/ Station No. of

week 4 Exercise no. sets Reps 7c max.

Monday Legs: core lift 1 3 10, 8, 6 Seetable

5.3

Legs: auxiliary 2 3 10,10,8

Shoulders: core 3 3 10,8,6

Shoulders:
auxiliary 4 3 10,10,8

Legs: core lift 5 3 10, 10, 10

Shoulders:
auxiliary 6 3 10,10,8

Forearm work 7 3 25, 25, 25

Abdominal work 8 3 25, 25, 25

Wednesday Chest: core lift 1 3 10, 8, 6

Chest: auxiliary 2 3 10,10,8

Biceps: core 3 3 10,10,8

Biceps:
auxiliary 4 3 10,10,8

Abdominal work 3 3 25, 25, 25

Friday Back: core 1 3 10,8,6

Back: auxiliary 2 3 10,10,8

Triceps 3 3 10,8,6

Triceps 4 3 10,8,6

Back: core 5 3 15,12,10

Triceps 6 3 10,10,8

Abdominal work 7 3 25, 25, 25

Forearm work 8 3 25,25,25

 Application of Strength Training 95

Table 5.7c Sample Power Phase Chart: Week 5

Day/ Station No. of

week 5 Exercise no. sets Reps % max.

Monday Legs: core lift 1 3 8,8,6 See table

5.3.

Legs: auxiliary 2 3 10, 10, 8

%
Shoulders: core 3 3 8,8,6

Shoulders:
auxiliary 4 3 10,10,8

Legs: core lift 5 3 10, 6, 6

Shoulders:
auxiliary 6 3 10,10,8

Forearm work 7 3 25, 25, 25

Abdominal work 8 3 25, 25, 25

Wednesday Chest: core lift 1 3 8,8,6

Chest: auxiliary 2 3 10,10,8

Biceps: core 3 3 10, 6, 6

Biceps:
auxiliary 4 3 10, 10, 8

Abdominal work 5 3 25, 25, 25

Friday Back: core 1 3 8,8,6

Back: auxiliary 2 3 10,10,8

Triceps 3 3 10,6,6

Triceps 4 3 10, 8, 6

Back: core 5 3 8,8,6

Triceps 6 3 10, 10, 8

Abdominal work 7 3 25, 25, 25

Forearm work 8 3 25, 25, 25

96 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

Table 5.7d Sample Power Phase Chart: Week 6

Day/ Station No. of

week 6 Exercise no. sets Reps % max.

Mondav Legs: core lift 1 3 8, 8, 6 See table

5.3.

Legs: auxiliary 2 3 10,10,8

Shoulders: core 3 3 8,8,6

Shoulders:
auxiliary 4 3 10,10,8

Legs: core lift 5 3 8,8,6

Shoulders:
auxiliary 6 3 10,10,8

Forearm work 7 3 25,25,25

Abdominal work 8 3 25,25 ?5

Wednesday Chest: core lift 1 3 8,8,6

Chest: auxiliary 2 3 10,10,8

Biceps: core 3 3 8,8,6

Biceps:
auxiliary 4 3 10,10,8

Abdominal work 5 3 25, 25, 25

Friday Back: core 1 3 8,8,6

Back: auxiliary 2 3 10,10,8

Triceps 3 10,8,6

Triceps 4 3 10, 8, 6

Back: core ? 3 8,8,6

Triceps 6 3 10,10,8

;
Abdominal work 7 3 _- 25

z
Forearm work 8 3 5 :
 Application of Strength Training 97

Table 5.7e Sample Power Phase Chart: Week 7

Day/ Station No. of

week 7 Exercise no. sets Reps % max.

Monday Legs: core lift 1 3 8,8,6 See table

5.3.

Legs: auxiliary 2 3 10, 10, 8

%
Shoulders: core 3 3 8,6,6

Shoulders:
auxiliary 4 3 10, 10, 8

Legs: core lift 5 3 8,6,6

Shoulders:
auxiliary 6 3 10,10,8

Forearm work 7 3 25, 25, 25

Abdominal work 8 3 25, 25, 25

Wednesday Chest: core lift 1 3 8,6,6

Chest: auxiliary 2 3 10, 10, 8

Biceps: core 3 3 8,6,6

Biceps:
auxiliary 4 3 10, 10, 8

Abdominal work 5 3 25, 25, 25

Friday Back: core 1 3 8,6,6

Back: auxiliary 2 3 10, 10, 8

Triceps 3 3 10,8,6

Triceps 4 3 10, 8, 6

Back: core 5 3 8,6,6

Triceps 6 3 10,10,8

Abdominal work 7 3 25, 25, 25

Forearm work 8 3 25, 25, 25

98 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

Specific Power Phase (Weeks 8-10)

Refer to table through c. This phase is designed to peak strength
5.8, a
levels and gains. Because intensity levels are high, you need to pay
proper attention to form and control. See table 5.5 for choice of exercises.
Additional abdominal exercises can be found in chapter 9.

Table 5.8a Sample Specific Power Phase Chart: Week 8

Day/ Station No. of

week 8 Exercise no. sets Reps % max.

Monday Legs: core lift 1 3 6,6,4 See table

5.3.

Legs: auxiliary 2 3 10,10,8

Shoulders: core 3 3 6,6,4

Shoulders:
auxiliary 4 3 10, 10, 8

Legs: core lift 5 3 10, 10, 10

Shoulders:
auxiliary 6 3 10,10,8

Forearm work 7 3 25, 25, 25

Abdominal work 8 3 6,6,4

Wednesday Chest: core lift 1 3 6,6,4

Chest: auxiliary 2 3 10, 10, 8

Biceps: core 3 3 10,10,8

Biceps:
auxiliary 4 3 10,10,8

Abdominal work 5 3 10, 10, 8

Friday Back: core 1 3 10,10,8

Back: auxiliary 2 3 25, 25, 25

Triceps 3 3 10, 8, 6

Triceps 4 3 10, 10, 8

(continued)
 Application of Strength Training 99

Table 5.8a Sample Specific Power Phase Chart: Week 8 (continued)

Day/ '
Station No. of
week 8 Exercise no. sets Reps % max.

Friday Back: core 5 3 10,8,6

Triceps 6 3 10, 8, 6

Abdominal work 7 3 15,12,10

%
Forearm work 8 3 10, 10, 8

Table 5.8b Sample Specific Power Phase Chart: Week 9

Day/ Station No. of

week 9 Exercise no. sets Reps % max.

Monday Legs: core lift 1 3 6,6,4 See table

5.3.

Legs: auxiliary 2 3 10,10,8

Shoulders: core 3 3 6,6,4

Shoulders:
auxiliary 4 3 10,10,8

Legs: core lift 5 3 10, 10, 10

Shoulders:
auxiliary 6 3 10,10,8

Forearm work 7 3 25, 25, 25

Abdominal work 8 3 6,6,4

Wednesday Chest: core lift 1 3 6,6,4

Chest: auxiliary 2 3 10,10,8

Biceps: core 3 3 10,10,8

Biceps:
auxiliary 4 3 10, 10, 8

Abdominal work 5 3 10, 10, 8

(continued)
 6

100 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

Table 5.8b Sample Specific Power Phase Chart: Week 9 (continued)

Day/ Station No. of

week 9 Exercise no. sets Reps % max.

Friday Back: core 1 3 10,10,8

Back: auxiliary 2 3 25, 25, 25

Triceps 3 3 10, 8, 6

Triceps 4 3 10,10,8

Back: core 5 3 10, 8, 6

Triceps 6 3 10, 8,

Abdominal work 7 3 15, 12, 10

Forearm work 8 3 10,10,8

Abdominal work 9 3 25, 25, 25

Forearm work 10 3 25,25,25

Table 5.8c Sample Specific Power Phase Chart: Week 10

Day/ Station No. of

week 10 Exercise no. sets Reps % max.

Monday Legs: core lift 1 3 6,4,4 See table

5.3.

Legs: auxiliary 2 3 10,10,8

Shoulders: core 3 3 6,4,4

Shoulders:
auxiliary 4 3 10, 10, 8

Legs: core lift 5 3 6,4,4

Shoulders:
auxiliary 6 3 10,10,8

Forearm work 7 3 25, 25, 25

Abdominal work 8 3 25, 25, 25

(continued)
 Application of Strength Training 1 1

Table 5.8c Sample Specific Power Phase Chart: Week 10 (continued)

Day/ Station No. of

week 10 Exercise no. sets Reps % max.

Wednesday Chest: core lift 1 3 6,6,4

Chest: auxiliary 2 3 10,10,8

Biceps: core 3 3 10,10,8

%

Biceps:
auxiliary 4 3 10, 10, 8

Abdominal work 5 3 25, 25, 25

Friday Back: core 1 3 6,6,4

Back: auxiliary 2 3 25, 25, 25

Triceps 3 3 10,8,6

Triceps 4 3 10, 10, 8

Back: core 5 3 6,6,4

Triceps 6 3 10, 8, 6

Abdominal work 7 3 25, 25, 25

Forearm work 8 3 25, 25, 25

Preseason Phase (Weeks 11-12)

Refer to table 5.9, a and and see table 5.5 for choice
b, of exercises. See
chapter 9 for additional abdominal exercises.

In-Season Strength Training

Because the in-season program involves combination training, which
we have not discussed yet, we will provide sample workout charts for
the in-season in chapter 11.
 8

1 02 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

Table 5.9a Sample Preseason Phase Chart: Week 11

Day/ Station No. of

week 11 Exercise no. sets Reps % max.

Monday Bench press 1 3 10,8,6 See table

5.3.

Pec dec 2 3 10,10,8

Squats 3 3 10,8,6

Leg curls 4 3 10,10,8

Bar dips 5 3 10,10,10

Abdominal work 6 3 10,10,8

Forearm work 7 3 25, 25, 25

Leg press 8 3 25, 25, 25

Wednesday Seated rows 1 3 10, 8, 6

One-arm rows 2 3 10, 10, 8

Preacher curls 3 3 10, 10,

Seated dumbbell
curls 4 3 10,10,8

Lat pulldown 5 3 10,10,8

Hammer curls 6 3 10,10,8

Abdominal work 7 3 25, 25, 25

Friday Dumbbell
military press 1 3 10, 8, 6

Side lateral raise 2 3 10,10,8

Triceps extension 3 3 10, 8, 6

Triceps kickbacks 4 3 10, 8, 6

Shrugs 5 3 15,12,10

Triceps pushdowns 6 3 10,10,8

Abdominal work 7 3 25, 25, 25

Forearm work 8 3 25, 25, 25

 Application of Strength Training 1 03

Table 5.9b Sample Preseason Phase Chart: Week 12

Day/ Station No. of

week 12 Exercise no. sets Reps % max.

Monday Bench press 1 3 10, 8, 6 See table

5.3.

Pec dec 2 3 10,10,8

*
Squats 3 3 10,8,6

Leg curls 4 3 10, 10, 8

Bar dips 5 3 10,10,10

Abdominal work 6 3 10,10,8

Forearm work 7 3 25, 25, 25

Leg press 8 3 25, 25, 25

Wednesday Seated rows 1 3 10, 8, 6

One-arm rows 2 3 10,10,8

Preacher curls 3 3 10,10,8

Seated dumbbell
curls 4 3 10,10,8

Lat pulldown 5 3 10,10,8

Hammer curls 6 3 10,10,8

Abdominal work 7 3 25, 25, 25

Friday Dumbbell
military press 1 3 10, 8, 6

Side lateral raise 2 3 10,10,8

Triceps extension 3 3 10, 8, 6

Triceps kickbacks 4 3 10, 8, 6

Shrugs 5 3 15, 12, 10

Triceps pushdowns 6 3 10,10,8

Abdominal work 7 3 25, 25, 25

Forearm work 8 3 25, 25, 25

 CHAPTER

SPEED
TRAINING

When we talk about increasing a

player's speed or agility,we have to do our homework. Do your players
have the old five-page workout program that by the end of the year is so
crumpled from being folded so many times that they can't even read
what the exercises are anymore? We've experienced this even in profes-
sional baseball —handing out an eight-page work sheet for an entire
season. Even then we knew there had to be more to increasing speed
than that. So blindly we went off in search of a speed program designed
specifically for baseball players. We wanted more than just the three-
day-a-week-run-a-couple-of-miles-here-and-there program. We wanted
something that was going to help us increase first-step explosion and
help with reaction time. And we wanted to know how to link speed,
power, and agility. In other words, we wanted the ultimate program.
Through trial, error, and persistence, we slowly started to put it
together. We felt that if a strong emphasis on a skill such as taking

105
 106 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

hundreds of ground balls to the right side made us better fielders, then
that same commitment was needed in a conditioning program. Now,
we're not suggesting that you do hundreds of sprints at a time. What
we're saying is that by improving your speed gradually, your training
program will only help to enhance your baseball skills. And the key to
gaining that half-step comes through the training and conditioning
process. That original desire to take training to another level was the
driving force for the program we've developed.
Before we describe our speed program, you should understand the
role that speed plays in athletic performance. When you think of speed,
you probably think of sprinting. But we all know that speed is much
more involved than just merely being able to run or do something
quickly. Speed involves acceleration, which can begin from either a dead
stop or from a cruising speed. To be fast, you must be able to accelerate
or build speed quickly to reach your maximum or top speed Simply put,
.

speed is the maximum miles per hour that you can run, and acceleration
ishow quickly you reach that maximum. When we talk about improving
speed, we're also talking about improving acceleration. When you
possess speed, you rise above the average and make seemingly difficult
maneuvers look easy. No matter how good your game already is, speed
instantly raises it to another level and adds quality to your performance.

Contrary to popular opinion, we're all equipped with the necessary

tools to run fast. That is, we can be taught to increase our speed. Given
this information, we're making a mistake if we don't try to teach all our
players to improve their speed.

SPEED COMPONENTS
Speed is basically a series of falls (or drives) and recoveries. The first
movement, whether it be forward, backward, or lateral, involves falling.
The degree the athlete falls is predetermined by the athlete and his
technique. If he has been taught correct form, he'll likely be faster than
the athlete with little or no running instruction. Improve the technique,
and you automatically improve the fall, which leads to a quicker
—
recovery step and a faster athlete. The initial series of falls and recov-
eries is the acceleration phase. Once you're completely erect your fall
and recovery series decreases in intensity and eventually your recovery
steps become slower and longer. This is the maintenance phase. When
determining the athlete's speed, we're really concentrating on lengthen-
 Speed Training 107

ing and quickening this series of slow, long steps. In effect, stride length
and stride frequency are the keys to speed.

Speed = stride length X stride frequency

The technical process of a stride involves the drive phase and the
recovery phase. The drive phase occurs when the foot applies force to
the ground as it attempts to propel the body's center of gravity forward.
It's easiest to understand this process if you picture a runner as he
emerges from the starting blocks. He drives himself forward out of the
blocks with as much power as he can to maximize his acceleration. The
body lean or angle of a runner is determined by his leg strength and
middle body strength. Because all force must go through the center of
the body when running, strength in the abdominals and back is crucial.
World-class sprinters effectively rehearse running mechanics beginning
with the feet, extending to the ankle and knee, and then culminating at
the gluteus. To improve speed, it's important to strengthen these muscle
groups while improving stride mechanics.
The recovery phase of a stride occurs when the foot is off the ground.
As the driving foot leaves the ground and begins the recovery phase, the
heel is pulled back to the butt, creating the "kick back." The entire
sprinting action requires the total coordination of the driving leg and the
recovery leg in each of their phases. Once again, if we picture the sprinter
coming out of the starting blocks, we can see that he is not only driving
but recovering as well. The hip flexors, knees, and ankle joints are all
working incombination to generate maximum angular velocity.
It is also important to focus on upper body alignment when teaching

an athlete to run with proper form. The head, neck, and upper torso must
be functioning as one moving part, and the eyes must be frozen, looking
forward in their sockets. Moving the eyes around focuses the brain on
different targets and interferes with the line of vision. You should not see
the end of the distance until you've reached your peak acceleration. As
you evolve from the acceleration to the maintenance phase, your body
posture, if should place your line of vision at the destination.
correct,
Your only effort now should be to maintain your peak speed.
We don't want to forget about the importance of the arms in determin-
ing how fast an athlete will run. The arms counterbalance the stride
action, resulting in an opposite arm-opposite leg relationship. The
hands should be slightly open and extend backward to the hip or slightly
behind it and forward to the height of the shoulder so that the bottom
joint of the thumb does not rise above the shoulder. The biceps, forearms,
108 Complete Conditioning for Baseball
 Speed Training 109

and wrists must be strong since the arm drive down and back will
determine the extent of the forward or backward movement. The
quicker you pump your arms in a backward and forward motion, the
quicker the strides will turn over, and the faster you will run.

BASEBALL-SPECIFIC SPEED
f
How do the speed phases (acceleration and maintenance) and stride
phases (drive and recovery) relate to baseball players? For one, while
playing on defense ballplayers must drive and recover laterally, back-
ward and forward. As they switch to offense, they must run straight or
linearly down the base path while running on a curve around the bases.
Base runners use great acceleration and speed between the bases,
especially considering that the distance to pick up speed is greatly
reduced by base leads and slide zones.
As base runners, baseball players are unique in that while attempting
to steal bases they must run in one direction while looking another. As
he attempts to steal second base, for example, a player must fall toward
second base while looking toward home plate. The player benefits by
being able to add to the intensity and recovery of the fall by looking
inside. It also helps him to locate the ball and determine his course of
action such as sliding into second, or rounding second and continuing
to third should the catcher mishandle the ball. On defense, the same
applies for infielders and outfielders as they handle ground balls and
track fly balls.
When playing defense, baseball players often need the ability to run
backward effectively as well as forward. The same principles that apply
to running fast forward are used to backward. The upper torso,
run fast
neck, and back alignment and the brain's line of vision are still key

factors, with the main difference being the upper torso posture. While
the athlete running forward has a leaning posture, the athlete running
backward has a more upright posture. Again, arm swing and arm stride
coordination are as crucial for backward speed as they are for forward
speed.
1 10 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

IMPROVING YOUR SPEED

Now that we know what speed and how it applies to baseball, let's
is

take a look at what we can do to improve speed. There are four primary
methods to employ when developing speed:
1. Strength training

2. Plyometric exercises

3. Traditional sprint-training techniques

4. Sprint-assisted methods
These methods can be further categorized by calling weight training,
plyometric exercises, and traditional sprint-training techniques resisted
speed-training methods. Basically this means that all of these exercises
and drills work to improve the stride length. Sprint-assisted methods fall
into their own category of assisted speed training that target the stride
frequency.
Now if we go back to the basic premise that speed is the product of
stride length and stride frequency, we'll see that strength and power in
our legs are the key factors to increasing stride length. And the stronger
and more powerful our arms and torso become, the faster we are able to
pump our arms, which in turn leads to increased stride frequency
Overall body strength and power therefore are crucial for improving
your speed. And one of the most effective ways of improving your
overall body strength and power is through strength training.
— —
Power the rate at which work is performed is essential to moving
faster. The more powerful the muscle fiber activated at the time of

explosion, the more force is exerted on the ground, and the faster you go.
Given enough time, any person who could run could perform a 40-yard
dash. However, we want our athletes to perform this sprint with power
and speed. An elephant is very powerful and also very slow moving,
while a cheetah creates tremendous power from extraordinary speed.
The main focus of our weight-training program for speed is on the
large muscles used in sprinting: the gluteus maximus, quadriceps,
hamstrings, and calves. The secondary focus is on the arms, chest, back,
 1

Speed Training 1 1

and abdominals. Again, remember that weight training falls into the
category of resisted speed training, our goal being to increase stride
length.
The second form of resisted training is plyometric exercises, which are
covered more extensively in chapter 8. These exercises help improve
speed by focusing on the explosive movement necessary for increasing
speed. Plyometrics are explosive exercises requiring a great deal of
strength that teach the nervous system to fire faster, which in turn results
in faster movement. These exercises also help develop good coordina-
tion and agility.

Traditional sprint-training techniques round out the resisted speed

training methods. Typically, these techniques include flexibility, proper
running form, uphill sprinting, starting techniques, speed endurance,
and movement patterns specific to baseball. Because these are the more
traditional methods, you may be familiar with most of them and how
they work. Some of these traditional methods include running sprints,
incorporating ladders and hurdles, and running hills, all of which we' ve
probably done at one time or another. These methods are considered
traditional simply because they've been around a long time and are
widely used at all levels of the game. We have included a hurdle drill, but
for the most part we focus on some of the newer techniques.
The assisted training methods of speed training include towing train-
ing, treadmill training, and downhill running. Recall that the main goal
of assisted training methods is to increase your stride frequency. Also
included in assisted training methods are overspeed drills, which force
the body to move faster than its normal top speed. This type of training
causes your nerves to contract faster than normal and trains your body
to overcome rejections of faster movement. It helps retrain your neuro-
muscular coordination to work faster; used regularly, these drills will
eventually lead to improved stride frequency, longer strides, and a
longer top speed with a more relaxed and controlled running form.
 .

1 1 2 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

RESISTED SPEED DRILLS

ARM SWING
Focus: The mechanical arm swing involved during running
Procedure:
1 Start with your shoulders in a tall upright position and your head
in fixed position.

2. Keep your arms in a 90-degree angle but not tightly locked.

3. Bring your hands up to an imaginary line at your jaw and back to
a point where your hand touches your pocket. Your arm action
should be quick like a piston but not stiff.

Duration: 10 to 15 reps with each arm or timed intervals of 10 to 12

seconds
 .

Speed Training 113

STEP-UPS

Focus: The leg drive and arm swing involved during running; gluteals,
hamstrings, quadriceps

Procedure:
1 Start with your right leg securely planted on a box and your left leg
on the ground.
2. ^our arm should be cocked in running position form with your left
arm in the upswing position to create opposite arm-opposite leg
action.

3. Drive your left leg and right arm up simultaneously. Keep proper
— —
running form toe up, heel up, knee up during the leg drive.
4. Return your leg to the ground and repeat immediately to create a
with the leg and arm drive.
firing pattern

Duration: 10 to 15 reps on each leg or timed intervals of 10 to 12

seconds for each leg
1 14 Complete Condrtioning for Baseball

LEG LIFTS OVER MINI-HURDLES

Focus: The mechanics of running with proper leg lift and arm swing;
entire leg and calf region

Procedure:
1. Line up 12-inch high "hurdles" about 11/2 yards apart.
1 Start with a light run up to hurdles.
With proper sprinting mechanics and aggressive arm swing and
leg lift, take two strides between each hurdle.

Repetitions: 4 to 6 per set, 3 to 4 sets.

 Speed Training 115

VELOCITY BUILDER ARM KICKS

Focus: Range of motion of hamstrings and gluteals; the aggressive leg

swing from the gluteal area involved in running
Procedure:
1. Start with your arms extended in front of your body at about
shoulder level.
2. fn an alternating fashion with your leg straight (slight bend in
knee), kick your right leg up to your right hand and your left leg up
to your left hand.
Repetitions: 10 to 15 with each leg, 3 to 4 sets

' r
i
*f T

*
«
/ / I

/ mm g8

'

mm\
1 16 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

VELOCITY BUILDER KNEE-TO-SHOULDER LIFTS

Focus: The aggressive knee lift and drive force created when running;
muscle hip flexors, gluteals, hamstring, quadriceps
Procedure:

1. Place your hands between your legs to avoid excess upper bodv
movement and keep your arms out of the way With an explosive
skipping action, drive your right knee toward your right shoulder.
2. Focus on proper leg lift technique.

3. Keep your torso upright for full range of motion.

Repetitions: 10 to 15 with each leg, 3 to 4 sets

 7

Speed Training 1 1

MEDICINE BALL TOSS WITH A BASE STEAL SPRINT

Focus: Explosive stage of the crossover step involved in stealing a base

Procedure:
1. Start in a base-stealing position.

2. In a hip toss fashion, explosively throw a medicine ball across your

body. The momentum will create an overspeed effect that will
make your jumps more explosive.

3. Run the medicine ball down before it stops rolling and repeat.

Repetitions: Five 10- to 15-yard tosses per set, 3 to 4 sets

 .

1 1 8 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

SLED TOWS
Focus: Acceleration phase of the sprint; explosive starts

Procedure:
1 With a speed harness or belt securely fastened to a sled, tow the sled
10 to 20 yards.

2. Release the sled and immediately sprint for 20 yards. Sled can also
be used for backpedaling.
3. Use 1 to 20 percent of your body weight for the sled . Do not exceed
20 percent of body weight.
Repetitions: Two pulls of 20 yards per set, 2 to 3 sets.
 Speed Training 119

ASSISTED SPEED DRILLS

ACCELERATIONS

Focus*: The initial build of force during the first 5 yards of a sprint; leg
and hip muscles, gluteals, and upper body muscles
Procedure:

1. Using a speed belt harness, towel, or tow rope, a partner applies

moderate resistance while runner runs at maximum speed, pulling
the partner.

2. Practice good body lean and good running mechanics.

Repetitions: Startwith five tows of 10 yards each, eventually building
up to maximum of 20-yard tows
 .

1 20 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

BREAKAWAY TOWS
Focus: Acceleration phase of the sprint

Procedure:
1 Using a speed belt harness, towel, or tow rope, a partner applies
moderate medium resistance to the runner for 5 yards.
2. Release the resistance and runner sprints for 15 more yards.

3. When the resistance is released, runner should feel the freedom of

explosive acceleration. This is what we're teaching the body to get
a feel for.

Repetitions: 5 to 8 sprints

Repetitions: Two pulls of 20 yards per set, 2 to 3 sets.

 Speed Training 121

OVERSPEED/RESISTANCE BOUNDS

Focus: Explosive drive phase of the arm swing and leg lift

Procedure:
1. With resistance applied by partner, tow rope, or properly moni-
tored and supervised flexicord, bound out the same as a deer
tbounds out.
2. Use proper running mechanics and, to increase stride length, focus
on gaining as much distance as you can with your stride.
Repetitions: 10- to 20-yard bounds with 4 to 5 per set, 3 to 4 sets

mf%.
 .

1 22 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

BOUNDS WITH OVERSPEED

Focus: The overspeed component of sprint training; teaching the body
to run faster

Procedure:
1 With tow cord or flexicord properly attached in overspeed fashion,
runner is pulled.

2. Gain as much ground as possible. With overspeed training, the

runner focuses on staying relaxed and in a controlled overspeed
process.

3. Also helps to teach the body to maintain top speeds longer.

Repetitions: 10- to 20-yard bounds with 4 to 5 per set, 3 to 4 sets
 Speed Training 123

GET- UP SPRINTS

Focus: Overspeed component of the sprint

Procedure:
1. With flexicord stretched to its safest maximum length, on com-
mand get up from a seated position and explode into a good
running position.
2. This drill adds an element of reaction and explosive acceleration.
Variations: Also try this drill from kneeling or lying down.
Repetitions: Three to four 20-yard sprints per set, 3 to 4 sets
 CHAPTER

AGILITY
TRAINING

Speed development for baseball

players would not be complete if we didn't also include a section on
improving agility. After all, the outstanding plays you see in the field are
often a result of speed combined with agility. So, what exactly is agility?
We'll define it here as the body's ability to change direction while
maintaining its speed.
The key to improving agility is to minimize the loss of speed when
shifting your body's center of gravity. Drills that require rapid changes
of direction forward, backward, laterally, and vertically will help you
improve your agility as well as your coordination by training your body
to make these changes in movement more quickly. Once you've mas-
tered the agility drills in this chapter, you can then increase your
coordination development by adding ball-handling skills along with
the applicable footwork drills we've included in this chapter. And

125
 1 26 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

coordination —the ability to synchronize all aspects of athleticism — is

the basis for any successful athlete, regardless of the sport.

Diamond sport athletes are involved primarily in quick, explosive
movements. Lateral speed, agility, and quickness are often just as
important as strength and speed. Baseball requires players to position in
various angles ranging from straight up to bent over. They need to be
able to react with quickness, strength, and explosion from any of these
angles. Explosion out of the box, the thrust when stealing a base, and the
charge off the mound to field a bunt after a pitch are all examples of
explosive movements with your body in an opposite direction. When
working to build explosion and agility, we must work with a systematic
training approach specific to our individual sport's needs. Ideally, we'd
like our players to move like Ken Griffey, Jr., on the fly or Alex Rodriguez
in the hole. Our workouts aim to condition the body and incorporate fun
and variety while obtaining maximum gains in agility.
 .

Agility Training 127

AGILITY TRAINING OBJECTIVES

By setting goals to challenge yourself to add to the intensity and master

the movement, and by consistently concentrating on the details of your
workout, you'll see improvements in your baseball-specific agility. Here
are the objectives of our agility drills:

1. To increase intramuscular coordination. The drills aim to teach

ybur muscles and your body to perform specific baseball move-
ments at a high speed.
2. To develop more explosive power, speed, and strength of the major
muscle groups. To get the most explosive power from your body,
you need adequate strength in the large muscle groups.
3. To make quickness a habit. Training at maximum firing efforts
teaches muscles and feet to fire more quickly.

EDUCATING YOUR BODY FOR AGILITY

Agility consists of many independent parts involving the eyes, brain,
muscles, and coordination. Four main phases of agility are

1 Recognition —what your eyes see,

2. Reaction —explosion with your body,

3. Reach—forceful thrust that propels you an angle, and
at efficient

4. Recovery — your balance and regather quickly.

ability to

The first stage is recognition. This when you first see the event that
is

triggers your reaction. For instance, when fielding, it's the moment you
see the ball hit and heading your way. You react by adjusting your
position to place yourself in the best spot to field the ball. You may need
to reach to make the catch and then recover to throw the ball in. How
quickly and accurately you go through these four stages depends on
your level of agility.
Quick movements result from ballistic firing patterns within the
neuromuscular system that signal the muscle fibers to react. Genetics
play a key role in the ratio of fast-twitch to slow-twitch muscle fibers an
individual possesses, and this ratio cannot be changed. However, train-
ing can selectively increase the size of each type of muscle fiber. In
explosive, quick movements, fast-twitch muscle fibers are the predomi-
nant muscle fibers recruited to action. Thus, by repeatedly training these
 —

1 28 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

fibers through explosive action drills, you'll not only sharpen the
neuromuscular pathways necessary for the quick movement, you'll also
enlarge the size of the involved fast-twitch fibers.
We can increase quickness and agility only by increasing the firing rate
of the neuromuscular system. That is, we must train our feet and arms
to move faster. Training our systems to perform at maximum speed is the
only way to achieve our quickness and agility goals. For instance, we
must teach our feet to apply a greater force when they impact the
ground. The lighter the impact, the greater the force, and this can only
be achieved with rapid movement of the feet. Combining this increase
in quickness with a change in direction is how we improve agility. Many
of the movements are similar in increasing speed or agility, but the key
difference is the added change of direction either laterally, vertically,
forward, or backward.

POWER FOR AGILITY

To move faster in baseball, you must gain power. You need to activate
your large muscles quickly and explosively to transfer power to com-
petitive speed and quickness for baseball. Focus your power work on
your power zone. The leg muscles, midsection, and gluteals do the
majority of work. Here's a breakdown of the power zone where the
major focus of muscle strength should be placed for maximum gains in
agility:

• The drive muscles —hamstrings, quadriceps, gluteals—supply tre-

mendous power, but you have to use their strength. You must challenge
and teach these muscles to rapidly fire for short periods of time.
Explosions in various directions and angles are necessary to simulate
game situations as much as possible.

• The hip and lateral muscles —

hip flexors, adductors, abductors
play a major role in lateral movement, change of direction, and crossover
Challenge these muscles with drills and strength training to give
steps.
them the ability to perform these movements with tremendous quick-
ness.
 Agility Training 129

• — —
Torso muscles abdominals, lower back are perhaps the most
important components of lateral quickness. Motion is initiated through
the torso. If this area is weak and neglected, the torso reacts slowly to
messages sent from the central nervous system. Baseball is a rotational
sport, which means we're often moving left and right with our upper
torso while our legs remain fixed or moving in a constant direction. As
a result, strong abdominals and a strong lower back are essential.

Powerful, quick, explosive movements coupled with change of direc-

tion require whole body development. Focus on working the power
zone or core section of the body. The explosive nature you need must
come from the education of high-speed output.
Enhanced agility and coordination not only improve athletic perfor-
mance but also help reduce the risk of injury. Many players avoid injury
as they dive or roll by being agile and coordinated and knowing where
they are in relation to the ground, fence, base, and other players. Agility
and coordination allow them to take an impact with a minimum of stress
to their bodies. Of course not all injuries can be avoided, but the well-
conditioned player will always recover more quickly and with less
strain than the player who is not as highly conditioned.

AGILITY DRILLS

These drills for improving agility and coordination may be unfamiliar

to you, but they are drills through which even beginners will benefit. As
you learn these exercises and drills better, focus on the finer points of
each drill and then add ball-handling skills.
The first four of the following agility drills are performed on the side
kick box, a powerful neuromuscular plyometric training tool that incor-
porates power from the push-off force of the angled box. The side kick
enhances and teaches good foot speed and agility from the forceful and
rhythmic tapping of the feet.
1 30 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

REACH RUNS

Focus: Calf area; the explosive action of pushing off the balls of the feet
to create quick feet

Procedure:

1. The run rhythm is 1, 2, up; 1, 2, up and off explosively,

up. Push
pulling your toe, heel, and knee up as you do when you're running.

2. Perform all movements quickly in short bursts of 10 to 15 seconds.

This will teach your feet to move faster.
3. Start the movement slowly until you get the feel and balance
required, then increase speed.

Duration: 10 to 15 seconds or 3 per set, 3 to 4 sets

.
 Agility Training 131

BACK REACH RUNS

Focus: Calf area; the explosive action of pushing off the balls of the feet
to create quick feet

Procedure:
1. The run rhythm is 1, 2, up; 1, 2, up. Push up and off explosively,
reaching backward.
2. Perform all movements quickly in short bursts of 10 to 15 seconds.

3. Start the movement slowly until you get the feel and balance
required, then increase speed.

Duration: 10 to 15 seconds or 3 per set, 3 to 4 sets

132 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

SIDE-SHUFFLE

Focus: Calves, legs, hips

Procedure:

1. The run rhythm is 1, 2, up; 1, 2, up. Begin facing sideways in the

center of the platform. Extend your right leg out and push up and
off the angle board explosively. The and momentum of the
force
push push you back to the center,
will where you will get the 1 2 ,

rhvthm. Then repeat on the opposite side.

2. Perform all movements quickly in short bursts of 1 to 1 5 seconds.
This will help teach your feet to move faster.

3. Start the movement slowly until you get the feel and balance
required, then increase speed.

Duration: 10 to 15 seconds or 3 per set, 3 to 4 sets

 Agility Training 133

CROSSOVER
Focus: Calves, legs, hips

Procedure:

1. The rhythm is 1, 2, up; 1, 2, up. This exercise is similar to side-

shuffles except that youTl crossone leg over the other to push off
?f the angle board and then repeat the procedure on the opposite
side.

2. Perform all movements quickly in short bursts of 10 to 15 seconds.

3. Start the movement slowly until you get the feel and balance
required, then increase speed.

Duration: 10 to 15 seconds or 3 per set, 3 to 4 sets

 ..

134 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

LATERAL HIGH KNEES

Focus: Explosive change of direction

Procedure:

1 Move laterally in a running motion across mini-hurdles, working

on lifting your knees and pumping your arms quickly and explo-
sively.

2. Change direction at the end and come back in the same manner.
Duration: 10 to 15 seconds or 3 per set, 3 to 4 sets

LATERAL HIGH KNEES WITH RESISTANCE

Focus: Overspeed resistance

Procedure:
1 Wearing a resistance cord and belt attached to a fixed object or held
stationary by a partner, move laterally in a running motion across
hurdles, working on lifting knees and pumping arms quickly and
explosively.

2. Change direction at the end and come back in the same manner.
Duration: 10 to 15 seconds or 3 per set, 3 to 4 sets
 .

Agility Training 135

LATERAL BOX RUNS

Focus: Explosive lateral move-
ment in the hip flexors and
entire leg region

Procedure:
1. On a 12-inch plyometric
box, start with your right
leg or left leg slightly bent
on the box and the other
leg slightly benton the
ground.
2 Simultaneously and rhyth-
mically pump your arms
and push with both legs in
an alternating fashion.
3. Stay light and quick with
your feet as you touch the
ground and the box.
Duration: 10 to 15 second in-
tervals, 3 to 4 sets
1 36 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

SLIDE BOARD
Focus: Explosive quadriceps, hamstrings, and gluteals

Procedure:

1. Start in an upright position with a soft bend in your knees.

2. Go into a slight squat and swing your right leg behind you in a
speed-skating fashion.

3. Push off the side support and glide to the other side immediately.
4. When you touch the opposite side, return and continue movement.
Duration: 10- to 15-second intervals or 3 per set, 3 to 4 sets

" • ~ —7- '

-,
« ,'*. .; .*, v«>-, •
A .

~\.
4

i.

4 <k^
 CHAPTER

PLYOMETRIC
TRAINING

The pitcher winds up, here's the

pitch, it's a fastball for a strike on the outside corner —
excellent pitch that
registered 90 mph on the radar gun. Okay, here comes the pitch, the
. . .

batter —oh my! What a tremendous drive the upper deck!

swings to . . .

Gwynn a
hits right
liner to he rounds second, the outfielder throws
field,
home, going
it's be to here he comes — he's out!
close, The pitcher . . .

comes the base runner leads

set, here's the and the base
off first, pitch,
runner breaks with an outstanding jump and — he's safe second base! at
These are plays we've seen baseball games. The description of the
all at
plays would be announced as we just them — short bursts of
listed
explosive movements by pitchers, catchers, outfielders, and batters,
base runners. these explosive baseball-specific movements — often
It is

performed or near 100 percent maximum

at — that plyometric efforts
training sharpens.

137
 138 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

WHAT ARE PLYOMETRICS?

Plyometric exercises may be new to you, but they have been around for
some The Soviets pioneered the use of plyometric exercises back
time.
in the mid 1960s, and their effectiveness was evident in the Soviets'
virtual monopoly of sprinting and track and field events during the
1960s and 1970s. Not until the 1980s did the sporting community in
general begin to realize the potential gains from the use of these training
techniques.
In plyometric training the muscles and their elastic components are
rapidly stretched when landing from jump and immediately follow
a
that landing with another rapid and powerful jump or hop in a vertical
or horizontal direction. This stretching of the muscle's elastic compo-
nents produces a rubber band-like effect in the connective tissue as it

snaps back from the initial stretch. A stretch reflex is also initiated when
landing, which leads the stretched muscle to contract forcefully and
eventually provides greater force for a longer or higher jump or bound.
This series of bounding and jumping exercises is one of the best ways to
develop explosive force.

TRAINING THE MUSCLES TO REACT

Plyometrics bridge the gap between speed and strength to create a force
known as power. A muscle's ability to react forcefully and quickly
requires the muscle system to switch rapidly from eccentric (negative)
contractions to concentric (positive) contractions. This reaction of the
muscles is possible because of a reflex response within each muscle
called the stretch or myotatic reflex response. The greater the stretch put
on the restingmuscle length prior to the concentric contraction, the
greater load the muscle can lift or force it can exert. This force is often
referred to as explosive power. The actual rate of the stretch is more
significant than its size. And because this reflex response occurs in all
phases of baseball, many major league teams have incorporated some
type of plyometric training into their conditioning programs. Let's look
at an example to help give us a better idea of the myotatic reflex response
process.
When an infielder steps up to his ready position he sends a message to
hismuscles to go on alert because something is getting ready to happen.
The message is urgent because the athlete is in competition and will need
 Plyometric Training 1 39

to move rapidly andexplosively in some direction when the bat meets

the ball.The process of preparing for this move is the myotatic reflex
response. Its next component is a stimuli to make the muscle fire. The
stimuli of the response obviously is where the baseball goes. This
process occurs so quickly that it is basically a neuromuscular response
or an interaction between muscles and nerves except that it works in
conjunction with the rapid muscle contractions known as the myotatic
reflex response. Since baseball is a game where players are constantly
reacting to stimuli, it makes sense that we would want to enhance the
body's ability to react quickly.
Basically, plyometric training helps develop the nervous system so it
will respond with maximal reactive force. Through plyometric training,
the eccentric and concentric contraction process is taught to occur more
rapidly and forcefully. This helps us to move quicker in the field, react
more forcefully at the plate, and deliver more velocity when we throw
the baseball. If you have any doubts about the advantages of plyometric
training, ask Cleveland's Matt Williams for his opinion. His game has
benefited immeasurably from a routine plyometric training program.
The concept of plyometrics is often misunderstood and misapplied in
training programs. Enhancing the speed of the contraction in the muscle
and increasing the force with that added speed is the goal of plyometric
training. This is the bridge that turns strength gains in the weight room
into functional baseballspeed and movements.
Here's what occurs during plyometrics and how this training helps to
enhance our explosive power:
• Plyometrics is the linking of speed and strength for the develop-
ment of reactive power.

• It incorporates an eccentric and concentric contraction coming

together. Where the two meet there is housed energy or, simply put,
power. The quicker you can overcome an eccentric movement with
a concentric movement, the more explosive you can be.

• It places load on muscles, and when a muscle is stretched too much,

the myotatic reflex response is initiated to keep the muscle from
overstretching and to make the contraction change direction. By
combining the two —the load and the reflex response — power is
produced. This is a split-second response.

• It teaches and helps to develop good coordination and agility.

• It helps to develop the explosive strength needed in speed, lateral

movement, and acceleration.
140 Complete Conditioning for Baseball
 1

Plyometric Training 1 4

Assuring the Necessary Strength Base

For the best results, do plyometrics along with a good strength program,
as plyometric training alone is not enough to build the power-speed

combination. Building a proper strength base in the muscles, tendons,

ligaments, cartilage, and bone will decrease the chances of injury from
the highamounts of stress plyometrics place on the body. Strength also
gives usmore potential force we can apply. The more force, the greater
our chances of increasing the speed of a movement, thus giving us more
power.

Improving the Rate of Muscle Stretch

To get the most out of plyometric training, the exercises should be done
with maximum intensity and quickness. The rate or how quickly the
muscle stretches has a greater impact on power gains than how far they
are stretched. This simply means that the number of repeated jumps are
not as important as the intensity and speed at which they are performed.
Fatigue sets in rapidly with successive jumps, and fatigue limits the
reactive ability of the nervous system. Remember that we are training to
create maximum force in the shortest amount of time that we can. This
takes us back to the principle that the quicker a muscle stretches, the
greater its impact is in applying force or power.
We know the reactive ability is when the muscle system switches from
the eccentric phase to the concentric phase. If the force required to stop
this process takes too long to switch from one phase to the other, the
benefits are lost. For example, when jumping off of a box, we want to
spend minimal time on the ground. We want to redirect the force that
brought us down from the box back up or out as quickly as possible. Our
goal here is to react as quickly as we can with the greatest force that we
can. This is also how we train the nervous system to react and respond
quickly. Baseball is an explosive reactive sport, so we must train in this
way.
Plyometrics should only be performed when a player can do them
quickly and at a high intensity. If you perform plyometrics any other
way, you're actually teaching the neuromuscular system to perform at
a slower rate instead of at the quick-fire rate needed in baseball. Coaches
should allow proper rest intervals between sets so that players can
perform at maximum intensity
 142 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

Increasing Applied Force

When we're looking at standard limitations for players, how can we get
them to go bevond these limitations or train their bodies with a greater
amount of force than they can or will produce? When Joe Carter blasts
a tape measure shot of 450 feet plus, he seems to defy human capabilities
in strength measurements. If we look at the law of physics, his feat is
almost a mathematical impossibility As baseball fans and enthusiasts,
we see it happen often. You might say these are gifted and skilled
athletes, and I would have to agree. So I raise the question, "Why then
could a power lifter with tremendous strength not match this feat even
ifhe took his 100 best cuts?" Seventy-five percent of his chances we could
chalk up to his lack of experience and skill in baseball. However, the
remaining 25 percent are likelv due to his neuromuscular system not
being adapted to the quick-fire response he needs to hit a baseball with
maximum force. The split-second link of speed and strength occurs
often when we perform in baseball. We practice the skill movements
daily so our body is more adapted to the responses it takes to make this
possible.
How, then, do we get the body to perform beyond prescribed limits?
Mother Nature is our biggest aid. Gravity helps us to produce greater
amounts of force. For example, if you were to drop a baseball onto Mike
Piazza's head from six inches, the impact would be minimal. Now, drop
the baseball from six feet. Obviously, Mike would feel considerably
more impact and may become upset! It's gravity that increases the force
with which the baseball strikes.
When gravity is applied to a player's body when he is performing
plyometrics, the forces elicited are tremendous. If a 220-pound plaver
jumps off a four-foot box, he'll load his muscles with force greater than
a ton. To be precise, during this brief instant his nervous system recruits
enough fibers to stop and redirect 2,489 pounds of force. Coming off a
four-foot box, his muscles are contracting at the rate it takes to jump 48
inches.Simply put, with plyometric training, he can applv more force
than his body could ever possiblv do alone. These forces can be in-
creased by combining plyometrics with a strength and power program.
With power a big part of the game, plyometrics is a great way to train to
enhance this area.
 Plyometric Training 143

PLYOMETRIC SAFETY AND TECHNIQUE

Jumping exercises place a high demand on the hip, knee, and ankle
joints, tendons, muscles, and the neuromuscular system, so they must be
learned well and performed correctly. Consider a player's age and
physical and skill development before starting him on a plyometric

Injury Prevention Tips

1. Have a proper warm-up. Make sure muscles are properly

warmed for at least 5 to 10 minutes and ready for explosive
movements.
2. Wear proper foot wear. Wear shoes with good ankle support and
stability.

3. Exercise on a firm but giving surface such as grass, turf, or a

track.

4. Use a sturdy padded box with a solid base.

5. Use proper progression. Start slow and progress moderately.

6. Consider any special circumstances as well as the player's age,
size, ability, and body structure.

Proper Mechanics

1. Swing your arms from the shoulders to help thrust yourself

forward or upward.
2. Make sure your middle body is upright and straight from your
hips to your head.

3. Land properly, flexing at the knees, ankles, and hips to absorb

impact.

4. Take proper rest periods so your energy system can replenish

itself.
 .

144 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

program. Advanced or stringent plyometrics should be prohibited for

children under 14 because of possible injury to the spine and lower body
joints. Monitor the load of exercises carefully and allow for proper
recovery time between sets.
Again, proper technique is vital when performing plyometric exer-
cises. Make sure correct posture is taught and adhered to. Shoulders
should be squared and the torso should always be in an upright position
with abdominals tight to avoid back injury. Knees should always be bent
when jumping and landing and the butt tucked underneath the hips and
back. Balance is important in these exercises. Before advancing to highly
skilledmovements, make sure you and your players know the basics.
All take-offs should be explosive. Upon ground impact, the hip, knees,
and ankles should be fully flexed to achieve good balance and coordina-
tion.
Plyometrics will greatly enhance any training program, but these exer-
cises need to be monitored. Teach proper mechanics and incorporate
various exercises and programs. Have fun and be creative. Teach your
players to enjoy making themselves better.

RAPID BOX JUMPS

Focus: Building explosive power in the entire calf and quadriceps area
Procedure:
1 Start on the ground in front of a plyometric box.

2. Bend your knees and lower your butt slightly.

3. Explosively but with control jump up on box, then jump down.

4. When your feet hit the ground, immediately jump back on the box.
Spend as little time as you can on the ground.
Variations: The jumps can be done with varying box heights as players
build up the needed strength. (This can be determined by their
ability to perform the jumps at the required height with the sug-
gested number of repetitions.)

Repetitions: 6 to 10, 2 to 3 sets

Plyometric Training 145
 .

146 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

ALTERNATING HEIGHT BOX JUMPS

Focus: Quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteals, calf muscles

Procedure:
1 Use three to five plyometric boxes of various heights from 12 to 24
inches, placed in a straight line about two feet apart.

2. Starting with the smallest box first, perform box jumps box to box.

3. Spend as little time on the ground as possible. Various heights will

help to develop explosive power.

4. Perform all jumps with control.

Duration: Jump the series of boxes with 1 5 to 20 seconds rest between

sets. Repeat 3 to 4 sets.
 Plyometric Training 147

DEPTH JUMP AND SPRINT

Focus: Teaching muscles to react
forcefully from a negative con-
traction to a forceful positive con-
traction; quadriceps, gluteals,
hamstrings, calf muscles

Procedure:
1. Drop landing with
off a box,
your knees slightly bent and
feet about shoulder-width
apart.

2. Immediately explode into a 10-

yard sprint.

Jog back and repeat.

Repetitions: 5 to 8
148 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

DEPTH JUMP WITH BASE STEAL

Focus: Teaching muscles to react forcefully from a negative contrac-

tion to a forceful positive contraction; quadriceps, gluteals, ham-
strings, calf muscles
Procedure:

1. Drop off a box landing with

your knees slightly bent and
feet about shoulder-width
apart.

Immediately cross over into

a base-stealing position.

Sprint for 10 yards.

J
Jog back and repeat.
Repetitions: 5 to 8
 Plyometnc Training 149

VELOCITY BELT BUILDER

One of the best training tools to improve and develop explosive balance,
acceleration, vertical leap, and push-off power is the velocity belt
builder. This apparatus consists of a platform with four latex tubes
attached at the corners. The tubes attach to a belt and harness worn by
the athlete, who stands in the center of the platform. A series of jumps
and running can be performed using the velocity builder. The
drills
velocity builder a great form of plyometrics and adds the convenience
is

of supplying an excellent form of resistance while incorporating several

different skill movements and jumps. You can find this piece of equip-
ment through sports equipment dealers such as Triple Threat, Inc., in
Tempe, Arizona. Always follow velocity builder exercises with a series
of drills of explosive jumps and running mechanics.
 .

1 50 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

EXPLOSIVE VERTICAL JUMP

Focus: Hamstrings, quadriceps, gluteals

Procedure:
1 In a squat position with your thighs parallel to the ground and your
back upright, forcefully explode up, reaching high for the sky with
your arms.
2. Land with your knees bent, back upright, and thighs parallel to the
ground.
3. Gather and repeat immediately.
Repetitions: Five to eight jumps immediately followed by the same
number without the resistance bands. (Use same mechanics during
contrast jumps.)
 1

Plyometric Training 1 5

SIDE-TO-SIDE JUMPS
Focus: Building lateral explosion; quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteals,
calf muscles
Procedure:
1 . Stand on either side of a 6- to 1 2-inch hurdle or cone with your knee
slightly bent and your feet about shoulder-width apart.

Laterally and explosively jump over cone or hurdle.

Land with knee bent and feet not quite shoulder-width apart.
Immediately jump back over cone or hurdle in the opposite direc-
tion.

5. Spend minimal time on the ground and continue the jumps in a

rhythmic and controlled fashion.
Repetitions: 6 to 10 on each side
 CHAPTER

MEDICINE BALL
TRAINING

Medicine ball training, a form of

plyometric training, can give the upper body a great explosive workout.
Its multipoint movements can imitate baseball movements in various

plays, angles, and motions. Medicine ball training is safe, inexpensive,

and can be easily incorporated into many strength and conditioning
programs. It takes up little space and is highly efficient in both team
training and individual training.
Medicine range in weight from 2 pounds to 15 pounds.
balls usually
We recommend using 2- to 6-pound balls for beginners and drills
requiring high repetitions, and 9- to 15-pound balls for more experi-
enced players and lower body work. You can find medicine balls
through sports equipment suppliers like Triple Threat, Inc., in Tempe,
Arizona. You should incorporate a medicine ball training program into
both your in-season and off-season training regimens. In season, work

153
 .

1 54 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

the program into your overall training schedule one to two times a week.
In the off-season, increase the medicine ball routine to three to four times
a week.

ADVANTAGES OF MEDICINE BALL TRAINING

Medicine ball training can improve your baseball game in five ways:

1 By strengthening the core area. Medicine ball training targets the core
or center part of the body, which is the center of power and balance. The
muscles making up the core consist primarily of the abdominals, the
back muscles, the hip and gluteal muscles, and, to a lesser degree, the
shoulders and upper legs. As we've mentioned, baseball is a rotational
sport, and a strong core is essential for baseball players. It's involved in
all facets of the game.

2. By With the medicine ball you can

offering sport-specific training.
closely imitate baseball movements with added resistance. Lunges and
twists closely resemble routine movements in baseball, and throwing
drills duplicate the throwing action as well.

3. By developing explosiveness. The medicine ball produces muscular

contractions through the full range of the exercise. This develops the
explosive ballistic firing patterns needed in your sport skill. To better
understand explosiveness, think in terms of general, special, and spe-
cific strength. General strength requires the least amount of speed to

perform specific sport skills and usually consists of weight-training

exercises. These then would be the least explosive movements. Special
strength more closely resembles actual performance, and specific strength
is basically the actual performance coupled with resistance. Specific

strength requires the greatest amount of speed. Since a medicine ball is

a specific strength-training tool, training with a medicine ball helps
develop explosive baseball movements.
4. By building strength and power. Training with the same movement

patterns of your skill with the resistance of a medicine ball will help
build the extra muscle mass and strength you need in baseball. Resis-
tance with speed as you move the medicine ball through various angles
and planes helps to enhance your athletic ability.

5. By providing variability of resistance. Medicine balls come in various

weights and you can choose the best weight and size for the skill
sizes, so
movement you're working on. You can use heavier medicine balls for
 .

Medicine Ball Training 155

the legs and more explosive movements and lighter balls for upper body
exercises or those requiring higher repetitions. Remember that the
heavier the ball, the greater the intensity.

TRAINING PROGRAM TIPS

1. Start slow —use general workouts that work the whole body.
2. Progress as you learn and master the movements.

3. Increase weight, intensity, and speed of movement after initial

training base has been established.

4. Allow proper rest between sets. Start with 30 to 45 seconds and

decrease the seconds as your cardiovascular and muscular endur-
ance increases.
5. Start with five to eight exercises at about two sets of 8 to 20
repetitions. Eventually progress to five sets of 12 to 20 repetitions.

6. Variation helps to maintain interest and keep the body from

adapting to the same workout.
7. Always have a good base and good balance when performing an
exercise.

8. Consider the age and skill level of the athlete.

9. Have fun.

Use proper guidelines and some creativity to adapt programs to meet

your needs. Always use a proper warm-up for the entire body to prepare
for the workout.

SIDE LUNGES WITH MEDICINE BALL

Focus: Quadriceps, inner thigh, hamstrings, gluteals
Procedure:
1 Hold the medicine ball out in front of your chest and stand on the
box.

2. Step off the box with your right leg and firmly plant your foot on
the ground.
 .

1 56 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

3. Lower your butt into a squat position until your thigh is parallel to
the ground.

4. Drive back up forcefully using your right leg and return to the
center of the box.

5. Repeat with the opposite leg.

Repetitions: 6 to 10 per leg

WOOD CHOP JUMPS

Focus: Hip flexors, gluteals, quadriceps, hamstrings
Procedure:
1 Start in a squat position holding the medicine ball extended out in
front at knee level.

2. Simultaneously swing the medicine ball above your head and

explode upward with a jump.
3. Land with your knees bent and return to the starting position.

4. Repeat.

Repetitions: 8 to 12, 2 to 3 sets

Medicine Ball Training 1 57
 .

1 58 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

LUNGE WITH A TWIST

Focus: Quadriceps, gluteals, hamstrings, oblique and lower back

muscles
Procedure:
1 Step forward with your leg in a lunge position, keeping your knee
behind your toe and your chest behind your knee.
2. With the medicine ball, extend out in front of chest area with your
lower right leg down and bent 90 degrees.
3. Twist the medicine ball to the side of your forward leg.

4. Return to the starting position and repeat the movement with your
other leg.

Repetitions: 8 to 12 on each leg, 2 to 3 sets

 .

Medicine Ball Training 159

LEG SEPARATIONS WITH A LUNGE

Focus: Overall leg area and lower back

Procedure:
1 Stand with your feet about shoulder- width apart and the medicine
ballextended above your head.
2. Step forward with your left leg into a lunge position, keeping your
toe behindyour ankle and your chest behind your knee.
3. Simultaneously lower the medicine ball forward over your left toe.
Perform this movement under control.
4. Return to the starting position and repeat with your other leg.

Repetitions: 8 to 12, 2 to 3 sets

 .

1 60 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

SCISSOR JUMPS

Focus: Speed power movement

away from the center of your
body; overall leg and hip re-
gion, gluteals

Procedure:

1. Start in standing position

holding the medicine ball out
in front of your chest.

2. Keeping your torso upright,

cycle your leg forward in a
lunge or straddle position.
3. Perform these movements in
a continuous motion.

4. Stick in each landing for 1

second to ensure maximum

intensity, proper mechanics,
and balance.
Repetitions: 10 on each leg or
timed intervals of 12 to 15 sec-
onds, 2 to 3 sets

HIP TOSS

Focus: Obliques, abdominal wall, lower back, hip

Procedure:
1 Start laterally to your partner or target.

2. With the medicine ball at about hip level, twist the hip back along
with the medicine ball.
3. Explode through with your hips and swing the ball through as you
would with your swing or your hip rotation as you throw.
4. Reload and repeat movement on opposite side.
Repetitions: 10 to 12 on each side
 1

Medicine Ball Training 1 6

162 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

CHEST PASS

Focus: Chest and shoulder area

Procedure:

1. Standing, hold the medicine ball about chest level and step for-
ward with either leg.

2. Forcefully push the ball away in a chest pass to a partner or up

against a wall.

Repetitions: 8 to 12 or timed intervals of 10 to 15 seconds, 2 to 3 sets

 .

Medicine Ball Training 1 63

ONE-ARM PUTS

Focus: Shoulder, latissimus dorsi, lower back, hips

Procedure:
1 Standing laterally or in a throwing position, make sure your elbow
is at shoulder level, the same as in throwing.

2. Lead the medicine ball even with your ear.

3. Push the ball through in shot-put fashion, using your legs and back
to reach out and get full extension.
Repetitions: 5 to 8, 2 to 3 sets
 CHAPTER
m
COMBINATION
TRAINING
DRILLS

Adding variety to your workouts

will keep training challenging and keep your athletes' interest high over
long training periods. These training drills blend strength, speed, agility,
and plyometric components for highly explosive exercise that makes
complete ballplayers. These drills also relate to skill-specific movements
used on the baseball field. Complexity and intensity can be increased by
adding resistance cords, reaction commands, and baseballs or tennis
balls for hand-eye coordination.
Review each drill closely for a proper understanding of the patterns
and mechanics and to ensure proper baseball movements are being
used. These high-energy, explosive drills can be great additions to your
—
training program. Be creative make the drills fun, and consider mak-
ing them competitive for team workouts. When first starting out,
perform the drills for 1 to 1 5 seconds and gradually progress to 20 to 30
seconds as skill level increases. Add these drills into your regular

165
1 66 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

conditioning program once or twice a week. In season, they are good

time-savers because they cover speed, overspeed, and explosive train-
ing techniques. During team practices, you can include the drills as
stations in a circuit type setting; individually, they can be performed as
sets and repetitions.
 .

Combination Training Drills 167

LINE DRILL

This particular drill involves only the use of a line, either on grass or a
court. There are four different activities within the drill. Go through each
drill one at a time, then repeat.
Focus? Quick feet, change of direction
Procedure:
1 Back and forth: Start with your toes perpendicular to the line so you
can jump forward and backward over the line as fast as you can for
10 seconds.

2. Side to side: Stand parallel to the line so you can jump from side to
side as fast as you can for 10 seconds.

3. Ali shuffle: Start with your feet apart and toes perpendicular to the
line, then shuffle back and forth over the line as fast as you can for
10 seconds.

4. Criss-cross. Straddle the line. Once you start youTl go from feet
apart to crossed over (with the right foot in front over the left), then
immediately switch feet (left over right). Each time the feet will be
on each side of the line, not on it, similar to the two-scissor
movement.
Duration: 20 to 30 seconds, 2 to 3 times
 .

1 68 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

FOUR-CORNER BASE STEAL

The four-corner base steal requires four cones placed in a square about
10 yards apart.

Focus: To work on the kind of explosive jump you need when stealing
a base. Agility is also emphasized with the quick stops required and

the sudden change of direction.

Procedure:

1. Moving counterclockwise to simulate the direction you travel

when stealing a base, start one of the cones and
on the outside of
sprint to just past the next cone, being careful not to knock the cone
down.
2. Stop and plant both feet in a "ready" position with your knees bent
and torso up.
3. Cross over explosively, as you would to steal a base, and sprint just
past the next cone. Plant your feet againand repeat this procedure
all the way around the cones.

Duration: 20 to 30 seconds, 2 to 3 times. Up to four players can perform

this drill at once.

COACHINGTIPS
1 Look for good foot plant and body control.

2. Zone in on explosive crossover steps and maximum acceleration in

the take-off.

3. Make sure all movements are positive. No popping up with your

upper body or dropping your butt. Everything is directed toward
the next cone.
 Combination Training Drills 169

FOUR-CORNER BASE STEAL

%
Plant/ Sprint Plant/
crossover - -crossover

Plant/
crossover
Sprint
 ..

1 70 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

FOUR-CORNER BOX JUMPS

The four-corner box jump drill requires four plyometric boxes of three
different heights — 24, 18, 12, and 12 inches (you can double up on any
of the heights). Place the boxes in a square about 15 yards apart (see the
diagram).

Focus: To build explosive power while incorporating a skill movement

Procedure:

1 Start in front of one of the boxes. On command, jump onto the top
of the box using mechanics the same as those you use in plyometric
exercises.Knees should be slightly bent with your back straight
and your butt tucked under your hips with good arm swing. Upon
landing on top of the box, jump down using the same good
mechanics.
2. Immediately break into a side-shuffle, maintaining a knees-bent,
—
eyes-up position as in a secondary lead during base stealing to —
the next box.

3. As you approach each box, gather your momentum, plant both

and jump onto the box.
feet,

Duration: 20 to 30 seconds, 2 to 3 times. Up to four people can perform

drill at once.

Variation: Box jump with base steal. Same format using break into a
crossover step as you would stealing a base.

COACHING TIPS
1 Look for good mechanics on the jumps.
2. Make sure athletes are planting and jumping with two feet, with
control.

3. When jumping down off of boxes, look for good athletic landing
position.Knees should be slightly bent with back straight and butt
tucked under hips.
 1

Combination Training Drills 1 7

FOUR-CORNER BOX JUMPS

Side-shuffle
24"
Plant
Jump
i
nntn hoy
A Jump
onto box
a.
CD

CO
17
c

Jump
onto box
y T

12'

Side-shuffle
Plant
Jump
onto box
 ..

1 72 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

SPRINT SHUFFLE WITH CONE DRILL

This drill requires five cones set up in an inverted W

shape (see diagram)
with cones aligned 6 yards apart and 10 yards from cone to cone.
Focus: Change of direction, start and stop acceleration
Procedure:
1 Start at cone #1 and sprint to cone #2.
2. Plant your feet and then explosively shuffle to next cone.

3. Plant your feet and sprint to the next cone.

4. Shuffle through last cone.

Variations: Sprint-carioca-sprint or backpedal

Duration: 20 to 30 seconds, 2 to 3 times

COACHING TIPS
1 Look for good body control.

2. Stress explosive change of direction.

3. Time athletes and use their times for competition, fun, and
improvement.

_
 Combination Training Drills 173

SPRINT SHUFFLE WITH CONE DRILL

 .

1 74 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

FIVE-POINT CONE DRILL

The five-point cone drill requires five cones set up as follows: place four
cones in a square 10 yards apart. Place the fifth cone in the center of the
square (see diagram). Using resistance belts and cords, make this drill an
excellent combination of resistance, overspeed, agility, and acceleration.

Focus: Good change of direction and start and stop acceleration

Procedure:

1 Start at back left cone; if using a resistance belt and cord, make sure
it's secure.

2. Sprint to the cone directly in front; with the cord, you have
overspeed.

3. Plant and backpedal to the middle cone; with the cord you now
have resistance.

4. Plant and sprint to the cone in front to your left.

5. Plant and backpedal to the cone behind you.

6. Plant and sprint forward through the last cone.

Duration: 20 to 30 seconds, 2 to 3 times

COACHING TIPS
1. Look for good acceleration and stops.

2. Stress good body control.

3. Look for controlled change of directions.

 Combination Training Drills 1 75

FIVE-POINT CONE DRILL

1 76 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

BALL PICKUPS CONE DRILL

Cone drill pickups are variations to work on quick change of direction

and good body control. Follow the diagrams for placement of cones. Roll
baseballs or tennis balls at designated targets.

Focus: To practice body control while performing your baseball skill

Procedure:
1. Shuffle laterally while fielding a ground ball.

2. Break and angle run to next cone while fielding a ground ball.

3. Plant your feet and shuffle back to the next cone while fielding a
ground ball.
4. Change direction and repeat.

Duration: 20 to 30 seconds, 2 to 3 times

COACHING TIPS
1. Look for good acceleration and stops.

2. Stress good body control.

3. Look for controlled change of directions.

 Combination Training Drills 1 77

BALL PICKUPS CONE DRILL

a*
/
* \
/ N
/
/

Jf/ \
*/ \
\
/
/ \
/ \
/ \

Start, a; Shuffle
>n
Field a ground ball at each cone
1 78 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

COMBINATION FOUR-CORNER WORK DRILL

The setup for the four-corner work drill requires four cones placed in a
square 10 yards apart. You may use a variety of modalities with a
different exercise at each cone. Players perform exercises with equip-
ment at that cone and when finished sprint to the next cone to perform
the next exercise. An example is given in the procedure below, but you
may want to substitute different exercises.
Focus: Total body movement with change of direction

Procedure:
1. One to four players start at one of the cones.

2. Perform the prescribed exercise for the amount of time or repeti-

tions prescribed.

3. When finished, sprint to the next exercise cone and repeat until
you've completed all four stations.

Duration: 10 to 15 seconds, 2 to 3 times each corner

#2

a
a Push-ups
15 sec
Scissor
jump
A #3

15 sec

Wood Russian
chop twist

15 sec 15 sec #4

Start
#1
A" A
Move clockwise every 15 sec.
 .

Combination Training Drills 1 79

5-10-5 AGILITY DRILL

The 5-10-5 agility drill is designed to increase lateral speed and agility.
Place two cones 10 yards apart. Place a third cone in the middle of the
two cones at the 5-yard mark (see the diagram below).
Focus: To work on lateral explosive crossover steps and quick starts
and stops in the opposite direction

Procedure:
1 Straddle the line with your body; clock starts upon forward move-
ment.
2. Sprint to the right 5 yards and touch the line or cone with either
hand.
3. Change direction and sprint 1 yards to your left and touch the line
or cone.

4. Change direction and sprint past original starting place; clock

stops.

Repetitions: Two times in each direction

Sprint 10 yd

W
q_
Touch
'-"»-
Sprint 5 yd past finish ^\_ 5 yd
»
Touch

o q
 CHAPTER

TRAINING
PROGRAMS

Whether your conditioning

program succeeds will depend on the development of successive and
consistent training sessions. When doing this, you need to address the
needs of the specific individual or team. You can't generalize when
assessing needs; the plan to "just get stronger" has been the downfall of
many programs. Good intentions are usually not enough to build a
successful program.
Rather, set specific goals and take a systematic approach to achieve
them. Baseball players need to improve their strength, speed, agility,
and endurance and reduce the risk of injury. Your program should be
planned to achieve these goals. Weight training alone will not enhance
all of these areas. Weight training combined with specific speed drills,

agility and footwork drills, and explosive training exercises specific to

baseball will increase the chances of obtaining your goal to be a better all-
around baseball player.

181
 182 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

Commit to improve your overall game. Your success starts in the

weight room, gyms, basements, backyards, and playing fields. How
good you want to be depends on how hard you're willing to work.

OFF-SEASON TRAINING

Tables 11.1 through 11.12 show a sample 12- week program for pitchers
and position players during the off-season. As the principle of
periodization suggests, the work levels are high, and the intensity
increases each week. During this off-season phase, the players work on
building overall strength, improving cardiovascular fitness, and sharp-
ening their speed and ability for explosive action. Use this as a guideline
to design a systematic conditioning programyour team's
specific to
needs. The content of the actual practice sessions should be determined
by the coach.

Table 11.1 Pitcher's Winter Training Schedule: Week 1

Tuesday Thursday

Flex/warm-up: 10 minutes Flex/warm-up: 10 minutes

Medicine ball: Wood chops 2X10 Medicine ball: Wood chops 2X10
Medicine ball toss 2 X 25 Medicine ball toss 2 x 25
Scissor jumps 2x10 Scissor jumps 2X10
Plyometrics: Rapid box jumps 2x5 Plyometrics: Rapid box jumps 2X5
Side-to-sidejumps 3x6 jumps 3X6
Side-to-side

Agility: Side kick 2 X 15 sec Agility: Side kick 2x15 sec

Quick ladder 2 X 10 yd Quick ladder 2 X 10 yd
Abdominals: Russian twist 2 X 25 Abdominals: Russian twist 2 X 25
Crunch 2 X 25 Crunch 2 X 25
Heel touches 2 x 25 Heel touches 2 x 25
Abdominals: Crunches 2 X 25 Abdominals: Crunches 2 X 25
Full crunch 2 X 25 Full crunch 2 X 25
Heel touches 2 x 25 Heel touches 2 X 25
Cardio work: Sprints 2X 220 yd Cardio work: Sprints 2 X 220 yd
10-minute run 10-minute run

Note: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are for weight training. See chapter 5.
 Training Programs 183

Table 11.2 Pitcher's Winter Training Schedule: Week 2

Tuesday Thursday

Flex/ warm-up: 10 minutes Flex/warm-up: 10 minutes

Medicine ball: Hip toss 2 X 10 Medicine ball: Hip toss 2x10

One-arm puts 2 x 10 One-arm puts 2x10
Separation lunge 2x10 Separation lunge 2x10
Lunge with twist 2x10 Lunge with twist 2X10
Plyometrics: Rapid box jumps 2x5 Plyometrics: Rapid box jumps 2x5
Velocity builder 2 X 10 Velocity builder 2x10
Agility: Lateral box runs 2 X 12 sec Agility: Lateral box runs 2 x 12 sec
Side kick 2 x 12 sec Side kick 2 x 12 sec

Abdominals: Russian twists 2 X 25 Abdominals: Russian twists 2 x 25

Crunches 2 X 25 Crunches 2 x 25
Heel touches 2 x 25 Heel touches 2 x 25
Cardio work: Jump rope 12 minutes Cardio work: Jump rope 12 minutes
10 x 60 yd sprints 10 x 60 yd sprints

Note: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are for weight training. See chapter 5.

Table 11.3 1 'itcher's Winter Training Schedule: Week 3

Tuesday Thursday

Flex/warm-up: 10 minutes Flex/warm-up: 10 minutes

Medicine bal : Lunge with twist 3X10 Medicine ball: Lunge with twist 3 X 10
Rapid chest pass 3x12 Rapid chest pass 3x12
Wood chops 3 X 10 Wood chops 3X10
Hip toss 3 X 10 Hip toss 3X10
Plyometrics: Velocity build jumps 3x6 Plyometrics: Velocity build jumps 3x6
Sled pulls 3 X 20 yd Sled pulls 3 X 20 yd
Medicine ball toss/ Medicine ball toss/
sprint 3 X 50 yd sprint 3 X 50 yd
Agility: Side kick 3x15 sec Agility: Side kick 3x15 sec
Side tows 3 X 10 yd Side tows 3 X 10 yd
Abdominals: Jackknife sit-ups 3X 25 Abdominals: Jackknife sit-ups 3X 25
Russian twists 3 X 25 Russian twists 3 X 25
Crunches 3 x 25 Crunches 3 x 25
Cardio work: 9-minute mile Cardio work: 9-minute mile
5 x 60 yd sprints 5 x 60 yd sprints

Note: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are for weight training. See chapter 5.
 184 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

Table 11.4 Pitcher's Winter Training Schedule: Week 4

Tuesday Thursday

Flex warm-up: 10 minutes Flex/warm-up: 10 minutes

Medicine ball Separation lunges 3 x 10

: Medicine ball : Separation lunges 3x10
Rapid chest pass 3 x 10 Rapid chest pass 3x10
Seated twists 3 x 10 Seated twists 3x10
Scissor jumps 3 x 10 Scissor jumps 3 x 10

Plyometrics Plyometrics/
speed: Weighted rope 3 x 13 sec speed: Weighted rope 3 x 15 sec
Step-ups 3 x 15 sec Step-ups 3 x 15 sec
Box jumps 3 x 15 sec Box jumps 3x15 sec
Agility: Side kick 3 x 15 sec Agility: Side kick 3 x 15 sec
Side tows 3 X 10 yd Side tows 3 x 10 yd

Abdominals: Choose 3 exercises and Abdominals: Choose 3 exercises and

do 3 sets of 25 each do 3 sets of 25 each
Cardio work: Choose 2 cardio Cardio work: Choose 2 cardio
exercises exercises

Note: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are for weight training. See chapter 5.

Table 11.5 Pitcher's Winter Training Schedule: Week 5

Tuesday Thursday

Flex warm-up: 10 minutes Flex warm-up: 10 minutes

Medicine ball : Separation lunge 3 x 12 Medicine bal : Separation lunge 3x12

Side squats 3 X 12 Side squats 3 x 12
Hip toss 3x12 Hip toss 3 x 12
One-arm puts 3 x 12 One-arm puts 3x12
Plyometrics Plyometrics/
speed: Line touches (cord) speed: Line touches (cord)
3x 10 3x 10
Resistance rows 3x4 Resistance rows 3x4
Side-to-side jumps 3 x 10 Side-to-side jumps 3x10
Agility: Side kick 3 x 15 Agility: Side kick 3 x 15
Medicine ball Medicine ball
shuffle 3 x 15 shuffle 3 x 15
Abdominals: Choose 3 exercises and Abdominals: Choose 3 exercises and
do 3 sets oi 23 each do 3 sets oi 25 each
Cardio work: Choose 2 cardio Cardio work: Choose 2 cardio
exer exercises

Agility: Side kick 3 x 13 Agility: Side kick 3 x 15

Medicine ball Medicine ball
shuffle 3x15 shuffle 3 x 15

Note: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are for weight training. See chapter 5.
 Training Programs 185

Table 11.6 Pitcher's Winter Training Schedule: Weeks 6-12

Tuesday Thursday

Flex/warm-up: 10 minutes Flex/warm-up: 10 minutes

Medicine ball: Choose 4 exercises from Medicine ball: Choose 4 exercises from
medicine ball section and medicine ball section and
do 3 sets of 10 each do 3 sets of 10 each

Plyometrics/ Plyometrics/
speed: Choose 3 plyometric/ speed: Choose 3 plyometric/
speed exercises and speed exercises and
do 3 sets of 10 each do 3 sets of 10 each
Agility: Choose 2 exercises from Agility: Choose 3 plyometric/
agility section and do 3 speed exercises and
sets each of 15 seconds do 3 sets of 10 each
Abdominals: Choose 3 exercises and Abdominals: Choose 3 exercises and
do 3 sets of 25 each do 3 sets of 25 each
Cardio work: Choose 2 cardio exercises Cardio work: Choose 2 cardio exercises
adjusting duration up 5% adjusting duration up 5%
each week each week

Note: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are for weight training. See chapter 5.

Table 11.7 Position Player's Winter Training Schedule: Week 1

Tuesday Thursday

Flex/warm-up: 10 minutes Flex/warm-up: 10 minutes

Medicine bal : Hip toss 2 X 15 sec Medicine ball: Hip toss 2X15 sec
Wood chops 2 x 15 sec Wood chops 2 x 15 sec
Scissor jumps 2x15 sec Scissor jumps 2 x 15 sec

Speed work: Arm swings 2 x 15 sec Speed work: Arm swings 2 x 15 sec
High knee runs 2 x 15 yd High knee runs 2 X 15 yd
Resistance tows 2x3 Resistance tows 2x3
Plyometrics: Choose 3 plyometric Plyometrics: Choose 3 plyometric
exercises from chapter exercises from chapter

Agility: Side kick 2 x 15 sec Agility: Side kick 2 x 15 sec

Quick foot ladder Quick foot ladder
2 x 15 yd 2 x 15 yd
Lateral box runs 2 X 15 sec Lateral box runs 2X15 sec
Abdominals: Russian twists 2 x 25 Abdominals: Russian twist 2 x 25
Jackknife sit-up 2 x 25 Jackknife sit-up 2x 25

Cardio work: Choose 1 exercise for Cardio work: Choose 1 exercise for
10 minutes (bike, run, 10 minutes (bike, run,
stair climbing) stair climbing)

Note: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are for weight training. See chapter 5.
 1 86 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

Table 11.8 Position Player's Winter Training Schedule: Week 2

Tuesday Thursday

Flex/warm-up: 10 minutes Flex/warm-up: 10 minutes

Medicine ball: Medicine ball Medicine ball : Medicine ball

toss3X8 toss3x8
Hip toss 3x8 Hip toss 3x8
Rapid chest pass 3x8 Rapid chest pass 3x8

Speed work: Arm swings 3X15 sec Speed work: Arm swings 3 X 15 sec
Sled pulls 3 X 20 yd Sled pulls 3 X 20 yd
Plyometrics: Box jumps 3X5 Plyometrics: Box jumps 3x5
Depth jumps with Depth jumps with
base steals 3x5 base steals 3x5
Speed work: Arm swings 3 x 15 sec Speed work: Arm swings 3x15 sec
Sled pulls 3 x 20 yd Sled pulls 3 x 20 yd
Agility: Side kick 2x12 sec Agility: Side kick 2 x 12 sec
Quick foot ladder Quick foot ladder
3 X 12 yd 3 x 12 yd
Lateral high knees Lateral high knees
3 x 12 sec 3 x 12 sec

Abdominals: Choose 2 exercises and Abdominals: Choose 2 exercises and

do 3 sets of 25 each do 3 sets of 25 each
Cardio work: Choose 1 exercise for Cardio work: Choose 1 exercise for
15 minutes (bike, run, 15 minutes (bike, run,
stair climbing) stair climbing)

Note: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are for weight training. See chapter 5.
 Training Programs 187

Table 11.9 Position Player's Winter Training Schedule: Week 3

Tuesday Thursday

Flex/warm-up: 10 minutes Flex/warm-up: 10 minutes

Medicine ball: Lunge and twist 3 X 10 Medicine ball: Lunge and twist 3x10
One-arm puts 3 x 10 One-arm puts 3x10
Speed work: Step-ups 3x8 Speed work: Step-ups 3x8
Velocity builder Velocity builder
% arm x 10 x
kicks 3 arm kicks 3 10
Overspeed tows 5 x 20 yd Overspeed tows 5 X 20 yd
Plyometrics: Velocity builder Plyometrics: Velocity builder
jumps 3x6 jumps 3x6
Agility: Slide board 3 x 15 sec Agility: Slide board 3 x 15 sec
Lateral box runs 3 x 15 sec Lateral box runs 3 x 15 sec
Abdominals: Choose 2 exercises and Abdominals: Choose 2 exercises and
do 3 sets of 25 each do 3 sets of 25 each
Cardio work: 6 X 50-yd sprints Cardio work: 6 x 50-yd sprints

Note: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are for weight training. See chapter 5.

Table 11.10 Position Player's Winter Training Schedule: Week 4

Tuesday Thursday

Flex/warm-up: 10 minutes Flex/warm-up: 10 minutes

Medicine ball Seated twists 3x10 Medicine bal' : Seated twists 3x10
Medicine ball Medicine ball
toss 3X10 toss 3 x 10
Separation lunges 3x10 Separation lunges 3x10
Speed work: Box runs 3x15 sec Speed work: Box runs 3 x 15 sec

Plyometrics: Four-corner box jumps Plyometrics: Four-corner box jumps

2 x 20 sec 2 x 20 sec
Weighted rope Weighted rope
2 x 20 sec 2 x 20 sec

Agility: Side kick 3 x 15 sec Agility: Side kick 3 x 15 sec

Lateral shuffle w/ belt Lateral shuffle w/ belt
3 x 15 sec 3 x 15 sec
Lateral high knees 3 x 15 sec Lateral high knees 3 x 15 sec

Abdominals: Choose 2 exercises and Abdominals: Choose 2 exercises and

do 3 sets of 25 each do 3 sets of 25 each
Cardio work: Sprints 2x 220 yd Cardio work: Sprints 2 X 220 yd
10-minute run 10-minute run

Note: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are for weight training. See chapter 5.
188 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

Table 11.11 Position Player's Winter Training Schedule: Weeks 5-12

Tuesday Thursday

Flex/warm-up: 10 minutes Flex/warm-up: 10 minutes

Medicine ball: Choose 3 exercises from Medicine ball: Choose 3 exercises from
medicine ball section and medicine ball section and
do 3 sets of 10 each do 3 sets of 10 each

Speed work: Mechanics 3 X 10 Speed work: Mechanics 3 x 10

Acceleration 3x8 Acceleration 3x8
Overspeed 3x5 Overspeed 3x5
Plyometrics: Choose 3 exercises and Plyometrics: Choose 3 exercises and
do 3 sets of 8 each do 3 sets of 8 each
Agility: Choose 3 exercises and Agility: Choose 3 exercises and
do 3 sets of 15 seconds do 3 sets of 15 seconds
each each

Abdominals: Choose 2 exercises and Abdominals: Choose 2 exercises and

do 3 sets of 25 each do 3 sets of 25 each
Cardio work: Choose 2 cardio exercises Cardio work: Choose 2 cardio exercises
adjusting duration up 5% adjusting duration up 5%
each week each week

Note: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are for weight training. See chapter 5.

IN-SEASON TRAINING

In-season training is a key component of overall body conditioning. This

phase is designed to maintain the fitness, strength, and speed gains we
achieved during the off-season. The combination of day-in, day-out
playing takes its toll on the body. Maintaining a modified training
program during the season helps your body stay strong for the duration
of the season. At the same time, we should stress that in-season is not the
time to try to gain strength but only to maintain the good body condi-
tioning you need for day-to-day play.
During the in-season our primary emphasis is on our skill training,
and other training is secondary. A two- to three-day strength mainte-
nance program is more than adequate to minimize strength loss during
the season (see tables 11.13 through 11.16). Any more than two to three
days of excessive heavy lifting or overtraining promotes a loss of
strength when coupled with day-in, day-out playing.
In-season training volume should be half of what you do during the
off-season, and weight should be decreased by 30 to 40 percent. Keep
intensity levels low. Following these guidelines will help to ensure that
athletes are stronger over the course of the year and reduce their chances
 Training Programs 189

of injury. Followingis an example of a six- week in-season/ summer

training program.Choose exercises that you feel are appropriate for you
and /or your team and modify the routine accordingly. Keep routines
short —about 20 to 40 minutes.
You can follow this type of training schedule week to week throughout
the season. Choose different exercises to avoid monotony and adapta-
tion of the body to the same routines. This is a great time of the year to
incorporate the velocity builder, medicine balls, resistance cord, or
speed^runner routines. These tools provide good resistance and keep the
body training with explosive movements. If you can't always get to the
 190 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

weight room during the season, the tools are doubly good. Note that
your main work days are those opposite game days (Monday, Wednes-
day, and Friday in the examples below). Exercises listed on the other
days can simply be incorporated into your stretching routine or light
postgame work. Game day workouts should be done two to three hours
before the game or, preferably, after the game.
The pitchers' running program should be monitored by the pitching
coach. The running program should be scheduled with the previous
week's work in mind, and if an off day has not been included during the
week, Sunday should be considered an off day from running for the
relievers.
Pitchers can follow a format similar to the position players. Base
modifications on the pitching schedules of the starters. Emphasis for
pitchers can be directed for more leg power and explosive work to help
with endurance and leg strength over the season.
 *

Training Programs 191

m
IT)
*— ' .
o
t— (
03
73
X T-l X
X(N
2 »X« LO
0)

wn
nsion
ise2
uats X U
O a; w " "S
4Z

•^ 0) «C t^ 1
..
QJ
U
3 r« »1
.5
"3
-t; 0> <s g
o
jj
«J o
..
c £
CD
4ri
X60 1o ^o
73 73
• pH
S* pfi a
£ < U

CM 73
CD
N
^ X X "2 S T3
—
£ JS (N <N P
O
I

OJ OS
c^
Ci,-^ en
X -^
*- vO
P
&
C .52 £ ^ x £
1=5
O £ SL«
II ^oo g
^73 tD «>
^^ III
oj
itoo
£ 73
oj
CL<-
en
-a
< 5 i
ao
^ J p<
c >
73
Qj

.§ -a
s °
o >

«J 73

WD 0»

H3
«J
8 c
- X
c CM fi
«N CM ^ o
o
CD
°
r-,
r_l
r /i
«"*
^
' >— 73
CD £>
a*
x x 3 <
3 p2
<U Si
Q/5 in
CM
'3
ress
ench
curls
ns/leg X
b u
73
C
O Legp mbbell
Biceps
extensio 2
"3

2 to 8
io
CS
J« 'w
c
*
e o m
o 73
9
IS
73
X>
5
OS
C
5 < U
 —

192 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

<d
73

in i-h o
x * ^ x

u a» »5 t>c
re <-» 3 a»

id
cog o J
73 en

J3 £ o
60
Si n
< U

«d
m 73

x
X tN
ai cd lt, !=1
J- <N , ~~'
C
fi Jj

|1 ™X^5
5

>
u
2 <e

U
73
"bo
< £1
09
o 3
OJ
c U C
•a
cd
C
•*-
cd
£
C c
73
-£ .£
cd
£
o c
U ^

£ en
Cd 73
- 03
U
8 (2
- X
c
o
cd
a»
O <N fN 3
CD
xx x
iff

x x.
cd
00 «
73
c PQ at
C C
2 G
3
O ..

C*5
I *
£ o CO
60 73
c
1 < 3
 1 i

Training Programs 193

CM CM u
CU
r- 03

IT, X cm
X u 73
"- CM cu
CM
1

cm CO
X c« X o '-'
CM
X
CM '55 X CM
Cfl
O S CM X
en
Mu CM -a
2 a;
02
CU
C
n 0)
CD
2 o
— 3
73 0)
en -is X
en ca
u CD P-, "3 , en c e
CD QJ hJ CQ
_u 3 73 'o
u at
H "C
H 60
7^
cu
cu
-J en
00
E
60 •^
60
1 <

73
X o
r"' X j«
CM CM C
03
X p en X en £
52
rj £rM
5-H en
nS
Dh
en
!D —
S Oh
6
o CU
c^
£ > 3
S-,
01 ^O In *f^

3 o 2 6
3* S'g'-5 ^
73 73 > "B, ^
CD 0>

c c/5 6

60

1
s

o 73
en en

a>
C/5 (2
73
~2~ CM

S ~^ x X
CM
«- X
>.
ft CM X
cn ^ »h
a
en a» 3

73
C a 2
o cu C u 3 x
CO

73 >
CU

J3
60 73
C
60
I C/5
194 Complete Conditioning for Baseball

c CO CO "^
a> (N in £^J
O f
in x
> cj X X "*
i-h at
(N c
x CM —
x o cm cm
X 0,
X X £ X drill drill :>eed
co
Ih cj XJ
CO 0) as
Efl

CQ -c
u 3 V
to
rz a o ^ 6c
g hJ Spt x
Latera

ombinat

•a
0)
£
a. U C
7!

tc
1
•»*
c

2 £

^ o XS
m -
X e
CO
IN CO
CM P co

^«sr X5

< ~.£ g-s

c <-
X
XI
M
co
— ^
*U 'a, m
id
rsi = SI
BO XI

OJ

X
-
60 I
I
c
o XJ
CO
co

C75
co ^3
5
CO ^ CM
X -
oq

5- cm "£
OJ -cm X -c
xxx o
>
r
^3
j x = Tt a
c

V
Um
- a»
all's
e
c £ £2 T5to-
O £ <Z X
Q-X> £2

XJ O »- j

01
0)
U
Q- o
co
CO £
o
ft XJ
£ •3
6 c
3
fl 1 1 U
OS
175
 ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Patrick T. Murphy,
who brought Notre Dame's baseball
program from the bottom to the top
during the seven seasons he served as
head coach, is now piloting one of the
country's premier college baseball pro-
grams at Arizona State. He is a mem-
ber of the American Baseball Coaches
Association and the NCAA Collegiate
Baseball organization.

Jeff Forney
is and conditioning coach
the strength
for the Arizona Diamondbacks. The
author of several manuals, videos, and
articles on strength and conditioning
for baseball, he is a recognized leader
in the study of explosive movements
and their specific applications for base-
ball . He is a member of National Strength
and Conditioning Association and
American College of Sports Medicine.
 More resources for baseball
coaches and players
1997 • Paper • 208 pp
Item PW0L0936 OFFENSIVE
ISBN 0-87322-936-3
$15.95 ($23.95 Canadian) BASEBALL
DRILLS
Paper • 184 pp
Item PDEL0865
ISBN 0-87322-865-0
& Team Drills
$14.95 ($20.95 Canadian)

Rod Delmonico

Special Package Price

1995 • book & video

Item MWIN0446
ISBN 0-88011 -496-7
$44.95 ($67.50 Canadian)

BASEBALL

Foreword by 1
Sparky Anderson!

1995 • 1/2" VHS

88 minutes
Item MWIN0438
ISBN 0-88011-485-1
$29.95 ($44.95 Canadian)
( >PEZ

1996 • Paper • 216 pp 1996 • Paper • 216 pp

Item PH0U0882 Item PL0P06tf9
ISBN 0-87322-882-0 ISBN 0-87322-609-7
$17.95 ($25.95 Canadian) $18.95 ($27.95 Canadian)

To request more information or to place your order, U.S. customers call

TOLL FREE -800-747-4457. Customers outside the U.S. place your order
1

using the appropriate telephone/address shown in the front of this book.

(^{\ Human Kinetics

The Premier Publisher for Sports & Fitness
(? ^Z~\
V/\\) http://www.humankinetics.com/
Prices subject to change.
2335
 Complete Conditioning for

BASEBALL
"Speed and power are difference-makers when players of equal skill
compete on the ball diamond. Coaches Murphy and Forney provide
a baseball-specific training program that will give you the
edge aft the plate, on the base paths, and in the field."
Steve Traylor
Head Baseball Coach, Duke University
1 992 ACC Coach of the Year

"This book is a must-read for coaches as well as players

who want complete conditioning."
Rod Delmonico
Head Baseball Coach, University of Tennessee
1995 National Coach of the Year

"Pat Murphy and Forney present a tough program for developing

Jeff
and quickness. The discipline required will
strength, speed,
make you a more consistent, better player."
Bob Welch
1990 Cy Young Award Winner

Train like the pros and top college players! This comprehensive, sport-specific
trainingprogram will help you hit, throw, and run like an all-star. It features 85
exercises and drills, 10 training workouts, and 4 sample 12-week training programs.

Arizona State University's baseball coach, Pat Murphy, and the Arizona Diamondbacks'
strength and conditioning coach, Jeff Forney, share the game's most effective
training secrets. Complete Conditioning for Baseball is the training guide you need
for more power and speed.

ISBN 0-fl7322-AAb-3
5 1 595

Human Kinetics 9 '780873"228862

$15.
In Canada $23.95