Now that 2022 is here it is time to start working on our baseball skills again.
We will be practicing (nearly) weekly and you can further hone your skills by:
1) Working out – building strength, speed, and endurance.
2) Refining your baseball skills and mechanics.
We will work on giving you options that take minimal space and equipment. Of course, if you have access to more space or equipment, feel free to add to these.
Putting in extra work now will make next season even more fun.
Approach to off season training:
- Go hard – you should be at or even above game speed. See how far you can push yourself now so you are more prepared for games.
- Take chances, try new things – nothing is lost if it does not work. When you are training by yourself no one is even around to see if you mess up.
- Prioritize and build a routine – you are much more likely to complete your training consistently if you do this.
Training for Week 1:
Hitting
50 swings (can be dry swing* or hitting off of a tee)
- Before your first 10 swings load 3 times – .ie load, reset, load, reset, load and swing
- This will help you refine the load step of your swing.
*Dry swings are when we are not swinging to hit a ball. We are still taking a game-style swing.
Envision a pitcher going through their wind up, load your hands and body, and take a hard swing. You can alter where you are ‘hitting’ the pitch – middle, inside or outside; up or down.
Tee work is when we are hitting a ball off of the tee. This is still most effective when we envision the pitcher going through their wind up, we load, and then take a game-style style that would yield a hard line drive.
A few important notes:
You do not have to hit baseballs off a tee. Plastic or other lightweight balls are fine.
If you have a cushion or net you can hit the balls into, that is great.
If you don’t, get a 3 foot string and a wiffle ball. Loop one end of the string around the base of the tee and the other around wiffle ball loops. Now you can hit without having to run down the ball.
Throwing / Pitching
In practice last week we worked on 2 throwing drills that will help build strength and emphasize the mechanics we are building.
- 15 rotational throws
- 15 overhead throws
Medicine ball – rotational throw:
While these are ‘medicine ball’ drills, we are using a soccer ball/volleyball/basketball for now.
Start from the stretch position, cock the ball back to your ear and use your body rotation to throw the ball.
Here is a resource: https://youtu.be/_SgVlerT6jk?list=PLaF1d8EePXKiNbfaS5YJEF-KpaH11eOKb
Medicine ball – overhead throw:
Use the same ball you used above. Start from your landing position, pull your upper body back and explode forward.
Here is a resource:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f784hY1Qdek&list=PLaF1d8EePXKiNbfaS5YJEF-KpaH11eOKb&index=8&t=2s
Strength / Fitness
We will keep it simple this week and do a few key movements. Break each one of these into as many sets you need.
- 50 push-ups.
- 50 rows (using a door frame, here is a resource on how: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8NzhNe9Res)
- 50 squats
- 50 sit-ups
See if you can get to these 4 exercises at least 2 times this week.
That should do it guys – each of the 3 components should take 10 minutes or less.
You can likely do this all together in 1 30 minute session but if you want to break it up, that’s fine too.
Let us know if you have any questions!
Pressure Baseball 