During this time the athlete will be on a 2 day per week training schedule. They will be having games on Fri/Sat or Sat/Sun, plus a midweek game. As such, their lifting schedule should be built around those games.In Part 1 of the In-Season training series, we took a look at what a year round schedule for a pitcher might look like. Here in part 2, we are going to take a look at what that schedule for a position player will look like.
As with part 1, we are going to treat our athlete as if he is a college baseball player. The same rules apply to the high school and professional level, with slight modifications, that I’ll talk about at the end of this article. Let’s get into it!
First of all, this is what our athletes year-long schedule looks like:
Jan-Feb: Team practices, starting games
March-May: Team practices plus full game schedule
NOTE: Some teams may play into June.
June-August: Summer ball/intense training regimen
Sept-Dec: “off-season”- individual work
We will now break these sections down into different training blocks:
Jan-Feb:
During this time, the athlete will have 2-3 hour practices six days per week. This is the time they take the improvements they have made in training onto the practice field. Their training should reflect that.
Hitting: During this period the athlete should be focusing less on mechanical work and more on randomized/live type training to get them ready for the season. This can come in several ways: live at-bats, BP with curveballs and changeups randomly mixed with fastballs, randomized weighted bat/stance training, etc. The important thing here is that we are making the athletes movements automatic and adjustable so that when the game comes, his body knows what to do.
Training: I like to have my athletes do 3 day splits during this time. 1 full upper and lower body lift per week with 1 split day in there as well. This gives them a nice transition from the 4 day per week schedule they were on before to the 2 day schedule they will be on once the season is underway. The focus during this time is maintenance. They will do high intensity, low volume work with both their barbell movements and their power exercises (med balls, plyos, etc). Depending on how much they do during practice, the power work may be taken out completely, focusing only on lifting and making sure the strength that was gained in the off-season is maintained for the season.
March-May:
This will be the busiest/most stressful time of year for the athlete. They will have 1 day off per week, with 3-5 games, plus practices, spread out over the course of the week.
Hitting: Outside of practice time, the hitting the athlete does during this time is largely dependent on the individual. For instance, if the athletes’ swing is feeling good and they are executing in games, there is really no reason to take extra swings outside of practice. On the other hand, if the athlete is struggling and doesn’t have great feel for his swing, additional practice time may be necessary to try and get his feel back. I encourage short, intense, bouts of practice here. Get in, get the feel you want, and get out.
One consideration to make here is the athlete that is not where he/she wants to be. Maybe they aren’t starting, or maybe they are but they feel there is still a big gap in their performance. If this is the case, the athlete may feel it is necessary to take extra swings everyday. That’s okay, but the same rules apply. Shoot for short and intense work instead of long, drawn out practice.
Training: During this time the athlete will be on a 2 day per week training schedule. They will be having games on Fri/Sat or Sat/Sun, plus a midweek game. As such, their lifting schedule should be built around those games. If they are playing Sat/Sun with their midweek on Wednesday, they should lift on Monday and Thursday, giving them a recovery day after each lift before another gameday. Their actual lifts will be full body, making sure they still hit each movement every week. For instance, on Monday they might do a deadlift, a step-up, a dumbbell bench press, and a row (there will be a few additional movements built in, but those are the basics). Then on Thursday, they would do a squat, kettlebell swing, landmine press, and dumbbell pullover. This way they are hitting each basic movement, squat, hinge, horizontal push/pull, and vertical push/pull, adequately each week.
Again, we are shooting for lower volume, higher intensity here. Rep ranges will be in the 3-5 range for the main lifts, 2-3 sets, and reps will be in the 6-8 range, 2-3 sets, for the accessory exercises. Power work (med ball/plyos) will be kept to a minimum. Recovery modalities such as sleep, nutrition, hydration, mobility/soft tissue work, etc need to be prioritized here. Our first, most important concern, is keeping the athlete healthy and recovery is a huge part of that.
June-August:
During this time the athlete has two options:
1. Summer ball: As we saw in part 1 with pitchers, I would not recommend summer ball for very many position players, although it can potentially be more beneficial for position players than it might be for pitchers. A position players’ abilities are harder to define and measure than a pitcher. If a guy hops on the bump and throws 94 with a dirty slider, we know that will play at the next level. Hitting is a little different. A guy may have 103mph exit velocity, but not be able to touch anything thrown harder than 85 or anything that has a bend in it. As a result, getting “seen” as a position player can be a little tougher, potentially making summer ball a viable option for a wider range of players.
Even so, I would only recommend summer ball for those players who have developed themselves enough to play at the next level, but haven’t yet received an opportunity to do so. For instance, you throw 90-95 plus from the field (as a college athlete), run a sub 6.8 (depending on the position) 60, and have 95mph plus exit velocity that at least works against high velocity pitchers (even better if you can adjust to off speed). If you have those tools, you have the possibility of getting picked up and playing at the next level. If, for whatever reason, you did not attract any attention during the college season, playing in a legit college baseball league may be exactly the thing you need.
2. Training: If you don’t fit into the category above, likely most athletes reading this, then you need to take this time to develop your abilities so you ARE in the category above. During this time, the athlete will be taking care of ALL aspects of his game that need to be accounted for. The base is strength/power. With a bigger engine (more strength and power), we can do more as an athlete. That is where we start. If the athlete has a good base laid down, he can then shift his focus to the other aspects of the game.
The focus during this time will depend on each athlete. Let’s say we have an outfielder who runs a 6.9. He needs to run a 6.7-6.8 (the lower the better) to at least be proficient in the speed category. We would spend 2-3 days per week doing speed work before his lifting sessions to help get his time where it needs to be. Or, let’s say you have 100mph plus exit velocity, but you don’t perform well in games. We would need to pinpoint exactly WHY you don’t perform well in games (vision, plate discipline, pressure management, etc) and then go to work on that, making it the priority. I’m sure you can see, there is no one program you can give everybody. It depends on each individual case. Either way, this is a great time of year to go to work addressing those weaknesses and getting closer to where you need to be.
Sept-Dec:
During this time, the athlete will likely take a break from throwing, and may even take 2-4 weeks off from baseball activities all together. I encourage pitchers to take at least a couple weeks off from throwing, and position players should do the same. It’s not a bad idea to take a couple weeks off from swinging (and all rotational work for that matter), but it isn’t necessary. I have a hard time taking more than one week off from swinging myself, so I understand guys who don’t want any time off.
Either way, during the “time off” period, the athlete should focus on getting their bodies back to normal and attending to anything that has gotten out of wack. For instance, catchers have likely lost some hip extension range of motion, and now is the time to get that back. Throwing shoulders are likely beat up and need strength/mobility built back up. Whatever the case, the first month or so during this period will be spent getting the body back in order and feeling good.
After the first month or so, the athlete will begin getting back into normal baseball activities.
Hitting: This period is much like the one from before. This is the time to address the athletes greatest needs, it just depends on what that athletes needs are. In general, we will begin this period working on increasing bat speed/exit velocity, and then transition into using the newly gained speed/velocity in game-like conditions as the preseason begins approaching.
Training: This period is much like the one from before. We will start with strength, and move to more sport specific work as the season approaches. If the athlete is already strong enough (unlikely), we may start there. These athletes are generally older and are looking for more on-field transfer from their training. The cases here will vary with each athlete.
Considerations:
The above outline was made for college position players. The same rules apply for professional and high school players, with slight modifications. I’ll discuss those below.
High School:
High school athletes are generally going to be weaker, which means strength is going to be the focus for them. They don’t need that much power/speed work until they have built a good enough base to work from, so that is where they will start.
Also, the number of sports the athlete plays needs to be taken into account. Everything the athlete does takes something from their “energy reserve”. We can’t expect someone who just came from a 3 hour basketball practice to perform the same workout, at the same intensity, as someone who didn’t have that practice. As trainers and coaches, it is our job to manage the athletes’ workload. This requires communication with the athlete. Find out how they are feeling each day. How much energy do they have? Is today a day to push them or back off and go light? Often times, we just throw every athlete into the fire and see who comes out alive. Don’t do that. Manage each athlete individually to ensure they are getting the most out of their training.
Finally, high school is often the first time an athlete has put substantial amounts of time into training for one sport (although sport specialization is getting more popular these days), so we need to build it in a way that is healthy and motivates the players to come back for more. This is a time in the athletes lives that will likely dictate their habits for the future. By reinforcing traits we want to see such as discipline, perseverance, growth, and curiosity, among others, we can help build a better future for the athletes once they are out of our hands. Keep in mind, baseball is only one aspect of these players lives. We have the ability to affect much more than just baseball, and we need to take that responsibility seriously.
Professional:
Professional players are different from high school and college in that they know what it takes to maintain their level of play and they often have pretty good work habits already built into their system. As a result, most of the focus with these players will be on very specific aspects of their game. Seeing spin better, tilting on the low pitch, handling the inside fastball, etc. The trainer/coach/player needs to have options available for players in this category. The things they are trying to fix are much smaller and will require greater attention to detail.
Anther aspect to take into account when working with pro guys is their workload. They have a season that spans 100 or more games over a relatively short period of time. For them, health is the number one priority. We know they have the ability to play at a very high level. That’s why they got drafted. Now it’s all about keeping them healthy so they can perform to their highest ability night in and night out, while refining their skills so they can continue progressing throughout their career.
One last thing to keep in mind is the age of the athlete. A 35 year old veteran has different needs than a 22 year old rookie. The older player will need more help with maintaining health while the younger player may need help with both his health (think habits) AND refining his tools. As always, we need to take all of these things into consideration and build a program as best we can for each individual athlete.
Wrap-Up
I congratulate you for making it this far. I hope this article was helpful for you and allows you to better handle your/your athletes training in the future. For now, if you have any questions you can shoot them to me at brady@dacbaseball.com.
If you enjoyed this article but missed part 1, be sure to go back and read it here.