Preseason Baseball Training Program Recommended To Prevent Injuries
Watching Major League Baseball players start their Spring training games this week in Florida and Arizona can be both hopeful and depressing. Hopeful that this unusually long winter might end in the next month or so but depressing for coaches who want to get their players out on the diamond for some batting practice or defensive drills.
As you wait for the snow to melt off the field, now is the perfect time to introduce a pre-season conditioning program for your young athletes. To help get you started, here is a set of exercises designed by a college baseball strength and conditioning coach, who also happens to have a Ph.D. in kinesiology.
With almost 6 million American kids between the ages of 7 and 14 playing organized baseball, a fitness program geared specifically to their anatomical age, rather than just their chronological age, is needed to be sure that they are not just treated as “mini-adults.” In the adolescent years, each child physically grows at different speeds requiring careful attention to the type and amount of exercises used to get ready for a long season.
Orthopedic specialists recommend dividing these players into three age groups, 7-9, 10-12, and 12-14, for developing fitness and strength. Across all sports, a Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) program should monitor their total hours and types of activity. Tracking this information from sport to sport is made easier with Metrifit’s athlete monitoring system that captures daily data covering both hard training metrics like heart rate, hours of activity and performance benchmarks but also soft metrics like sleep, diet and mood.
Dr. David Szymanski, associate professor of kinesiology at Louisiana Tech University, recommends a preseason program combining plyometrics and resistance training with more specific baseball exercises focusing on rotator cuff and arm strength.
Figure 1 – Medicine Ball Plyometrics
“A youth player’s annual schedule may be very busy because of playing multiple sports, being involved in extracurricular activities, and being involved with family events among other possible activities,” said Szymanski, who is also the strength and conditioning coach for the university’s baseball team. “With all these other occurrences going on, and based on the previous research with youth baseball players, the programs were designed to only be 6 weeks in length and occur during the preseason, so that the player would hopefully not get burned out, lose interest, or get bored before the summer baseball season.”
For plyometrics, Szymanski recommends medicine ball exercises to get the legs, torso and arms involved. The movements mimic hitting and throwing motions and get the underlying muscles ready for the extended load of the season (see Figure 1).
As part of a resistance training regimen, the National Strength and Conditioning Association suggests that “athletes perform 1–3 sets of 6–15 reps with age-appropriate weight loads 2–3 times per week.” In addition, the NSCA recommends that “resistance is increased gradually (5–10%) as strength and exercise technique improve and athletes become skilled in the various exercise procedures.” At the beginning of the training program, a certified strength coach should demonstrate the proper form to avoid injuries.
Figure 2 – Shoulder Internal Rotation Stretch
For rotator cuff preparation, a series of exercises called the “Thrower’s Ten” will work the shoulder, elbow and wrist joints to provide extra flexibility for not only pitching but throws from the field. A flexible band is required to provide the resistance needed. Dr. James Andrews, renowned sports orthopedic surgeon, provides a useful chart describing the individual movements for players.
Finally, one of the best ways known to get the arm ready for repeated, hard throws is to actually make throws over longer distances. This progression is called “Long Toss” and is to only be used by players who are injury-free and not complaining of soreness in their throwing arm. It consists of a set of warm-up tosses of 20-50 feet, depending on age, followed by pivot throws (30-100 feet), long throws (50-125 feet), then a warm-down of shoulder internal rotation stretches (see Figure 2)
Following this four-step preseason baseball conditioning program will help get your team ready to get out on the field when the snow finally melts. Remember to track their daily progress and look for signs of soreness, injury or fatigue.
About Metrifit
Metrifit is an athlete monitoring system that gathers subjective and objective information from both coaches and athletes in a simple but effective manner with intelligent visualization helping coaches and athletes to act on that data. Why not have a look at our Ready to Perform product and gain insight on the physical and mental state of your athletes through our daily wellbeing questionnaire? To find out more visit our Metrifit Product Overview page or get in touch for a free demo.
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