i wrote this program on bat speed. this is a paper i wrote about it. people have seen big improvement using this program
Bat Speed
The very first thing a scout looks for when he goes to watch a hitting prospect is whether or not he has bat speed. To a major league scout, the feel that they can teach you to swing your bat their way, but they feel they can’t teach bat speed. The old philosophy is that it is almost impossible to teach anyone how to increase their speed, whether running, throwing, or hitting. THIS CAN BE NOTHING FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH. Yes, you can teach someone the proper mechanics, and yes, you can teach bat speed. Today, through innovative thinking and technology it is possible to teach someone how to increase the attributes through something known as sport specific training.
Sports specific training is basically training the body to increase strength and agility for one particular sport. In our case, we are training to become better baseball players. Most programs in the past have been implemented to increase strength as a football player. In this program we are going to implement training programs to make you a better baseball player. More specifically, a better offensive player.
Baseball is a game of short bursts and explosions. In hitting, you want to train your body to improve the short bursts of explosion to maximize bat speed at contact. There is only one way to teach your body how to maximize this speed. How do you do it? Go fast. If you wanted to be an Olympic sprinter, you would not want to run 5 miles a day and not sprint. This would be teaching your body how to move slowly. Your body has to be taught to go fast. Whether it be swinging a baseball bat, throwing, or running. When you throw a baseball, if you constantly throw a curveball and neglect to throw a fastball, you will be teaching your arms to move slow and not accelerate. Most coaches teach their kids how to go slow.
While watching baseball games on ESPN, it isn’t too difficult to figure out that the best hitters in the game have higher bat speeds than the average hitters. The combination of different forces gives the hitter a higher bat speed. The first ingredient was mechanics. Others include, flexibility, elasticity, and muscle strength. Some players will have more raw ability and better genetics to go fast. However, all players can teach themselves how to go fast. This is not a genetic trait. This is a learned process.
Your body has basically two types of muscle fibers, fast twitch muscle fibers and slow twitch muscle fibers. Most players don’t completely utilize or train their fast twitch muscle fibers. This program is designed to break down your muscle fibers and rebuild them again. Slow twitch muscle fibers are the muscles we use every day. Walking, jogging, or weight lifting are examples of using fast twitch muscle fibers.
This system is similar to a weight lifting program. You want to lift chest on a certain day so you can tear down those muscle fibers. You want to let them rest for a couple of days so you can recover and rebuild. This is how you form new muscle fibers. Except with this program you will break down both the fast pitch muscle fiber and the slow pitch muscle fiber to grow a faster, stronger muscle.
To increase your speed or any other explosive movement, it is scientifically proven that you must use weight approximately 25 percent heavier and 25 percent lighter than your usual weight. That is what is known as overload/underload training. This type of training is done for most sporting events. For instance, Olympic sprinters are doing whatever they can to increase their speed. For a sprinter to use overload training, he/she will sprint with a parachute behind them. The next day a sprinter may sprint down a steep hill to teach their body to go faster. The same principal holds true for a boxer. The boxer will punch a heavy bag to work on his power punches, and later in training he will use the speed bag to work on the quickness of his punches.
The big question here is what does and overload/underload program mean to a baseball player. By utilizing an overload/underload training program, a hitter can increase bat speed by huge amounts. The correct combination of the two will place the hitter to go faster than what he started at. In the bat speed program we have designed, it is not uncommon for batspeed to increase 15 mph in 3 months. We have seen as much as 27mph improvements in just a 5 week period.
Many players want to know what improvement bat speed will do for their performance. The first thing that increased bat speed will do is increase the impact on the ball. There is a direct correlation between higher bat speed and hitting the ball harder. On average, for every mph of bat speed, the ball will travel 5 feet. Therefore, if a player has increased his bat speed 15mph, he has increased his ability to hit the ball an extra 75 feet. This is a big difference. This is the same reason A-rod can hit the ball 500 feet.
Increased bat speed will give the hitter more time to see the pitch. This is because the player does not have to start as soon. As we all know, the longer you have to decide on a pitch, the more successful you are going to be.
Bat speed will also give the hitter more margin of error. Because this player is swinging at a higher rate of speed, he will not have to be as precise on his swing. This will mean that balls struck off center, not on the sweet spot, will travel further. It would be great if a hitter could always hit the ball on the sweet spot, but this is not always the case. If the ball is not stuck on the sweet spot, it will have a greater chance of being hit hard for an extra base hit. How many times have you seen a big leaguer break a bat but still hit a homerun?
As a hitter, knowing that he has above average bat speed, he will automatically be more confident. Confidence is the key to hitting. Many legends have gone on to say that baseball is 90 percent mental. Without confidence, you will not succeed. Having more confidence knowing you have more bat speed, the player will learn to trust his body and hands. This will lead to the player having little or no mechanical flaws.
In high school, the player who earns the scholarship is the player who develops faster. Some players will develop later in life, but this might be after he was cut from his high school team or cut as a freshman in college. You can train your body to develop bat speed faster than your teammates or players on the opposing team. If your whole team uses this bat speed program since their freshman year, you will probably have one of the best hitting teams in the state their junior and senior year. This is because your team will have an edge on the opponent and that is what the key to championship teams are.
The key to the bat speed program is not just to swing these bats. The purpose is to swing these bats in an arrangement to maximize the breakdown of muscle fibers. The program is set to change from day to day. You want to shock your muscles with the daily workload. If you constantly change the workload, your body will not be able to be accustomed to a specific workout. This will shock your muscles and lead to more growth.
The theory of more is better is out the door. If a person lifts more weights he will hit a barrier. This means that the player will have an increase in the first month or so then stop. He will hit a wall and not be able to increase after that. The key to this system, is the player will have varied his program to keep improving for a long period of time.