I have been lifting all offseason and wish to continue within the season.
I don’t want to do overkill because our practices are quite draining as it is. So here’s how my program is looking like right now. It is adressing my weakest points as a priority.
If your practices are draining (and baseball itself is draining, I know), then why would you be doing 20-50 rep sets? that’s strength endurance training and draining in the way similar to baseball.
Do medium amounts of heavy lifts for 1-3 reps to maintain/build max strength, and do 3-5 rep sets at 50-60% 1RM for speed.
Lots of volume work / high reps will just wear you out more.
I won’t need much work for the upper body throughout my season, just maintenance work and bringing up lagging imbalances.
Another thing i have found is that im the fourth quickest on my baseball team. I want to be third or second, and i do not know if that is possible but my reaction time and first few steps could use a lot of work, and it takes me a while before i hit top speed. SO i’m going to incorporate tuck jumps, karakoke’s and other such things to help with my sprinting ability. ANy help along those lines would be appreciated, because you need all the speed you can get with centerfield.
As a former college pitcher who tore his rotator cuff, I would counsel you to be very careful about pressing in the horizontal plane…If you insist on doing it, balance it out with at least twice as much horizontal pulling…
I believe the strength imbalance in my shoulder is the reason i had so many problems with it…be diligent with your jobe stuff, or whatever you do for the rotator cuff…
That said, you need strong legs and a strong core, so heavier lifting is in order…heavy core drills like saxon sidebends, bent and side presses, pikes etc…will work wonders…so will single limb lower body work…
Remember that it’s the muscles on the back side of your body that decelerate your arm; chest-supported rows, rope-pulls to the neck, face-pulls etc. will go a long way to keeping you healthy and productive…
As for throwing harder, lifting weights can’t really help directly, although they will certainly help indirectly by keeping you healthy, keeping you from wearing down, and keeping your mechanics intact as your pitch count gets up there…a lot of guys put a couple mph on their fastball by gaining some weight, but bodybuilding will definitely hurt you as a pitcher…
8x3 cleans
3x10 kickbacks
Speed work
Calves
saxons
I do as much external rotator rotations as i can followign the 100 rep method. That is my problem, because whenever my shoulder begins tightening up or feeling uneasy, it is because of my lack of movement in the external area. I have tight internal rotators too and stretch as much as it comes to mind.
8x3 cleans
3x10 kickbacks
Speed work
Calves
saxons
I do as much external rotator rotations as i can followign the 100 rep method. That is my problem, because whenever my shoulder begins tightening up or feeling uneasy, it is because of my lack of movement in the external area. I have tight internal rotators too and stretch as much as it comes to mind.
Any critiques?[/quote]
Is this for in-season???
On average, how many games a week do you play? How often will you pitch? Remember your time between starts is for recovery, not for building strength.
Between cleans, deads, and back squats you aren’t giving your shoulders much recovery time for your pitching. During my seasons, I tried to keep the weights of the shoulders as much as possible and I stayed in the 8-10 range. Just my 2 cents.
In season begins on April 1, and i am attempting to do as much as possible to be prepared for that. This is the last few weeks of the offseason.
My first pitching start is monday, April 4. It’s still dependent upon rain changes, cancellations and what not but i want to be ready to throw April 1.
These are just to pack on any other strength or other benefits i can before the season commences.
But I have some problems which probbly need to be addressed first and foremost. My mechanics are too long and my coach says i am too heavy with my front foot. He says I stride beyond where i should and really destroy my base. This causes my elbow to come in lower then it should giving it the sidearm appereance, when in actuality it’s just trying to catch up with my stride leg. I have always had a very long stride and tearing it apart now and reconstructing from a shorter stride really throws a wrench in my performance, consistency, and ability to deliver solid pitches.
He say’s im easily taking of 5-10 mph, and when i pitch correctly, my ball “dances.” He says i have great movement on my pitches and good command of my changeup when i pitch with the shorter stride. Now I throw about 74-78, on the conservative end. SO if I can shorten my step and maintain my balance and tempo i can probably start throwing 80 consistently.
It is so irregular and awkward to throw with this shortened step; i will continue practicing, and probably lessen some of my workouts in order to further work on my mechanics.
I am the third rotational pitcher for our varsity team, and also play centerfield. Last year i got three starts and let up 5 er over 19 innings. Otherwise i did relief work, which i wasn’t too comfortable with, but i am a strikeout pitcher. I hope this information can help.
I would add a couple sets of lunges & some medicine ball. Work your cuff, light wts. & rubber tubing. Please don’t tell me your coach makes u guys run long distance in practice, does he?! Hopefully your doing sprints & are the shit!
Also, do not maintain your current strenght! Keep going up & you’ll pass everyone else up. If your pitching, you’ll just have to do your workouts around it. If your coach is any good, he’ll have some type of pitching rotation or tell u in advance WHEN you’ll be pitching. If not, ask him! U have to take charge! Good luck! Kick ass & don’t take names, just count the bodies!
external rotation (forearm laid back before throw) increases to dangerous over-extension. Ultimately this leads to torn rotator cuff tendon and possibly torn labrum/damage to shoulder capsule.
internal rotation ROM decreases. This decrease causes the upper arm to ‘stop’ too soon after release. Instead of decelerating properly, the arm ‘bangs’ against the end of the ROM. This causes either elbow or shoulder problems.
That’s why you must strengthen the back of the shoulder (external rotation)(Jobe exercises) and stretch the front of the shoulder/internal rotation.
well if anyones following this but im sorry for the lack of updates or what not
the season has begun and we’re 2-0
both games won by our ace. FIrst game was against the supposed best team in the division and we won 2-1, and the next game , today, we won with the 10 run rule in the sixth. 10-0
SO my big problem now is relaxation. This is my major concern, i just cant get comfortable at the plate. PreSeason i batted 5-8 with 2 doubles and 5 rbi along with 6 rs. and handful of walks. Now with the beginning of the season im batting 0-6, with three f****** strikeouts. I have made contact once and it was a long strike to center who made a nice grab as he ran into the wall.
I thought i was doing better, but next at bat i was in the same perdicament. I struck out. And these pitchers are throwers not pitchers, they have no finesse, no stuff.
They have flat fastballs and curve balls that move a few inches tops.
I should be ripping the balls. Instead im ripping myself. I took a meatball right down the plate today, two of them. I don’t know where my head is or what to do. those pitches should be hit back up the middle.
Im going to squat for a few sets and do soem shoulder work, but outside that ill be doing tee drills for an hour or two. Then the ominous homework.
I wish i could get this moneky of my back and hit the ball. I just need to get my head bak in this or soemthing
any help would be appreciated if not a seasona saver.
Can’t let this get me down that will just lead me further downhill, if possible, so ill keep my chin up and my heart weary.
Don’t press about you hitting problems, it is the worst thing that you can do. I played both baseball and football in high school and the mindset you have to take is completely different mindset. In football if you mess up you can just “go nuts” and fix the problem through sheer intensity. It just doesn’t work that way in baseball. You said that you had a good preseason, so the ability to hit is there. Just relax and trust your ability. Something that always help me was to go back to those really basic hitting drills. Soft toss, hitting off a tee. Just keep drilling those and working hard in BP and you will get out of this.
Also, with all of these focus on keeping your head down and shoulder in. All of my problems always stemmed from pulling off the ball so doing this and thinking of staying back and ripping the ball into the oppisit field always helped.
Something you have to understand is that slumps happen in this game from time to time no matter how good you are. So just relax, you bust out of it.
You guys are 2-0, so i guess things good be worse.
ya ares are boring to but there fun also. But as a workout i do 3 sets of my body weight on bench press then i go to squat at 215 then i do barbell curls.
well i broke out today thank god
went 2-3 with two singles one up the middle and one ripped down the line.
We barely won today and pulled it out in the bottom of the seventh.
My problem was keeping my heel in. My foot wud flare out before and my whole body was too forward, keeping the heel towards the pitcher made me close my shoulder and make solid contact.
