What up y’all…I play competitive softball and I was looking to find out some great lifts that will increase my power and distance in my hitting…anything??
Assuming the tech on your swing is good i would focus on increasing the strength of your abdominals, hips, and lower back. lots of rotational ab exercises
I would recommend not doing and “specific” hitting exercises under added resistance. I’ve seen a few baseball players get their mechanics all screwed up due to a trainer thinking working through the range of motion while holding a cable handle is a good idea.
Lots of forearm work will be wonderful.
Keep it simple…1) Squats, 2)chin ups with neutral grip , 3) russian twists with a medicine ball,and 4) rear lateral raises
You may want to visit Eric Cressey’s site or Bob Alejo’s site. These guys are big into baseball training and very good at what they do.
http://www.ericcressey.com/home.html
http://www.bobalejo.com/strength.html
As mentioned before, I recommend not performing movement patterns, hit the posterior chain, core rotational exercises, upper body, and shoulder prehabilitation exercises.
[quote]hockeyguy68 wrote:
What up y’all…I play competitive softball and I was looking to find out some great lifts that will increase my power and distance in my hitting…anything??[/quote]
You can do what I did. I took an old 70s softball bat that was already quite a bit heavier than my 30oz dimarini and filled it with expandable dense foam. I then got some really heavy duty heat shrink from gray bar and use the oven or a heat gun to melt it on. This made it really heavy. The gym I was working out at had a batting cage so I would go hit 100 or so balls after my workout.
I worked great and it only took me about 10 cortazone shots, two surguries, and extensive prolothrerapy to regain the use of my elbows.
Or you could do a bunch of core work and lower arm work. Do hanging leg raises, standing crunches with the lat pd machine, leg raises on a bench and incline SUps with straight legs. The key is legs being straight to hit the lower abs. some sort of hurricane would be good too. Don’t be afraid to go heavy. I don’t know why people are so stuck on high reps for core work.
Time your swing with a very strong contraction in the lower abs. Push out like you would against your belt in a squat. Quick and hard contractions are needed for a good swing and should be used in training. explosive vs controlled and slow.
For lower arm work do it all. Priority:
Levering - inside to outside, outside to inside, palm down curl, and standing curl to the back of the arm. I made a device out of plumbing pipe. I’ll take some pics this weekend.
Rist roller or curls - regular and reverse. Some weight and a PVC pipe can make a great roller. I’ll take pics.
Pinch grip, static grip, and crushing grip are less important but are fun to train.
What level do you play? most of my stuff is C and some C/D tourneys but here is what I have found to be helpful. Ab work, lat work, and wrist forearm work.
Wrist roller, plate curls, and some levering usually. I feel my bat speed is best when my upper body and my hands feel strong. I keep squatting all through the season so I never quetion my legs.
[quote]dhickey wrote:
hockeyguy68 wrote:
What up y’all…I play competitive softball and I was looking to find out some great lifts that will increase my power and distance in my hitting…anything??
You can do what I did. I took an old 70s softball bat that was already quite a bit heavier than my 30oz dimarini and filled it with expandable dense foam. I then got some really heavy duty heat shrink from gray bar and use the oven or a heat gun to melt it on. This made it really heavy. The gym I was working out at had a batting cage so I would go hit 100 or so balls after my workout.
I worked great and it only took me about 10 cortazone shots, two surguries, and extensive prolothrerapy to regain the use of my elbows.
Or you could do a bunch of core work and lower arm work. Do hanging leg raises, standing crunches with the lat pd machine, leg raises on a bench and incline SUps with straight legs. The key is legs being straight to hit the lower abs. some sort of hurricane would be good too. Don’t be afraid to go heavy. I don’t know why people are so stuck on high reps for core work.
Time your swing with a very strong contraction in the lower abs. Push out like you would against your belt in a squat. Quick and hard contractions are needed for a good swing and should be used in training. explosive vs controlled and slow.
For lower arm work do it all. Priority:
Levering - inside to outside, outside to inside, palm down curl, and standing curl to the back of the arm. I made a device out of plumbing pipe. I’ll take some pics this weekend.
Rist roller or curls - regular and reverse. Some weight and a PVC pipe can make a great roller. I’ll take pics.
Pinch grip, static grip, and crushing grip are less important but are fun to train.[/quote]
Great advise, especially the timing of the abs contracting with the swing. You have to “cue in” on the pitcher’s delivery and plan your breathing. They’ll try to screw you up with off-speed pitches and changing their delivery tempo.
TNT
TNT
My favorite is the 12 oz curl, high rep drop sets of course.
LEGS LEGS LEGS abs and some more LEGS
nice bigpull. i’ve played in a bunch of E tournaments (basically a bunch of B and C players sandbagging to win a tourney), so i would say that, OP, if you’re playing tournaments, remember that a home run counts as an out.
if not…i agree with wrist rollers and anything to get wrists and forearms stronger. those are key. core work is definitely good, as well as posterior chain work and legs.
good luck and rake
[quote]ericbyrnesjr wrote:
nice bigpull. i’ve played in a bunch of E tournaments (basically a bunch of B and C players sandbagging to win a tourney), so i would say that, OP, if you’re playing tournaments, remember that a home run counts as an out.
if not…i agree with wrist rollers and anything to get wrists and forearms stronger. those are key. core work is definitely good, as well as posterior chain work and legs.
good luck and rake[/quote]
Not just for HRs. If you don’t have the touch to place the ball just over the infielders, blasting hard at the 2nd baseman is also a good stratagy. The 2nd baseman is usually the worst fielder in the infield. That’s what I used to play.
Hitting the fense with a line drive works too. Don’t give the outfielder a chase to get to it. If it barely clears the pitchers head and still hits the fense your doing good.
I wasn’t much of HR hitter but could smash the shit out of the ball and probably led the team in doubles. I wasn’t doing much lower body work at the time so I would say it was most lower arm strength and core strenght.