We are on to week 3 of our 2021 winter offseason training. The coaches can see some of the foundations for strength and power building. Keep up the hard work – it is going to pay off.
Remember, to challenge yourself and be accountable to your teammates, we are tracking our offseason training points. Here is a reminder about how it works – take a look and remember to log your activities.
Let’s get to our workout for this week.
Hitting:
The number one thing here is that you are swing the bat frequently at game speed. Work on your load and balance. Build your strength by getting your swings in. We will continue with this as our starting point (more is better though):
10 dry swings
40 quality hits off the tee
- 10 inside
- 20 middle
- 10 outside
If you did not watch it already, I highly recommend you watch the Freddie Freeman video on how he trains using a tee.
Throwing:
You will notice that this last drill is new. This week in practice we added the King of the Hill device to give us feedback on our leg drive. I promised that I would provide a drill you could do at home that would work on the same things. Here it is.
This video should start for you at the 6:30 mark – the drill is explained from 6:30 – 8:00. You are welcome to watch more of the video but do the drill Brent describes at least 10 times. Note – he makes it look really easy. It is NOT easy to do. It takes strength and coordination – stick with it, this will pay off.
Last week I shared a picture of Justin Verlander’s position as he landed – chest out, arm laid back and towards the head. At practice we talked about how our soccer and football drills are designed to train us to get into that position.
Here’s another example I grabbed from the Pitching Ninja of Gerrit Cole that shows the things we are working on.
Cole’s upper body is in the same position. This frame also shows his lower body – notice that his leg is already coming off the rubber before he releases the ball. This is the leg drive that we are working on using the King of the Hill and 3X drills.
Strength:
Finish your workout this week by continuing these key exercises.
25 push-ups – to strengthen your chest.
25 rows – to strengthen your back (using a door frame, here is a resource on how: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8NzhNe9Res)
25 squats – to strengthen your legs
25 sit-ups – to strengthen your core
That should do it. Keep working hard. We will see you soon!
– Coach Kevin
Pressure Baseball 