Guys I am new and am trying to find better way to enhance strength for baseball,where can I find how plyos will help and what weight training would help most as well as some over/under swing training I have used stacks up in the routines,how well plyos help upperbodyvs. lower body.Trying not only to enhance athletes but make sure not to hurt them.Need explanations of how to do plyos with pictures and names so I can get up to speed with some of your stuff,so far it is really interesting.
I’d start by looking at how you can build a better athlete in a general sense. I have no idea about baseball (because it is not played in my country) but from reading a recent book on Barry Bonds it seems he improved his hitting power mainly through general bodybuilding type work (e.g. general strength and fitness parameters). This all falls in line with the CFTS where general strength is of very real importance.
And before anyone else pipes in, of course there are other issues at play in the above case but there is no need to discuss them here (it is against site policy).
Although that is true that barry bonds did mostly bodybuilding type work, and certainly some of this type of work is needed to help maintain strength over the long season as well as enhance the potential for absolute strength development, I wonder if this is really the best training option for most people. Seeing as how one has a very limited window of opportunity to express force(as long as the bat is in contact with the ball, although obviously the velocity reached before making contact with the ball makes a difference.) I am not sure about the exact amount of time this takes but it is very short and I would assume gets shorter the faster the bat speed is. Might it be more optimal to do some more work focusing on strength and maybe more importantly rate of force delelopment? You could argue that batting practice alone could take care of this, but I can’t help but wonder if some supplementary RFD and strength work to complement the general hypertrophy work would be a better option.
lets remember the kid is not barry bonds, he is a developing baseball players and baseball is a power sport.
The more towards a beginner, the more general the prep should be.
I agree, but if i was working with someone like barry and knowing all of his prior injuries knees, elbows, and his age i wouldnt be trying to do cleans, snatches, jerks, and heavy squats. With a college athlete i would do all the basic stuff i listed above.
What would you choose?
I think the bb style training hes doing now is ok, but i would probably add in some trap bar dl,single leg work, maybe some dym box squats, and tons of hamstring (rev hypers, gh,rdl). I would also do some med throws and low intensity-low volume jumps (squat jumps, str leg bounds etc).
If he’s already got a hist of knee issues, why squat jumps? Why TONS more ham work?? Do you think a radical shift in volume is called for so late in his career?
The squat jump was just an example but the volume would be very low (3x5) more so in our final stages of movement prep warmup phase. From what I have seen baseball players lack overall hamstring developement, so thats one reason why I would focus more on that area. I understand about the radical shift in volume but I wouldnt be adding anymore volume if anything I would decrease what hes doing now. Also what i mean by tons of hammy work would only be one hip flex and one hip ext movement and im sure Barry is mostly doing leg curls now. What would you have Barry doing?
I’d want to know what he’s doing for therapy before changing anything. Till then, I couldn’t comment.
So are you saying the bodybuilding training may have a role?
May have a role? Are you suggesting throwing out what got him to the top and trying a different approach??
From a theoretical standpoint you are right RFD is so important but unless you really know what you are doing and have great therapy it is always prudent to develop every aspect of the athlete and not simply focus on a pure RFD program. My point about Barry was not that you should train like him but more “look what can be achieved by general methods”.
Bodybuilding/hypertrophy type training definately has a role. Especially if the player in question is trying to be a big home run hitter. Batting has a bigger need of absolute strength rather than pure relative strength. Remember it is how much force you can put into swinging the bat. Not necessarily how much force you can put out in relation to your bodyweight so there should definately be some focus on hypertrophy(think thrower versus sprinter). But having said that, IMO most younger players would benefit from doing some, although certainly not all, work focusing more on Strength or RFD.
Very good point. Alot of it depend on the athlete’s present needs.
I appreciate all the discussion but what about some specifics for training kids,when thinking of batting as swing training vs batting practice,1 is for building bat speed and reinforcing mechanics and the 2nd is for timing and mechanics and reading pitches.You guys seem to be very knowledgeable about training the body and my expertise is in how the body swings a bat and how to hit[2 different things]Since I work with some quality ball players I would like to feel my info is as cutting edge as possible and mainly that what we do is not inhibiting in anyways,thanks for all the help and what is rfd,still trying to get up to speed with lingo.
RFD is rate of force development. How much force you can apply in a limited amount of time(as an example, the time the ball is in contact with the bat) is the measure of your rate of force development.
As far as batting, I would recommend that you do batting and any other skills practice before lifting or any other type of workouts. You want your athletes to be as fresh as possible when training skills. Skill work still needs to be the most important part. Your athletes can be bigger and stronger than the other team but if they can’t hit that ball or make a play in the field it won’t matter. The biggest thing to avoid is trying to combine batting practice with strength training(ie. trying to mimic the motion of swinging a bat while there is a significant resistance such as a cable pulley.) This can screw up your athletes timing and coordination.
As far as workouts go, use a program that incorporates alot of basic, compound movements and make sure to do plenty of work for the core. There is no need to get too specific on this. A general program that incorporates both strength and hypertrophy work will do fine. As far as rate of force development, short sprints, jumps, and medicine ball work all can help with this. Just be careful about not overdoing this and always lean on the conservative side when choosing how much volume to use.
thanks for the input ,most of my needs are for off season strength program that will help them to be better athletes,building fast twitch muscles,w/o that will help with foot speed reaction quickness and ability to turn faster when swinging a bat.I know most of it comes from good mechanics and there is no substitute for that but building properly the type of strength for baseball is what I am searching for.We have however had good results when swing training during season but not as hard as off season.This comes from hitting a tire with 5 different bats ,start with reg bat 10 swings then go to bat 3 oz. more same length,10 swings then add 3 more oz to bat.Next work back to 2nd bat then original bat then a-3 bat from original the -6 bat then up to -3 oz bat and finish with original bat.
That sounds fine. I was referring more to the guys who attach a bat or rod to a cable pulley or something similar and tell their athletes to try to swing it like they were trying to hit a pitch or something like that.(not saying that you were trying to do this. Just that I have seen it done. Alot of crazy ideas out there.)